Just over three-in-five of the province’s residents would like to see the speed limit reduced to 30 km/h on select residential streets.
Vancouver, BC [November 24, 2023] – More than seven-in-ten British Columbians are in favour of using red light cameras to also capture vehicles that are speeding through intersections, a new Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative provincial sample, 72% of British Columbians support the use of speed-on-green cameras, unchanged since a similar Research Co. poll conducted in September 2022.
“The reliance on red light cameras to issue tickets for speeding is not politically contentious in British Columbia,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “Sizeable proportions of residents who voted for the BC Liberals (76%), the BC New Democratic Party (NDP) (74%) and the BC Green Party (73%) in 2020 agree with this approach.”
Almost three-in-four British Columbians (73%, -3) are in favour of fixed speed cameras, which stay in one location and measure speed as a vehicle passes.
Most British Columbians are also supportive of two other types of automated speed enforcement: mobile speed cameras, which can be moved from place to place (65%, -1), and point-to-point enforcement, which uses cameras at two or more distant points on a road to issue tickets to vehicles whose average speed over the distance was excessive (57%, -4).
More than two-in-five British Columbians (43%, +4 since a similar Research Co. poll conducted in June 2022) say they see a car that they perceive is circulating above the speed limit of 50 km/h “at least once a day” on the street where they reside—a proportion that rises to 47% in the Fraser Valley.
In 2019, Vancouver City Council unanimously passed a motion to establish a pilot project to reduce the speed limit to 30 km/h on select residential streets in the city. The pilot project was first implemented in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood.
Almost seven-in-ten British Columbians (69%, -3) think Vancouver’s pilot project is a “very good” or “good” idea—including 71% of women, 73% of residents aged 18-to-34 and 76% of those who reside in Northern BC.
Just over three-in-five British Columbians (61%, -5) would personally like to see the speed limit reduced to 30 km/h on all residential streets in their own municipality, while keeping the speed limit on arterial and collector roads at 50 km/h.
Support for a reduced residential speed limit is highest in Northern BC (67%), followed by Vancouver Island (64%), Metro Vancouver (61%), the Fraser Valley (58%) and Southern BC (52%).
Methodology: Results are based on an online study conducted from November 9 to November 11, 2023, among 800 adults in British Columbia. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in British Columbia. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.5 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our data tables here and download the press release here.
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490
[e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca