It appears that there is a level of hubris in the Chestermere Council with their decision to once again make the assumption that residents of Chestermere aren’t the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, so to speak.
Apparently, the ability to differentiate between speed zones is well beyond the comprehension of the motorists of the city; requiring the intervention of the geniuses that were elected to protect us from our stupid selves. Really council?
Mayor Chalmers, being political, states that “We looked at the overwhelming evidence…”, which is likely to calm those with little ability to differentiate the bull from the manure. There is no reference to any overwhelming evidence that I was able to find in the article or elsewhere.
In the same communication on the Chestermere site Peace Officer Sargent Trevor Bowman states “Cities like Calgary and Edmonton are reporting up to 70% decreases in collisions with pedestrians and cyclists” And he is right, it is “up to” 70% and 70% is up to 100% – more political manipulative manure!
According to an article from Global news as of June 2019 the amount of collisions are showing reductions of 33%, not 70%, but for the ignorant masses that Council sees, 33% is still ‘up to’ 70%. And what about Edmonton? Well, the Edmonton city website states “Since the implementation of harmonized school zones, collisions in school zones have been reduced by 13%”
Hold your horses here Council! It appears your ‘overwhelming evidence’ of up to 70% is now an average of 23%, which means your evidence is overstated by up to 300%. This tells me that you are 100% within manure.
Additionally, Edmonton Council is looking at seasonally adjusted speed limits which seems to have eluded Chestermere Council all together. That is to set the end of lower speeds to one hour after sunset. Perhaps Council hasn’t driven by empty school zones 4 hours after dark in the middle of winter and seen the 100% empty areas that they’ll now demand us all to slow down for. Empty that is except for one of Mr. Bowman’s crew or similar sitting there with a radar gun to increase tax revenues yet again under the guise of safety.
I suppose we should be grateful that we don’t yet have to slow down to just one speed limit everywhere always, and if I buy into the statistical manipulations presented by these ‘leaders’, slower is better, much much slower is best. Perhaps one day we can move at the speed of government.
Neil Neufeld, CPA CMA
Reference:
Mayor’s quote https://www.chestermere.ca/CivicAlerts.aspx?utm_source=ehq_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ehq-Thanks-for-your-participation&AID=889&utm_source=ehq&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=website
Global News quote
New City of Calgary data show collisions are down 33 per cent in playground zones
Edmonton quote
https://www.edmonton.ca/transportation/traffic_safety/why-30.aspx
