Dear Editor,
The Town of Comox has as its guide to speed limits a document titled Traffic Policy and Procedures (TPP) - dated 2017 and the design guidelines used are from the TAC Manual - The Transportation Association of Canada manual.
This manual is sponsored by municipalities and private industry to promulgate efficient highway and road design principles. It is not a regulation book.
Something referenced many times in the Town’s TPP is the “85th percentile rule” which was developed in the 1930’s, just as cars were becoming prominent and highways were being designed and built. Simply put - the speed of any given road should be set at that speed which 85 per cent of drivers will drive.
This rule was never meant to be applied to the compact urban environment. It was originally established for open roads, highways and now, freeways. Yet here we are in 2025 and communities such as Comox are still applying the 85th percentile rule to your neighbourhood street.
This isn’t just lazy traffic engineers following old textbooks. It’s what they’re taught. There’s little accommodation with regard to speed, for users other than motor vehicles, yet within our town we have pedestrians, cyclists, mobility carts, strollers and others who are literally considered obstructions to the 85th percentile rule.
We use paint to protect vulnerable road users from multi-ton vehicles travelling at speeds of 50 km/h or more. Perhaps it’s time for communities (and traffic engineers) to seriously engage who actually uses the roads and lower speed limits to reasonable levels to accommodate all users safely, rather than favouring one set of users above all others while risking the lives of so many.
Comox Avenue has a 50 km/h speed limit through the heart of downtown! That’s absurd - and quite impossible during business hours. Enlightened communities are making the necessary changes, lowering residential areas to 30 km/h and arterials to 40 km/h. Some are lowering the speed on roads with centrelines to 40 km/h, all others to 30 km/h.
Vancouver, Victoria and even Courtenay to some degree have seen the light.
It’s time to toss out the 85th percentile rule within town boundaries and lower speeds to a more human, and humane level.
William Crowder
Comox
