Image: City of Chilliwack / Councillor Jeff Shields as pictured at Tuesday's Chilliwack City Council meeting.

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Lower speed limits in Chilliwack

Garrison, Fairfield Island to have lower speed limits through City of Chilliwack pilot project

Oct 22, 2025 | 10:26 AM

CHILLIWACK — Chilliwack city councillors have approved a pilot project that would see a reduced speed limit in parts of Garrison Crossing and Fairfield Island for a one-year period.

According to item 7.1 on Tuesday’s council agenda, councillors had been asked to vote on a speed limit of 40 km/h in designated areas of the two neighbourhoods.

Several cities across Canada such as Duncan, Nelson, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, and Edmonton have already instituted speed limit reduction pilots, or completed broad-based regulatory speed limit reductions, a city staff report pointed out.

The staff report suggests that communities with reduced speeds experienced a reduction in injury collisions of about 4-11 per cent. These communities also noted an increase in the perception of safety, leading to greater uptake in active transportation activities like kids walking to school.

Image: City of Chilliwack / The Garrison speed reduction area.

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While several municipalities have lobbied the province through the Union of British Columbia Municipalities to decrease the provincial default posted speed limit from 50km/h to 40km/h, the province has not made a change to the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act.

Councillor Jeff Shields said the speed reduction pilot was a great idea given how many calls he as a councillor has received about overall speed in Chilliwack.

“Kudos to the Transportation Advisory Committee, my former committee, for moving forward on this,” said Shields. “As we know, we get more calls between city hall, myself getting calls, the RCMP, about speed in Chilliwack. Cars go faster and people are driving them faster. So, if we can get people to slow down a little bit, I think this is great. I think it’s gonna be a great pilot project. I can see it being successful.”

Councillor Bud Mercer, with over 30 years of law enforcement experience, said he couldn’t be any happier with the pilot as it has been presented.

Image: City of Chilliwack / Chilliwack Councillor Bud Mercer speaks during Tuesday’s Chilliwack City Council meeting.

“Thank you to the Transportation Advisory Committee meeting,” Mercer. “I think Garrison is the absolute perfect test case, if you will. I’d be absolutely shocked if it wasn’t successful. Fifty kilometers in Garrison is nonsense. I think even the residents of Garrison will be delighted, maybe even ask for it to be a bit slower, frankly. I’m excited to see this and excited to see the outcome.”

Councillor Chris Kloot said a 50 km/h zone in Garrison has never made sense.

“I think this is an opportunity to have a pilot that will showcase how things could be safer. I think driving through Garrison, I don’t think I’ve ever gone 50, the way traffic calming has kept traffic to a lower speed because of the parking and the landscaping. It just didn’t make sense to have that as a 50 [km/h] zone. I’d say there are other areas of the community that should be potentially looked at. I’m sure we’ll do based on what the pilot showcases. I think it’s a good compromise.”

Councillor Kloot pointed out that Hope River Road is not included in the Fairfield Island pilot. Instead, designated areas within the neighbourhood will feature lower speeds.

Image: City of Chilliwack / Fairfield Island speed reduction area.

“It’s mostly the residential streets in that area with the school. It doesn’t have all the same traffic calming, but we’ll look forward to seeing the report from that area,” Kloot said. “I think it’s a good idea to move forward.”