Coaldale Town Council has voted to lower the default speed limit on all unposted roads from 50 km/h to 40 km/h, a change that takes effect September 1, 2026.
The decision means drivers in the southern Alberta town will need to ease off the gas on any street without a speed limit sign. Roads with posted limits, including Highway 3, Highway 845, and 30 km/h playground zones, will stay the same.
Mayor Jack Van Rijn said the move is about making neighbourhoods safer for everyone. “Council’s decision is about making Coaldale’s streets safer and more comfortable for everyone,” he said.
Before making the change, the town’s Municipal Enforcement team ran a speed study that gathered more than 326,000 vehicle observations at 16 spots around Coaldale. The data showed most drivers are already close to the new limit. Two-thirds of vehicles were clocked below 50 km/h, and roughly 95 percent were within 9 km/h of the current default.
The town also pointed to research that shows a pedestrian hit at 40 km/h is about half as likely to die compared to being hit at 50 km/h. A University of Alberta study of Edmonton’s 2021 switch to a 40 km/h default found roughly 25 percent fewer collisions and 31 percent fewer injuries and deaths.
According to Dustin Yanke, Coaldale’s Director of Infrastructure, the lower limit adds only about 36 seconds to a two-kilometre trip. Coaldale now joins Edmonton, Calgary, and St. Albert, which have all adopted similar 40 km/h default limits in recent years.
