Speed limits on residential city roads have been 30-40 km/h for a while, though most are still 40, 30 isn't all that uncommon. It just depends on the road. If you're going 70 down some of the roads in my area losing control would be a very real possibility, as they are pretty windy, particularly if you're coming up to oncoming traffic around a bend with cars parked on the side of the road or if a kid steps out into the the road to grab an errant ball.
The relationship between speed and serious injuries or fatalities to pedestrians is well documented, 10 km absolutely makes a difference,
I don't get people complaining about a 10km/h difference on residential streets. The difference between going 40 and 30 km/h on the maybe 2-3km you likely travel down the residential roads of a given trip maybe adds a min to your travel. People need to get over themselves and realize the aren't more important than everybody else.
Most are actually 50km/h. Only the ones that are posted at 40 with a sign are 40. All the unmarked roads are 50km/h in urban, and 80km/h rural.
I don't know why everyone assumes the default is 40.
I'm of the opinion that side streets (the ones where 90° corners are common, should have a speed limit of 30km/h...or even 25km/h. No reason you can't just cruise at the low end of second gear until you get onto more of a main street.
But then on the other side of the spectrum, there are through roads that are way too slow.
For example, why is des epinettes(in Orleans) a 40 and not a 50? If ever you go like 38 or something, you feel like your crawling, and cars will stack up behind you. It's got such wide lanes, huge site lines, and no tight corners. Everyone and their grandma goes 50 on it.
Why is mer blue a 60 when you're driving through fields with nothing in sight...and then the one lane Brian Coburn feeding all the new developments is a 70. Shouldn't it be a 60 with mer blue being an 80?
Also, why is King Edward's section that is built like a highway a 30? And even going out over the bridge it's only a 50...but it's literally a highway with onramps. Goes to 70 on the Quebec side...but again, why only 70? It looks like a major highway. Atleast make it 90.
It's not that speeds are too low or too high...it's that they're way out of wack in both directions in certain places.
Lower all side streets to 30, but up main through roads from 40 to 50, and boulevards that are 50 up to 60. And boulevards that go through fields with nothing to 80.
And the highway to 110. Everyone already does it anyway. We have some of the lowest highway speeds in North America. Raising it to anywhere between 100-120 doesnt create some death trap, evident by those other places.