Residents upset by recent changes to a traffic bylaw that forces trailers, RV's and all terrain vehicles to be at least two metres from a city owned sidewalk in Humboldt won't see changes anytime soon.

Monday night at council, a delegation of two people spoke to the bylaw plus presented a petition that has around 300 names.

Councillor Sandy Weyland sits on the committee that altered the bylaw, she said this is about safety.

"I would hate for something to have to happen first, to have an incident and have a child is injured or killed and then bring something forward. I guess that's kind of where the committee was going when we looked at this, we're just trying to ensure safety."

Mayor Malcolm Eaton felt the "convenience" plea put forward by the group was not a strong case for change.

"I have a little trouble with the petition because it doesn't talk about the issue, and the issue is how far back and what the sight line should be, the petition says absolutely nothing about that. Heck, when I read this I'd sign the petition, it doesn't talk about the issue."

The petition group did have facts from other centres regarding distance and enforcement policies but for the most part they didn't provide any substance to have council start to even waver about the two metre standard.

"We get into the world of convenience, you can't put convenience and safety in the same conversation at all," Eaton continued. It's inconvenient and we still get that, I still have people telling me we should have never changed those speed limits(in school zones) to 30km/h because it's inconvenient for me when I'm driving through town."

City Manager Roy Hardy says not everybody is putting up a stink regarding the changes.

"I've driven around the community since the bylaw's there, a lot of people are figuring out a way to keep within two metres, two metres may not be the right number but we certainly have gotten a response, some people are recognizing the safety issue."

Council put the matter aside until the Fall, for the Summer the bylaw department will be monitoring the situation and dealing with each resident on a need to basis.

"We're a Mission:Zero community, we have Safe Communities, it really came through strongly in the Our Humboldt study, people want a safe community," Eaton concluded.

"Slowly we're trying to do that, we're trying to move things forward."