At last night’s City Council vote to lower the default speed limit to 25 MPH (from 30), Councilor Marc Laredo asked to postpone the vote for a “substantive discussion.” Let’s start the discussion …
What would change if the Council adopted the 25 MPH speed limit? To understand, we need to understand that there is a statutory speed limit and then regulatory limits. Currently, the statutory limit in Newton is 30 MPH. That means that the speed limit on every road in Newton that doesn’t have a posted limit is 30 MPH. If there is a posted limit on a road, the posted limit governs. Each instance of a posted limit is a regulatory limit.
Recent changes to Massachusetts General Laws allows municipalities to lower the statutory limit to 25 MPH on city-owned streets. (Route 9, the Pike, and Needham Street are state roads and therefore not covered.) That’s what the City Council is considering. If the Council passes the change, the immediate effect would be to lower the speed limit on roads where there is no posted limit. There would be no change on streets with posted limits.
Some questions for future posts:
- Will lowering the speed limit lower speeds?
- Do we want to lower speeds?
- Why would we want to lower speeds?
- What happens on streets with currently posted 25 MPH limit?
- What happens on streets with currently posted 30 MPH limit?
- What happens on streets without posted limits that should remain 30 MPH?
I support this decision. There is no need for speed on residential streets. The difference between 25 and 30 MPH could mean life or death when colliding with a pedestrian or a cyclist, and 25 is a lot safer when driving on the snow.
Whether or not it will actually make a difference is another question. I think it will. I believe people do allow themselves to go over the limit, but only to a certain degree. so X above 25 is slower than the same X above 30.
I’m not sure where speed limits are posted in Newton, but I think 30 MPH would be reasonable on Comm Ave or Washington St. Otherwise, I don’t really see a need for exceptions.
In my continuing support of my neighbors on streets that run off Lincoln Street – Chester, Columbus, Bowdoin, Hartford, and add to that, Forest (the streets motorists use as cut throughs to avoid the traffic light at Walnut and Lincoln street) and all other neighborhoods in Newton that surround traffic lights where cut throughs are occurring, I propose posting speeds of no more than 15 or 20 mph. We must protect our children.
I also propose physically closing (with a barrier) Forest Street at Walnut Street from 4:30 until 7 Monday through Friday, allowing only residents to pass. Or post a traffic officer at that officer during those times
I live on Montvale Road, a side street that’s frequently used as a “short cut” by non residents. Many of my neighbors have young children, so we’ve discussed the best way to protect them as well as others in the neighborhood. In my opinion, all public roads are for public use, and I oppose restrictions that are intended to reduce the volume of traffic on my street. Nothing gives me the right to say “I don’t want this traffic on my street–so I’m going to redirect it to yours.” I am however very much in favor of reducing the speed limit on my street, which right now is the default speed of 30mph, [because we don’t have a speed limit sign anywhere on the street]. I support lowering the default speed on Newton roads to 25mph. Additionally, I’m in favor of lowering the speed limit to 20mph on all the side streets in Newton.
I think a substantive discussion about speed *limits* should naturally lead to a discussion about *speeds*. As Sean has written, the two are related, but aren’t the same.
And speed is part of the larger question we all share: what do we want our communities to be?
We now have the city expertise to implement visions for what we want specific neighborhood streets and streetscapes to be like. Other communities are using all the tools in the traffic calming toolkit (narrowed roadways, raised crosswalks and intersections, chicanes, diverters, shared streets, and more, in addition to speed limits) as part of an integrated complete streets philosophy that focuses on residents, community, and the environment and not just passers-through.
All of this can be done without incapacitating the traffic network that we all depend on (in fact, traffic often flows more smoothly and predictably in the best plans).
Every street is unique, and there are a lot of streets in Newton so addressing them all and fully isn’t possible. But in communities where these projects happen, neighborhoods lobby just to be on a multi-year waiting list. This is a long game, but there is sure to be pent-up demand throughout Newton on large streets and small ones.
Speed limit reduction let us take a baby steps towards designing and redesigning all future streets to be a little slower.