Monthly Archives: October 2016

Speed Limit Victory in Seattle!

Last Monday, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution to lower speed limits on all non-arterials citywide to 20 miles per hour, and to lower speed limits to 25 mph on unsigned arterials in the center city, which will dramatically impact streets in our area in a positive way.

20-30-40-fatality-rate

This victory is huge, as the 20/25 mph campaign was one of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways’ citywide goals for 2016, and was accomplished with three months to spare. This legislative achievement is also a big step forward for the citywide Vision Zero campaign.

Lower speed limits pave the way for the Seattle Department of Transportation to be able to more quickly implement traffic calming, due to the fact that the department looks at the relationship between the speed limit and what drivers are actually driving when making determinations.

SDOT has also noted that they had begun setting traffic signals to the new 25-mile-per-hour standard as early as the beginning of 2015, with the result being that traffic appears to be moving more efficiently.