Um, yeah, but I’m skeptical of the term “neighborhood street.” Portland has a great network of local collector streets that should have higher speed limits to encourage traffic to use them and not the interior neighborhood streets.
Gladstone, for instance, should be 25.
Steele and Harold should be 30.
44th should be 20, but 45th/46th should be 30. 52nd should be 30 or even 35, same with 39th.
With enough zebra crosswalks, as well as bike lanes, the 30 speed limit should be just as safe. And having higher speed limits on the local collectors draws traffic away from neighborhood streets with lower speed limits.
Without a definition of the term “neighborhood streets,” I’m rather skeptical of this poll.
It would be one thing if the speed limit was 35, and they ticketed people that went 36, (and everyone knew it, so they didn’t go faster than 35,) but quite another to make the speed limit 35, not ticket until 45-50, and expect people to be able to back out of thier driveways and other things that people sometimes do on neighborhood streets.
The other problem is inattention: If you are talking on the phone, or checking out the house for sale or whatever, 35 is a lot different than 15 if a ball rolls out in the street and is followed by a kid…
Ah yes, but you notice that I recommended 35 only for 39th & 52nd. I recognize the danger of that speed; but 39th already is 35 for a good portion. 35 is a good balance between safety and throughput, IMHO. As for ticketing, I’m not a huge fan of that, anyways.
Design & education are much better routes to achieve slower traffic speeds, IMHO. Road diets, bike lanes, curb extensions, signal timing, crosswalks, varied pavement surfaces at intersections, I’d much rather spend the city’s flow on these capital expenditures than on another cops salary to harass the citizenry…
35 is a good balance between safety and throughput, IMHO.
It seems to me life is pretty cheap if saving a couple minutes is all its worth. Even if you are going all the way from Hollywood to Holgate the difference between 20 mph and 35 mph is not going to make more than a couple minutes difference, if that. That same difference in speed will transform an injury to someone being dead.
6 responses to “Slower Neighborhood Streets”
Um, yeah, but I’m skeptical of the term “neighborhood street.” Portland has a great network of local collector streets that should have higher speed limits to encourage traffic to use them and not the interior neighborhood streets.
Gladstone, for instance, should be 25.
Steele and Harold should be 30.
44th should be 20, but 45th/46th should be 30. 52nd should be 30 or even 35, same with 39th.
With enough zebra crosswalks, as well as bike lanes, the 30 speed limit should be just as safe. And having higher speed limits on the local collectors draws traffic away from neighborhood streets with lower speed limits.
Without a definition of the term “neighborhood streets,” I’m rather skeptical of this poll.
It would be one thing if the speed limit was 35, and they ticketed people that went 36, (and everyone knew it, so they didn’t go faster than 35,) but quite another to make the speed limit 35, not ticket until 45-50, and expect people to be able to back out of thier driveways and other things that people sometimes do on neighborhood streets.
The other problem is inattention: If you are talking on the phone, or checking out the house for sale or whatever, 35 is a lot different than 15 if a ball rolls out in the street and is followed by a kid…
There is a nice graphic on BikePortland:
http://bikeportland.org/wp-content/images/speed_stopping_distance_big.jpg
Ah yes, but you notice that I recommended 35 only for 39th & 52nd. I recognize the danger of that speed; but 39th already is 35 for a good portion. 35 is a good balance between safety and throughput, IMHO. As for ticketing, I’m not a huge fan of that, anyways.
Design & education are much better routes to achieve slower traffic speeds, IMHO. Road diets, bike lanes, curb extensions, signal timing, crosswalks, varied pavement surfaces at intersections, I’d much rather spend the city’s flow on these capital expenditures than on another cops salary to harass the citizenry…
35 is a good balance between safety and throughput, IMHO.
It seems to me life is pretty cheap if saving a couple minutes is all its worth. Even if you are going all the way from Hollywood to Holgate the difference between 20 mph and 35 mph is not going to make more than a couple minutes difference, if that. That same difference in speed will transform an injury to someone being dead.
Ross, that may be true, but if it is, then the street needs to be re-designed for 20mph rather than 35.
Currently, the streets are designed for their speed limits, or even higher.
You can successfully argue in court that you were driving the design speed of the roadway.
So, to slow traffic down effectively, lower the design speed.
As I mentioned above, this can be accomplished using a road diet, curb extensions, bike lanes, bulbouts, traffic circles, traffic signal timing, etc.
But don’t just lower the speed limit. That just lets the cops write more tickets and harass more citizens. I’m not interested in that.
Ross, that may be true, but if it is, then the street needs to be re-designed for 20mph rather than 35.
Currently, the streets are designed for their speed limits, or even higher.
You can successfully argue in court that you were driving the design speed of the roadway.
So, to slow traffic down effectively, lower the design speed.
As I mentioned above, this can be accomplished using a road diet, curb extensions, bike lanes, bulbouts, traffic circles, traffic signal timing, etc.
But don’t just lower the speed limit. That just lets the cops write more tickets and harass more citizens. I’m not interested in that.