Cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis to lower speed limits for safer streets
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The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul announced Thursday they’re putting in effect plans to lower speed limits to support safer streets.
According to a statement, the new speed limits will be 20 mph for local residential streets, 25 mph for larger arterial city-owned streets, and 30-plus mph for a few city-owned streets.
The statement also addresses that cities do not have the authority to change speed limits on county and MnDOT roads. Speed limits on those streets in Minneapolis and St. Paul won’t change.
Staff from both cities will begin to install or change more than 1,000 speed-limit signs on city-owned streets in the coming month.
[Tony Webster]
New, lower 25 mph speed limits on individual streets will go into effect as soon as they are signed.
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After the busier streets are signed, the cities will then install “gateway signs” at entry points in both cities, indicating the citywide speed limit is 20 mph unless otherwise posted, according to the statement.
When the gateway signs are installed, the 20 mph speed limit on local residential streets will be in effect. The cities will generally not be posting 20 mph signs on local residential streets.
The cities expect the sign installation to be completed by this fall.
According to the statement, the goal of lowering traffic speeds is to reduce the likelihood of crashes and reduce the severity of crashes.
A person hit at 35 mph is three times as likely to die as someone hit at 25 mph, according to the statement.
The Minneapolis Vision Zero Action Plan has an outline of key steps for the next three years to end traffic deaths and injuries on city streets by 2027.
To learn more about the speed limit changes, click here.