Twenty Is Plenty

I'm probably being a bit naive about how effective it will be, given the way our streets are designed and our local driving culture, but I'm excited that Saint Paul and Minneapolis are implementing lower speed limits on our city-owned streets.

Over the next few months, our arterial streets are getting signs that say 25 miles per hour and our side streets (so-called residential streets, as if people don't live on the arterial streets) will be 20 miles per hour.

In case you don't already know this, a pedestrian who's hit by a motor vehicle going one of these lower speeds is much less likely to die or be badly injured than a person who is hit by one going 30 or faster (since we all know many drivers speed on streets that are signed for 30 miles per hour). And older people are much more likely to die if they are hit.

So yay for the blue "Twenty Is Plenty" signs that are appearing along our streets, and the official Speed Limit 25 signs I've been seeing posted by the Public Works Department.


Twenty Is Definitely Plenty