By managing speeds, cities can save lives. More than 35,000 people die in traffic crashes on U.S. roads each year, and millions more are seriously and often permanently injured. While traffic fatalities may seem like an intractable issue, city governments have the power to reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes by reducing motor vehicle speeds.
City Limits provides a consistent, rational, scalable approach to urban speed limit setting, from citywide strategies to corridor-by-corridor methods. Unlike existing national guidance, City Limits focuses on urban streets, which pose the most challenging scenarios for determining speed limits and are where the majority of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities occur.
City Limits provides city practitioners with guidance on how to strategically set speed limits on urban streets to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries using a Safe System Approach.
The guide details methods that have been tested and documented in cities across North America:
- Setting Default Speed Limits on many streets at once
- Designating Slow Zones in sensitive areas
- Setting Corridor Speed Limits on high-priority major streets using a Safe Speed Study
Cities can create better and safer outcomes for all by adopting these speed limit-setting practices as part of their traffic fatality reduction or Vision Zero programs.
