LFP City council moves forward with plan to reduce speed limits on Bothell and Ballinger Way
Friday, June 9, 2023
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| Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash |
The Council discussed a multi-phased approach to setting lower speed limits which began with the adoption of a speed limit setting methodology as required by state statute.
As part of this ongoing safety effort, they are also continuing to move forward with the process to reduce the speed limits on SR 522 (Bothell Way NE) and SR 104 (Ballinger Way NE) to ensure the safety of all pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers.
On October 13, 2022, the City Council unanimously approved Ordinance 1252 adopting the National Association of City Transportation Officials’ (“NACTO) 2020 City Limits, Setting Safe Speed Limits on Urban Streets (“City Limits”), a document intended to provide cities with guidance on how to strategically set speed limits on urban streets, using a Safe Systems approach, to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries.
As recommended in the City Limits document, the City will consider three or more phases to increasing safety on our roads.
- Setting default speed limits on many streets at once (such as 25 mph on major streets and 20 mph on all minor neighborhood streets),
- Designating slow zones in sensitive areas, and
- Setting corridor speed limits on high priority major streets, using a safe speed study, which uses conflict density and activity level to set context-appropriate speed limits.
Ordinance 1252 will move forward with a Safe Speed Study in accordance with methodology in City Limits to determine the speed limits that will best minimize the risk of persons being killed or seriously injured in Lake Forest Park.
This work that the Council is conducting is very timely and necessary. The reduced traffic during the pandemic emboldened some drivers to ignore basic courtesy and safety and this has led to a significant increase in unlawful behavior on our roads and state highways. Traffic volume is down, yet infractions are up, as are crashes on a per-trip basis.
It is the Council’s intent to create a speed-setting program that slows drivers down and one that reflects the character of our community.
Be safe out there whether walking, riding and especially when driving!
--Deputy Mayor Tom French
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4 comments:
We're becoming an area that imposes unreasonably slow speed limits which the public ignores. You see this back east in little suburbs that mark every street 20, while people putter by at the actual design speed of 30 or 35.
Where is the evidence that reducing speeds actually results in people slowing down? That hasn’t been my observation in Seattle or Shoreline where they did this.
And will the folks slowing down on Ballinger also finally put their phones down? I'm curious if these laws that aren't enforced are something in law enforcement's back pocket that they can haul out to increase penalties if/when someone actually gets in an accident that injures someone? Or whatever else it takes to get the attention of the police?
Lower speed limits on Ballinger Way NE would be greatly appreciated. Lower speeds mean less noise for the homes along Ballinger, a more pleasant walking environment along Ballinger, and in the event of human-vehicle, vehicle-vehicle, or vehicle-object contact, less chance of injury. All for the low cost of a dozen more seconds of travel time.
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