Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Speed Limit
The first 20 mile per hour speed limit signs have been installed this week in the Twin Cities.
Pioneer Press
Speed limits are currently determined by a calculation that considers only the status quo of vehicular velocity. Standard practices for speed limit setting and legislators should prioritize the safety of community members, according to this article.
Forbes
The city of Toronto needed regulatory permission from the province of Ontario to begin enforcing speed limits with the use of automated camera technology. Photo radar in Ontario is legal as of today.
The Star
In a strange confluence of factors, expired speed limits and a state statute have hampered speed enforcement. Unfortunately, the proposed solution also looks a like a problem.
Los Angeles Times
It looks very likely that Scotland will take unprecedented action—and global leadership—in the name of traffic safety.
Price Tags
Portland has implemented one of the most sweeping commitments to traffic safety of any city in the United States: 20 mph speed limits over the vast majority of the city's streets.
Streetsblog USA
As a number of Western States raise their speed limits, the costs of road maintenance, environmental damage, and lost lives keeps going up.
Wired
A Boston Globe columnist met the news that the city would reduce speed limits to 20 mph on some residential streets with scorn and snark.
The Boston Globe
Traffic safety advocates scored a major coup when NASCAR announced its support of reduced speed limits.
Planetizen April 1st Edition
Citing pedestrian and cyclist casualties, the Scottish capital will reduce speed limits on 80 percent of its streets to a mere 20 mph. Backers are pushing for additional complete streets improvements.
Next City
Motor vehicle crashes claim over 30,000 lives per year, with related costs in the hundreds of billions. While we sometimes view that frightening statistic as inevitable, there are reasons to reexamine speed limits and how we set them.
Five Thirty Eight
One town in Georgia recently conducted a public opinion poll finding that most of its 19,000-plus citizens support reduced speed limits on all city streets.
Decatur Metro
A planner makes the case for lower its speed limits in an unlikely city.
Houston Chronicle
A bill, HB295, in the Missouri State Legislature would raise rural speed limits, making the state the latest in a group to raise speed limits as traffic fatalities on highways are decreasing.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
New data released Dec. 19 by NHTSA shows increased safety for those traveling by car, but pedestrian fatalities are 15% higher than in 2009. Plans by San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago to increase ped safety are described by the WSJ.
The Wall Street Journal
In a significant advancement in New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to eliminate vehicle fatalities in the city, the New York State Assembly voted to allow a citywide change in the speed limit—from 30 to 25 miles per hour.
New York Times
A blog post by Eric Britton covers Mayor Madame Anne Hidalgo's plans to adopt a 30 kilometer per hour (approximately 20 miles per hour) maximum speed limit in Paris.
World Streets
DC traffic scofflaws beware: You may be recorded! In one of the nation's most comprehensive use of traffic cameras, motorists who run stop signs or don't stop for peds in crosswalks could find a "ticket in the mail". Plus, 132 cameras will be added.
The Washington Post
Speeding is paying-off in the amount of $15 million for Seattle area schools thanks to speed-enforced cameras, a proven but nonetheless controversial traffic safety tool. Revenue will be used to make walking safer under a proposal by Mayor McGinn.
The Seattle Times
Tao Rugkhapan reports on the etiology traffic accidents which are becoming all to common in Bangkok as vehicle speeds increase along with lane tolerances and the number of elevated expressways.
This Big City
