Lower Speed Limits for Climate Change
Lakewood City Council Members used resident concerns about speeding to pursue their climate change goals. They did this by lowering speed limits to increase walkable neighborhoods. The plan is to cause people to be uncomfortable driving and therefore reduce driving or increase walking. Monday night’s vote started with a discussion of public safety, but the final discussion points highlighted the walkability agenda, perhaps because there has never been an analysis of how many accidents were caused by speeding as opposed to other causes. There were a lot of assumptions made that speeding was the cause of every accident. Several Council Members and residents referred to the need to reduce or eliminate driving in order to make the city more walkable. In other words, if only there were lower speed limits, residents would feel safe enough to bike or walk. All Lakewood residential streets will now be at school zone speeds. Council positions are below.
Walkable cities use planning, design, and density to maximize walking and minimize driving. Emissions decrease as pedestrians take the place of cars. – Climatedesigners.org
Despite multiple claims by Council Members that their vote was “data driven”, there was no data presented on key facts:
- How many accidents were caused solely by speeding on affected streets?
- Do lower speed limits influence how many people walk to work?
- How many residential streets are already posted with 25 mph limits? (a significant number are)
- How can Lakewood lower the number of fatalities below zero?
Council Members seemed to focus on an unsourced graph showing the likelihood of surviving an accident at different speeds. The injury data had no basis compared to other Lakewood statistics. For example, the statistic is that 25% of people will die when involved in an accident at 25 mph. However, the Lakewood data show 936 accidents on streets up to 40 mph with a total of 66 fatalities. If the statistics that most Councilors referenced was accurate, there should be more like 234 fatalities.
There is at least a 3.5x data exaggeration in the number of potential fatalities
The data exaggeration is proved by Lakewood data. But the reason the data may not really matter is because lowering the speed limit pushes the city along Council’s climate change goals, regardless of any safety motive.
Council Positions:
Shahrezaei: She says the issue is safety and less injuries (referring to the slide with exaggerated numbers). She says we want complete streets and less car-centric streets. Offers amendment to lower all the way to 20 mph. She encourages school zone signs to remain.
Olver: Demonstrates how lower speed limits will not change the number of people driving extremely fast. He says this isn’t data driven because there are no fatalities on residential streets so we can’t reduce the number of fatalities. There are no statistics on auto-pedestrian fatalities as to who is at fault or why. So there are no data-driven advantages to this.
Mayott-Guerrero: Is concerned about injuries caused by 25 mph. She says 20 mph is lifesaving. She “gently reminds” Olver that he is wrong about speeds. She says this lower speed limit is a community-building technique. She is interested in additional traffic calming measures.
LaBure: Says this is not just for the safety aspect but for the cultural aspect. “We want to be a walkable community that is safe and inviting.” Interested in more traffic calming measures.
Sinks: Asks about how long 25 mph would last before moving to 20 mph, if ever. (point became moot when Council voted for 20 mph but answer was 5-10 years)
Stewart: Says she likes 20 mph because most of the injuries are in ward 3. Says this will reduce injury and death. (Note: Councilor Stewart may be referring to a slide that showed only 7 out of the 67 accidents occurred on residential streets. Those occurred over a four year period, from Wadsworth to Sheridan. The point of this demonstration was to show that no stretch was really a hotspot and none of the residential streets had unexpected amounts of accidents. Most of the injuries occur along Colfax, not a residential street at all.)
Cruz: Ask about data specifics including potential detriments to walking, like high-speed limits. Says one of the goals of Lakewood is to reduce miles driven so increasing bicycle usage will help that. Asks about the speed cushion process with relation to emergency vehicles.
Rein: Reiterates question on staff opinion about going to 25 mph or 20 mph. Rein supports 20 mph only after a period of 25 mph.
Low: He says he did his own research and found lowering speed limits actually works. He supports going to 20 mph. He says Lakewood has a lot of people who want to do more biking, more walking and we need safer streets.
Strom: Comments that we have a lot more cars so there is a lot more conflict. Asks for yard signs for residents to remind people of the lower speed limits.
Scorecard: Lower Speed Limit to 20 mph
Strom: Aye
Shahrezaei: Aye
Sinks: Aye
Mayott-Guerrero: Aye
Cruz: Aye
Stewart: Aye
Low: Aye
Olver: Nay
Rein: Aye
LaBure: Aye
Nystrom: Aye