FWIW, there's a bit of a halo effect to lower speed limits. Yes, you need traffic calming or it's still too easy for drivers to floor it, but it's also true that drivers who do obey the law essentially set the pace for other drivers, which does lead to safety gains.
"People make mistakes, and we need to design our streets and set up the rules of the road so there is some margin for error. A mistake by a driver or someone walking or biking should not be a death sentence, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to slow down traffic."
At an event on Wednesday, no one was more eloquent than the spotlight-avoiding father of the boy for whom Sammy's Law is named.
Don’t know the data but my impression is we saw similar benefits on West River Parkway in Minneapolis when speed limit was lowered to 20 mph
Some good tidbits in here. Lots of examples of lower speed limits resulting in safety gains even without additional traffic calming. Again, you need both, but lower speed limits are a good start.
Twenty is plenty, as the signs say in some neighborhoods of @quick13.bsky.social ‘s Minneapolis
Couldn't agree more! Vehicles fly down my street!!
Yes, take out stop lights and stop signs, road diet to one lane, curb build outs, right turn lanes, and let grandma dictate the speed limit. It's all about flow and calm.
When I see people in my rear view mirror getting visibly angry because I’m driving the speed limit, my powers only grow.
Engineers complain about speed differences on the roadway causing collisions, but generally those are people who are already in metal boxes and so have much more protection than cyclists and pedestrians.
And if it's a one-way street like PPW, the lights can be retimed at the new lower speed limit, removing much of the incentive to speed
20 extensively in my city has made it much safer here in the UK. Bike usage has increased as well as there are fewer dangerous drivers or, like your point, they're stuck behind slower more sensible ones