Don't rush to lower Chicago's speed limit from 30 to 25 mph

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

There is no question too many motorists risk their lives and the lives of others when they treat Chicago's streets like a NASCAR racetrack.

Nationwide, speeding was a factor in nearly 30% of traffic fatalities in 2022, two years after the height of the pandemic when more drivers started flooring it on sparsely populated roads.

Some speed demons will never be deterred. These dangerous, inconsiderate drivers don't care how many traffic tickets they amass and will blow off speed limits, whether 15 mph or 65 mph.

There are other speeders, however, who can be coaxed into changing their habits, as Vignesh Krishnamurthy, deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, said at a City Hall discussion last week on whether to lower the city's speed limit on arterial streets from 30 mph to 25 mph.

Drivers traveling at 40 mph or faster went down by more than 50% in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C.and other cities that reduced their speed limit to 25 mph, Krishnamurthy said. That, inevitably, could lead to fewer deaths, one alderperson noted.

But the truth is, it would be even safer for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists if drivers drove even slower — 20, 15, or even 5 mph — as the laws of physics dictate the higher the collision speed, the more serious the injuries and property damage.

So where does one draw the line? Wouldn't tougher enforcement of the existing 30 mph speed limit — not to mention aggressive ticketing of the drivers we see, on an almost-daily basis, running red lights and stop signs — be effective? How many accidents now involve vehicles driving at the current 30 mph limit, rather than, say, 40 or 45 mph?

We welcome more conversation and more important, additional evidence on the exponential reduction in fatalities the city could expect by reducing the speed limit to 25 mph, and the costs involved.

The change would have to be accompanied by "equitable" and "reasonable enforcement" with low fines "and a lot of public education to avoid the appearance of a money grab," said Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.

That education would include an adequate number of signs, including replacing hundreds of current ones.

And how would lowering the speed limit affect the timing of traffic lights on Chicago's grid system? Might it lead to congestion on some streets?

"Even the smallest change can have a ripple effect," as Schwieterman pointed out.

While driving 25 mph is a reasonable ask on most city streets, Schwieterman added, there are some roadways, including long stretches where there are no sidewalks, where cruising at that pace "could be seen as extreme."

Chicago doesn't need to rush this, without a careful look first.

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