Austin News Headlines (Southwest) - Community Impact Newspaper

Neighborhood streets slow down

Written by Christi Covington Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Some speed limits to drop near William Cannon Drive

Austin — Last week, the Austin City Council approved an effort to slow drivers traveling through some neighborhood streets in Southwest Austin.

Starting in June and finishing some time in August, the public works department will add signs dropping speed limits from 30 mph to 25 mph in several areas around West William Cannon Drive.
It is part of an initiative that will eventually cover all of Austin, according to Richard Kroger with the public works department.

“We aren’t just doing this where we have received a request,” he said. “We are implementing this everywhere we can city-wide, under the assumption that if people knew it was a possibility they would want it.”

The City of Austin started reducing neighborhood speed limits to 25 mph in 2006. It is expected it will take five to seven years to complete the effort. Kroger also said that while residents have often asked for the limit reduction, the change has not resulted in a significant decrease in speeding and increased police patrol is still needed.

Until 2005, state law only allowed cities to decrease speed limits below 30 mph after a traffic and engineering investigation had taken place. Then the limit could be set at what 85 percent or less of drivers were going. That made it difficult to lower a limit, Kroger said, because the majority of drivers were already speeding.

The amended state law now allows cities to reduce speed limits to 25 mph if specific criteria are met, such as roads cannot be an officially designated or marked as part of the state highway system.

They must also be 35 feet or less in width and vehicular parking must not be prohibited on one or both sides.

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