City mulls plan to lower residential speed limit to 20MPH

It's about time. This was from last week but I haven't seen it mentioned here in The Chainlink.

Slowing traffic down will maybe put a dent in the statistic of a pedestrian being killed by an automobile driver in this city every week. Maybe it will get some people out of their cars and onto a bike instead.

If only they would just enforce the limits they have now it would help quite a bit. Every car on the road is going at least 5MPH over the limit and many are going 10+ over. Many are going much faster than that even.

Chicago's streets are some of the most dangerous with the least-courteous drivers of just about anyplace in the Midwest. Entitled drivers will honk at you if you are not turning right on a No Turn On Red zone. They'll honk if you stop for someone in the crosswalk or, worse yet, try to pass in the curb lane and put the crossing pedestrians lives at risk -all without thinking.

IMHO, all surface streets should be 20MPH with the major arterial throughways posted at 30.

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Permalink Reply by David P. on May 16, 2012 at 10:45pm

I don't think anyone drives 20 on the streets that are already marked at that. I used to ride Kimball from Addison to Wilson to get to my gf's house, until I switched to Drake & Central Park; it's marked at 20, a speed I can maintain without much difficulty, and I must have gotten passed by at least 3/4 of the car traffic. They all seemed to be going 30. The young men, of course, are always the fastest.