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AusTexMurf

Member

From: South Austin

Registered: 2008-11-21

Posts: 439

Austin Considers Lowering Neighborhood Speed Limits

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Bill Berman spent Wednesday afternoon stringing his holiday lights at the intersection of fast and dangerous.

“There are a lot of speeding cars and construction trucks and traffic,” he said. The speed limit down his Mueller street? Thirty miles per hour.

“I think 30 is too fast for a neighborhood like this with how dense it is and has so much pedestrians,” Berman said. The Pedestrian Advisory Council, Walk Austin, Vision Zero ATX and several other pedestrian advocacy groups agree. Now they are pushing for the city to examine and lower the speed limit to 25 mph.

“When you’re going those faster speeds, even 30 miles per hour feels comfortable down a residential street, but it’s really terrifying when you are walking down the street,” said Tom Wald, a Walk Austin representative.

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 47 percent of all pedestrians struck at 30 miles per hour suffer critical injuries and 1 in 5 die. Those numbers decrease significantly when the speed limit drops to 25 miles per hour: Thirty percent of pedestrians are hurt and 12 percent are killed....

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RELATED: Austin considers lowering speed limits on two busy roads

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Austin Considers Lowering Neighborhood Speed Limits

Now Texas might do the same:  "Rep. Celia Israel (D-Austin) has filed House Bill 1368, which would lower the default speed limit on neighborhood streets in urban areas from 30 miles per hour to 25."

http://www.kvue.com/news/politics/hb-13 … /406600479