On Tuesday, the Salt Lake City council voted to decrease the default speed for the city to 20 miles per hour. Currently, the default speed limit is 25 miles per hour.
The decision to change the speed limit has been met with praise as many residents and local organizations hope this helps decrease the amount of auto-pedestrian crashes throughout Salt Lake City. According to statistics from a local organization named Sweet Streets Salt Lake City, odds of surviving a crash or having minor injuries from it are much higher if you are travelling below 30 miles per hour.
Benjamin Wood, a board member with Sweet Streets Salt Lake City, says that they were expecting this change to take three to five years but now as of Tuesday, the city has already started the process. Sweet Streets Salt Lake City thanked the council for their decision to lower the speed limit but still believes work is needed to address “the bulk of traffic violence.”
According to Sweet Streets, the decrease in speed will impact 75% of the city’s streets but won’t impact the road where the majority of traffic violence takes place.
Decisions to lower the default speed throughout the city have started making residents feel safer in their own neighborhoods and hopefully, it will prove to save many lives moving forward.
