A 5-mile stretch of Connecticut Avenue will see its speed limit reduced from 30 to 25 MPH.

Elvert Barnes / Flickr

The District Department of Transportation announced Friday that some of the city’s busiest and fastest roads have reduced the speed limit from 30 to 25 mph:

  • A 5-mile stretch of Connecticut Avenue, a key commuter route between D.C. and Montgomery County
  • A 5-mile stretch of New York Avenue, a key route between D.C. and Prince George’s County

Future routes that will see reductions in the next two months include:

  • A two-mile stretch of North Capitol Street/Blair Road NW from Harewood Road NE/NW to Van Buren Street NW
  • A .2-mile stretch of Wheeler Road SE from Wahler Place SE to Southern Avenue SE

The change is part of the District’s Vision Zero goal to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2024, a goal that is not close to being met. Forty people died on District roads last year.

DDOT says Seattle and New York have enacted similar speed reductions, and District engineers will continue to look for other high-crash areas to reduce speed limits. In 2020, DDOT reduced residential streets to 20 mph, down from 25 mph.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says speeding killed 11,258 people nationwide. It’s a consistent problem among drivers, even though surveys have shown a majority of drivers believe the speed limit should be obeyed.

“Reducing the speed limit from 30 MPH to 25 MPH helps decrease the frequency and severity of crashes,” DDOT said in a release. “Traveling at a slower speed increases the driver’s cone of vision, providing more reaction time. It also greatly improves the survival chance of pedestrians. Studies show once cars reach a certain speed (just above 20 MPH), they rapidly become more deadly; a person is about 70 percent more likely to die if they’re struck by a vehicle traveling at 30 MPH versus 25 MPH.”

Whether drivers, who are already speeding throughout the District, will follow the signs is another matter. Some advocates immediately scoffed at the announcement on Friday, arguing that lower speed limits without altered road design function essentially as a suggestion to drivers:

https://twitter.com/JoshuaLopez202/status/1570821720889757696

MPD is in charge of traffic enforcement, not DDOT. But a D.C. police reform committee has argued that duty should be moved to DDOT. DDOT says it is working to improve safety in many areas of the District and is also working with MPD to “continue to support safety improvements through enforcement.” DDOT says it could also look at using speed cameras in the area if needed.

A bike lane project on Connecticutt Ave. could help narrow the six-lane road in some places, but that change won’t come until 2025.

 

This story was updated with more info from DDOT.

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