Ive been thinking about the city speed limit since that report came out in June. 30 absolutely too high, it should really be 25 or even 20, especially on residential streets.
Chicago ranked 161st out of 163 big cities and scored a seven out of 100. Speed limits tanked the city’s bikeability. The report’s analysis considers streets with a 30 mph speed limit — a standard for most Chicago streets — or higher as unsafe for cycling.
“The person who wrote the People For Bikes report told Streetsblog last year that if Chicago had a 25 mph speed limit, we would shoot up to being the 15th best city in the U.S. in their rankings.”
The Federal Highway Administration has found that a car traveling 30 mph that hits a pedestrian has a 45% chance of killing or seriously injuring them, while at 20 mph, the likelihood of death drops to 5%