20 is plenty

datadyne007 said:
Approved.

http://www.universalhub.com/2016/council-approves-measure-drop-city-speed-limit-20
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By the city council. I don't expect it's going to get through the state legislature.

I also don't agree that the default city speed limit should be 20mph. I'm fine with the city having the option of setting limits that low, and I'd even agree there are various neighborhoods where that's an appropriate default speed. On the other hand, I don't agree that's an appropriate default speed overall. It's certainly not appropriate for say....West Roxbury.
 
Why not?

If it leads to better more urban street design and helps to transition West Roxbury to development and settlement patterns that are more walkable and urban wouldn't that be a good thing. I think it would have the potential to do that.
 
At the risk of being called implicitly an heartless-asshole-murder with a ton of explicit snark that I will remember at the next meetup. The speed limit should regulate extremes rather than dictate. Most of the time dictating the speed is just going to mean more people violating the letter without the spirit

The point that road design is stuck to the speed limit does have a point. But I say that maybe we should uncouple road design from speed limits rather than lower the speed limit so we can create safer road designs.
 
millerm277 said:
By the city council. I don't expect it's going to get through the state legislature.
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Why not? Do 'burbanite reps think that their constituents do so much Boston city-street driving that any of them care? Seems a lot like other home-rule questions where people simply conclude that Boston (or any municipality) is different enough that it can/should make its own rules.
 
I think they're just looking for the freedom to set 20 mph speed limits where called for.

Here in the UK the rural roads are typically 40 to 50 mph (too extreme, I think: they're narrow country lanes, not Rt 2). Most villages set a 30 mph limit where the rural road passes through, and many use 20 mph speed limits on the residential side streets. They may also apply 20 mph to the "high street" if it's warranted by safety needs.

That certainly could work in West Roxbury, or any neighborhood, as it does in Stow-cum-Quay or whatever English village. But we can skip the 50 mph inter-neighborhood roads, I hope.
 
I like this take from CantabKBH on reddit last week, namely:

The ability to lower the speed limit without first jumping through endless MassDOT hoops (which is all this proposal is) carries with it the possibility of setting new LoS standards for many intersections, which opens up the possibility for the City to access more formula funds as well as numerous Federal/State grants.
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