The new 20 mph signs are part of the effort to remind drivers that the speed limit has dropped on neighborhood streets.
By Nathaniel Minor, Denverite
As Evans Avenue traffic roared just feet away, city workers on Tuesday changed out the first of about 2,000 signs marking the new speed limit on Denver’s neighborhood streets: 20 mph.
City Council lowered the speed limit on such streets from 25 mph to 20 mph in late 2021. The new signs will be installed across the city over the next few years, said Adam Phipps, executive director for Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
“We believe these changes will have a positive impact and create safer roadways in Denver,” Phipps said at a small press conference on South Fillmore Street in University Park. “We need people to slow down to make our neighborhoods friendlier, more comfortable in a safer place to be.”
City Councilman Paul Kashmann, who represents District 6, said he’s heard a “virtually unending string of pleas” from residents to slow down traffic on neighborhood streets. The new lower speed limit, which he spearheaded in Council, and the new signage is a step in the right direction, he said.
“The message we bring to you today is simple: slow down,” he said.
Kashmann credited the “20 is Plenty” idea to Jill Locantore, executive director for the Denver Streets Partnership, and the brains and muscle behind last year’s big sidewalk initiative.
“Speed is one of the most important factors that determines whether a crash will happen and whether that crash results in a serious injury or a fatality,” Locantore said. “Even five miles per hour can make a big difference.”
Locantore has pushed the city to do more to lower traffic speeds outside of quiet residential neighborhoods, too.