Effect of Residential Street Speed Limit Reduction from 25 to 20 mi/hr on Driving Speeds in Portland, Oregon

In 2015, the City of Portland adopted Vision Zero's objective of eliminating transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries. The Portland City Council approved an ordinance reducing the speed limit on all residential streets to 20 mi/hr in January 2018. A residential street is a street that is in a residence district according to ORS 801.430 and has a statutory speed limit. Federally classified collectors and arterials are excluded. The 20 mi/hr speed limit went into effect on April 1, 2018. The city installed new speed limit signs and updated existing signs to over the period of February 2018 to May 2019. The final 20 mph sign installation increased the number of residential speed limit signs from fewer than 1,000 signs to more than 2,000. An educational and awareness campaign “20 Is Plenty” was also conducted. As part of the effort, nearly 7,000 yard signs were distributed to residents. The objective of this study is to determine if there was a change in observed speeds of vehicles following the residential speed limit reduction from 25 to 20 mi/hr. The data used for this analysis was before and after observations of vehicle speeds collected by pneumatic tube traffic counters before and after the speed limits were changed. It was found that the change likely reduced driving speeds by small but significant amounts.

• Record URL:
  https://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/media/project_files/pbot-20-mph-speed-study-finalv5.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://trec.pdx.edu/news/effect-residential-street-speed-limit-reduction-25-20-mihr-driving-speeds-portland-oregon?utm_medium=email&_hsmi=107583806&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-92I7lsvK8zfAP0QGVO1OLtv14f76UsjhOoyIHqSFeS8sZ0IIyOmqyOTAHCXx-DP45ILNuI7m05g3mZ2CLTSznsal7jGw&utm_content=107583806&utm_source=hs_email
• Corporate Authors:

  Portland Bureau of Transportation

  Portland, OR  United States 

  Portland State University

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  P.O. Box 751
  Portland, OR  United States  97207
• Authors:
  • Anderson, Jason C
  • Monsere, Chris
  • Kothuri, Sirisha
• Publication Date: 2020-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 115p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Highway safety; Residential streets; Speed limits; Traffic speed
• Geographic Terms: Portland (Oregon)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01763112
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: Work order authorization # 6; IGA # 30004135
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 3 2021 2:22PM