Twenty five miles per hour

That’s the new speed limit on Albany streets not posted elsewise such as Washington Avenue Extension or NY 85 Arterial or Interstate 787.

It’s a 20% reduction in speed compared to the old 30 mph limit and statistics show that pedestrian and bicycle crashes with cars is significantly less fatal than at the old limit. Few pedestrians live when hit at 35 mph, most survive a 25 mph crash. The lower speed also reduces stopping times, helping to avoid collisions all together.

The thing is in a city, people aren’t going very far and from a time perspective driving at 25 mph versus 30 mph isn’t much of a difference because the time spent at stoplights is vastly more. And I urban areas, automobile driving should be shunned in favor of walking, bicycling and taking public transit. Parking is too difficult in dense urban areas as are the wide lanes needed for operating private automobiles.

I get that driving at 25 mph will on some roads feel annoyingly slow even if it has little of a factor on the time of arrival for motorists. For example, the access roads along Interstate 787 or even Erie Boulevard on those days I end up driving in. But it will have a negligible effect on actual time. I can set the cruise at 25 mph so not to worry about speeding.

Generally, I believe in higher speed limits on open highways where appropriate. Wide and straight roads should have a higher limit. But in dense urban areas where there are lots of pedestrians and bicyclists, and people are not going long distances the 25 limit makes a lot of sense.