Speed limits are being lowered around Palm Springs, California, thanks to the support of Assembly Bill 43, which took effect Jan. 1.
A new sign unveiled on Toledo Avenue drops the speed limit from 45 to 40 mph, the Palm Springs Post reports.
Mayor Lisa Middleton has been lobbying for reduced speeds for years, but it took the state bill, with support from Assemblymember Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), to open the door for cities to use factors like pedestrian and bicycle activity in determining speed limits, according to the Palm Springs Post. Before AB43, traffic engineers had to survey and measure "spot speed" as criteria for setting speed limits.
“We have achieved something that has not been done in decades in California,” Middleton said. “We are lowering speed limits in Palm Springs.”
Based on a traffic engineering study conducted in early 2021, speed limits could not be reduced on 179 of 215 street segments, but the bill has changed that and allowed speed limits to come down, often by 5 mph on the once-unqualified streets, according to the report. The City Council decided unanimously to reduce speed limits on most streets by 5 mph in December.
Middleton first tried to lower speed limits when she was the president of the Organized Neighborhoods of Palm Springs nearly a decade ago, the Palm Springs Post reported. She took to heart accounts from seniors and others who were afraid to walk along Sunrise Way near Ramon Road, one of the city's most dangerous intersections.