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What should the residential speed limit be in Lakewood?

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Consultation has concluded on this project. Thank you! 

The April 1, 2024, Lakewood City Council study session discussed the possibility of changing the default residential speed limit in Lakewood from the current 30 miles per hour. This arose after a Lakewood Advisory Commission study recommended changing the residential speed limit to 20 mph.

Do you have a preference on whether the residential speed limit should be reduced to 20 or 25 mph or remain at 30 mph? Let us know by taking the Quick Poll below. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us via our Question tool.

Along the right side of this page, we have added some resources that might be helpful, including reports from the LAC and city staff on the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the residential speed limit. There is also a video from the recent study session on this topic.

We appreciate your feedback!


The April 1, 2024, Lakewood City Council study session discussed the possibility of changing the default residential speed limit in Lakewood from the current 30 miles per hour. This arose after a Lakewood Advisory Commission study recommended changing the residential speed limit to 20 mph.

Do you have a preference on whether the residential speed limit should be reduced to 20 or 25 mph or remain at 30 mph? Let us know by taking the Quick Poll below. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us via our Question tool.

Along the right side of this page, we have added some resources that might be helpful, including reports from the LAC and city staff on the advantages and disadvantages of reducing the residential speed limit. There is also a video from the recent study session on this topic.

We appreciate your feedback!


Consultation has concluded on this project. Thank you! 

Have a question about this project? Ask us here and staff will respond as soon as we can. 

If you have questions about other city issues, please visit our 24/7 customer service hub. 

  • Share How is a sign going to accomplish anything? If people speed at a faster limit how do you think they will drive with a different sign? Now all of sudden they are no longer going to speed? ENFORCE the current limits and there would not need a change. Why are tax payers dollars constantly being wasted on issues with ridiculous solutions that DON'T WORK. FIX THE REAL PROBLEMS. How about use the dollars to enforce speed limits which creates revenue!! Then maybe you can FIX the roads that are in dire need not the speed limit signs. DO YOUR JOB. on Facebook Share How is a sign going to accomplish anything? If people speed at a faster limit how do you think they will drive with a different sign? Now all of sudden they are no longer going to speed? ENFORCE the current limits and there would not need a change. Why are tax payers dollars constantly being wasted on issues with ridiculous solutions that DON'T WORK. FIX THE REAL PROBLEMS. How about use the dollars to enforce speed limits which creates revenue!! Then maybe you can FIX the roads that are in dire need not the speed limit signs. DO YOUR JOB. on Twitter Share How is a sign going to accomplish anything? If people speed at a faster limit how do you think they will drive with a different sign? Now all of sudden they are no longer going to speed? ENFORCE the current limits and there would not need a change. Why are tax payers dollars constantly being wasted on issues with ridiculous solutions that DON'T WORK. FIX THE REAL PROBLEMS. How about use the dollars to enforce speed limits which creates revenue!! Then maybe you can FIX the roads that are in dire need not the speed limit signs. DO YOUR JOB. on Linkedin Email How is a sign going to accomplish anything? If people speed at a faster limit how do you think they will drive with a different sign? Now all of sudden they are no longer going to speed? ENFORCE the current limits and there would not need a change. Why are tax payers dollars constantly being wasted on issues with ridiculous solutions that DON'T WORK. FIX THE REAL PROBLEMS. How about use the dollars to enforce speed limits which creates revenue!! Then maybe you can FIX the roads that are in dire need not the speed limit signs. DO YOUR JOB. link

    How is a sign going to accomplish anything? If people speed at a faster limit how do you think they will drive with a different sign? Now all of sudden they are no longer going to speed? ENFORCE the current limits and there would not need a change. Why are tax payers dollars constantly being wasted on issues with ridiculous solutions that DON'T WORK. FIX THE REAL PROBLEMS. How about use the dollars to enforce speed limits which creates revenue!! Then maybe you can FIX the roads that are in dire need not the speed limit signs. DO YOUR JOB.

    TR asked 7 months ago

    Thanks for your interest in this project, and I wanted to let you know that Lakewood City Council is discussing this because the Lakewood Advisory Commission recommended changing the residential speed limit to 20 mph. The commission consists of Lakewood residents who research and make recommendations on issues important to residents. 

    We are expecting drivers to respond similarly to how drivers in other cities that have changed residential speed limits. On average, drivers slow by 1-2 mph at most with the change in speed limits. This change in the speed limit would be for residential streets, where there aren't speed limit signs. Given that, there is very little cost to make this change other than the time staff is spending researching and presenting the issue to council. If City Council approves a new speed limit, then, like other cities that have made changes, we would have to install some signs at major entrances to Lakewood informing the public of the new speed limit in residential areas. Overall, I would expect the change to cost less than $10,000.

    We are also discussing the use of automated enforcement in accordance with the new state law, but we envision that the use of automated enforcement would be focused on locations where we see fatalities and serious-injury crashes. These crashes are almost entirely on collector and arterial streets, not residential streets.

    Regards.

    Mike Whiteaker

  • Share What is the plan to actually enforce the speed limit? I live by Lakewood high school, and there is a lot of speeding during the start and end of the school day. This leads to my next question.. what about residential areas by schools? Why don’t we have flashing yellow lights identifying a school speed limit? on Facebook Share What is the plan to actually enforce the speed limit? I live by Lakewood high school, and there is a lot of speeding during the start and end of the school day. This leads to my next question.. what about residential areas by schools? Why don’t we have flashing yellow lights identifying a school speed limit? on Twitter Share What is the plan to actually enforce the speed limit? I live by Lakewood high school, and there is a lot of speeding during the start and end of the school day. This leads to my next question.. what about residential areas by schools? Why don’t we have flashing yellow lights identifying a school speed limit? on Linkedin Email What is the plan to actually enforce the speed limit? I live by Lakewood high school, and there is a lot of speeding during the start and end of the school day. This leads to my next question.. what about residential areas by schools? Why don’t we have flashing yellow lights identifying a school speed limit? link

    What is the plan to actually enforce the speed limit? I live by Lakewood high school, and there is a lot of speeding during the start and end of the school day. This leads to my next question.. what about residential areas by schools? Why don’t we have flashing yellow lights identifying a school speed limit?

    AF asked 7 months ago

    Thanks for participating in this project. Regarding your questions, part of the discussion with City Council includes automated enforcement (photo/video), and at this point, staff isn't sure what direction the council will want to take. Excessive speeding in a location can be reported through our online customer service hub, www.Lakewood.org/RequestLakewood, and police can consider the area for stepped up enforcement. 

    The flashing yellow signs have typically been installed in locations where the entrance to schools face larger streets known as collector or arterials that have higher speeds such as 35, 40 mph. Lakewood High School is on a residential street, so the signs weren't considered for it. Now that there are fewer buses and more parents driving students to school, the Transportation Engineering Division might need to review this approach to consider the signs on residential streets.

    Regards,
    The Project Team

  • Share Do vehicle speeders prefer side streets because of less chance of being caught and they can spot police cars easier? on Facebook Share Do vehicle speeders prefer side streets because of less chance of being caught and they can spot police cars easier? on Twitter Share Do vehicle speeders prefer side streets because of less chance of being caught and they can spot police cars easier? on Linkedin Email Do vehicle speeders prefer side streets because of less chance of being caught and they can spot police cars easier? link

    Do vehicle speeders prefer side streets because of less chance of being caught and they can spot police cars easier?

    Chuco 1 asked 7 months ago

    Thanks for participating in this project. There isn't a clear answer to your question. We know where we get reports of speeding and where the Police Department tickets speeders, but we don’t have a reliable source of information to know why motorist commit violations.

    Regards,
    The Project Team

  • Share Wheat Ridge maximum speed limit is 25 mph unless otherwise posted, suggest Lakewood go with 25 mph to be consistent with neighboring cities. on Facebook Share Wheat Ridge maximum speed limit is 25 mph unless otherwise posted, suggest Lakewood go with 25 mph to be consistent with neighboring cities. on Twitter Share Wheat Ridge maximum speed limit is 25 mph unless otherwise posted, suggest Lakewood go with 25 mph to be consistent with neighboring cities. on Linkedin Email Wheat Ridge maximum speed limit is 25 mph unless otherwise posted, suggest Lakewood go with 25 mph to be consistent with neighboring cities. link

    Wheat Ridge maximum speed limit is 25 mph unless otherwise posted, suggest Lakewood go with 25 mph to be consistent with neighboring cities.

    Tom Cryan asked 8 months ago

    Thanks, Tom, for participating in the project and providing your comment. Please take the poll if you haven't already.

    -- The Project Team

  • Share It looks like staff has recommended that 25mph be set to default speed limit in residential areas. But according to stats I've found, higher speeds increase the risk of death of fatal injury exponentially. So wouldn't 20mph be the safest option? What is the reasoning for recommending a faster, more dangerous speed of 25mph? It seems like safety would not be the top priority if we followed the recommendation of 25mph. on Facebook Share It looks like staff has recommended that 25mph be set to default speed limit in residential areas. But according to stats I've found, higher speeds increase the risk of death of fatal injury exponentially. So wouldn't 20mph be the safest option? What is the reasoning for recommending a faster, more dangerous speed of 25mph? It seems like safety would not be the top priority if we followed the recommendation of 25mph. on Twitter Share It looks like staff has recommended that 25mph be set to default speed limit in residential areas. But according to stats I've found, higher speeds increase the risk of death of fatal injury exponentially. So wouldn't 20mph be the safest option? What is the reasoning for recommending a faster, more dangerous speed of 25mph? It seems like safety would not be the top priority if we followed the recommendation of 25mph. on Linkedin Email It looks like staff has recommended that 25mph be set to default speed limit in residential areas. But according to stats I've found, higher speeds increase the risk of death of fatal injury exponentially. So wouldn't 20mph be the safest option? What is the reasoning for recommending a faster, more dangerous speed of 25mph? It seems like safety would not be the top priority if we followed the recommendation of 25mph. link

    It looks like staff has recommended that 25mph be set to default speed limit in residential areas. But according to stats I've found, higher speeds increase the risk of death of fatal injury exponentially. So wouldn't 20mph be the safest option? What is the reasoning for recommending a faster, more dangerous speed of 25mph? It seems like safety would not be the top priority if we followed the recommendation of 25mph.

    zbholman asked 8 months ago

    Thanks for participating in this project. Here's information regarding your question: 

    • Speed limits have to be considered reasonable to be obeyed.
    • Boulder and Denver (and more cities nationally that have gone to 20 mph) had both previously been operating at 25 mph before they changed to 20 mph. In Denver’s case, the speed limit had been at 25 mph for at least 30 years, so the drop to 20 mph would seem more reasonable to most people.
    • However, traffic studies are showing that for most roads, the average speed of motorists dropped about 1 mph after the law/speed limited changed. In fact, Boulder had one street on which the speeds actually increased after the change.


    We need to get drivers to adjust to the speed limits, and we feel that a change from 30 to 20 mph is going to be ignored by a vast majority of drivers. A change from 30 mph to 20 mph would result in drivers who ignore the speed limit subject to speeding violations of 10 mph or more, particularly given that most studies show motorists only slow by a 1-2 mph when the speed limit is dropped.  

    As far as safety, driving at 20 mph would be safer than 25 mph, which is safer than 30 mph. And 15 mph is safer than 20 mph, 10 mph is safer than 15 mph, etc. The vast majority of our fatal crashes aren’t on local residential streets. They are on the arterials (major roads), and most serious bodily injuries are on arterials and collectors.

    Thanks, 

    Transportation Engineer Mike Whiteaker