Well, today's the day. After months of fanfare, the city's new default speed limit is officially lowered to 25 mph. Crews were out this morning swapping out the signage, pulling down all evidence that the old 30 mph limit ever existed at all. If you listen closely, you can hear Nick Paumgarten sighing petulantly.
Five miles per hour is not a huge decrease, and moreover, it presumes that drivers are interested in minding the speed limit in the first place. (And that cops are interested in enforcing it.) Still, a pedestrian hit at 30 mph has a one in five chance of being killed, but a collision at 25 mph decreases the pedestrian's odds of death to one in 10. And at 25 mph, a motorist's stopping distance is improved by 45 feet.
The city plans to install up to 3,000 new signs in the next year. Denis Hamill will commit ritualistic murder of no more than two pedestrians. Everyone else will shut up and get used to it.
