The Salt Lake City Council voted recently to lower the speed limit on 70% of the city’s streets from 25 mph to 20.
With all the recent pedestrian and bike deaths, I applaud the Sweet Streets citizens group for raising the issue and the City Council for listening and responding.
However, I think their solution is a bad move, for several reasons. First, not all of those residential areas and streets are the same. One size does not fit all. Second, on many streets 20 mph is ridiculously slow, inviting lawbreaking. Third, the law’s efficacy would depend entirely on enforcement, which is notoriously spotty in Salt Lake City. Fourth, for all the above reasons, the law is likely to be enforced unevenly — only on certain streets in certain neighborhoods, if at all. This is sure to invite citizen anger. Finally, the general public was not alerted to Sweet Streets’ proposal. Although they (admirably) collected some 600 signatures, that’s only a tiny fraction of the city’s population.
A better, more rational and democratic solution would have been to canvass all of those neighborhoods and see what their residents want. In those where speeding is a chronic problem, cameras could be installed just as they are in many other countries. I’m not a big fan of photo-cop, having been caught in Germany and Brazil, but it has several advantages. It’s effective, it’s fair, and it doesn’t require patrol cars.
I urge the City Council to re-think this issue.
Tom Huckin, Salt Lake City
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