Soon, motorists in Worcester will have to start driving a little slower.
Worcester City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved a proposal to reduce the citywide speed limit from 30 to 25 mph. Councilors also supported the creation of special safety zones around “sensitive areas” like playgrounds and hospitals where the speed limit will be 20 mph.
The vote came in response to what Worcester leaders are calling a traffic safety crisis. Earlier this summer, separate pedestrian incidents resulted in a 13-year-old girl being killed, another 13-year-old left in a coma and a 1-year-old suffering a brain injury. Most recently, a 26-year-old motorcyclist was killed after colliding with another vehicle.
Overall, city officials say there have been over 2,800 motor vehicle crashes this year that have resulted in more than 50 serious injuries or deaths.
“Unfortunately, we’ve lost so many lives,” Councilor Kate Toomey said during the meeting Tuesday. “People are not paying attention, they’re driving faster and it’s just a really big issue.”
Worcester officials say they need time to replace signage before the new speed limits take effect. The citywide limit applies to all public streets that aren’t subject to special speed regulations. It doesn’t cover state highways or local arterial corridors that have their own speed limits.
City Manager Eric Batista first proposed reducing the citywide speed limit to 25 mph late last year. A City Council Traffic and Parking subcommittee then held several meetings on the issue before recently recommending the full council support it.
During Tuesday’s meeting, some councilors cited statistics showing lower speed limits help lessen the likelihood of traffic fatalities. Still, they agreed the new citywide speed limit won’t be a panacea to Worcester’s road safety problems. Instead, it should be part of a wider response that includes better traffic enforcement, more education about safe driving and redesigning some roads, they said.
“It’s not going to be easy for folks,” Councilor Khrystian King said. “Everyone drives at some point over the speed limit. But this will help us do better.”
Despite supporting the lower speed limit, councilors Morris Bergman and George Russell said they still had concerns.
They argued that Springfield and Boston have continued to have traffic safety problems since lowering their citywide limits to 25 mph several years ago. Russell added that many Worcester streets where fatalities have occurred aren’t subject to the citywide speed limit. And Bergman questioned how the city will increase traffic enforcement without taking police officers away from other focus areas.
“I’m disappointed that so many of the questions I’ve just mentioned have remained unanswered,” Bergman said. “I would suggest we reevaluate this at the end of a reasonable period of time to see if it had made the changes that optimists hoped for.”
During the public comment period of Tuesday’s meeting, more than 10 speakers said they supported reducing the speed limit.
Dale Wickenheiser said he remembers riding his bike everywhere throughout his childhood, adding he wants that to be an option for kids again. But safer streets are necessary, he said.
“How do we make Worcester that kind of nice, community-oriented place again?” he said. “Can we make it safer and have a higher quality of life for the people who are here?”
