Should Bend Reduce Speed Limits Across the City?

We see it in the news everyday, fatalities and serious injuries on our roads caused by speeding drivers. It is a nationwide problem, but also one that is felt acutely at home. Peruse conversations on local social media, editorial columns or talk to our city councilors and you will get an immediate sense of the concern many residents have about speeding drivers in their neighborhoods. And their concerns are warranted. Not only does speeding increase the stress and noise levels on our streets, it is downright deadly. The initial crash analyses for both the 2019 and 2026 Bend Transportation Safety Action Plans indicate that speeding was the number two cause of crashes that resulted in serious injury or death locally^*,1,3.

So what can we do about it? In transportation safety circles, we discuss street design as the number one way to reduce speeds, avoid collisions and improve the safety of our streets. Narrow vehicle lanes, separated bike paths, protected intersection designs, all of these measures take the guesswork out of driving and help to naturally reduce road conflicts. The redesigned Olney avenue from Wall to 2nd is a great example of this concept in practice. These measures are the absolute gold standard of how we should be redesigning our streets for all people and we should continue to prioritize their funding and implementation. However, as we navigate the road closures, multi-year construction projects and slow progress toward fully built-out, connected networks, it is important to ask: What else can we do right now to quickly and cheaply increase safety on our streets?

Cities around Oregon and around the region have been asking this question and landing on a simple solution, citywide reductions in speed limits. “20 is plenty” campaigns have sprung up in forward thinking cities to push for speed reductions on neighborhood streets and local collectors. As cities experiment with this strategy and the data comes in, the results are encouraging. 

In 2016 Seattle lowered speed limits across 2,400 miles of streets—dropping residential limits from 25 to 20 mph and some key arterials from 30 to 25 mph. As a result, the city saw an 18% drop in fatal and injury crashes and a 22% reduction in overall crashes citywide⁵ . The policy also had dramatic impacts on speeding, leading to a 54% reduction in motorists traveling over 40 mph on local streets⁵.

In 2018, Portland reduced default speed limits on all residential streets from 25 to 20 mph. According to a 2020 analysis by the Portland Bureau of Transportation and PSU, the odds of drivers traveling over 35 mph on local streets dropped by nearly 50%, and those exceeding 30 mph dropped by 33.6%⁴—indicating that reducing speed limits can reduce high-speed driving even without the overhaul of physical street design.

Historically, reducing speeds on city streets required drawn out analyses and lengthy ODOT engineering reviews. However, in Oregon these programs have recently become significantly easier to implement. With the 2023 passage of Oregon House Bill 2095 (and previously in 2011, House Bill 3150), cities can now impose blanket speed reductions from 25 to 20 mph on most residential streets overnight. If these reductions seem insignificant consider this, a person struck by a vehicle traveling at 20 mph has a 5% chance of mortality. At 25mph this risk more than doubles. And at 30mph it quadruples resulting in a 1 in 5 fatality rate. 

Just last week, Salem City Council voted unanimously to institute a city-wide speed limit reduction to 20mph on residential streets and low volume collectors. Should Bend follow suit? We think so. Bend Bikes will be asking the city to commit to starting the process of lowering speed limits on our streets, starting with school zones, with a goal of implementation within the next four years.

If you think this is a worthwhile goal, please consider sending an email to [email protected] (and bcc info@bendbikes) by October 14th or come to the city council meeting on October 21st from 6:00 – 8:00pm and sign up to give public input.

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