Awaiting Report Item Number 16-73 and Council Order Number 4, regarding lowering speed limits in the City

This memo is in response to Policy Orders 4 and 14 from the September 12, 2016 City Council Meeting, regarding lowering speed limits as permitted under the recently passed law, An Act Modernizing Municipal Finance and Government (H.4565), generally referred to as the Municipal Modernization bill.

The Municipal Modernization bill provides municipalities with the ability to lower speed limits in “thickly settled” areas to 25 mph, as well as to create “safety zones” with a 20 mph speed limit. In both cases, municipalities must accept the sections of the law that allow these reductions, which in our case requires a vote of the City Council to accept those sections (Sections 193 and 194 of the law).

However, these provisions are subject to the standard 90-day waiting period for implementation of new state laws, and therefore do not go into effect until November 7, 2016.

In the context of our overall commitment to safety and our recent commitment to Vision Zero, the ability to implement lower speed limits is a critical tool to achieving our transportation, public health, and community safety goals. As a result, we intend to request that the City Council accept both speed limit-related provisions of the Municipal Modernization legislation, once the new law officially goes into effect on November 7. If these sections are accepted, we would then move forward to lower the general speed limit within Cambridge to 25 mph on streets owned by the City. We believe that the implementation of 20 mph safety zones will require additional consideration and analysis, since enforcement of a 20 mph speed limit will be challenging unless that speed limit is supported by consistent street design and land use characteristics. In the interim prior to these provisions going into effect, we are also seeking guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation regarding the types of signs and public information that will be required to implement the lowered speed limits.

We look forward to continuing to work with the City Council to continue to make our streets and sidewalks as safe as possible.