The state of Texas requires municipalities to conduct a speed study before they are allowed to reduce speed limits on streets that are 30 mph or less. Mayor Andrew Friedberg said this law played into the reasoning for why the city was considering the study. However, the state does not require a study to change speed limits from 35 mph to 30 mph.
A closer look
Council member Catherine Lewis compared the proposal to one executed by the West University Place City Council. The study was more costly than originally thought, she said, adding the proposal was lacking in modern methodology and insufficiently addressed the real problem—drivers speeding through busy Bellaire thoroughfares.
“What [residents] have been crying out is that we want safer streets. They're saying we want pedestrian safety. ... [They] want bicycle safety, and I've heard it when they've come in here, and I've heard it going door to door. They're asking for safety,” Lewis said.
Lewis said the company that performed the speed analysis for West University Place, Traffic Engineers Inc., uses a new methodology to address speed limits from a safety perspective. The proposal put forth to the Bellaire City Council would have used an older engineering method based on measuring how fast people would drive and then making the limit 85% of that top speed.
“That is not something for city streets. And it certainly isn't modern. It's like 80 years out of date," Lewis said. "The old perspective is ‘we can't stop fatalities, we can't stop accidents.’ And the new perspective is ‘we can—we can reduce fatalities—we can make it zero."
What else
Friedberg said he was less concerned about the scope and methodology of the work than the cost, and more concerned about whether or not the council and the citizens really wanted to make the commitment and investment required following the costly study.
“We can lower the speed limit, [but that] doesn't mean people are going to drive slower unnecessarily," Frienberg said. "The reality is that it will require either replacing speed limit signs or adding new signs. There's follow-up costs, so we're not just talking about $100,000 and [we are done]. It’s $100,000 to comply with state law to be able to lower those speed limits. And there's the following costs of actually lowering the speed limits.”
