Since 2014, the city has placed an increased focus on eliminating traffic deaths. With that in mind, the Austin City Council Mobility Committee passed a resolution Wednesday that recommends lower speed limits in various parts of the city. Earlier this year, City Council adopted the Vision Zero Action Plan, the product of the eponymous task force—created in 2014—charged with creating a strategy to effectively eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries in Austin by 2025. The Mobility Committee approved a resolution Wednesday that issues four concrete recommendations in mitigating the traffic speed issue. Passed 3-1, with District 6 Council Member Don Zimmerman dissenting, the plan called for legislative lobbying for lower neighborhood speed limits, street design strategies that influence slower speeds, an examination of existing arterial speed limits to ensure appropriateness and the implementation of a neighborhood slow zone pilot program. The recommendation will go in front of council Dec. 15. In Texas, the default speed limit through an urban district is 30 mph, unless, through a traffic study, the city can prove to the state that a slower speed limit is necessary. The city of Houston is making a push toward the state legislature to lower its neighborhood speed limits in bulk from 30 mph to 25 mph. If approved by council, Austin will join Houston in this lobbying effort. If approved by council, the city will begin looking into design strategies for neighborhood streets that influence slower speeds, such as wide corner turns, speed bumps and heavy signage. The city would also check arterial roads, such as Lamar Boulevard, to ensure the existing speed limits are appropriate. As part of the slow zone pilot program, the city would pick a handful of neighborhoods to lower the speed limit down to 5 mph lower than the default speed and then do a study to determine its effectiveness. The public would be part of the neighborhood selection process. Zimmerman said the issue is not that the city needs lower speed limits but that current speed limits need to be enforced. The Northwest Austin council member said the city should focus on measures that relieve mobility congestion and speed traffic up rather than slow vehicles down. “People are already complaining that we’re in gridlock, they want things to move faster, not slower,” Zimmerman said. “Here we are lowering speed limits, yet we’re already slowed to a crawl. It’s really frustrating, we need a traffic congestion relief plan.” On Wednesday, the recommendations received vocal support from various groups, including Bike Austin, the Pedestrian Advisory Council and Safe Kids Austin. Miller Nuttle, campaigns director for Bike Austin, the largest bicycle advocacy group in Austin, said lower speed limits was a desire he heard consistently during the public outreach process for the city’s $720 million mobility bond. “It was almost unanimous that people want to see more traffic calming, they want to see more human-paced speed outside their homes,” Nuttle said. “I think there is a tremendous groundswell of public support to do something proactive to save lives.”