It’s indeed feasible to reduce speed limits to 25 miles per hour on all Miami-Dade County maintained roads and roads near parks, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has told commissioners, but it would cost $20.2 million up front – money the county doesn’t have.
She suggested that individual commissioners dig into their discretionary funds if they want to do it in their own districts or else urge the legislature to change state law to set the 25 limit, letting the state take on much of the cost of a change.
The mayor was acting on an April 2024 resolution that the county commission passed asking her to look into the change cutting the standard 30-mile-per-hour limits to 25 in those areas.
Then-Commissioner and now U.S. Ambassador to Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera introduced the resolution last year with the goal of reducing accidents in residential areas. Miami-Dade consistently ranks among the worst ten US communities for traffic congestion.
“These measures would improve the safety of our residents and bring a sense of uniformity to our roadways,” Mr. Cabrera told Miami Today at the time. “There are places near West Miami and South Miami,” he said, “where the speed limit can change from 25 mph to 30 mph in just one block.
“We’ve listened to neighbors in places like Schenley Park and the Waterways who have long wanted this, and now we’re taking action,” he said. “Our legislation involves a study to make sure that we handle this in a deliberate and thoughtful way so that individuals of all ages can more safely enjoy their neighborhoods and public parks.”
The subsequent county study found the change feasible, but pricy.
“Preliminary estimates for the required work for installation of 25 mph speed limit signs (replacement of existing signs and new signs), including field reviews, developing work orders, fabrications, mobilization and installation of signs, is about $19,328,302,” the mayor wrote to commissioners.
It’s not a simple job. The signs would go on about 5,740 miles of residential roadways with a total of 2,464 new signs to manufacture and install replacing an equal number of 30 mph signs.
The mayor wrote that the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works “is actively exploring funding sources, including state and federal grants,” to make the change. But she noted that a change in state law or commissioners digging into their own reserve funds might be feasible – and maybe faster.
As the county looks to 25 miles per hour on county roads instead of 30, its Transportation Committee in July dug into how to let local areas cut speed limits to 20 without having to coordinate with the county’s transportation team. The concept had unanimous support, with no talk of ramifications of such independent changes.
Commissioner Micky Steinberg said then that 20 miles per hour is more appropriate in “an interior residential road, not a collector road, not a main artery – an area where it’s just truly for a community to be able near a school or just an urbanized town center” to cut speed limits.
“My interest is trying to beat technology at its game” by reducing the speed limit showing on Google Maps so that mobility apps direct cut-through traffic elsewhere, said Commissioner Raquel Regalado.
But such changes would need study. “The requirement for a study is actually a state law,” noted Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales. “So I think the policy can certainly be the direction … that we should be OK approving 20 miles per hour speed limits in internal city roads, but the city, or in our case if it’s [the Unincorporated Municipal Services Area of the county], we still have to do a study under state law.”
The post Cutting speed limits to 25 mph a $20 million choice appeared first on Miami Today.
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