Lakewood to Consider Reducing Speed Limits in Neighborhoods

Lakewood drivers may soon have to hit the brakes if a new proposal to reduce neighborhood speed limits becomes law.

The Lakewood City Council is set to vote on an ordinance to lower speed limits on residential streets from the current 30 miles per hour to 25 mph. The proposal will be introduced at the council meeting on Monday, September 9, with the second reading and public hearing scheduled for September 23.

Councilwoman Jeslin Shahrezaei says she requested council action back in May 2023, after receiving numerous complaints from community members about drag racing and noise pollution from speeding cars, and expressing increasing concern about neighborhood speed limits as school consolidations have led to longer walking commutes for local children.

"I just want people to slow down," Shahrezaei says. "This is one tool in the tool kit where we can start to implement some shift in thinking. There is a need for us to sort of recalibrate on a social contract. I have school-aged kids who walk to school, and I'm concerned for them all the time, and I know I'm not alone in that."

Shahrezaei says she plans to try to amend the ordinance to lower residential speed limits to 20 mph instead of the proposed 25 mph, though she's not certain the amendment will pass.

"I think everybody is on board with a speed reduction," she says. "Where we are right now is, is it 20 or 25?"

Colorado state law sets residential speed limits at 30 mph, but many local governments have set even slower restrictions — including most of Lakewood's neighboring municipalities.

Edgewater, Wheat Ridge, Jefferson County and Morrison already have neighborhood speed limits of 25 mph, according to Lakewood city staff. Denver and Golden go even further, limiting speeds to only 20 mph, as do Boulder and Aspen.

Pedestrians have a 90 percent chance of surviving a crash with a vehicle traveling at 20 mph or slower, but that chance drops to 50 percent when a vehicle is going 30 mph or faster, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Even five miles per hour can make a major difference; a person is around 70 percent more likely to be killed if hit by a vehicle going 30 mph versus 25 mph, according to research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Shahrezaei is the Lakewood appointee to the Denver Regional Council of Governments, which is pursuing a Regional Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic-related deaths and severe injuries in the metro area. That work has contributed to her push for lower speed limits, she says: "I've seen firsthand how, especially last year, we fell really short of those goals. We saw the most fatalities we've had in many years."

Nineteen people were killed on Lakewood roads in 2023, compared to seventeen in 2022 and eighteen in 2021, according to data presented by city staff. Lakewood has had just one fatal crash on residential streets since 2021. That happened in September 2023, when a seventeen-year-old driver was killed after crashing through several fences and yards, eventually striking the side of a house.

The vast majority of Lakewood's fatal crashes occur on its arterial roads. Of the 66 deadly collisions since 2021, fifty happened on arterial roads, which are considered high-capacity urban streets, ten on collector roads that have low-to-moderate capacity, and five on freeways, according to city staff.

But there have been plenty of close calls in Lakewood neighborhoods. In April 2023, a driver was hospitalized after crashing into the garage of a home near Alameda and South Deframe Street. Just last month, a crash pushed a parked vehicle through the bathroom wall of a home at West 15th Place and Youngfield Drive — though that incident occurred at a curve where the speed limit is already 25 mph.

Councilman Roger Low, who supports the proposal, says the speed limit change should only be the beginning.

"There's more we need to do here, including design and traffic-calming improvements to further reduce vehicle speeds," Low says. "Numerous studies in cities across the country and around the world show that reducing residential speed limits will make our communities safer for pedestrians, cyclists and families. I'm looking forward to voting to reduce Lakewood's residential speed limit as an important step forward."

However, in cities where the residential speed limit was lowered, the change has not always resulted in slower speeds.

In the two years after Boulder set its neighborhood speed limits to 20 mph, the city reported no measurable change in vehicle speeds. The average speed on residential streets even increased slightly, from 21.57 mph before to 21.9 mph after. Still, the majority of Lakewood's council believes a new speed limit will be an effective safety measure.

"I am generally in favor of this type of initiative, and I look forward to additional conversation on how to increase pedestrian safety," says Councilwoman Sophia Mayott-Guerrero. "Between additional sidewalks, bike lanes and parks, Lakewood is becoming a more walkable and bikeable city, and we must consider every evidence-based tactic to reduce accidents and deaths for our pedestrians and cyclists."

The Lakewood councilmembers contacted by Westword did not express opposition to the speed limit proposal, but at least one, Councilman Rich Olver, has spoken against the plan in the past.

"I've tried to drive 20 mph around my house...and, oh, my goodness, it's so slow. Going to that is not something I would be behind," Olver said during a council meeting in June 2023. "I won't be backing reducing speed limits, because I've tried it, and it's just too slow."

"That's the point," Shahrezaei says in response to Olver's past statement. "Literally the point."