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CITY HALL — A bid to reduce Chicago’s default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph was advanced by a key City Council committee, but the ordinance still needs approval from the full council.
The Committee on Pedestrian and Traffic Safety approved the change on Monday by an 8-5 vote following a lengthy debate during which some alderpeople questioned both the substance and process behind the measure. Other praised it as a long overdue step to protect pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.
The committee also advanced a separate ordinance that would create a pilot program to allow neighbors to use 311 to report vehicles illegally blocking bike and bus lanes, which would result in a citation after several warnings.
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st), who sponsored the proposals and who also chairs the pedestrian safety committee, said the measures are aimed at bolstering Chicago’s Vision Zero action plan to eliminate all traffic deaths citywide. The current “statutory urban speed limit” is 30 mph.
There were 136 people who died in traffic crashes in 2023, according to a recent report issued by the Chicago Department of Transportation. That’s down from 186 deaths in 2021, but still higher than pre-pandemic numbers.
At a subject matter hearing in May, transportation department commissioner Tom Carney called lowering the speed limit a potential “tool in the toolbox” to make streets safer. Advocates for a reduced speed limit have also pointed to city data that shows a person struck by a vehicle traveling at 20 mph faces a more than 90 percent chance of survival — while only a 60 percent chance at 30 mph.
Mayor Brandon Johnson backed lowering the speed limit at an unrelated press conference on Friday. But at Monday’s hearing, no one from the transportation department or the mayor’s administration was present to testify or answer questions, leaving alderpeople to discuss the issue among themselves.
La Spata on Monday said getting to zero traffic fatalities in Chicago was “not a utopian idea,” but something that can be achieved through policy changes like the speed limit reduction.
“I believe in the work we’re talking about today. I believe that the ordinance… sets us on the pathway to save the lives of hundreds of people, hundreds of Chicagoans over the next decade,” he said. “I believe we’re doing it in a way that is feasible and responsible.”
Several other alderpeople on Monday voiced support for the change.
“To set something [lower than 25 mph] I think is setting up for failure. I think 25 is the perfect fit, and with time we can track how everything is working,” Ald. Ruth Cruz (30th) said.
The city has already reduced the speed limit on some thoroughfares to 20 mph through its Complete Streets program, which also incorporates protected bike lanes, pedestrian curb bumpouts and other safety measures designed to slow traffic.
The proposed citywide reduction did garner sharp pushback from other council members, several of whom were concerned the change would lead to more speeding tickets that could disproportionately impact Black and Brown neighbors.
Automated speed cameras currently issue $35 tickets for drivers going 6-10 mph over the speed limit. The penalty rises to $100 for going 11 mph or more over the limit.
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said he doesn’t dispute that lowering the speed limit would make the city’s roads safer. But any change “has to be balanced with people’s ability to get around,” he said.
“When you’re dealing with homelessness, violence, a plethora of issues, I’m sorry, but reducing the speed limit is not the number one issue that my community is looking at,” said the West Side alderperson, who voted against the measure. “I think this one-size-fits-all approach is not necessarily in the best interest of all Chicagoans.”
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) also voted “no” on the speed limit ordinance, and said changes should be implemented only when there is “local buy-in” where neighbors could weigh in on any changes.
“To suggest that a 25 mph maximum speed limit applies across the board on the city makes zero sense,” Hopkins said. “It doesn’t make sense on Irving Park [Road], it doesn’t make sense on Harlem Avenue on the Far Northwest Side, it doesn’t make sense on Stony Island Avenue on the South Side.”
Other cities have lowered their default speed limit to 25 mph in recent years, including New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston, Audrey Wennink, senior director at nonprofit Metropolitan Planning Council, told alderpeople in May. Transit leaders in New York have said the change has reduced annual pedestrian deaths by 23 percent and led to the city’s lowest number of pedestrian fatalities in a century.
The change could cost Chicago around $3 million to install new signs, but only if the state transportation agency, which manages roads with higher speeds limits across the city, does not make a similar speed limit reduction, La Spata said.
“If it’s the same [speed limit] throughout, then you don’t need to post it throughout,” La Spata said. “Which saves us that $3 million.”
Under the self-reporting pilot program that also passed committee on Monday, neighbors would be able to submit a photo of someone blocking a bus or bike lane through the 311 app or “through a website or other application designated by the Department of Transportation, for the city to use in enforcement of such violations,” according to the ordinance.
Non-commercial vehicles would receive two warning letters from the city’s Department of Finance before being mailed a ticket.
The pilot comes as a similar program that will use cameras to automatically ticket Downtown drivers who block bike and bus lanes still has not begun, even though it was approved by City Council more than a year and half ago, in March 2023.
In an email on Monday, city transportation agency spokesperson Erica Schroeder said the Smart Streets pilot program was finally getting off the ground this week, but she did not share a detailed timeline for when parking scofflaws could begin receiving tickets.
“Field-testing is beginning this week for the Smart Streets pilot program, with select City vehicles equipped with cameras. No warnings or citations are being issued at this time. More details, including the start date, will be available soon,” Schroeder said.
The pedestrian safety committee also passed a resolution Monday to create a working group that would examine Chicago’s traffic laws and design a “more equitable enforcement system, including fines and fees reform.”
Some changes could include using revenue from specific speed cameras to pay for infrastructure changes at those locations, as well as instituting a drivers education course that could be taken in exchange for lower fines or none at all, La Spata said.
“The goal is not more revenue. The goal is to change behaviors and save lives,” he said.
If passed by the full council, the speed limit change would go into effect Jan. 1, 2026. The self-reporting pilot program could launch at the beginning of 2025 and last for one year from whenever the first citation is issued.
La Spata said he does not plan to bring the two measures to a full Council vote on Tuesday, the next scheduled full Council meeting, but instead sometime later this year.
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