Kingston Moving Toward Area-Wide 25mph Speed Limit

Now that NY State has loosened its stranglehold on municipal traffic speeds.

Kingston is moving forward to lower speed limits:

Mayor Steve Noble announced Wednesday, July 3, that he is proposing a 25 mph speed limit to the city’s Common Council.

“After speaking with our staff, various City commissions, and many concerned community members, I am recommending that the City of Kingston adopt a 25-mile-per-hour area-wide speed limit, Noble said. “In the three ward meetings that I’ve had so far, the number one concern has been speeding in neighborhoods. I want Kingston residents to know that I share this concern.”

Noble said the speed limit reduction is one of many steps the city is taking to reduce crashes and increase safety while improving infrastructure.

Noble cited a study by the Governor’s Highway Safety Association that there was a 29% decline in the odds of speeding for vehicles traveling faster than 35 mph with an 8.5% drop for vehicles going faster than 30 mph and a 2.9% drop in vehicles driving over 25 mph.

Noble’s office also cited AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety findings that found a pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling at 25 mph has a 25% risk of sustaining a serious or fatal injury with the risk of serious injury or death jumping to 50% at 33 mph and 75% at 41 mph.

“I look forward to applying evidence and the newly-granted authority contained in NYS law and the guidance in the recently updated Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) to set logical and appropriate speed limits in the City of Kingston,” City Engineer John Schultheis said.

Noble’s proposal will go to the Common Council’s Public Safety and General Government Committee in July.

In January 2022, the Beacon City Council passed a resolution urging state lawmakers to lower speed limits below the mandated 30 mph lower limit:

Municipalities can make changes to individual roads — New York City last year reduced the speed limits on 45 miles of high-crash corridors in four boroughs — but the state prohibits municipalities from setting default limits below 30 mph. Several bills have been introduced in the state Senate and Assembly that would lift the restriction. 

Dan Aymar-Blair, the Ward 4 council member who last year suggested lowering the limit, says it’s time for the change. “For three years I’ve heard from many people that they’re worried about safety,” he said. “We need to take action.”

I was quoted in my then-role on the Main Street Access Committee:

Beacon’s Main Street Access Committee, a volunteer group that Kyriacou created in 2020, last year recommended that the city drop the limit on Main Street, where there are no speed limit signs. 

“Our position was 20 mph on Main, because it is the densest and most-used road in Beacon, particularly in the summer months, when it’s packed with pedestrians,” said Stowe Boyd, the committee chair. “We were concerned that it is inherently dangerous to have cars tooling along at whatever the speed limit is in people’s heads, which is somewhat more than the city speed limits are, and occasionally it is ridiculously fast.”

I hope the City Council will follow Kingston’s push in this area, and going further, make Main Street a 20mph zone.

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