By Jorge Casuso

January 2, 2025 -- Traffic will slow down this year on some 30 miles of streets across Santa Monica, which has seen fatal and serious injury crashes rising since 2020.

The speed limit adjustments on 47 stretches of boulevards, major cross streets and near schools are being made "one corridor at a time" after the Council unanimously approved the changes on August 27, traffic officials said Thursday.

Early last month, Neilson Way between Pico Boulevard and Marine Street became the first street to reduce legal speeds, and changes are underway on seven other stretches, officials said.

"Speed limit signs on eight roadways are in the process of being updated or completed, and 18 others are slated to be completed by the end of February," City Traffic Engineer Mia Silver wrote in a blog posted on the City's website Thursday.

"The entire project will involve replacing 150 signs along 33 miles of roadway, with most new speed limits reflecting a reduction of five miles per hour," Silver wrote.

The adjustments are being made "to help make the city safer for vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists alike," she said.

The changes are based on recommendations in the City’s 2024 Engineering and Traffic Survey and a new State law that gives cities greater flexibility in determining speed limits, City officials said.

AB 43 allows cities to round down speed limits, rather than up, based on the surveyed speed. Before the law, if a traffic survey determined the safe speed was 37 mph, cities were required to set the limit at 40, officials said.

"Now they can make it 35," Silver wrote, "a change that’s not going to significantly affect how long it takes to get somewhere, but that can have a real impact on the frequency and severity of accidents on that roadway."

The Council in August approved only one increase in speed limit (from 25 to 30 miles per hour) on a 0.3-mile segment of California Avenue between Ocean Avenue and PCH known as the California Incline.

The Council's approval came as fatal and severe injury crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians increased in each of the past three years, despite major investments in traffic safety by the City.

In 2023, pedestrians were involved in 16 severe injury crashes and five fatal crashes, while six bicyclists were severely injured and one was killed, according to traffic data compiled by the City's Transportation Department.

Three severe injury crashes involved scooters ("Rising Number of Pedestrians, Cyclists Killed or Seriously Injured in Santa Monica," August 12, 2024).

Santa Monica's new speed limits pave the way for scooters to share the roads with cars on many of the affected stretches ("New Speed Limits Pave Way for Cars, Scooters to Share Some Roads," September 4, 2024).

Under the California Vehicle code, scooters can be operated on streets with speed limits of up to 25 mph.

For a full list of affected streets click here