Madison Reporter

Madison now is in phase one of the city's “20 is Plenty” program, an effort to make streets safer by lowering residential speed limits from 25 mph to 20 mph, according to a city news release.

Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway announced the beginning of the program in an Aug. 9 Twitter post.

"Twenty is Plenty in effect beginning today in the Tenney-Lapham and Hammersly-Theresa neighborhoods," the mayor said in her Twitter post. "Lower speeds save lives!"

The “20 is Plenty” program is part of the city's "Vision Zero" strategy, a data driven effort to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries in Madison by 2030. The City of Madison Vision Zero initiative strives to improve pedestrian and bike safety for all users throughout the city and improve the identified high injury intersections, all in an effort to prevent avoidable fatal crashes.

A separate statement issued by the city on Aug. 6 described "20 is Plenty" as "a safety focused, data driven, program that considers 20 mph the appropriate speed for neighborhood streets."

"For the first phase of the new program, the Transportation Commission selected multiple streets in two areas based on crash data, street characteristics, existing safety improvements and access to bike infrastructure and sidewalks," the statement continued. "The streets selected are parts of the Tenney-Lapham and the Theresa-Hammersley neighborhoods."

The program and strategy follow a 46% increase in crashes between vehicles and pedestrians in the U.S. since 2009, "a trend that we do not want to see continue in Madison," the city's statement said.

"Higher travel speeds directly impact the time it takes for a driver to react to changes in their environment, such as a child running into the street, increase the distance it takes for a vehicle to come to a complete stop, and cause more severe injuries or deaths when crashes do occur," the statement said.

In addition to Madison, New York, Seattle, Portland and Minneapolis also are lowering speed limits to improve road user safety.

Phase two of "20 is Plenty" in Madison is expected sometime next year.