Saratoga Springs might be the next Capital Region city to slash its speed limit.
If you’re driving through the Spa City later this year, you might have to take your foot off the gas. Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll is set on proposing a new city limit of 25 miles per hour instead of the current 30.
“The simple answer is the speed limit reduction saves lives. If a pedestrian is his at 23 miles per hour 10% of the people will die. Versus someone who is hit at 32 miles per hour 25% of the people will die. So, certainly it’s an increase of public safety,” said Coll.
Coll, who was elected to his first term in 2023 with GOP backing, says an engineering study is nearly complete and will lead to legislation he hopes to pass this summer. He intends the new limit to take effect this fall. The new was first reported by the Daily Gazette.
“Yeah, so we have a traffic maintenance unit that’s under my leadership and the track season is extremely busy for them, as it is for our police and fire departments. So, we have to wait for that busy time to settle down before we go through changing all the signs,” said Coll.
City Police recently reinstated a Traffic Safety Division that had been disbanded in 2014. Coll hopes it will “complement” the new speed limit to increase public safety.
Democratic Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran has been a vocal supporter of dropping the speed limit for years. He says it’s a win for the city’s Complete Streets plan, which has remained unfulfilled since being published in 2016.
“We, many years ago now, had committed ourselves to a path that we’ve been too slow to adopt, some would say. And I am an advocate for us continuing down this path. I believe lowering the speed limit is one of many things we can do to address pedestrian issues and concerns related to traffic in the city,” said Moran.
Saratoga Springs has also been grappling with an increase in truck traffic along the historically protected Van Dam and Church Streets which have become a truck route connecting the Adirondack Northway and State Route 29.
Moran hopes a 25 mph limit will help there as well.
“We have significant issues related to truck traffic that we’re looking at trying to address and I think, though subtle, this may be somewhat effective in dimishing the desire for large 53-foot trucks to use our city and our historic districts as a shortcut,” said Moran.
Ed Lindner is the Advocacy Chair of Bikeatoga, a local non-profit that runs free bike repair clinics and supports constructing connected bike routes throughout the city.
“The short answer is lower speeds save lives. They make crashed between cars less severe and slower speeds substantially increase the ability of pedestrians and cyclists to survive a crash with a car. So, it really works for everybody who’s out on the road. Drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians,” said Lindner.
Lindner says the reduced limit will help achieve Bikeatoga’s goal of turning the city into a regional cycling destination.
“We have a great city that’s surrounded by miles and miles of beautiful cycling routes. So, we hold events trying to bring people in from other states, and it would be an advantage to the city, I think, if when those cyclists visited us they found this to be a bike friendly city,” said Lindner.
Other cities in the region have already made the move. Schenectady dropped its limit to 25 miles per hour this month and Albany transitioned to slower streets at the beginning of the year.
