Speed limits in Des Moines could change to make streets safer

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Des Moines City Traffic Engineer John Davis has a vision to make Des Moines' streets safer. His plan would be to check the current speed limit on city streets to see if it's appropriate for the conditions.

"We get requests for speeding traffic, or people are speeding in my neighborhood," said Davis. "We're looking to try to make sure that the speed limits are appropriate for the conditions. The land uses, the amount of traffic, the pedestrian movements."

The idea is a concept at this point. The City does not have the budget to tackle this project yet. Davis said the City isn't even talking about hiring consulting help until they have the funds.

He would look at lowering the speed limits on some streets to decrease the amount of bad crashes.

"Speed is the element of a crash that causes the most severity, so the higher the speeds, the more severe the crash," said Davis. "So, what we're trying to do is, bottom line, is save peoples' lives."

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Davis said the speed limit is not the main factor in determining how long it takes to get to your destination.

"Most people will find that the delay that they might have in their way is not necessarily how fast that they go to the speed limit or above the speed limit, it's the delay they might incur at a traffic signal or a railroad crossing," he said.

The bottom line is he's looking for roads where the speed is too high, and maybe unsafe.

"I think the biggest thing we're trying to do is to save peoples' lives," said Davis. "Slowing people down is the first thing really, regardless of whether we change speed limits or not, is to drive what the speed limit is now."

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