Proposed local street speed limit changes in Bellevue

Why lower the speed limit?

As vehicle speeds increase, the likelihood and severity of crashes also increases.

Lower vehicle speeds support the city’s Vision Zero effort to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities on city streets by 2030.

Lowering vehicle speeds helps to make streets safer and more comfortable for people walking, biking and rolling in the neighborhood.

Traffic safety requires many tools, and a lower speed limit provides another tool in the city’s  traffic safety toolkit—which includes things like speed humps, traffic circles and more—to directly respond to community concerns.

Lowering local street speed limits to 20 mph is an emerging best practice and has been implemented in Renton, Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, Bainbridge Island and by other agencies both locally and nationally.

A lower speed limit is one part of the Safe System approach, which is founded on the belief that death and serious injuries on city streets are preventable. This approach is part of reaching the Vision Zero goal.

The Safe System approach rests on four pillars: Safe Speeds, Safe People, Safe Vehicles and Safe Streets, paired with four supportive elements: data, leadership, partnerships and culture.

Ultimately, a lower speed limit furthers a shift in traffic safety culture in Bellevue: safety starts on your street. 

Lowering speeds on local streets

The city is currently considering changing the speed limit on most local streets to 20 mph. This potential change would not impact speed limits on arterial streets.

Streets in Bellevue are classified as either local or arterial. Each of these classifications has distinct characteristics.

Speed limits are set using the city's Speed Limit Setting Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

Local streets are designed primarily to provide access within neighborhoods and carry local traffic to collector arterials.

Currently, the majority of local street speed limits in Bellevue are 25 mph, but we have tested lowering the speed limit to 20 mph in a few areas.

Arterial streets are characterized by higher speeds, higher vehicle volumes and wider lanes, and generally connect to or are found in commercial districts.

Arterial speed limits in Bellevue are between 25 and 40 mph.

When considering changing the speed limit on a street or set of streets, the City of Bellevue uses established procedures and guidance, including the recently completed Speed Management Plan.

Has the speed limit been lowered in Bellevue before?

Three 20 mph speed limits have already been implemented in the city: in the Surrey Downs neighborhood (2020), along the East Bellevue Greenway on 166th/165th Avenue Northeast (2021) and in portions of the Eastgate neighborhood (2022).

Each of these projects that lowered the speed limit kept high-end speeding (30+ mph) at bay.

Eastgate, the largest 20 mph zone to date, has experienced a 19% reduction in high-end speeding since the speed limit was reduced.

What does this project include?

This project proposes reducing the speed limit on most local streets in Bellevue to 20 mph. It includes replacing approximately 365 existing 25 mph speed limit signs with new 20 mph signs.

Some existing signposts will also be replaced to ensure the posts meet current design standards. For example, the wood post in the image shown here would be replaced with a post that meets current safety and design standards.

It is expected that the signpost will need to be replaced on about half of the existing speed limit signs.

In addition to signposts, the project will also include updating speed limit pavement markings on local streets to reflect the new speed limit.

Approximately 140 speed limit pavement markings will be replaced across the city, changing from "25 MPH" to "20 MPH".

Are there any local streets that won't be reduced to 20 mph?

There are a few local streets that will continue to have a 25 mph or 30 mph posted speed limit. These are streets that, in general, have been determined through staff and engineering review to serve slightly different functions than most other local streets in the context of a 20 mph speed limit change.