Law builds on ability to reduce speed limits

Before the law was signed into effect, Caltrans was required to set speed limits on many roads based on a specific formula determined by the 85th percentile of free-flowing traffic. The bill widens the circumstances under which it can lower or retain the speed limits and builds upon Assembly Bill 43, which went into effect in 2022 and began expanding local jurisdictions’ ability to adjust speed limits.

“It seems like a really good step in the right direction,” said Mike Swire, San Mateo transit advocate and member of the San Mateo County Transportation Authority Citizen Advisory Committee. “One of the biggest benefits is that it gives cities more discretion in reducing speed limits where they think it could have a big impact especially on vulnerable road users, like people who walk or bike.”

According to the bill, if Caltrans or a local authority completes a traffic study and determines that the speed limit is still higher than is reasonable or safe, it may reduce the speed limit by an additional 5 mph. The changes would be permitted if the street is designated as a “safety corridor” — though no more than one-fifth of the city’s streets could be designated as such — or if the portion of the highway is adjacent to “any land or facility that generates high concentrations of bicyclists or pedestrians, especially those from vulnerable groups such as children, seniors, persons with disabilities and the unhoused.” The speed limit reduction could also be allowed if there are “reasonable concerns related to the safe crossing of the portion of highway by bicyclists or pedestrians.”

The bill also would allow the Department of Transportation or local authority to declare a 20 or 25 mph speed limit on a non-freeway corridor that is contiguous to a business activity district if the speed limit is posted immediately before and after the district ends.

San Mateo Mayor Rob Newsom said he hopes this type of legislation continues momentum at the local level, much of which is already underway.

“This will give us additional ways to build on safety work we’re already doing,” Newsom said.

Reducing speed limits around schools, for example, has been a relatively recent success, and with the city working on speed surveys over the next year or so, more changes could be implemented in the near future.

“Speed surveys are expensive, so if you have to do a survey on every street ... that’s a challenge,” he said. “But hopefully this bill will make it more rational to make things easier and safer.”

Swire said the ability to lower speed limits is critical to preventing traffic-related injuries and fatalities, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. It’s not clear if and how each Peninsula city will take advantage of the new law, but Swire said he hopes jurisdictions use recent legislation to address dangerous corridors around the county, such as El Camino Real, State Route 84, Skyline Boulevard, Highway 1 and Humboldt Street in San Mateo. He added that the current formula that bases speed on the 85th percentile of driver speed is not a safe approach.

“If everybody sped before, you had to raise the speed limit, but now the city can say, ‘yes, people are driving faster, but that’s not safe,’” Swire said. “It gives the city a lot more flexibility.”

In Belmont, Senior Civil Engineer Josh Sun said via email that El Camino Real is the only corridor in Belmont that could be directly impacted by AB 1014, though Ralston Avenue and Alameda de las Pulgas could potentially see speed reductions via AB 43 after the city completes its next safety and speed survey in 2026.

The county has seen several pedestrian fatalities so far this year, including a 61-year-old Burlingame woman at an El Camino Real intersection, a 32-year-old woman at a State Route 84 intersection and a 50-year-old man on Highway 1.