Department of Transportation

The City of Madison launches Phase 1 of its new program, 20 is Plenty, on Monday, August 9th. The program aims to improve safety on Madison’s neighborhood streets, by lowering the speed limit on residential streets from 25 mph to 20 mph.

20 is Plenty is 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 streets selected are parts of the Tenney-Lapham and the Theresa-Hammersley neighborhoods.

“The City of Madison is taking a hard look at safety on our streets, especially when it comes to reducing the speeds that can cause serious harm to our residents,” said Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway. “Our new 20 is Plenty program is part of our Vision Zero initiative, which will continue to use all available tools to make our streets safer, including improving infrastructure, reducing vehicle speeds and increasing safety education.”

Madison’s Vision Zero Initiative strives to improve pedestrian and bike safety for all users throughout the city, all in an effort to eliminate avoidable fatal crashes. Since 2009, crashes between vehicles and pedestrians have risen by 46% all across the United States, a trend that we do not want to see continue in Madison. 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. This is why the 20 is Plenty program was developed, to address neighborhood streets safety. Madison joins many other cities across the country, including New York City, Seattle, Portland, and Minneapolis, who are lowering speed limits to increase road user safety.

Additional information about the program may be found on the 20 is Plenty webpage, or under projects on the Vision Zero website.