Beverly Speed Limit Officially Drops

BEVERLY, MA – The speed limit on streets with no speed limit signs – side roads like Bertram, Thorndike, and Washington streets – will drop from the standard 30 mph to 25 mph starting on Friday, Feb. 17.

The state legislature voted over the summer to allow cities and towns to decide what the default speed limit should be after many years of requiring it be 30 mph. Beverly City Council voted last week to drop to 25 mph.

Mayor Mike Cahill said he and other city officials spend time driving all over Beverly – sometimes at the posted limit, sometimes slower – to decide whether to drop the speed limit.

"It was interesting to see what happened at certain speeds," Cahill said. He said the city has been trying to improve safety on the roads for the past three years.

Beverly Police Chief John LeLacheur said the police department will engage drivers in an educational campaign during patrols. Drivers that still go 30 mph on the unmarked streets will get a warning.

LeLacheur said in the past three years, there have been a lot of "close calls" for accidents involving cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. The police department and traffic office get calls and emails regularly about speeding on secondary roads.

"This has to be a community effort," said LeLacheur.

Message boards will be going up to alert drivers to the new standard speed limit, and signs will be installed at all the major entryways to Beverly.

The city also plans to change the speed limit on six streets where the speed limit is posted, but has been determined to be too high. These changes will take months to implement, because the city engineers must conduct a study of the roads and apply for the change through MassDOT.

The roads the city has identified are Dodge Street from Laurel to Michael; the length of Amherst Road; the middle section of Colon Street; the length of Odell Avenue; the length of Lakeshore Avenue; and the length of Ober Street.

"The Beverly Police Department believes this change will help reduce speed in our most congested neighborhoods," said LeLacheur in a statement regarding the change. "Our goal is to reduce collisions and promote public safety. We need the community's help with this goal."

"Those streets are somebody else's neighborhood," said Cahill.

Image via Taylor Rapalyea, Patch Staff: Washington Street is one of the roads that will drop from 30 mph to a 25 mph speed limit.