A divided City Council on Wednesday put the brakes on efforts to reduce the city’s default speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph.
The 28-21 vote against lowering the speed limit followed a spirited and emotional debate that pitted traffic safety advocates, many of them on the North Side, against African-American alderpersons concerned about uneven enforcement and a surge in pretextual traffic stops targeting Black drivers.
West Side Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), led the charge against the lower speed limit. Ervin said he “understands the logic that, if you go slow,” there will be fewer traffic fatalities and serious injuries. But he is concerned about an avalanche of speeding tickets that struggling Chicagoans cannot afford to pay.
“We’ve got people who can barely pay their bills, and a speed camera ticket at 25 or 30 miles-an-hour can be a vast difference in peoples’ budgets,” Ervin said. If individual alderpersons want to lower the speed limit in their own communities, they can. But making it 25 mph citywide would have “unintended consequences,” Ervin said.
The folks I represent are not looking for more tickets. … What may work in one part of the city may not work in another part, ” he said.
