Speed Management
Austin Transportation’s Speed Management Program works to improve safety and enhance the livability of Austin streets through context-appropriate speed reduction strategies. Reducing egregious speeding on all street levels and the likelihood of serious injury and fatal crashes supports the City’s Vision Zero goal.
Austin Transportation implements two concurrent initiatives that make up the Speed Management program:
- Speed limit changes: Austin Transportation reviews existing speed limits citywide using data and applicable engineering studies to recommend changes or reductions in speed limits.
- Traffic calming treatments: Austin Transportation uses a multi-step data-driven process to select priority street segments and construct cost-effective engineering treatments that support reduced roadway speeds.
Source: Speed Management Prioritization Rankings (June 2023)
The streets shown in the prioritized ranking are updated twice a year. Streets may be higher or lower in the next round of updated rankings based on changes in crashes, street context, and/or the addition of newly collected street speed data. Rankings of streets with the same overall score are based on the sum of individual rankings for each data category used in program methodology (speed, volume, crash cost, and context).
Speed study requests are not being received at this time. Learn more about how and when to submit a street for speed study consideration by visiting our Speed Management program webpage.
Traffic Calming Treatments
The new methodology for selecting traffic calming treatments uses a data-informed, equity-focused approach that considers crash history, characteristics of individual streets and surrounding neighborhoods, and speed data to proactively identify residential streets for potential speed mitigation interventions.
Staff developed this new approach based on knowledge gained and feedback received through the following:
- the prior Local Area Traffic Management (LATM) Program,
- input from over 1,100 Austinites during a public engagement process in summer/fall 2019, and
- staff’s research on national best practices and emerging academic research, which clarifies the impact of speed on safety outcomes and quality of life.
This methodology has been applied to all Level 1 and Level 2 streets in Austin (similar to “residential” and “collector” streets, respectively) as classified in the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (ASMP).
More information on the methodology used for selecting streets for traffic calming treatments is found below.
Austin Transportation developed a Traffic Calming Toolkit, a toolbox of speed mitigation strategies and treatments that may be applied in isolation or in combination with other treatments to achieve speed reduction on Austin’s Level 1 and 2 streets.
Traffic Calming Methodology
The new traffic calming methodology takes a hybrid approach to analyze speeding citywide and identify streets that should be studied for potential speeding issues based on objective criteria.
The program methodology includes three steps, as detailed on the right.
Speed Limit Changes
Based on a comprehensive traffic engineering study, the City Traffic Engineer determined safe and prudent roadway speeds on a wide range of roadways in Austin. The speed limit strategy is outlined in three parts, as detailed on the right.
Austin Transportation has created an interactive map of the speed limit changes for the public to review. Some speed limit changes may be accompanied by other roadway treatments like restriping to narrower lane widths or assignment of portions of the street for alternative uses such as biking or parking uses to create a space more conducive to lower speeds.
Please review the full speed limit presentation for additional details.
Stay Informed
Click here to sign up for the Austin Mobility Newsletter for updates on upcoming speed management projects and other mobility news around Austin. You can also email the program team at SpeedManagement@austintexas.gov.