Minneapolis And St. Paul Announce Lowered Speed Limits

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Twin Cities officials announced plans to lower speed limits across the metro on Thursday, in a move to support safer streets.

New speed limits will be 20 mph for local residential streets, 25 mph for larger, arterial city-owned streets, and 30 mph or more for some city-owned streets, according to a news release.

The 25 mph speed limit changes will go into effect as soon as signs are posted. After signs are posted on busier streets, the cities will put up gateway signs at entry points into both cities, to indicate that the citywide speed limit is 20 mph unless otherwise posted. Because of this, workers say they will generally not be posting 20 mph signs on local residential streets.

Staff from both cities will install or change the more than 1,000 speed limit signs on city-owned streets in the coming months. Installation is expected to be finished by the fall.

Officials say the speed limit changes come after detailed studies -- conducted by the Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul Public Works departments -- to determine appropriate local speed limits as required by state statute. Minnesota law does not give cities the authority to change speed limits on county or MnDOT roadways.

Click to learn more about the speed limit changes in Minneapolis and St. Paul.