Bellingham looks at lowering speed limits across the city, with some at 10 mph
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- City staff propose default 20 mph on most residential streets, replacing 25 mph.
- Council to consider new speed formula in early 2025 after consultant crash data.
- Officials target 10 mph shared streets downtown and 25 mph on key arterials.
Bellingham drivers might need to ease off the gas pedal in neighborhoods, in the downtown core and along some major streets as city officials hope to reduce traffic injuries and deaths by setting new speed limits across the city.
Public Works Department officials have been looking at lower speed limits for several years, and the City Council could be asked early next year to approve a new way of calculating speeds. No changes were immediately sought.
Even so, a “default” speed of 20 mph is being recommended for most residential streets and other roadways where the previous limit was 25 mph, officials said in a presentation Monday at the City Council’s Public Works and Natural Resources Committee.
“This is a very welcome change. This is a policy discussion, and I’m glad it’s been brought forward,” Councilman Michael Lilliquist said.
Key to the plan is data showing that a pedestrian who is hit by a car going 20 mph has a 90% chance of survival. People have a 50-50 chance of surviving a crash if they are hit by a car at 30 mph. That drops to a 10% chance if they are hit by a driver going 40 mph, said Jon Pascal of the Transpo Group, an international transportation consulting firm that the city hired to study its roads.
On average, nearly half of all fatal or serious-injury crashes involve a pedestrian or bicyclist, according to Pascal’s presentation.
“Reducing speeds has a direct and measurable effect on severity on those vulnerable users. Research has shown that vehicle speed is directly linked to crash severity. At higher speeds, drivers are less able to react appropriately to avoid crashes. Their field of vision narrows and so people darting out or bicycles coming out from a side street, (drivers) are not as easily able to stop,” Pascal said.
Traffic deaths and injuries have tripled across Bellingham over the past five years compared to the five years before that, according to Pascal’s presentation and data obtained from the Washington State Department of Transportation:
- From 2015 to 2019, there were five traffic deaths on Bellingham streets. That includes a 2017 crash that killed a bicyclist.
- From 2020-2024, there were 15 traffic fatalities, including 10 bicyclists and pedestrians. Two people have been killed on Bellingham streets so far this year, including one pedestrian.
Bellingham has 670 “lane miles” of streets, including residential, collector and arterials, according to a 2023 report.
More than half of Bellingham streets have a 25 mph speed limit, and more than a third of its streets have a 35 mph limit. Only 3% or streets have a limit of 50 mph or higher, according to Monday’s presentation.
Lowering speed limits will require a change in city policy, which now uses a system that sets speeds as a function of how fast 85% of drivers are going on a particular street.
Under the proposed plan, roads like Lakeway Drive, Alabama Street and Iowa Street could see speed limits drop to 25 mph.
A 20 mph limit was suggested for the downtown core, and a new “shared street” designation could result in a 10 mph speed limit for places like Railroad Avenue downtown — where the sharing of roadways by drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists is most concentrated.
This story was originally published October 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
