February 14th 2023: Next time you drive down a familiar stretch of road in Costa Mesa you might want to check the posted speed limit as some might be changing. A assembly bill passed in October 2021 gives cities that have completed traffic studies the option to reduce the posted speed limit.
Cities set the generally set the speed limit on stretches of road of road on an average speed of what 85 percent of the drivers are doing. The passing of AB43 means cities can now also round down instead of just rounding up the actual speed number. For example if the average speed is 42 miles per hour in the pass that would be rounded up to 45 miles per hour but now it can be rounded down to 40 miles per hour.
The City Of Costa Mesa has already identified 17 non residential street segments where speed reductions will take place with many more likely in the future. Lower speeds while not liked by drivers but are better for pedestrians and cyclists also lower speeds are better if accidents do happen.
The sections selected for speed reductions will mainly see a 5 mile per hour speed reduction but there is two sections that the speed is being reduced by 10 miles per hour; Those sections are Adams Avenue between Royal Palm Drive and Harbor Boulevard as well as Avenue Of The Arts between Sunflower and Anton Avenue.
