A 'speed limit 25' sign next to a 'speed limit 20' sign.
The city expects to install about 2,000 new signs.
About a month ago, west-side Madison resident JD Losenegger found a city employee on his lawn, poking around with “one of those things for checking for underground wires and pipes.”
Losenegger asked the employee what he was doing. “He says, ‘You’re getting a new sign. I said, ‘Well, I don’t want a sign.’”
Losenegger also doesn’t want to pay for one through his taxes.
The city is expanding a 2021 pilot program to lower all residential speed limits to 20 mph. It’s a speed city officials say will reduce vehicle collision casualties while remaining “plenty” fast. But the city now needs to replace its current 25-mile-per-hour road signs in residential neighborhoods. The city estimates there will be around “2,000 total installations and changes,” more than half of which will require new posts and bases.
The effort will cost around $500,000, according to city spokesperson Dylan Brogan — about $250 per sign. The funds were approved in the city's 2022 capital budget.
Losenegger wonders why the city is taking on this expense when taxpayers were just asked to approve a $22 million property tax referendum to cover the city’s budget deficit; the measure, approved on Nov. 5, will add around $230 to property tax bills on an average value Madison home annually.
“It’s a half million dollars [for signs] that nobody’s going to watch,” says Losenegger, who voted no on the referendum. “I live within a budget — I’ve got to. But when they’re spending my money, they don’t seem to care.”
Residential speed limits of 20 mph have been adopted in New York City, Minneapolis and other cities. According to a 2017 report from the National Association of State Legislatures, even small reductions in speed can mean the difference between “life and death for pedestrians.”
The reduced speed limit goes into effect when signs are changed in residents’ neighborhoods. City officials expect replacement signs will be fully installed by December 2025.
[Editor's note: This article has been updated to note that funding for the signs was included in the 2022 capital budget.]
