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24 <br /> <br />Needs Assessment and Recommendations <br />Accounting for the LTS analysis and crash data along the focus network corridors, the tables in this section summarize each corridor’s needs and <br />recommendations separately for the bike network and <br />pedestrian network. Recommendations are meant to be <br />flexible and to help achieve the City’s goals of reducing <br />LTS scores by at least one point rather than providing a <br />prescriptive approach. The toolkit that accompanies this <br />plan will provide guidance for selection of treatments that <br />are tailored to the individual characteristics of each roadway <br />type. <br />Across the city, high speeds are a major safety concern for <br />both bicyclists and pedestrians, and lowering posted speed <br />limits where possible, coupled with infrastructure changes <br />and signal adjustments, would increase safety and comfort <br />for all road users. Assembly Bill 43, introduced in 2021, <br />allows California cities to reduce the speed limit to 25 MPH <br />in business and residential districts without a traffic study. <br />Additionally, the California State Motor Vehicle Code4 allows <br />cities to reduce the standard school zone speed limit of 25 <br />MPH to 15 MPH within 500 feet of schools for streets that <br />are 30 MPH or less. However, even speeds of 30 MPH <br />come with great risks for pedestrians: A study by the AAA <br />Foundation for Traffic Safety found that the average risk of <br />severe injury or fatality for pedestrians struck by a motor <br />vehicle traveling 30 MPH is 40 percent, as illustrated in <br />Figure 11.5 Wherever possible along the Focus Network, we recommend lowering posted speed limits in combination with installing traffic <br />calming treatments as described in the accompanying toolkit. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />4 California State Vehicle Code, Division 11, Chapter 7. <br />5 Teff, B. 2013. Impact Speed and a Pedestrian’s Risk of Severe Injury or Death. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 50(87): 1-8. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2012.07.022 <br />Additional sources used for graphic: Bartmann, A., Spijkers, W., and Hess, M. 1991. Street Environment, Driving Speed and Fie ld of Vision. Vision in Vehicles III. <br />Figure 11: Speeds and the likelihood of severe injury or fatality