COLLEGETOWN— Cornell’s latest efforts to ensure pedestrian safety has had a tangible impact in Collegetown, where the average speed of a car hitting a pedestrian has gone down from 80 mph to 75 mph. The new law reduced the speed limit 5 mph, from 30 mph to 25 mph.
Motorists have apprehensively accepted the shift: “When I heard that the speed limit went down, I was super bummed,” said Ayla Oliver ‘25, who frequently barrels down the streets of Collegetown with reckless abandon. “But since it’s only 5 mph, I guess I can accommodate the restriction and go a cool 75 instead of my usual 80.”
Pedestrians are thrilled with the impact. Richard Karolos ‘24 said the new speed limit made a huge difference for victims like him who clearly had the right of way when jaywalking across College Ave: “I really appreciated the way they took the 5 mph reduction into account before their car slammed into my body and then sped off into the distance without looking back. It really made me feel better when I went to the hospital and the doctors told me it ‘could be worse.’”
Amid the impact of this new law, CUPD will reportedly shift their attention from monitoring speeding to the much more pressing responsibility of issuing on-campus parking tickets.
Like This!
