Slow down! NH bill would allow lower speed limits in summer

CONCORD — In the busy summer months in New Hampshire, legislators are hoping to slow things down: cars to be specific.

House Bill 1550, sponsored by Rep. Karen Ebel, D-New London, would authorize cities and towns to reduce speed limits on municipal roads that are “seasonally congested by pedestrian or bicycle traffic.”

Currently, the lowest a speed limit can be set is 25 mph. This bill would allow the governing body of a municipality to set the speed limit as low as 20 mph for a maximum duration of four months. They could do this on their own or act after a petition of at least 10 residents.

Municipalities can also specify the time of day the seasonal speed limit will be in effect, allowing them to raise the limit at less busy times, such as the middle of the night.

Ebel said in a Senate hearing that she introduced her bill because in her area, which includes many lakes like Pleasant Lake and nearby Sunapee, her constituents have raised safety concerns.

“We have many, many people who like to enjoy walking along the lake on town roads, bikers, folks pushing baby strollers, any number of things, and there's been a couple of close calls on a lake in my area,” Ebel said.

Charlene Baxter, a New London resident, testified she's had multiple close calls with cars while walking in the summer because of their speed.

"Some of our roads are currently at 25, and that typically means people might slow down to 35 from perhaps 50," said Baxter. "Our goal is to just simply get people to slow down a little bit more, to be more aware of their surroundings, and to prevent a tragedy, which I'm afraid is going to happen on some of these narrow roads when people are simply driving too fast."

Millions of visitors come to New Hampshire every summer, many descending on the state's roughly 18 miles of coastline in addition to the mountains and lakes regions. Hampton Beach, a popular tourist town, sees its population swell from 16,000 to 100,000 on summer days with good weather.

“There have many concerns for pedestrian safety among the residents of New Hampshire’s multiple tourist towns,” said Sen. Donna Soucy, D-Manchester. “House Bill 1550 is enabling legislation that will allow those concerns to be addressed at the local level.”

Ebel introduced a similar bill in 2023, but it was killed after being tabled in the House. This year, bipartisan-backed HB 1550 has passed both the House and the Senate. If signed by Gov. Chris Sununu, it will immediately go into effect.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH bill would allow lower speed limits in summer