Skokie trustees voted to concur May 19 with a recommendation to set a 25 miles-per-hour default speed limit on village-owned residential streets, a change staff said would improve safety and consistency across neighborhoods.

Traffic engineer Samantha Maximilian told the Village Board the change is backed by an engineering review that used the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the village’s traffic-counter data and a commercial dataset called Urban SDK. “I believe this is a small change that can make a big difference for safety, quality of life, and neighborhood livability,” Maximilian said during the presentation.

The board’s motion to concur was moved by Trustee Lisonbee Levy and seconded by Trustee Schechter; in the roll call vote Trustees Iverson, Lisa Levy, Schechter and Kimani Levy voted yes and Trustee Robinson voted no. The motion passed.

Why it matters: staff said the villagewide change would make posted limits more uniform and easier for drivers to understand and for police to enforce. Maximilian said the village’s 80th-percentile speed analysis — the speed at or below which roughly 80–85% of drivers travel — showed about 96% of Skokie blocks already fall within the desired range for a 25 mph limit. Streets with speeds consistently 9 mph or more above 25 were identified as not warranted for reduction without additional traffic-calming or engineering work.

What the ordinance would do: if the board later adopts the ordinance staff recommended, speed limit signs posting 25 mph would replace existing 30 mph signs on village-owned residential streets; existing 20 mph zones would not be increased. County- and state-owned streets were explicitly excluded from the recommendation because those agencies control their own limits.

Implementation and enforcement: staff proposed a 6-to-9-month rollout for installing signs and an education campaign using village communications and social media. The village’s in-house sign shop will manufacture signs, and Village Manager John Lockerbie said the expected signage costs were included in the budget the board will consider next month. Deputy Chief Oakley of the Skokie Police Department said enforcement is discretionary and that police will use the village’s data tools to focus enforcement where residents report problems. “We do try and put a focus on what the community is saying and their concerns,” Oakley said.

Public comment and concerns: dozens of residents and local advocates addressed the board during the discussion. Tom Pepperd of Woods Drive and several others urged attention to particular streets (including a frontage road near Howard Street that staff said is Cook County–owned). Several speakers asked for stronger enforcement and education and for faster responses where pedestrian and bicycle safety concerns persist. Charlie Sachs of the Skokie Bike Network said traffic calming must be a long-term, sustained effort because many local streets “are dangerous by design.”

Next steps: staff will prepare an ordinance and a marketing/education plan and return to the board at the second meeting in June for consideration. Trustees and staff said additional engineering or calming measures may be proposed later on specific collector or arterial corridors that data show would not meet the 25 mph criterion without redesign.