Clean & Safe: The latest information on updates to Santa Monica speed limits
January 2, 2025 12:39 PM
by Mia Silver
This blog post will be periodically updated as work is completed. The last update was Jan. 2, 2025.
You may have noticed a subtle shift on the streets of Santa Monica over the last few months.
The speed limit adjustments come from recommendations per the city’s 2024 Engineering and Traffic Survey and State Assembly Bill (AB) 43, which provided greater flexibility to the city in determining speed limits.
Among other changes, one key thing that AB 43 now allows is rounding down, rather than up, based on the surveyed speed. For example, if the Engineering and Traffic Survey determined the safe speed for a street to be 37 mph, cities previously had to round up to 40. Now they can make it 35 – a change that’s not going to significantly affect how long it takes to get somewhere, but that can have a real impact on the frequency and severity of accidents on that roadway.
Since the unanimous City Council approval of the recommendations this August, the Department of Transportation has been adjusting speed limits throughout the city, one corridor at a time, to help make the city safer for vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists alike.
Speed limit signs on eight roadways are in the process of being updated or completed, and 18 others are slated to be completed by the end of February. The entire project will involve replacing 150 signs along 33 miles of roadway, with most new speed limits reflecting a reduction of five miles per hour.
Here is the list of current statuses for the roadways with speed limit updates.
Complete
- Neilson Way between Pico Boulevard and Marine Street (25 mph)
In progress – speed limit will be 25 mph upon completion, except as noted below
- 2nd Street between Wilshire Boulevard and Colorado Avenue
- 11th Street between San Vicente Boulevard and Marine Street
- 14th Street between San Vicente Boulevard and Ashland Avenue
- 20th Street between Wilshire and Pico boulevards
- 20th Street between Pico and Ocean Park boulevards (will be 20 mph)
- 26th Street between San Vicente and Cloverfield boulevards
- Main Street between Colorado Avenue and Pico Boulevard Ocean Avenue between the north city limit and Pico Boulevard
Upcoming – new limit once completed
- 4th Street between Colorado Avenue and Pico Boulevard (25 mph)
- 6th Street between Pico Boulevard and Pier Avenue (20 mph)
- Appian Way between Pacific Coast Highway and Bay Street (20 mph)
- Ashland Avenue between Neilson Way and Lincoln Boulevard (20 mph)
- Barnard Way between Hollister Avenue and Neilson Way (20 mph)
- California Avenue between Pacific Coast Highway and Ocean Avenue, also known as the California Incline (30 mph)
- California Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard (20 mph)
- Colorado Avenue between Ocean Avenue and 17th Street (25 mph)
- Dewey Street between Robson Avenue and 23rd Street (25 mph)
- Lincoln Boulevard between I-10 Freeway and Pico Boulevard (30 mph)
- Marine Street between Lincoln Boulevard and 17th Street (25 mph)
- Michigan Avenue between Lincoln Boulevard and 19th Street (20 mph)
- Montana Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Stanford Street (25 mph)
- Ocean Park Boulevard between Barnard Way and 23rd Street (25 mph)
- Ocean Park Boulevard between 23rd Street and Centinela Avenue (30 mph)
- Olympic Boulevard between 11th Street and Centinela Avenue (35 mph)
- Pico Boulevard between Appian Way and Lincoln Boulevard (25 mph)
- Pico Boulevard between Lincoln Boulevard and Centinela Avenue (30 mph)
- Stewart Street between Colorado Avenue and Pico Boulevard (25 mph)
- Washington Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Stanford Street (20 mph)
- Wilshire Boulevard between Ocean Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard (25 mph)
Authored By
Mia Silver
City Traffic Engineer