Bend to cut speed limit on Bear Creek Road
Following community input and engineering analysis, speed limits will be lowered from 45 to 40 miles per hour next month on a stretch of Bear Creek Road east of Southeast 27th Street, the city of Bend announced Monday.
The segment to see speed limits reduced extends from 27th Street to the urban growth boundary, about 670 feet east of Dantili Road, officials said.
The new speed limit signs will have orange warning flags on top for a few weeks to call attention to the changes.
The speed changes were initiated by a combination of citizen requests and city staff in response to changing traffic and development along the stretch of road.
In Oregon, speed limits for roads within a city that are not highways or local residential streets, such as this segment, are set by the Oregon Department of Transportation.
New speed limits are established based on a traffic study that looks at existing driving speeds, road characteristics, adjacent land use, access locations and other factors.
The city asks drivers to pay attention to the new speed changes and be aware of conditions. Oregon’s basic rule speed law requires driving at the speed that is safe for conditions – this may be a speed slower than the posted speed.
It’s the latest in several speed-limit reductions around the city in recent months. including Powers Road, Southeast 15th Street and Country Club Drive in December, and in February for segments of Second Street, Colorado and Arizona avenues and Reed Market Road.
