Drivers on at least 11 Bethesda streets will need to ease off the gas. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) has lowered speed limits on 33 residential roads over the past year, and new signage on five additional corridors will be posted by the end of August, the county announced Monday.

County Executive Marc Elrich said the effort is timed for summer, when more children are outdoors during the school break.

"Reducing speed by just five miles per hour can prevent an unimaginable tragedy," Elrich said. "When cars slow down, it saves lives."

The Maryland Highway Safety Office reports that a pedestrian struck at 30 mph faces a 40% chance of serious or fatal injury. At 20 mph, that risk drops to 10%.

The reductions are authorized under Maryland's House Bill 562, passed in 2021, which allows counties to lower speed limits on local roads to 20 mph and, in rare cases, to 15 mph.

Bethesda streets affected

The Bethesda roads with reduced speed limits include Alta Vista Road, Elsmere Avenue near Rockville Pike, Charles Street near Old Georgetown Road, Briley Place near Massachusetts Avenue, Forest Road near Beech Avenue, Glenwood Road near Old Georgetown Road, Locust Hill Road, Madawaska Road near Sangamore Road, Michaels Drive near Greentree Road, Sonoma Road near Hempstead Avenue and the Strathmore Street public alley near Woodmont Avenue.

In North Bethesda, two segments of Josiah Henson Parkway near Montrose Road are among five shared corridors receiving a 35 mph limit. Those corridors are jointly maintained by MCDOT and the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration.

How limits are set

MCDOT Director Chris Conklin said most of the reductions came from resident requests. Before lowering a limit, MCDOT engineers conduct safety, engineering, and traffic analyses at each location, Conklin said.

An online map of roads with reduced speed limits is available on the Montgomery County website.