It’s time to go a little slower on New Providence Road, Bethany Bend, and Thompson Road.

Public Works team members have installed new signs – in fact, there’s a special add-on to each corresponding pole with the word “NEW” on it – along all or parts of these three roads. While the City Council approved the changes at a meeting earlier this year, it took a little bit to get all the signs in-house and on-the-road. With that now complete, the lower limits are official and enforceable. 

The speed limit dropped from 45 mph to 40 mph in the following places:

• Bethany Bend between Highway 9 and Hopewell Road
• Thompson Road between Redd and Hopewell
• New Providence Road between Arnold Mill Road and Birmingham Highway

In addition, the “school zone” that’s currently around Cambridge High has been expanded to also encompass areas outside King’s Ridge Christian School. The speed limit within this school zoning has fallen, too, from 35 to 30 mph.

This marks the third round of speed limit modifications in Milton following the passage of the Local Road Safety Plan, which identified reducing vehicle speeds as one of six “emphasis areas” to improve safety for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. (You can read more about that initiative at www.miltonga.gov/RoadSafety.) City staff will continue looking at other places where lowered speed limits might make sense, though they can’t act alone. State authorities must approve any such changes before they can go on a community’s “radar permit” and, thus, go into effect.