According to a story in the LA Times, Aspen mayer Mick Ireland is proposing speed limits in residential areas be reduced to 14mph to stop drivers from, wait for it, rushing through stop signs.
The story goes:
Every time traffic slows along the city’s main thoroughfare, cars whiz out of traffic and onto the residential streets, rushing through a series of stop signs to keep making time.
“It’s crazy,” Ireland told the Los Angeles Times. “Drivers don’t really save any time because of all the stop signs, but they all tell me that they just feel better if they keep moving, rather than being stuck in traffic.”
To help quell this nightmare, Ireland has proposed the 14mph speed limit in residential areas that, according to the times, will “get your attention” like a “black-diamond ski slope.”
“Nobody’s going to go crazy here,” [Ireland] said. “We’re not going to be handing out tickets for going three miles over a 14-mph speed limit. I ride my bike in that area and even I can go faster than 14 miles an hour.”
tl;dr: Aspen’s mayor is bummed that people are rushing through stop signs so he wants to reduce the speed limit to an odd number that people will notice with no expectation of anyone adhering to or enforcing the new law.
And so the world keeps on turning…