Skokie drivers should prepare to slow down, as a new 25 mph speed limit went into effect on most residential streets as of March 1.
The ordinance was originally presented to the Village Board in May 2025 after several residents expressed concerns around Skokie’s current 30 mph speed limit. Several surrounding municipalities, including Evanston and Wilmette, have already reduced their speed limits to 25 mph in most residential neighborhoods.
Village officials said the change is part of a broader initiative to create “safer, more livable neighborhoods,” as well as to “increase awareness, promote safer speeds and improve pedestrian safety.”
Recent speed studies conducted by the village show that 96% of Skokie drivers are already cruising “near or below 25 mph” on residential streets. Following a village-wide traffic study and engineering review, Samantha Maximilian, a senior engineer for the village, said in an email, “it made sense to update the posted speed to match how people are already driving, creating consistency across Skokie and supporting safer residential streets overall.”
“Research consistently shows that even modest reductions in vehicle speed significantly reduce the likelihood and severity of crashes, particularly in areas with pedestrians, children and cyclists,” Maximilian said.
The new 25 mph limit will not apply to state or county owned thoroughfares, such as Crawford Avenue, McCormick Boulevard or Gross Point Road, or select streets within the area with unique traffic conditions. State and county roads including Skokie Boulevard and Dempster Street, will also not be affected. Streets with already posted speed limits under 25 mph will remain the same.
“This change is about creating safer, more predictable neighborhood streets,” Maximilian said. “By setting a consistent 25 mph speed limit across residential roads, we’re reducing confusion for drivers and improving reaction time. When motorists know what to expect from one street to the next, it creates safer conditions for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers alike.”
Village Trustee Gail Schechter told Pioneer Press she is in favor of the reduced speed limit.
“I think it will certainly make Skokie safer for pedestrians and cyclists, at least on the local streets where Skokie governs the roads; 25 mph has been shown in multiple studies to be a threshold for way fewer severe crashes,” Schechter said.
She added that the main issue will be the “extent to which drivers naturally obey the limits” and whether or not the village will “need to deploy officers initially to enforce the limit.”
Data released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that a drop in speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph is effective at improving road safety for both drivers and pedestrians.
An additional study from IIHS revealed that speed was a recorded factor in 27% of 10,111 crash deaths in 2016. Research shows that the “likelihood of pedestrians or bicyclists surviving impact with a vehicle increases significantly with each 5 mph decrease in the speed limit,” according to Eric Dumbaugh, a researcher for Vision Zero Network.
Two cyclists were killed in separate crashes in Skokie in 2024 – a 37-year-old man in a hit-and-run accident in the 3500 block of Oakton Street and a 27-year-old man who was struck while riding south on Gross Point Road near Skokie Boulevard.
“Having raised kids in Skokie living in a residential neighborhood where I’ve seen a number of car crashes that have been pretty alarming…[the speed limit reduction] is something I’ve been advocating for some time and I’m glad to see that it actually happened,” said Charlie Saxe, who leads the Skokie Bicycle Network, a community advocacy group designed to promote and encourage cycling for transportation and recreation.
Saxe is also a member of the Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission, a local organization in the village that works to create areas that are more conducive to walking, biking and active transportation, as well as reducing emissions.
“It takes a long time for these projects to get going; there’s still a lot of resistance,” Saxe added.
“There’s a lot of pushback on bike lanes, there’s a big emphasis on accommodating cars, there’s still that bias in Skokie…pushing against that and trying to move beyond that takes a lot of effort.”
To raise awareness about the new ordinance, the village introduced the “Summer of ’25” public information campaign last summer, where members of the Public Safety Commission and staff from various departments conducted outreach sessions and fielded related questions about the speed limit change at public events.
“It’s an improvement, it’s long overdue,” Saxe said. “The reality is the vast majority of people who drive in residential areas are conscientious and considerate, but there are outliers, people who drive too fast. And I think we just need to have the message be very clear that there’s really no need to go fast down a residential street.”
