Speed Limit Raised on Lake Parkway

The speed limit on the Lake Parkway was quietly raised Tuesday to the level many felt it should have been all along. 

Drivers can now go 50 mph on the Lake Parkway, which many South Shore residents use to get to and from downtown. 

Interest in raising the speed limit had been building for some time, DOT spokesman Michael Pyritz said.


While the change seemed sudden, the DOT spent a fairly long time looking into it, Pyritz said. After studying the issue, it became clear the roadway could support a 50 mph speed limit, which was what most vehicles traveled at anyway.

"This is not something that happened over course of a few weeks. This was a number of years in the making," Pyritz said. 

The department felt the timing was right to make the change this week—before school starts, before the Harley Davidson 110th anniversary over Labor Day weekend and before construction on the Hoan Bridge begins in September, Pyritz said.