Rebecca Owens

Safer speeds matter to me, my family, and my community. We are a small city with many local roads carrying over 15,000 ADT daily. Even with increasingly adequate sidewalk facilities, we face regular pedestrian-vehicle conflicts due to larger and larger vehicles, vehicle speeds, and lack of traffic calming due to poor road geometry (e.g. not enough ped crossing bumpouts and similar visibility enhancements), etc. Beyond Lebanon: * New Hampshire, like the rest of the U.S., is facing an epidemic of traffic deaths, and speed is a major factor. * Lower, context-sensitive speed limits make streets safer for people walking, biking, rolling, and driving. * Research from national transportation and safety agencies shows that lower speed limits alone can reduce speeds and crashes, even without additional engineering changes. * SB559 doesn’t force any town to change speed limits—it simply gives local officials more flexibility to set safer speeds where it makes sense. In short: slower speeds save lives, especially for vulnerable road users. I **support** SB559 and request that you all do as well. Thank you.