Backseat drivers have strong opinions about speed limits

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 13, 2026

A lot of Whidbey Island drivers have strong feelings about recent speed limit changes on county roads.

Earlier this year, Island County commissioners adopted a maximum speed limit of 45 mph on all county roads along with a series of other changes recommended by traffic engineers following the completion of a study that was three years in the making. The speed limit changes do not affect state highways or streets within Oak Harbor, Coupeville or Langley.

The new speed limit signs are now up across the county.

During a recent meeting, Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon expressed exasperation at the number of emails she received from people complaining about the changes, both the increases and decreases in the speed limits.

Bacon said many people claimed that the changes were made “without notice” even though the commissioners and the planning department publicly discussed the issues many times over the last three years, sent out notices and held three public meetings this year this year alone; she also pointed out that the News-Times and South Whidbey Record also ran several stories about the proposal.

Likewise, Island County Sheriff Rick Felici said this week that he’s received an unusually large number of emails about the changes, even though his office doesn’t set speed limits. He said one especially irate resident pledged never to follow the new speed limits and hoped that certain county officials would die.

The speed limit changes, however, were not dramatic, with most changing limits by 5 or 10 mph.

County engineers worked on the large-scale project to reevaluate all speed limits on county-owned roads on Whidbey and Camano islands for the past few years. Using a new analytic tool, the engineers considered a wider variety of factors — such as development density and pedestrian use — to set speed limits than have been historically used.

The engineers’ recommendations can be viewed at islandcountywa.gov/878/Speed-Limit-Study, but the information doesn’t include the proposed 45 mph maximum as some roads still show a 50 mph speed limit on the maps.

Engineers looked at 144 road segments as part of the analysis. Under the proposal, 75 segments will be not changed, 47 segments had the speed limit decreased and 22 saw the speed limit increase.

Speeds on West Beach Road on North Whidbey, for example, are now consistently 45 mph, a change from 50 mph to 40 mph. Race Road in Central Whidbey increased from 35 mph limit to 40 mph. On South Whidbey, the speed limit on a section of Saratoga Road increased from 40 mph to 45 mph.