These quotes from the article sum up the problem.
But it's unlikely that city officials would approve a neighborhood-wide speed limit. They never have, said Rick Tilton, assistant public service director.
"The city studies one street at a time," Tilton said. "It's not a case of one size fits all."
And the Ohio Department of Transportation must approve any speed limit change.
On the Northwest Side, residents were unsuccessful last year in getting the city to reduce the speed limit on Olentangy River Road from 45 mph to 35 mph between Rt. 161 and Bethel Road.
"We knew it wasn't easy going in," said Jennifer Adair, who leads the Northwest Civic Association.
Searcy said she knows the city is reluctant to reduce speed limits.
This flies in the face of the so-called complete streets which the city just adopted. Why is a one-size-fits-all approach not acceptable for slowing speeds, but it's just fine for the city to design/redesign streets to be faster? Of course they're going to say a lower speed limit won't work; they designed it not to be slower!
I already said this, but it's good that someone else understands that slower streets like High in the Short North and Worthington, E Main in Bexley, 3rd in German Village and Gay St Downtown all clearly show a high correlation between traffic speeds and thriving businesses. People on CU and non-CU Columbus residents not only don't complain about the speeds, but they don't complain about all the destinations on these streets where they spend their money. Slower, denser stretches are able to maximize their potential whereas faster (car-oriented, anti-pedestrian/cyclist) stretches of commercial streets simply can't. Successful urban businesses need a good urban environment.
Unfortunately missing as the most important piece of the puzzle is the fact that the road itself needs to be redesigned, not just signed. Street design, not signs, are the key to a slower street. A common problem among neighborhood associations/commissions is that they aren't savvy about good urbanism and how transportation fits in with that. If they did, they would be pushing for narrowing High St along denser stretches of commercial blocks in Clintonville. Real curb bump outs like those in front of Nancy's, not like those on E Long in KL or N 4th in IV, and medians like those on Gay with crosswalks that pass through them and provide a safe halfway point would go a long way. The most expensive additions would be some more traffic signals. North of Broadway they are spaced out further apart encouraging speeding motor traffic and discouraging pedestrian activity which results in discouraging entrepreneurs from opening an urban business.
If all of those measures were taken it would probably end up with traffic moving around 30MPH regardless of what ODOT says.