The city of Albany has lowered their speed limit.

How did the City of Albany celebrate the beginning of 2025? They lowered the city speed limit by 5 mph.

The speed limit had been 30 mph but starting 1/1/25 it became 25 mph. The reason for the drop in the speed limit is meant to increase public safety along with improving access for all forms of transportation. This comes as the city continues to try an improve transportation safety throughout Albany. They have invested more than $100 Million as they try to help improve transportation corridor safety.

The initial thought was to actually drop the city speed limit to 20 mph but instead they went with 25 mph. Edward Brennan, the president of the Albany Bicycle Coalition, told News 10 ABC - 

“We have been fighting for it for a number of years because we have a slate of legislation that we’ve been working on that was one that was successful,” Brennan said. “We originally wanted to lower the speed limit to 20 MPH, but we didn’t see that happening, and we thought 25 mph was a compromise.”

According to the Mayor's office, this reduce in speed limit will be coupled with other traffic initiatives that have been put in place throughout the last year. Those other initiatives include speed humps, Albany Police patrol division enforcement, traffic calming infrastructure, and school zone speed cameras. 

There are a few streets that will not be effected by the new speed limit. Those streets are as follows, unless otherwise posted - 

• Old State Road
• Washington Avenue from the intersection of Exit 2 of Interstate 90 to Jermain Street
• Central Avenue from the intersection of the City of Albany/Town of Colonie line to Everett Road
• Everett Road
• South Pearl Street from the intersection of the City of Albany/Town of Bethlehem line to Binghamton Street
• All roads within the Port of Albany