1-1 By: Pitts (Senate Sponsor - Cain) H.B. No. 130
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House May 12, 1997;
1-3 May 13, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Intergovernmental Relations; May 16, 1997, reported favorably by
1-5 the following vote: Yeas 11, Nays 0; May 16, 1997, sent to
1-6 printer.)
1-7 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-8 AN ACT
1-9 relating to the authority of the commissioners court of a county to
1-10 alter speed limits on county roads.
1-11 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-12 SECTION 1. Section 545.355(a), Transportation Code, is
1-13 amended to read as follows:
1-14 (a) The commissioners court of a county, for a county road
1-15 or highway outside the limits of the right-of-way of an officially
1-16 designated or marked highway or road of the state highway system
1-17 and outside a municipality, has the same authority to increase
1-18 [alter] prima facie speed limits from the results of an engineering
1-19 and traffic investigation as the Texas Transportation Commission on
1-20 an officially designated or marked highway of the state highway
1-21 system, and may declare a lower speed limit on a county road or
1-22 highway to which this section applies, if the commissioners court
1-23 determines that the prima facie speed limit on the road or highway
1-24 is unreasonable or unsafe. The commissioners court may not modify
1-25 the rule established by Section 545.351(a) or establish a speed
1-26 limit of more than 60 miles per hour.
1-27 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-28 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-32 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-33 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-34 * * * * *