By Burnam                                             H.B. No. 2349
         76R7752 DRH-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to allowing a municipality to use traffic-control devices
 1-3     to  reduce the speed at which vehicles are operated on municipal
 1-4     streets.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 544.001, Transportation Code, is amended
 1-7     to read as follows:
 1-8           Sec. 544.001.  ADOPTION OF SIGN MANUAL FOR STATE HIGHWAYS.
 1-9     (a)  The Texas Transportation Commission shall adopt a manual and
1-10     specifications  for a uniform system of traffic-control devices
1-11     consistent with this chapter that correlates with and to the extent
1-12     possible conforms to the system approved by the American
1-13     Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
1-14           (b)  The manual may not prohibit a municipality from
1-15     installing traffic-control devices or pedestrian crosswalks other
1-16     than at intersections of streets in the municipality to reduce the
1-17     speed of vehicular traffic and permit crossings by pedestrians and
1-18     bicyclists, as determined by the municipality.
1-19           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-20           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-21     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-22     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-23     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-24     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.