By Ogden S.B. No. 267
76R2358 DWS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to speed limits on certain farm-to-market and
1-3 ranch-to-market roads.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 545.352(b), Transportation Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (b) Unless a special hazard exists that requires a slower
1-8 speed for compliance with Section 545.351(b), the following speeds
1-9 are lawful:
1-10 (1) 30 miles per hour in an urban district on a street
1-11 other than an alley and 15 miles per hour in an alley;
1-12 (2) 70 miles per hour in daytime and 65 miles per hour
1-13 in nighttime if the vehicle is a passenger car, motorcycle,
1-14 passenger car or light truck towing a trailer bearing a vessel, as
1-15 defined by Section 31.003, Parks and Wildlife Code, that is less
1-16 than 26 feet in length, or passenger car or light truck towing a
1-17 trailer or semitrailer designed and used primarily to transport
1-18 livestock, on a highway numbered by this state or the United States
1-19 outside an urban district, including, except as provided by
1-20 Subdivision (6), a farm-to-market or ranch-to-market road;
1-21 (3) 60 miles per hour in daytime and 55 miles per hour
1-22 in nighttime if the vehicle is a passenger car or motorcycle on a
1-23 highway that is outside an urban district and not a highway
1-24 numbered by this state or the United States;
2-1 (4) 60 miles per hour outside an urban district if a
2-2 speed limit for the vehicle is not otherwise specified by this
2-3 section; [or]
2-4 (5) outside an urban district:
2-5 (A) 50 miles per hour if the vehicle is a school
2-6 bus on a highway other than an interstate highway;
2-7 (B) 55 miles per hour if the vehicle is a school
2-8 bus on an interstate highway; or
2-9 (C) 60 miles per hour in daytime and 55 miles
2-10 per hour in nighttime if the vehicle is a truck, other than a light
2-11 truck, or if the vehicle is a truck tractor, trailer, or
2-12 semitrailer, or a vehicle towing a trailer, semitrailer, another
2-13 motor vehicle or towable recreational vehicle; or
2-14 (6) 60 miles per hour in daytime and 55 miles per hour
2-15 in nighttime outside an urban district for any vehicle, other than
2-16 a school bus, on a farm-to-market or ranch-to-market road that has
2-17 a pavement width of 20 feet or less.
2-18 SECTION 2. Sections 545.3535(a) and (c), Transportation
2-19 Code, are amended to read as follows:
2-20 (a) The commissioners court of a county may request the
2-21 Texas Transportation Commission to determine and declare a
2-22 reasonable and safe prima facie speed limit that is lower or higher
2-23 than a speed limit established by Section 545.352 on any part of a
2-24 farm-to-market or a ranch-to-market road of the highway system that
2-25 is located in that county and has a pavement width of 20 feet or
2-26 less.
2-27 (c) The commission may elect to determine and declare a
3-1 lower speed limit on any part of the road without an engineering
3-2 and traffic investigation, but the commission must use sound and
3-3 generally accepted traffic engineering practices in determining and
3-4 declaring the lower speed limit. The commission may elect to
3-5 determine and declare a higher speed limit on any part of the road
3-6 only as provided by Section 545.353.
3-7 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-8 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-9 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-10 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-11 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-12 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.