78R1190 JD-D
By: Moreno of El Paso H.B. No. 282
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of a county or municipality to alter
speed limits on roadways in the county or municipality and to place
and maintain traffic-control devices on those roadways.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 544.002, Transportation Code, is amended
by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(d) Notwithstanding Subsections (b) and (c), a county or
municipality may place and maintain a traffic-control device on a
roadway in the county or municipality, including a highway under
the jurisdiction of the Texas Department of Transportation, without
regard to the manual of specifications adopted under Section
544.001 and without that department's permission, if the
commissioners court of the county or the governing body of the
municipality:
(1) finds that a user of the roadway or a pedestrian
walking on or along the roadway was killed or fatally injured at or
near the proposed location of the traffic-control device; and
(2) determines that placement and maintenance of the
traffic-control device would prevent or reduce the probability of
additional fatalities at and near the proposed location of the
traffic-control device.
SECTION 2. Section 545.355, Transportation Code, is amended
by adding Subsections (d) and (e) to read as follows:
(d) The commissioners court of a county, for a segment of a
highway or road of the state highway system that is inside the
county and outside a municipality, by order and without an
engineering and traffic investigation, may declare a lower speed
limit than the prima facie speed limit on the highway or road, if
the commissioners court:
(1) finds that a user of the segment of the highway or
road for which the lower speed limit is proposed, or a pedestrian
walking on or along that segment of the highway or road, was killed
or fatally injured; and
(2) determines that the lower speed limit would
prevent or reduce the probability of additional fatalities on that
segment of the highway or road.
(e) Unless continued by subsequent order of the
commissioners court, a speed limit established under Subsection (d)
expires on the 180th day after the date the order establishing the
speed limit was entered on its records.
SECTION 3. Section 545.356, Transportation Code, is amended
by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsections (d) and (e) to
read as follows:
(c) A prima facie speed limit that is altered by the
governing body of a municipality under Subsection (b) or (d) is
effective when the governing body erects signs giving notice of the
new limit and at all times or at other times as determined.
(d) Notwithstanding Subsections (a) and (b), the governing
body of a municipality, for a segment of a highway in the
municipality, including a highway of the state highway system, may
by ordinance and without an engineering and traffic investigation
establish a lower speed limit than the prima facie speed limit, if
the governing body:
(1) finds that a user of the segment of the highway for
which the lower speed limit is proposed, or a pedestrian walking on
or along that segment of the highway, was killed or fatally injured;
and
(2) determines that the lower speed limit would
prevent or reduce the probability of additional fatalities on that
segment of the highway.
(e) Unless continued by subsequent action of the governing
body of the municipality, a speed limit established under
Subsection (d) expires on the 180th day after the date that speed
limit was established.
SECTION 4. Section 545.359, Transportation Code, is amended
to read as follows:
Sec. 545.359. CONFLICTING DESIGNATED SPEED LIMITS. An
order of the Texas Transportation Commission declaring a speed
limit on a part of a designated or marked route of the state highway
system made under Section 545.353 or 545.362 supersedes any
conflicting designated speed established under Sections 545.356(a)
or (b) [545.356] and 545.358.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2003.