BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center C.S.H.B. 2682
81R36165 JAM-D By: Alvarado et al. (Wentworth)
Transportation & Homeland Security
Committee Report (Substituted)
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Current law allows municipalities to lower speed limits within an urban district under the prima facie limit of 30 miles per hour (mph) when the roadway is 35 feet or less in width and does not prohibit parking on one or both sides.
The current design codes of many municipalities require new urban district roadways to be a minimum of 42 feet. As other municipalities adopt these standards, no new roadways within a municipality would be permitted to lower the prima facie limit to less than 30 mph. Additionally, many older roadways found within a city that would meet the maximum size standard of the legislation would likewise be disqualified based upon parking restrictions.
C.S.H.B. 2682 amends current law relating to the authority of municipalities to alter speed limits.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
This bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, institution, or agency.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Sections 545.356, Transportation Code, by amending Subsections (b-1) and (b-2) and adding Subsection (d), as follows:
(b-1) Authorizes the governing body of a municipality, for a highway or a part of a highway in an urban district in the municipality that is not an officially designated or marked highway or road of the state highway system, to declare a lower speed limit of not less than 25 miles per hour, if the governing body determines that the prima facie speed limit on the highway is unreasonable or unsafe. Deletes existing text authorizing the governing body of a municipality, except as provided by Subsection (b-2), for a highway or a part of a highway in an urban district in the municipality that is not an officially designated or marked highway or road of the state highway system, is 35 feet or less in width, and along which vehicular parking is not prohibited on one or both sides of the highway, to declare a lower speed limited of not less than 25 miles per hour, if the governing body determines that the prima facie speed limit on the highway is unreasonable or unsafe.
(b-2) Provides that Subsection (b-1) applies only to a two-lane, undivided highway or part of a highway that is abutted solely by residential property. Deletes existing text providing that Subsection (b-1) does not apply to a highway or part of a highway that has four or more lanes used for vehicular travel.
(d) Requires the governing body of a municipality that declares a lower speed limit on a highway or part of a highway under Subsection (b-1), not later than February 1 of each year, to publish on its Internet website and submit to the Texas Department of Transportation a report that compares for each of the two previous calendar years the number of traffic citations issued by peace officers of the municipality and the alleged speed of the vehicles, for speed limit violations on the highway or part of the highway; the number of warning citations issued by peace officers of the municipality on the highway or part of the highway; and the number of vehicular accidents that resulted in injury or death and were attributable to speed limit violations on the highway or part of the highway.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2009.