BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2596

By: Garza

Transportation

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Dangerous conditions may exist on one-lane public roads in Texas that are used for two-way traffic.  Interested parties observe that current law allows a municipality to lower the speed limit on certain roads to 25 miles per hour but does not include one-lane roads.  To promote public safety, C.S.H.B. 2596 seeks to grant municipalities and counties the authority to lower the speed limit to 20 miles per hour on certain roads, including certain one-lane roads. The bill also contains provisions relating to certain agreements regarding the use of a transponder issued by the Texas Department of Transportation to pay for certain parking services and provisions relating to a prohibition against requiring a permit to park on a public street or alley located within 1,000 feet of a certain Capitol view corridor.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2596 amends the Transportation Code to authorize the Texas Department of Transportation to enter into an agreement with a local government regarding the use of a transponder issued by the department and the corresponding electronic toll collection customer account to pay for parking services offered by the local government at a facility established by the local government under provisions of law relating to county and municipal airports.

C.S.H.B. 2596 prohibits the governing body of a municipality from requiring, by ordinance, a permit to park on a public street or alley of the municipality if the street or alley is located within 1,000 feet of the Capitol view corridor known as the South Congress at East Live Oak Corridor and has a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less.

C.S.H.B. 2596, on the request of all of the property owners adjacent to a privately maintained road located in a subdivision, authorizes a commissioners court of a county in which the road is located to set and enforce a speed limit of not less than 20 miles per hour on the road in the same manner as provided by provisions of law relating to traffic regulations in a private subdivision in certain counties. 

C.S.H.B. 2596 lowers from 25 to 20 miles per hour the minimum speed limit the governing body of a municipality may declare, for a highway or part of a highway in the municipality that is not an officially designated or marked highway or road of the state highway system, if the governing body determines that the prima facie speed limit on the highway is unreasonable or unsafe.  The bill extends the application of this provision to  a one-lane, as well as a two-lane, undivided highway or part of a highway. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2596 contains a provision not included in the original authorizing the Texas Department of Transportation to enter into an agreement with a local government regarding the use of a transponder issued by the department and the corresponding electronic toll collection customer account to pay for certain parking services.

C.S.H.B. 2596 contains a provision not included in the original prohibiting the governing body of a municipality from requiring, by ordinance, a permit to park on a public street or alley of the municipality if the street or alley is located within 1,000 feet of the Capitol view corridor known as the South Congress at East Live Oak Corridor and has a posted speed limit of 35 miles per hour or less.