88R20875 JAM-F
By: Hernandez, Bucy H.B. No. 2224
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of a municipality to alter speed limits.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 545.356(b-1), (c), and (d),
Transportation Code, are amended to read as follows:
(b-1) Except as provided by Subsection (b-3), the governing
body of a municipality, for a highway or a part of a highway in the
municipality that is not an officially designated or marked highway
or road of the state highway system, may declare a lower speed limit
of not less than 20 [25] miles per hour, if the governing body
determines that the prima facie speed limit on the highway is
unreasonable or unsafe. A municipality is not required to perform
an engineering or traffic investigation to declare a lower speed
limit under this subsection if the street is located in a residence
district.
(c) A prima facie speed limit that is altered by the
governing body of a municipality under Subsection (b)[, (b-1),] or
(b-3) 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) The governing body of a municipality that declares a
lower speed limit on a highway or part of a highway under Subsection
[(b-1) or] (b-3), not later than February 1 of each year, shall
publish on its Internet website and submit to the department a
report that compares for each of the two previous calendar years:
(1) 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;
(2) the number of warning citations issued by peace
officers of the municipality on the highway or part of the highway;
and
(3) 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. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.