Bill Text: NJ A4336 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Allows counties and municipalities to establish, or request DOT to establish, reduced speed limits near schools.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-05-18 - Combined with A4335/4337 (ACS) [A4336 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2016-A4336-Introduced.html

ASSEMBLY, No. 4336

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

217th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED NOVEMBER 21, 2016

 


 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  TROY SINGLETON

District 7 (Burlington)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Allows counties and municipalities to establish, or request DOT to establish, reduced speed limits near schools.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning speed limits near schools and amending R.S.39:4-98 and supplementing Title 39 of the Revised Statutes.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    R.S.39:4-98 is amended to read as follows:

     39:4-98.      Rates of speed. Subject to the provisions of R.S.39:4-96 and R.S.39:4-97 and except in those instances where a lower speed is specified in this chapter or pursuant to the provisions of section 2 of P.L.    , c.     (C.        ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), it shall be prima facie lawful for the driver of a vehicle to drive it at a speed not exceeding the following: 

     a.     Twenty-five miles per hour, when passing through a school zone during recess, when the presence of children is clearly visible from the roadway, or while children are going to or leaving school, during opening or closing hours;

     b.    (1) Twenty-five miles per hour in any business or residential district;

     (2) Thirty-five miles per hour in any suburban business or residential district;

     c.     Fifty miles per hour in all other locations, except as otherwise provided in the "Sixty-Five MPH Speed Limit Implementation Act," pursuant to [section 2 of] P.L.1997, c.415 (C.39:4-98.3 et al.).

     Whenever it shall be determined upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that any speed hereinbefore set forth is greater or less than is reasonable or safe under the conditions found to exist at any intersection or other place or upon any part of a highway, the Commissioner of Transportation, with reference to State highways, may by regulation and municipal or county authorities, with reference to highways under their jurisdiction, may by ordinance, in the case of municipal authorities, or by ordinance or resolution, in the case of county authorities, subject to the approval of the Commissioner of Transportation, except as otherwise provided in R.S.39:4-8, designate a reasonable and safe speed limit thereat which, subject to the provisions of R.S.39:4-96 and R.S.39:4-97, shall be prima facie lawful at all times or at such times as may be determined, when appropriate signs giving notice thereof are erected at such intersection, or other place or part of the highway.  Appropriate signs giving notice of the speed limits authorized under the provisions of paragraph (1) of subsection b. and subsection c. of this section may be erected if the commissioner or the municipal or county authorities, as the case may be, so determine they are necessary.  Appropriate signs giving notice of the speed limits authorized under the provisions of subsection a. and paragraph (2) of subsection b. of this section shall be erected by the commissioner or the municipal or county authorities, as appropriate.

     When designating reasonable and safe speed limits for a street under its jurisdiction pursuant to this subsection, as part of an engineering and traffic investigation, a municipality or county shall consider, but not be limited to, the following criteria:  residential density; the presence, or lack, of sidewalks; the prevalence of entry and exit ways for business and commercial establishments; whether school children walk adjacent to the street on their way to and from school; and the proximity of recreational or park areas, schools, community residences, family day care homes, child care centers, assisted living facilities, or senior communities.  Nothing in this paragraph shall substitute for traffic count, accident, and speed sampling data as appropriate.

     The driver of every vehicle shall, consistent with the requirements of this section, drive at an appropriate reduced speed when approaching and crossing an intersection or railway grade crossing, when approaching and going around a curve, when approaching a hill crest, when traveling upon any narrow or winding roadway, and when special hazard exists with respect to pedestrians or other traffic or by reason of weather or highway conditions.

     The Commissioner of Transportation shall cause the erection and maintenance of signs at such points of entrance to the State as are deemed advisable, setting forth the lawful rates of speed, the wording of which shall be within [his] the commissioner's discretion.

(cf: P.L.2009, c.258, s.1)

 

     2.    (New section) a.  Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law to the contrary, a county or municipality may designate, by resolution or ordinance as appropriate, a reduced speed limit on a county or municipal road directly adjacent to a school, which shall be reasonable, safe, and in effect at all times and which shall not require the approval of the Commissioner of Transportation.

     b.    Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law to the contrary, the Department of Transportation may designate, by written order of the commissioner, a reduced speed limit on any State road which is located directly adjacent to a school, which shall be reasonable, safe, and in effect at all times, provided that the county or municipality in which the school is located adopts a resolution or ordinance, as appropriate, requesting that the department adopt a reduced speed limit on that portion of  the State road.

     c.     Appropriate signs giving notice of the speed limits authorized under the provisions of this section shall be erected by the commissioner or the municipal or county authorities, as appropriate.

 

     3.    This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill allows counties and municipalities to establish a reduced speed limit on a municipal or county road directly adjacent to a school, which will be in effect at all times.  The bill also authorizes the Department of Transportation to establish a reduced speed limit on any State road directly adjacent to a school if a municipality or county adopts a resolution or ordinance requesting that the department adopt a reduced speed limit on that portion of the State road.

feedback