Bill Text: NJ A4361 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Requires DOT to establish reduced speed limits near schools on certain highways.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-12-05 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee [A4361 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2016-A4361-Introduced.html

ASSEMBLY, No. 4361

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

217th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED DECEMBER 5, 2016

 


 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  TROY SINGLETON

District 7 (Burlington)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires DOT to establish reduced speed limits near schools on certain highway.

 

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning speed limits near schools on certain highways, 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, the Department of Transportation shall designate, by written order of the commissioner, a speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour on any portion of a high priority highway that runs through a school zone, which shall be in effect at all times. 

     b.    As used in this section, "high priority highway" means a State highway on which more than four pedestrian fatalities have occurred in the previous calendar year or more than eight pedestrian fatalities have occurred in the previous three calendar years.

     "School zone" means that portion of a highway which is either contiguous to territory occupied by a school building or is where school crossings are established in the vicinity of a school, upon which are maintained appropriate "school signs" in accordance with specifications adopted by the Chief Administrator of the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission and in accordance with law.

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

     d.    Any speed limit established pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall remain at twenty-five miles per hour notwithstanding the number of pedestrian fatalities occurring on the high priority highway in future years. 

 

     3.  This act shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill requires the Department of Transportation to establish a reduced speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour on any portion of a "high priority highway" that runs through a school zone, which is to be in effect at all times.  Under the bill, a "high priority highway" is defined as State highway on which more than four pedestrian fatalities have occurred in the previous calendar year or more than eight pedestrian fatalities have occurred in the previous three calendar years.  The bill also provides that a twenty-five mile per hour speed limit established pursuant to the bill is to remain at twenty-five miles per hour notwithstanding the number of pedestrian fatalities that occur on the "high priority highway" in the future.

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