Traffic safety: speed limits.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide specific details on how this change will impact current speed limits or an effective date.

Traffic Safety: Speed Limits

AB-1014 allows the Department of Transportation to lower or retain speed limits for non-freeway highways under certain conditions and sets regulations for establishing specific speed limits.

What This Bill Does

• Allows the Department of Transportation to lower speed limits on non-freeway highways if they find it reasonable and safe.
• Permits the department to keep an already set speed limit for non-freeway highways in specific situations.
• Gives the department authority to establish a 25- or 20-mile-per-hour speed limit on non-freeway highways by regulation.

Who It Names or Affects

• The Department of Transportation
• Local authorities and peace officers

Terms To Know

85th percentile

A measure used to set speed limits based on the speed at which 85% of drivers travel.

Prima facie

A legal term meaning 'at first sight' or 'on the face of it,' often referring to a default assumption in traffic laws.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify an effective date.
• It is unclear how this change will impact current speed limits on non-freeway highways.

Official Summary Text

AB 1014, Rogers.
Traffic safety: speed limits.
Existing law establishes various default speed limits for vehicles upon highways, as specified. Existing law requires the Department of Transportation, by regulation, to require speed limits to be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 miles per hour of the 85th percentile of free-flowing traffic. Existing law authorizes a local authority to additionally lower the speed limit in specified circumstances, or retain the currently adopted speed limit in certain circumstances.
This bill would authorize the department to additionally lower or retain the speed limit in those specified circumstances.
Existing law authorizes a local authority, if it finds the speed limit derived from the 85th percentile to be higher than reasonable or safe, to reduce the speed limit an additional 5 miles per hour for specified reasons, including, but not limited to, that the portion of highway is designated as a safety corridor, as defined by the department. Existing law also authorizes a local authority to retain or restore the immediately prior adopted speed limit under specified circumstances.
This bill would similarly authorize the department to set, on a highway that is not a freeway, a speed limit, or retain or restore the immediately prior adopted speed limit under those specified circumstances.
Under certain circumstances, existing law authorizes a local authority to set, by ordinance, a 25- or 20-mile-per-hour facie speed limit on specified highways.
This bill would similarly authorize the department to set, by regulation, for a highway that is not a freeway, a 25- or 20-mile-per-hour prima facie speed limit.
Existing law requires a local authority to issue only warning citations for specified speed limit violations for the first 30 days that a lower speed limit is in effect.
This bill would instead impose this requirement on any peace officer.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF