02-13-1980 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

AMI1_ ON RESIDEUTIAL ST} L{.;S IN MINNESOTA SYNOPSIS • Minnesota Statc a 169.14, SPEED RESTRICTIONS, provides for a maximum 30 miles per hour reed limit in urban districts. The article cites the differences in racter between urban arterial streets and urban local residential streets, both covered by the same 30 mph speed limit. A two'. level statutory seed limit is recommended, 30 mph on arterials, and 25 mph on local residential streets. Municipal officials are often surprised when they first discover that • they have no authority to alter speed "limits on their own streets. State Statutes crovide•that this authority rests With the Minnesota . Department of Transportation (MinnDOT): If a change in speed limit is .desired," local authorities must request_MinnDOT to make a safe speed determination on the-basis of ah engineering and traffic investigation." • • There was a time when local authorities-Mad-speed zoning authority. .Old timers recall that speed zoning in"those days "was a tangle of incon - r sistency. Widely varying speed limits were posted without regard to .roadway character..-Reasonable speed 'often had little relationship"to the posted speed limit. "Speed Traps" were real in those days, not juste a term used -to refer.to normal enforcement activity. " Today, MinnDOT involvement in speed zoning insures that speed Limits are.• reasonably consistent for similar conditions throughout the State. •. " The procedure is-a bit cumbersome, however, and is confined more or iess to arterial streets. The work load would be staggering if specific speed limits had to be determined on all local streets. Therefore, a'statutory 30 mile per hour speed limit has been provided. • In the.absence of signs indicating a different speed limit, the_statutory 30 mph limit applies in urban districts_ ;: • • State Statutes also provide that speed limits within municipalities are "maximum" limits. Whether the term used•is "maximum" or "absolute "; it has a special meaning, best explained in a comparison of. the three principal types of-speed control laws: BASIC SPEED RULE - Every State has a �asic speed law similar to the ' - provision in the Uniform Vehicle Code which says that no person should drive.a vehicle at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent • under the conditions then existing.. This rule governs, no matter what the speed limit sign might indicate. PRIMA FACIE SPEED LIMIT - This type of speed control law provides that any speed in excess of the established numerical limit is "prima facie" evidence that the driver was not operating his vehicle at a reasonable or prudent speed. Prima facie speed limits are based on an average set of conditions, and less attention is given to the 1. "UNIFORM VEHICLE CODE ", National Committee on Uniform Laws and Ordinances_ ■