TX - Texas House bill may lower speed limit

Texas House bill may lower speed limit

http://www.woai.com/media/news/d/5/c...ontributor.jpg Reported by: Steve Linscomb
Email: SteveLinscomb@woaitv.com
Last Update: 4/21 6:26 pm
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http://www.woai.com/images/videobullet.gifProposed law seeks to lower speed limits http://www.woai.com/images/documentbullet.gifH.B. 2682 (36.3KB)

http://www.woai.com/media/news/9/b/2...2479/Story.jpg Most neighborhood streets have a speed limit of 30 to 35 miles an hour, but House Bill 2682 would allow cities to cut the current speed limits to as slow as 25 miles an hour. (News 4 WOAI)


SAN ANTONIO -- Seeing someone ignore the speed limit and fly through neighborhoods in their car is frustrating and it could be dangerous. But a new bill that entered the Texas House on Tuesday may slow down drivers.

Most neighborhood streets have a speed limit of 30 to 35 miles an hour, but House Bill 2682 would allow cities to cut the current speed limits to as slow as 25 miles an hour.

Speeding seems to be a chronic problem in some areas of San Antonio, but the question is what to do. Current law allows slower speed limits to be set on streets up to 35 feet wide, where parking is allowed. But some drivers still go too fast.

So News 4 WOAI decided to go to Woodlawn on the West Side and pull out the radar gun. Woodlawn, which is a busy street, goes through a neighborhood with a 35-mph speed limit.

Most drivers drove the speed limit or below it, but News 4 WOAI caught others going faster than the the speed limit.

The new bill would change that because the bill would allow cities to make the speed limit as slow as 25 miles per hour. The bill could effect any street that's not part of the state highway system.

The proposed law was written by Representative Carol Alvarado out of Houston. But State Senator Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio has written a companion bill on the senate side that has already been referred to committee.

Well, he's half right. It will slow people down. But it certainly won't make them drive the speed limit. If people think the current limit is too slow, they certainly aren't going to suddenly become good citizens when it is lowered. They'll just slow down to around what the speed limit used to be. It effectively serves the intended purpose, but the logic is a little convoluted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StlouisX50

Most drivers drove the speed limit or below it, but News 4 WOAI caught others going faster than the the speed limit.

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Well yeah, that's the way it's supposed to work. The majority are in compliance and the law can take care of the retards who want to go 50 in town.

Sounds like a question of enforcement rather than the speed limit.

What's really freaky is California already has prima facie of 25, so when we got to Texas wife was always pissed when I was doing 30-35, I'm like what's you're problem sweety, we're in Texas now, there's no posted limit and that's the prima facie in Texas :D

I think 35 is a fair speed for most parts of town. Of course, if the PSL is 35, it's hard to justify actually enforcing it, since that's not how PSLs work in this country.

Its not that bad i hope its mainly for the neighberhood streets where both lanes have one car parked so only one car can pass at a time yet the limit is 30 which seems to high for these residential areas.

30 is good for most subdivisions,a lower limit screws everybody who obeys.

am I the only person who sees through the "safety" BS in all of this? this is being done to generate revenue.

drovers are going to continue to drive 30-35 as they do now lowering it to 25 will just "create" more speeders for the LEO's to ticket and collect money from!!!!


wake up America its all about the money!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lugnuts

am I the only person who sees through the "safety" BS in all of this? this is being done to generate revenue.

drovers are going to continue to drive 30-35 as they do now lowering it to 25 will just "create" more speeders for the LEO's to ticket and collect money from!!!!


wake up America its all about the money!!!

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Soooo true.
Unfortunately most American people haven't had the chance to drive in other countries (Canada doesn't count, they are even worse with their BS "streetracing" laws :mad:). I have driven many years in south/eastern European countries, in a lot of them doing 100mph on highway is perfectly legal and 50 in town (on the main streets) is nothing unusual. Cops don't ticket for 15 over or less on the freeway (hence 100 being ok) or for 5 over anywhere (even in a 15mph zone [~25kph]).
Needless to say the death rate is lower than in US.
Americans are being brainwashed :(.

Reducing these limits really is only done for revenue, people who were speeding in a 35 zone will probably continue to do so, and those (the most!) who obeyed will be screwed and forced to drive even slower. If there really is a speed problem on these roads (and someone doing 40 in a 35 isn't one, IMO), the cops should enforce the existing limits better.