Texas Administrative Code › Title 43 - TRANSPORTATION › Part 1 - TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION › Chapter 25 - TRAFFIC OPERATIONS › Subchapter B - PROCEDURES FOR ESTABLISHING SPEED ZONES › Section 25.27 - Variable Speed Limits

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
(a) Authority to
				  set variable speed limits. House Bill 2204, 83rd Legislature, Regular Session,
				  2013, requires the commission to establish, and the department to implement, a
				  variable speed limit pilot program to study the effectiveness of temporarily
				  lowering prima facie speed limits to address inclement weather, congestion,
				  road construction, or any other condition that affects the safe and orderly
				  movement of traffic on a roadway. The executive director of the department will
				  select the areas of the state in which the pilot program will be conducted. The
				  department's district engineers in the selected areas are responsible for
				  establishing the reduced speed limits for the affected roadways and the periods
				  of effectiveness based on the criteria provided in this section. A district
				  engineer may delegate that authority to the districts' deputy district
				  engineer, director of construction, director of operations, or director of
				  maintenance, or a director of transportation operations or a traffic engineer
				  for the district.
(b) Criteria for
				  variable speed limits. The established prima facie speed limits on a portion of
				  the state highway system may be lowered as necessary for the safe and orderly
				  movement of traffic as a result of traffic volume, adverse weather conditions,
				  highway construction work zones, or traffic crashes and incidents. These
				  reduced speed limits must be based on an engineering and traffic investigation
				  and will be lowered only in multiples of five miles per hour.
(c) Engineering and traffic study. The
				  engineering and traffic study required to establish the variable speed limit
				  may include the determination of a spot speed within the affected area,
				  speed-over-distance readings from automated field technology, sight distance
				  during inclement weather, or traffic flow obtained by either field
				  investigation or automated technology. An 85th percentile speed study is not
				  required for establishing a variable speed limit.
(d) Sign placement. A speed limit established
				  under this section is effective only when a sign indicating the change in the
				  speed limit is displayed between 500 and 1,000 feet before the point at which
				  the speed limit takes effect. A sign will also be posted at the point where the
				  speed limit takes effect. The department may use an electronic sign that is
				  capable of displaying more than one message for posting a reduced speed
				  limit.
(e) Documentation of lowered
				  variable speed limits. The department will keep an official record of all
				  changes made to prima facie speed limit established for an affected roadway
				  that includes the date, time, and duration of the lowered speed
				  limit.
(f) Coordination. The
				  department will coordinate closely with state and local law enforcement
				  agencies regarding the locations and reduced speed limits at all variable speed
				  limit sites. The department will make records maintained under subsection (e)
				  of this section available to state and local law enforcement entities in order
				  to support speed limit enforcement.
(g) Expiration. This section expires February
				  1, 2015.