Reference Title: speed restrictions

AN ACT
REPEALING SECTIONS 28-701.01 AND 28-702.02, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES; AMENDING SECTIONS 28-702, 28-702.01, 28-702.04 AND 28-703.02, ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES; RELATING TO SPEED RESTRICTIONS; PROVIDING FOR CONDITIONAL ENACTMENT.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Repeal

Sections 28-701.01 and 28-702.02, Arizona Revised Statutes, are repealed.

Sec. 2. Section 28-702, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

28-702 . State highway speed limits

A. If the director determines on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that any maximum speed limit is greater or less than is reasonable or safe under the conditions found to exist on any part of a state highway, the director may determine and declare a reasonable and safe maximum speed limit OR VARYING SPEED LIMITS for the location.

B. The maximum speed limit determined pursuant to this section is effective when appropriate signs giving notice of the maximum speed limit are erected.

C. The director may declare a maximum speed limit that is determined pursuant to this section to be effective at all times or at such times as indicated on the speed limit signs. The director may establish varying speed limits for different times of day, different types of vehicles, varying weather conditions and other factors bearing on safe speeds. The varying limits are effective when posted on appropriate fixed or variable signs.

Sec. 3. Section 28-702.01, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

28-702.01 . Urbanized areas; waste of a finite resource; civil penalties

A. Notwithstanding any other higher maximum speed limit previously established pursuant to any other provision of law, a maximum speed limit on any public highway in this state shall not exceed fifty-five miles per hour. This subsection does not alter an existing maximum speed limit that is less than fifty-five miles per hour and does not prevent the appropriate jurisdiction from establishing, altering or lowering a maximum speed limit that is less than fifty-five miles per hour within its respective jurisdiction.

B. The speed limit for all types of motor vehicles is fifty-five miles per hour on any portion of any public highway that both:

1. Has four or more traffic lanes, the opposing lanes of which are physically separated other than by striping.

2. Had a speed limit for all types of motor vehicles of fifty-five miles per hour or more on November 1, 1973.

C. The director may order the increase of the maximum speed limit prescribed in subsection B of this section to seventy-five miles per hour on an individual highway or on all highways in this state if the governor declares by proclamation that an emergency does not exist and that the receipt of federal highway monies would not be withheld.

D. A. IF THE MAXIMUM SPEED LIMIT ON A PUBLIC HIGHWAY IN THIS STATE IS FIFTY-FIVE MILES PER HOUR, a person shall not drive a motor vehicle at a speed in excess of fifty-five miles per hour or in excess of a higher maximum speed if changed pursuant to subsection C of this section ON THAT HIGHWAY .

E. If a person is found responsible for violating subsection D of this section and IF the speed at which the defendant PERSON is alleged to have driven as provided in section 28-707, subsection A OR THE SPEED AT WHICH THE COURT FINDS THE PERSON DROVE is sixty-five miles per hour or less , or if the court finds that the defendant violated subsection D of this section and that the speed at which the defendant drove was not in excess of sixty-five miles per hour , the offense is designated as the waste of a finite resource currently in short supply and is a civil traffic violation SUBJECT TO THE PROVISIONS OF SUBSECTION B OF THIS SECTION .

G. B. If a person is found responsible for a civil traffic violation pursuant to subsection E A of this section:

1. A department or agency of this state shall not consider the violation for the purpose of determining whether the person's driver license should be suspended or revoked and a court shall not transmit abstracts of records of conviction for the violation to the department.

2. An insurer shall not consider the violation as a moving traffic violation against the person for the purpose of establishing rates of motor vehicle insurance charged by the insurer and shall not cancel or refuse to renew a policy of insurance because of the violation.

3. The civil penalty shall not exceed fifteen dollars plus the penalty assessments imposed pursuant to sections 12-116.01 and 12-116.02.

4. A report shall not be made under section 28-1559, subsection B.

F. C. If a person is charged with violating and the court finds that the person violated subsection D of this section and IF THE MAXIMUM SPEED LIMIT ON A PUBLIC HIGHWAY IN THIS STATE IS FIFTY-FIVE MILES PER HOUR, A PERSON SHALL NOT DRIVE A MOTOR VEHICLE AT A SPEED IN EXCESS OF FIFTY-FIVE MILES PER HOUR ON THAT HIGHWAY. If the speed at which the defendant PERSON is alleged to have driven as provided in section 28-707, subsection A OR THE SPEED AT WHICH THE COURT FINDS THE PERSON DROVE is more than sixty-five miles per hour, the offense is designated as an unlawful speed and is a civil traffic violation AND THE PERSON IS SUBJECT TO A CIVIL PENALTY OF NOT MORE THAN THE AMOUNT PROVIDED IN SECTION 28-1598 .

H. D. This section does not apply to an interstate system highway located outside of an urbanized area, as defined in section 28-702.04, with a population of fifty thousand or more persons.

Sec. 4. Section 28-702.04, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

28-702.04 . Maximum speed limit on interstate highways outside urbanized areas; definition

A. The speed limit for all types of motor vehicles is sixty-five miles per hour on the interstate system highways located outside of an urbanized area with a population of fifty thousand or more persons, except that the director may declare a lower speed limit on the highways pursuant to section 28-702.

B. A person shall not drive a motor vehicle at a speed in excess of the maximum speed limit prescribed by this section.

C. The director may order the increase of the maximum speed limit prescribed in subsection A of this section to seventy-five miles per hour on an individual interstate system highway subject to this section or on all of the interstate system highways in this state subject to this section if the governor declares by proclamation that an emergency does not exist and that the receipt of federal highway monies would not be withheld AS PRESCRIBED IN SECTION 28-702 .

D. A violation of this section is a civil traffic violation, and the person is subject to a civil penalty that does not exceed the amount provided by section 28-1598.

E. For the purposes of this section, "urbanized area" means an urbanized area as defined in the decennial census by the United States bureau of the census.

Sec. 5. Section 28-703.02, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

28-703.02 . Establishing speed on multiple lane highways

On multiple lane highways and on freeways with two or more separate roadways, different prima facie speed limits may be established for different roadways under any of the procedures specified in sections 28-702 , AND 28-703 and 28-703.01 .

Sec. 6. Conditional enactment

Because certain sections of this act amend sections of the Arizona Revised Statutes as amended or added by Senate Bill 1009 (title 28 rewrite; conforming legislation), this act is effective from and after September 30, 1997 only if Senate Bill 1009, forty-third legislature, first regular session, relating to transportation, is enacted into law.

APPROVED BY THE GOVERNOR APRIL 25, 1997.

FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE APRIL 28, 1997.