ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 472
(By Senators Wooton, Ball, Bowman, Dittmar,
Hunter, Kessler, Ross, Snyder, White and Scott)
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[Passed March 10, 1998; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section three, article six, chapter
seventeen-c of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to when
municipalities may lower the twenty-five mile per hour speed
limit in residential areas.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article six, chapter seventeen-c of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. SPEED RESTRICTIONS.
§17C-6-3. When local authorities may alter speed limits.
(a) At intersection. -- Whenever local authorities within
their respective jurisdictions determine upon the basis of an
engineering and traffic investigation that the speed permitted
under this chapter at any intersection is greater than is
reasonable or safe under the conditions found to exist at such
intersection, such local authority subject to subsection (e) of this section shall determine and declare a reasonable and safe
speed limit thereat, which shall be effective at all times or
during hours of daylight or darkness or at such other times as may
be determined when appropriate signs giving notice thereof are
erected at such intersection or upon the approaches thereto.
(b) Authority to increase twenty-five mile limit. -- Local
authorities in their respective jurisdictions may in their
discretion, but subject to subsection (e) of this section,
authorize by ordinance higher speeds than those stated in section
one of this article upon through highways or upon highways or
portions thereof where there are no intersections or between widely
spaced intersections, which higher speed shall be effective at all
times or during hours of daylight or at such other times as may be
determined when signs are erected giving notice of the authorized
speed, but local authorities shall not have authority to modify or
alter the basic rule set forth in subsection (a), section one of
this article or in any event to authorize by ordinance a speed in
excess of fifty-five miles per hour.
(c) Authority to decrease fifty-five mile limit. -- Whenever
local authorities within their respective jurisdictions determine
upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that the
speed under this chapter upon open country highway outside a
business or residence district is greater than is reasonable or
safe under the conditions found to exist upon such street or
highway, the local authority may determine and declare a reasonable and safe limit thereon but in no event less than thirty-five miles
per hour and subject to subsection (e) of this section, which
reduced limit shall be effective at all times or during hours of
darkness or at other times as may be determined when appropriate
signs giving notice thereof are erected upon such street or
highway.
(d) Authority to decrease twenty-five mile limit. -- A
municipality may in its discretion, but subject to subsection (e)
of this section, authorize by ordinance lower speeds than those
stated in subdivision (2), subsection (b), section one of this
article upon local dedicated rights-of-way in a residential
district or portions thereof, which lower speed shall be effective
at all times or during hours of daylight or at such other times as
may be determined when signs are erected giving notice of the
authorized speed.
(e) Alteration of limits on state highways in municipalities.
-- Alteration of limits on state highways or extensions thereof in
a municipality by local authorities shall not be effective until
such alteration has been approved by the commissioner of highways.