What's the lowest speed limit a Texas county can set on a county road?

Texas AG Opinion JC-0079: How Low a County Can Set a Road Speed Limit

Plain-English summary

The Harris County Attorney asked the Attorney General how to read a 1997 amendment to the speed-limit statutes. Transportation Code section 545.355 lets a commissioners court declare a lower speed limit "of not less than 30 miles per hour" on a county road if it finds the existing prima facie limit unreasonable or unsafe. But another statute, section 251.154, lets the court set a "maximum reasonable and prudent speed" that "may be lower than the maximum speed set by law." The county wanted to know whether these conflict, what the lowest limit the court can set actually is, and what to do with signs already posting limits below that floor.

The opinion harmonized the two statutes rather than treating them as in conflict. A "reasonable and prudent" speed under section 251.154 is bounded by the prima facie speed limits in section 545.352. To change a speed limit to something other than a prima facie limit, a court generally needs permission from the Transportation Commission based on an engineering and traffic investigation (section 545.353). Section 545.355, added in 1997, created a narrow exception: a court can drop the limit without that investigation, but only down to 30 miles per hour, no lower. Read together, the statutes form a single coherent scheme. So from the amendment's effective date, June 18, 1997, a commissioners court may not set a county-road speed limit below 30 mph without an engineering and traffic study.

The opinion also rejected the argument that a 1971 deletion of "engineering and traffic investigation" language from the predecessor of section 251.154 freed counties from the study requirement; that requirement lived in the predecessor of section 545.355, so the deleted words were surplusage. And it noted that reading section 251.154 to allow any low limit without a study would nullify the 30 mph rule, which courts avoid. Even assuming the statutes truly conflicted, the later-enacted section 545.355 would prevail. On the practical questions: speed limits validly set lower before the 1997 law remained in effect (the new statute is prospective and applies to modifications), but because a court cannot set a limit below 30 mph, it cannot keep signs posted asserting such a limit; the opinion suggested the county consult the Department of Transportation about removing improper signs under section 544.002.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1999. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

How low could a county set a speed limit on a county road?
Under the opinion, 30 miles an hour was the floor without a study. A commissioners court could lower a county-road limit under section 545.355 but not below 30 mph unless it conducted an engineering and traffic investigation.

Don't two different statutes govern this?
Yes, sections 545.355 and 251.154. The opinion harmonized them: section 251.154's "reasonable and prudent" speed is bounded by the prima facie limits, and section 545.355 added a way to drop the limit to 30 mph without a study. They form one coherent scheme rather than a conflict.

What if the statutes really did conflict?
The opinion said the result would be the same. Section 545.355 was enacted later (by the Seventy-fifth Legislature), so under the rule that the latest-enacted statute prevails in an irreconcilable conflict, it would control, and the 30 mph floor would still apply.

What about speed limits already set below 30 mph before the 1997 law?
The opinion concluded that speed limits validly set under the prior law remained in full force and effect, because the new statute is read prospectively and applies to modifications of speed limits.

What should the county do with signs posting limits under 30 mph?
Because a court cannot set such a limit, it cannot keep signs posted asserting one. The opinion suggested the county consult the Department of Transportation about the disposition of improper signs, noting the department's authority over traffic-control devices under section 544.002.

Background and statutory framework

Transportation Code section 545.355(a) permits a commissioners court to declare a lower speed limit "of not less than 30 miles per hour" on a county road or highway if it finds the prima facie speed limit unreasonable or unsafe. Section 251.154 permits the court to set a "maximum reasonable and prudent speed" that may be lower than the maximum speed set by law. The opinion reconciled these, applying the rule that statutes should be harmonized where possible (La Sara Grain Co. v. First Nat'l Bank of Mercedes, a Texas Supreme Court decision; Rodriguez v. Texas Workforce Comm'n). A "reasonable and prudent" speed is cabined by the prima facie speed limits of section 545.352(a), with section 545.352(b) describing certain speeds as "lawful." Altering a limit to something other than a prima facie limit generally requires Transportation Commission permission based on an engineering and traffic investigation (section 545.353(a)); section 545.355, added in 1997 (House Bill 130, effective June 18, 1997), allows a lower limit without that investigation but only down to 30 mph.

The opinion explained that the 1971 deletion of engineering-and-traffic-investigation language from the predecessor of section 251.154 (Act of May 19, 1971) did not eliminate the study requirement, because that requirement appeared in section 169 of the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways (article 6701d), the predecessor of section 545.355; the deleted words were mere surplusage. Reading section 251.154 to allow any low limit without a study would render the 30 mph amendment a nullity, contrary to the rule that statutes are construed to be effective (State v. Hardy, a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision; Government Code section 311.021(2)). Even if the statutes were irreconcilable, the later-enacted section 545.355 would prevail (Government Code section 311.025). On the remaining questions, the opinion treated section 545.355 as prospective and applicable to modifications (Government Code section 311.022), so validly set prior limits stayed in effect, and pointed to section 544.002 (Department of Transportation authority over traffic-control devices) for handling improper signs.

Citations

Statutory provisions:

• Tex. Transp. Code Ann. § 545.355(a); § 251.154(a), (c); § 545.352(a), (b); § 545.353(a); § 544.002 (Vernon 1999)
• Tex. Gov't Code Ann. § 311.021(2); § 311.022; § 311.025 (Vernon 1998)
• Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. Ann. art. 6701d, § 169 (Vernon 1977)
• Act of May 19, 1971, 62d Leg., R.S., ch. 318, sec. 2, 1971 Tex. Gen. Laws 1260, 1260-61

Cases:

• La Sara Grain Co. v. First Nat'l Bank of Mercedes, 673 S.W.2d 558 (Tex. 1984)
• Rodriguez v. Texas Workforce Comm'n, 986 S.W.2d 781 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi 1999, writ denied)
• State v. Hardy, 963 S.W.2d 516 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997) (en banc)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/john-cornyn/jc-0079
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1999/jc0079.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL STATE OF TEXAS

JOHN CORNYN

July 14, 1999

The Honorable Michael P. Fleming
Harris County Attorney
1019 Congress, 15th Floor
Houston, Texas 77002-1700

Opinion No. JC-0079

Re: Whether a commissioners court may set a maximum speed limit on certain county roads below 30 miles an hour, and related questions (RQ-0002)

Dear Mr. Fleming:

You have asked this office a series of questions concerning the interpretation of Transportation Code section 545.355, amended in the Seventy-fifth Legislature by House Bill 130. The relevant language permits a commissioners court to "declare a lower speed limit of not less than 30 miles per hour on a county road or highway to which this section applies, if the commissioners court determines that the prima facie speed limit on the road or highway is unreasonable or unsafe." TEX. TRANSP. CODE ANN. § 545.355(a) (Vernon 1999) (emphasis added). You ask whether this statute conflicts with Transportation Code section 251.154, which permits the commissioners court to "set a maximum reasonable and prudent speed for a vehicle traveling on any segment of a county road," id. § 251.154(a), which speed "may be lower than the maximum speed set by law for a vehicle traveling on a public highway," id. § 251.154(c). In light of these two statutes, you further ask what is the minimum speed limit that the court may set. Finally, assuming that there may already have been speed limit signs posted that assert that the speed limit is lower than the minimum that may be imposed by the court, you ask what is to be done with such signs.

You suggest that section 251.154, and in particular section 251.154(c), is irreconcilable with section 545.355, and in particular with the thirty mile an hour limitation. We believe they can be harmonized, as we are enjoined to do if it is possible. La Sara Grain Co. v. First Nat'l Bank of Mercedes, 673 S.W.2d 558, 565 (Tex. 1984); Rodriguez v. Texas Workforce Comm'n, 986 S.W.2d 781, 783 (Tex. App.-Corpus Christi 1999, writ denied). Section 251.154 permits the court to set a "reasonable and prudent" speed limit. However, a "reasonable and prudent" speed limit is cabined by section 545.352, the "prima facie speed limits" statute, which provides that the speeds listed in it are "prima facie evidence that the speed [in excess of them] is not reasonable and prudent," TEX. TRANSP. CODE ANN. § 545.352(a) (Vernon 1999). Section 545.352(b) then describes certain speeds as "lawful," id. § 545.352(b). Accordingly, in setting a reasonable and prudent speed limit commissioners court must generally set a limit within the lawful speed limits described in section 545.352(b).

If a commissioners court wishes to alter a speed limit to something other than a prima facie speed limit, it may generally do so only upon permission from the Transportation Commission based on "the results of an engineering and traffic investigation." Id. § 545.353(a). Section 545.355, added in 1997, now permits a commissioners court to set a lower speed, but not less than thirty miles per hour, without conducting such an investigation. However, the power given to the commissioners court therein is not a power to lower the speed limit as far as the court wishes, but only to a minimum of thirty miles per hour. Read in this way, the statutes in our view form a single, coherent scheme. Accordingly from the effective date of the amendment, June 18, 1997, the commissioners court may not decrease speed limits to less than thirty miles an hour without a traffic and engineering study.

It is the case that at one time the predecessor statute to section 251.154 provided that a court could set a lower limit "upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation," and that in 1971, the Sixty-second Legislature deleted that language. See Act of May 19, 1971, 62d Leg., R.S., ch. 318, sec. 2, 1971 Tex. Gen. Laws 1260, 1260-61. However, the deletion of this language from section 251.154 does not suggest that an engineering and traffic investigation was no longer required. As you note, that language was part of the statutory predecessor to section 545.355, namely section 169 of the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic on Highways, article 6701d. Section 169 provided that a commissioners court had, with respect to county roads and highways, authority "to alter maximum prima facie speed limits upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation . . . ." TEX. REV. CIV. STAT. ANN. (Vernon 1977). In our view, the absence of such language in the statutory predecessor to section 251.154 suggests no more than that such language was surplusage in light of the explicit requirement laid out in section 169 of the Uniform Act, now section 545.355.

Moreover such a reading of section 251.154 would render the amendment of section 545.355 establishing the thirty miles per hour limit a nullity. If a commissioners court could lower a speed limit to any limit under section 251.154 without having to perform the requisite engineering and traffic investigation, then the court could simply avoid the thirty miles an hour limitation by a purported reliance on section 251.154. As a general matter, when forced to choose between an interpretation of a statute which will nullify it and one which will make it effective, our task is to construe it so that it will be effective. See State v. Hardy, 963 S.W.2d 516, 520 (Tex. Crim. App. 1997) (en banc) (courts presume that each word, phrase, clause, and sentence should be given effect if reasonably possible); TEX. GOV'T CODE ANN. § 311.021(2) (Vernon 1998) (presumption that "entire statute is intended to be effective").

Even assuming arguendo, however, that the two statutes were irreconcilable, the practical result would be unchanged. If section 251.154(c)'s provision that a commissioners court may set a speed limit "lower than the maximum speed set by law for a vehicle travelling on a public highway" were indeed fatally irreconcilable with section 545.355(a)'s provision that the court could "declare a lower speed limit of not less than 30 miles an hour," then section 545.355, enacted by the Seventy-fifth Legislature, and therefore later in time, would prevail. See id. § 311.025 (in event of irreconcilability, latest enacted statute prevails). Either interpretation therefore leads to the same conclusion: absent a traffic investigation demonstrating the necessity of a lower rate, a commissioners court may not lower the speed limit on a county road below thirty miles an hour.

You note that certain speed limits may have been set before the effective date of House Bill 130 at twenty miles an hour on the authority of section 251.154 of the Transportation Code or its statutory predecessor. Statutes such as section 545.355 are generally to be read prospectively. See id. § 311.022. In addition, section 545.355 by its terms applies to the modification of speed limits. Thus, assuming that the particular speed limits were set in accordance with applicable law, such existing speed limits would remain in full force and effect.

You ask finally what the court is to do with signs which, by giving notice of illegally low speed limits, may have been erected in error. If a commissioners court cannot set a speed limit of less than thirty miles an hour on a road, it follows that it cannot post, or cause to remain posted, markers asserting that such is the speed limit. Pursuant to section 544.002 of the Transportation Code, the Department of Transportation, or a local authority having the department's permission, may place and maintain traffic control devices on highways under the department's jurisdiction. We suggest, therefore, that the county may wish to consult the department with regard to the disposition of improper signs.

SUMMARY

Pursuant to section 545.355 of the Transportation Code, a commissioners court may lower the speed limit on a county road or highway, but not to less than thirty miles an hour absent an engineering and traffic investigation.

JOHN CORNYN
Attorney General of Texas

ANDY TAYLOR
First Assistant Attorney General

CLARK KENT ERVIN
Deputy Attorney General - General Counsel

ELIZABETH ROBINSON
Chair, Opinion Committee

Prepared by James E. Tourtelott
Assistant Attorney General