[Proposed by the National Motorists Association, 1-608-849-6000]
To provide for a fair and reasonable national speed limit policy.
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Represnetatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
(1) The National Maximum Speed Limit is no longer supported by the American public, and is an obstacle to the application of engineering-based speed zoning practices.
(2) Federally sponsored studies have repeatedly proven that the safest and most efficiently enforced speed limits are those based on the "85th percentile rule", that is a speed limit that considers legal the actions of normally prudent and responsible drivers.
(3) The setting of unreasonably low speed limits leads to large scale non-compliance, misallocation of enforcement and judicial resources, and creates unintended safety problems.
(4) Speed limit standards that encourage the use of proven traffic engineering principles will permit the states and their respective local units of government to accommodate unique travel environments. The result will be greater efficiency, enhanced safety, fairness, economic progress, and better use of enforcement and judicial resources.
(b) 85TH PERCENTILE SPEED.-The speed at or below which 85 percent of free flowing vehicles are traveling.
(c) 67TH PERCENTILE SPEED.-The speed at or below which 67 percent of free flowing vehicles are traveling.
(d) STATE.-The term "State" shall have the meaning given it in section 401 of this title.
(e) FREE FLOWING TRAFFIC.-Vehicular traffic unencumbered by congestion, inclement weather, construction or maintenance, or law enforcement activity.
(f) SECRETARY.-The Secretary of Transportation.
(b) No speed limit shall be set below, to the nearest five mile per hour increment, the 67th percentile speed of free flowing traffic.
(b) Individual streets, roads, or highways or segments thereof that exhibit traffic speeds significantly different from those specified by statute shall be posted with separate speed limits that reflect 85th percentile speeds of free flowing traffic.
(c) No street, road, or highway shall be posted nor have enforced a speed limit lower than the 67th percentile speed of free flowing traffic.
(d) If a state chooses to establish different speed limits for different classes of vehicles those limits shall be neither higher than the 85th percentile nor lower than the 67th percentile speed exhibited by the respective classes of vehicles for which the limits are established.
(e) Exceptions to (c, d) are limited to construction and school zones or temporary emergencies.
(b) With the exceptions noted in section 7(e), the Secretary of Transportation shall not approve any porject under section 106 of this title in any State which has a maximum speed limit less than the 67th percentile of free flowing traffic, as determined by established traffic engineering practices.
(c) Each State shall certify to the Secretary before January 1 of each year that it is enforcing all speed limits on public highways in accordance with Section 5 of this Act.