NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6104
SPONSOR: Brabenec TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to authorizing
local school districts and municipalities to determine and establish
school speed limits
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
Authorizes local school districts and municipalities to determine and
establish school speed limits.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Subdivision (a) of section 1620 of the Vehicle and Traffic law is
amended as well as Subdivision 1 of section 1622 of the Vehicle and
Traffic law is amended to add that local school district and munici-
palities within which a school is located shall determine and establish
the maximum speed at which vehicles may proceed on a highway located in
a school zone.
JUSTIFICATION:
State roads immediately surrounding a school building are especially
dangerous for both drivers and school aged pedestrians and children can
easily become targets for careless drivers. Current state law authorizes
only the NYS Department of Transportation to establish higher or lower
maximum speed limits in school zones with respect to state highways.
Experience shows that any requests by local residents, school districts
and municipalities to reduce speed limits within school zones, takes
years and in many instances there is no action until there is a tragedy.
The bureaucratic process currently in place often goes on for years, and
then, all too often, leads to no speed limit reduction being put in
place. This law must be amended to provide local input and authority to
reduce speed limits within school zones and this is what this bill does.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: A5457 Referred to Transportation
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6104
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 26, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRABENEC -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to authorizing
local school districts and municipalities to determine and establish
school speed limits
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision (a) of section 1620 of the vehicle and traffic
2 law, as amended by chapter 563 of the laws of 2002, is amended to read
3 as follows:
4 (a) The department of transportation with respect to state highways
5 maintained by the state outside of cities having a population in excess
6 of one million, and highways on Indian reservations, may by order, rule
7 or regulation establish higher or lower maximum speed limits at which
8 vehicles may proceed on or along such highways than the fifty-five miles
9 per hour statutory maximum speed limit. No such maximum speed limit
10 shall be established at less than twenty-five miles per hour, except
11 that school speed limits may be established at not less than fifteen
12 miles per hour, for a distance not to exceed one thousand three hundred
13 twenty feet, on a highway passing a school building, entrance or exit of
14 a school abutting on the highway. The local school district and munici-
15 pality within which a school is located shall determine and establish
16 the maximum speed at which vehicles may proceed on a highway located in
17 a school zone. Absence of signs installed pursuant to this section shall
18 be presumptive evidence that the department of transportation has not
19 established a higher maximum speed limit than the fifty-five miles per
20 hour statutory limit.
21 § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 1622 of the vehicle and traffic law, as
22 amended by chapter 563 of the laws of 2002, is amended to read as
23 follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04046-01-5
A. 6104 2
1 1. Establish maximum speed limits at which vehicles may proceed on or
2 along such highways higher or lower than the fifty-five miles per hour
3 statutory maximum speed limit. No such limit shall be established at
4 less than twenty-five miles per hour, except that school speed limits
5 may be established at not less than fifteen miles per hour, for a
6 distance not to exceed one thousand three hundred twenty feet, on a
7 highway passing a school building, entrance or exit of a school abutting
8 on the highway. The local school district and municipality within which
9 a school is located shall determine and establish the maximum speed at
10 which vehicles may proceed on a highway located in a school zone.
11 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
