Speed limits transitions-How far do you have to adjust? -LEO's please chime in.

[InfidelSerf]

Ok so I'm interested in tapping the great collective of knowledge and experience here.
Let me give a scenario and then I'd like to know what the legal and reasonable result should be.

You are traveling along in a 35MPH zone and then come up on a 25MPH zone.
How far before or after the sign do you have to reach the new limit.
My understanding of the law is it's a bit vague.
Since the law (typically)says the new limit begins at the point where you cross the plane of the sign.
However it does not state if you should decrease your speed before the sign in order to cross the plane of the sign at the new speed. Or if you have a reasonable amount of distance to reduce your speed once you cross the signs plane.
Is there a certain distance after you cross the sign that the law considers a grey area in order to give a driver an opportunity to adjust their speed?
Since I'm assuming it would be unsafe if we all just slammed on the brakes as soon as we pass a sign in order to drop down to the lower limit.
I would also like to know how to find any previous precedent that may exist on this scenario in my jurisdiction.

From an LEO's perspective, would you consider it fair or honest to snag someone within a few hundred feet of crossing into a lower speed limit, without giving the driver a reasonable amount of time or distance to adjust their speed?

What say you all?

[Nick1911]

I don't know what's the correct legal answer here.  Am not a lawyer, or a cop.

However in my head, the speed limit is a maximum speed limit - I slow down to 25 before passing the sign.  There's nothing illegal about going 25 in a 35.

[BlueStarLizzard]

If I recall drivers ed correctly, we were instructed that we should be at the newly posted speed as we reached and passed the sign, because the second we passed it, the posted speed was in effect. We were told to start slowing down when we reached the caution sign warning of the new limit as that is why those signs exist.
In other words, be at the correct speed as soon as you reach the sign and do so safely because you had plenty of time to slow down.
And i'm pretty sure that's how the traffic cop would see it.

[dogmush]

Yep, the instant you pass the sign the new speed limit is in effect.  All your decel is supposed to be done in the faster zone.  I have gotten the speeding ticket to prove it.

[Tallpine]

I got in an argument once with a small town cop over this.

The argument wasn't over whether I should have slowed down before the sign, the argument was over the willow bushes growing up over and around the sign so that you couldn't see it from enough distance to slow down in a rational manner.

I was firm but civil and he actually relented with a "warning" (gotta save face).

Not a bad outcome for a smelly, long haired, bearded logger with Alaska plates 

[Hawkmoon]

The new speed limit begins AT the sign. Slow down before you get there. Speed up after when transitioning to a higher speed.

[Tallpine]

The new speed limit begins AT the sign. Slow down before you get there. Speed up after when transitioning to a higher speed.

It doesn't matter too much because in my observation most people don't even pretend to notice speed limit signs 

[Doggy Daddy]

From an LEO's perspective, would you consider it fair or honest to snag someone within a few hundred feet of crossing into a lower speed limit, without giving the driver a reasonable amount of time or distance to adjust their speed?

What say you all?

Welcome to Las Vegas   

DD

[Brad Johnson]

I don't know what's the correct legal answer here.  Am not a lawyer, or a cop.

Correct legal answer is...

The new speed limit begins AT the sign. Slow down before you get there. Speed up after when transitioning to a higher speed.

As for adjusting, well, the tolerance varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and cop to cop.  You ekseeds teh posted limitz, you takes teh chances.

Brad

[Boomhauer]

Legal answer is speed limit begins at sign.

The attitude of the cop will determine what happens if you fail to be at or below that speed at the sign. Most of the ones I know don't care to write traffic tickets unless you are grossly violating the speed limit (i.e. more than 10 over except in a school zone) and every time I've been stopped I've been polite to the cop and I've gotten a warning.

[BobR]

Yep, the instant you pass the sign the new speed limit is in effect.  All your decel is supposed to be done in the faster zone.  I have gotten the speeding ticket to prove it.

Here in WA that is also true, as well as the opposite. The higher speed limit doesn't start until you get to the sign, accelerating to be at speed when you hit the sign could just cost you a chat at the roadside with an armed guy wearing a bow tie, if not a ticket. 

bob

[Boomhauer]

cost you a chat at the roadside with an armed guy wearing a bow tie, if not a ticket

James Bond enforces ya'll traffic laws? Damn

[coppertales]

I have noticed that, here in Texas, when you come to the "reduce speed ahead" sign, let off the gas and by the time you get to the new speed limit, your car will have slowed enough to be at the new speed.  This isn't all the time but most of the time.  In town, it is another story.  But, as posted above, the new speed limit starts at the sign.  Same with increasing the speed limit....chris3

[French G.]

Well I know in one locality they'll troll the area around the 25 mph sign when the citywide other than posted limit is 35, it's night, on a downhill and the 25 and the reduced speed ahead are not the most visible. 

[HankB]

Here in TX, speed signs are not consistent. You'll come to a school zone (35 MPH) sign . . . a little ways up, there's a "55 MPH" sign that is still within the school zone, and will be the only sign you see if you turn out of a parking lot or a side road.

Other places have a "Curve - 50 MPH" sign, and then before the curve, a "60 MPH" sign.

One stretch of straight road changes speed limits three times in 100 yards.

Then there's a stretch of road with "left turn only" lanes that don't lead to another street or driveway . . . but the're posted with "No U Turn" signs.    

[BlueStarLizzard]

Well I know in one locality they'll troll the area around the 25 mph sign when the citywide other than posted limit is 35, it's night, on a downhill and the 25 and the reduced speed ahead are not the most visible. 

Add a second. Watch out if your driving through Scottsville.

[brimic]

It all depends on the locality's priority of how they use the police force- whether it be keeping peace or fund raising.

[Tallpine]

It all depends on the locality's priority of how they use the police force- whether it be keeping peace or fund raising.

Can also depend on whether or not you have local plates 

[freakazoid]

Back home there is a spot where it is posted as 35  then after you pass the high school a sign says End of 35mph, and a little bit farther it is posted 55. I wish I had a car that could actually accelerate really quickly way past 55 then be able to slow quick enough down to 55 by the time I hit the 55 sign.

[brimic]

Can also depend on whether or not you have local plates

...or if they recognize your car as a resident of the community.

About a decade or so ago in the village I live in, the police took a high priority to being the 'safety police' with every rig that came through town. You couldn't drive down the main drag without seeing a semi or other CDL-worthy truck pulled over and being gone over with a fine tooth comb. Offenders, and there were a lot of them, were all towed away to a repair shop at the edge of the village and weren't allowed to leave until they were 'repaired.'
One of my MIL's former boyfriends had his 18-wheeler pulld over while he was making a delivery to my village, a trip which cost him over $2000 because he had a brake lining a few thou too thin.
One of the unintended consequences was that area contractors and building materials suppliers usually charged an extra fee to make deliveries to our village that they didn't add on to deliveries to other communities-usually a $25-50 surcharge because they had all been pinched in the past.

Luckily, they gave this type of enforcement up after a few years- roughly around the time the village contracted to repave the main road.

[Hawkmoon]

From an LEO's perspective, would you consider it fair or honest to snag someone within a few hundred feet of crossing into a lower speed limit, without giving the driver a reasonable amount of time or distance to adjust their speed?

What say you all?

Not an LEO, but you did ask for everyone's opinion. On this specific question, my opinion is that doing so is honest but perhaps not fair.

[Pharmacology]

There's a horrible little place called Bishop, Texas where many of my friends have been nailed for going 54, literally yards after the the 55 mph speed zone begins.