Authorizes the department of environmental conservation to establish certain speed limits.

---

S736-2013 Actions

• Mar 6, 2013: referred to transportation
• Mar 6, 2013: DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY
• Mar 6, 2013: PASSED SENATE
• Mar 5, 2013: ADVANCED TO THIRD READING
• Mar 4, 2013: 2ND REPORT CAL.
• Feb 28, 2013: 1ST REPORT CAL.133
• Jan 9, 2013: REFERRED TO TRANSPORTATION

S736-2013 Meetings

Transportation: Feb 28, 2013

S736-2013 Calendars

Active List: Mar 6, 2013 , Floor Calendar: Mar 4, 2013 , Floor Calendar: Mar 5, 2013 , Floor Calendar: Mar 6, 2013

S736-2013 Votes

S736-2013 Memo

BILL NUMBER:S736

TITLE OF BILL:
An act
to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to authorizing the
department of environmental conservation to establish certain speed
limits

PURPOSE:
Authorizes the Department of Environmental Conservation to
establish certain speed limits.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1. Amends subdivision 5 of section 1630
of the vehicle and traffic law to allow the department of
environmental conservation to establish certain speed limits.

Section 2. Effective date.

EXISTING LAW:
Currently the office of parks, recreation and historic
preservation, department of agriculture and markets, and the
industrial exhibit authority have the explicit authority to set speed
limits below 25 mph.

JUSTIFICATION:
The Department of Environmental Conservation manages
millions of acres of public lands primarily intended for recreational
access and enjoyment, including 52 campgrounds in the Adirondack and
Catskill Parks. Those lands are used for hiking, hunting, biking,
camping, bird watching and other enjoyment. To create access to those
properties, the Department also has roads on the property and has
established many regulations to establish safe speed limits to
protect pedestrians, families and others using these properties.
However, the Department's authority to enforce posted speed limits
below 25 mph in its campgrounds was challenged recently. Vehicle &
Traffic Law �1630 authorizes the Department and other agencies to
adopt regulations that "prohibit, restrict or regulate traffic of any
highway, property or facility under its jurisdiction." However,
because the Department is not among the agencies listed in VTL
1630(5) that have explicit authority to set speed limits below 25
mph, the County District Attorney involved in the case declined to
prosecute the ticket. This bill would make explicit the Department's
authority to set speed limits below 25 mph.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2012: Passed the Senate (S.7644/A.10673)

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

S736-2013 Text

                      S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
  ________________________________________________________________________

                                     736

                         2013-2014 Regular Sessions

                              I N  SENATE

                                 (PREFILED)

                               January 9, 2013
                                 ___________

  Introduced by Sen. FUSCHILLO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
    printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation

  AN  ACT to amend the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to authorizing
    the department of  environmental  conservation  to  establish  certain
    speed limits

    THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
  BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


    Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 1630 of the  vehicle  and  traffic
  law,  as  amended by chapter 563 of the laws of 2002, is amended to read
  as follows:

    5. Establishment of maximum and minimum speed limits at which vehicles
  may proceed on or along such highways. No such maximum speed limit shall
  be established at less than twenty-five  miles  per  hour,  except  that
  school  speed  limits  may be established at not less than fifteen miles
  per hour, for a distance not to exceed one thousand three hundred twenty
  feet, on a highway passing a school building,  entrance  or  exit  of  a
  school  abutting on the highway, and except that, with respect to bridge
  and elevated structures that are a part of any  such  highway,  a  lower
  maximum  speed  limit  may  be established if it is determined that such
  lower maximum speed limit is the maximum speed limit which may be  main-
  tained without structural damage to such bridge or structure, and except
  that,  with  respect to any highway under the jurisdiction of the office
  of parks, recreation and historic preservation, other than a parkway  as
  defined  in  subdivision  seventeen of section 1.03 of the parks, recre-
  ation and historic preservation law, the department of  agriculture  and
  markets, THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, or the industrial
  exhibit  authority, a maximum speed limit of not less than ten miles per
  hour may be established on any portion thereof, if it is determined that
  such lower maximum speed limit is necessary to assure the safety of  the
  public, and except that, with respect to any highway having toll plazas,
  a maximum speed limit of not less than five miles per hour may be estab-
  lished for passage through such toll plazas.
    S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

   EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                        [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                             LBD01482-01-3