Whenever the commissioner of public safety or the commissioner of transportation shall determine upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that any maximum speed set forth in this article is greater or less than is reasonable or safe under the conditions found to exist at any intersection or other place or upon any part of the state highway system, they may jointly determine and declare a reasonable and safe maximum speed limit at such place, which shall be effective when appropriate signs giving notice thereof are erected. Such a maximum speed limit may be declared to be effective at all times as are indicated upon such signs; and differing limits may be established for different times of day, different varying weather conditions, and other factors bearing on safe speeds, which shall be effective when posted upon appropriate fixed or variable signs. In no case shall the maximum speed limit for any highway be established at higher thanthe maximum speed limits set forth in Code Section 40-6-181 for that type of highway.
(Ga. L. 1953, Nov.-Dec. Sess., p. 556, § 49; Ga. L. 1957, p. 419, § 1; Ga. L. 1963, p. 254, § 2; Code 1933, § 68A-803, enacted by Ga. L. 1975, p. 1582, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 2048, § 5.)
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
Section constitutional.
- Permitting the Department of Public Safety (now Commissioner of Public Safety) to fix special speed restrictions, within an authorized maximum, on any segment of a public street or highway, based upon an engineering or traffic survey, is not an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. 1945-47 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 408.
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 7A Am. Jur. 2d, Automobiles and Highway Traffic, § 265 et seq.
ALR.
- Right of way at street or highway intersections, 37 A.L.R. 493; 47 A.L.R. 595.
Necessity and propriety of instruction as to prima facie speed limit, 87 A.L.R.2d 539.