Q: I live in a rural town and my neighbors have been harassing us lately to slow down on a road that by law is 25 mph. They have today now posted a &#;slow down: speed limit 10 mph&#; sign they bought off the internet. Does this sign have any legal standing?
A: Can you imagine if you really could just decide what you wanted the speed limit to be in front of your house and then put up a sign? What happens if I think the speed on my street should be 20 mph, but my neighbor three doors down prefers 50 mph? With enough opinions, we could be changing speed limits at each property line, and maybe even have different speed limits on each side of the street. Of course, this is all nonsense, as it&#;s not up to the individual residents on a street to decide the speed limit.
Instead of your neighbor picking a speed limit, the maximum speed for a given type of road is defined in the Revised Code of Washington. The section of the law titled, &#;Basic rule and maximum limits&#; sets speed limits at the following:
City and town streets &#; 25 mph
County roads &#; 50 mph
State highways &#; 60 mph
If you&#;ve paid attention to more than a handful of speed limit signs, you&#;re probably saying, &#;Hey, wait a second, there are a lot of roads that don&#;t match those speed limits. What gives?&#; I&#;ll tell you. The next two sections of the law allow for both increases and decreases in speed limits. However, that doesn&#;t mean that a neighbor, or any other person, can just decide to change the speed limit. The law states that the decision must be determined &#;upon the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation . . .&#; There&#;s a bit more to the law, but the point is that setting a speed limit is supposed to be rooted in data that supports a safe and appropriate speed for a given road.
Your neighbor&#;s sign has no authority behind it, but there&#;s more. Not only is it unenforceable; it&#;s also illegal. Unsurprisingly, you can&#;t just put up official-looking traffic signs on the roadway. Here&#;s what the law says: &#;No person shall place, maintain or display upon or in view of any highway any unauthorized sign, signal, marking or device which purports to be or is an imitation of or resembles an official traffic-control device . . . or which attempts to direct the movement of traffic . . .&#;
Out of curiosity, I went online to a site that sells signs like you described to see if I could tell from the reviews how they were being used. To most purchasers&#; credit, they were putting them on long driveways and private roads. But there were also folks who wrote, &#;My across-the-street neighbor and I were tired of cars speeding past our homes, so now we each have a sign in front of our house.&#; And, &#;Purchased for myself and my neighbors. They have helped to slow the traffic down in our street.&#; Another person who put up a sign wrote, &#;Now how to enforce the speed limit?&#; I can easily answer that question: You can&#;t. No officer is going to enforce an arbitrarily chosen speed limit sign on your behalf.
Citizens can be a part of changing a speed limit, by requesting a review from their local government. If a speed study is done, it may or may not result in a speed limit change. And if it does, I&#;m confident it won&#;t be 10 mph.
News 6 traffic safety expert Trooper Steve Montiero answers viewer questions and shares tips about the rules of the road, helping Central Florida residents become better drivers by being better educated.
[ASK TROOPER STEVE: Submit your traffic-related questions here]
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The question addressed is, &#;Is it legal for residents in a neighborhood to put up fake speed limit signs that are lower than the normal speed limit?&#; The question was submitted by Chad M.
According to Montiero, the answer is no.
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&#;At no point in time would it be legal for someone to replace a legal speed limit sign with one of a different speed. The signs are placed by the Florida Department of Transportation and are certified on a number of levels. From the material to the height to the size, they are governed under a certain rule and regulation,&#; Montiero said.
Not only is it dangerous, but Montiero said it could come with complicated consequences.
&#;Not only would replacing something like that be illegal but the charges that would come would not be as simple as one might think. First charge that comes to mind would be grand theft,&#; Montiero said. &#;But I don&#;t think that is what the main question, is I just wanted to address it just in case someone would bring that up, someone always does.&#;
Montiero said there are legal ways to make people pay closer attention to their speed.
&#;Any resident can really put any sign out that they want on their yard as long as it wasn&#;t in violation of, maybe, your local homeowners association. A personally bought sign that is placed in the yard to warn drivers that children are at play in the area or of a possible disabled child in the area is perfectly legal,&#; Montiero said. &#;The most common one that comes to mind is the small little green turtle with the bright orange flag that has a speed limit of 5-10 miles per hour posted on it. This is simply to get your attention and slow down. There is nothing illegal about it and it should serve as a warning that you need to pay attention to your speed.&#;
If you have a question to ask Trooper Steve, you can submit it here.
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