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2001 SESSION


CHAPTER 298
An Act to amend and reenact § 46.2-870 of the Code of Virginia, relating to maximum speed limits generally.
[H 2056]
Approved March 15, 2001

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 46.2-870 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 46.2-870. Maximum speed limits generally.

Except as otherwise provided in this article, the maximum speed limit shall be fifty-five miles per hour on interstate highways or other limited access highways with divided roadways, nonlimited access highways having four or more lanes, and all state primary highways.

The maximum speed limit on all other highways shall be fifty-five miles per hour if the vehicle is a passenger motor vehicle, bus, pickup or panel truck, or a motorcycle, but forty-five miles per hour on such highways if the vehicle is a truck, tractor truck, or combination of vehicles designed to transport property, or is a motor vehicle being used to tow a vehicle designed for self-propulsion, or a house trailer.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, the maximum speed limits on (i) highways constructed pursuant to the Virginia Highway Corporation Act of 1988 (§ 56-535 et seq.), (ii) those rural interstate highways where both (a) permitted by federal laws and (b) indicated by lawfully placed signs, (iii) Virginia Route 288, and (iv) other limited access highways in any county having a population of at least 45,700 but no more than 45,800, where indicated by lawfully placed signs, shall be sixty-five miles per hour. limit shall be sixty-five miles per hour where indicated by lawfully placed signs, erected subsequent to a traffic engineering study, on: (i) interstate highways, (ii) highways constructed pursuant to the Virginia Highway Corporation Act of 1988 (§ 56-535 et seq.), (iii) Virginia Route 288, (iv) the limited access portion of Virginia Route 37, (v) highways constructed pursuant to the Public Private Transportation Act of 1995 (§ 56-556 et seq.), and (vi) high-occupancy vehicle lanes if such lanes are physically separated from regular travel lanes.

2. That all highways presently signed at sixty-five miles per hour shall remain as presently signed unless otherwise changed based upon a traffic engineering study.