A Closer Look at County Road Speed Limits – and How They are Changing

As development increases in the rural areas of Fayette County, traffic on County roads comes with it.

Many if not most of the country roads in Fayette County were laid out during a time when horses and mules and wagons were the common modes of transportation. They followed property lines that took 90-degree turns and crossed seasonal creeks with low water crossings – none of which posed much trouble for the slow-moving transportation of those days.

But these features are hazards for automobile traffic. With new people and businesses moving to rural areas, some long-time residents are calling for lower speed limits on county roads.

According to the Texas Transportation Code, the “prima facie” speed limit on unmarked county roads is 60 miles an hour across the state. Counties cannot simply post a lower speed limit sign and direct the Sheriff’s Office to begin stopping speeders. Instead, it takes a somewhat lengthy formal process to establish a lower speed limit on a particular road. Nor may counties establish a county-wide speed limit. Lower speed limits may only be established on a roadby- road basis. It requires a public hearing followed by a vote by the Commissioners to establish a formal order setting the speed limit on a particular road.

In Fayette County, the procedure has come up with increasing frequency in the past few years. A case in point was at the Commissioners Court meeting last Wednesday, Nov. 23. At that meeting, Commissioners unanimously lowered the speed limit on three county roads: Teinert Rd. in Precinct 1 and Bittner Rd. and East Parker Rd. in Precinct 3.

Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff said the new 7V Solar Ranch’s main entrance is on Bittner Rd. in the Muldoon area. The solar power facility is under construction.

“At this particular time, (traffic) is very hectic at all hours of the day,” Berckenhoff said. “LCRA also put a substation right next to it, so there’s a lot of traffic coming in and out of Bittner Rd.

“On East Parker Rd., a lady called me who has been living there 35 years and said she could never believe anyone would ever move to that location,” Berckenhoff added. “Well now, there’s probably 15 or 20 families have moved on to that road. The road is a little windy, there’s a bunch of hills up and down. Truck traffic uses it to cut across from FM 609 to FM 154, so there’s a lot of truck traffic and a few oil wells on that road.”

Berckenhoff said several citizens who live on East Parker Rd. have asked him about lowering the speed limit.

“I agree that there are some roads that are pretty wide and don’t have a lot of curves and don’t need to be set lower to 40 or 45 miles per hour,” Berckenhoff said. “But this particular road, I believe 60 is an unsafe speed.”

Several residents from East Parker Rd. spoke during the public comment period. One woman said she spoke a commercial driver and advised them to slow down. She said the driver said he knew the speed limit was 60 miles an hour on unmarked roads and said he could drive that fast if he wanted to.

Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom said the biggest issue in his precinct is oilfield traffic.

“If we don’t set a speed limit, it’s like the lady said, they’re going the speed limit, 60 miles an hour, which is way too fast when they’re 20 feet from someone’s house,” McBroom said.

Another resident asked about setting a county-wide speed limit.

“We can’t do that, it’s state law,” McBroom said. “That’s why we have to do this every time for a road. It’s about a month-long process to do it. We can’t just set up a speed limit sign.”

McBroom said the speed limit signs come with other problems for the county.

“I think all of us would rather not have them because we’re constantly replacing them,” he said. “They get stolen, they get shot at or they get run over.”

One of the residents asked about speed limit enforcement.

“After that it goes to law enforcement,” McBroom said. “I tell people to call the Sheriff’s Office if you see anybody (speeding). You have to realize there’s not enough Sheriff’s deputies to be there all day. So if you can pinpoint a time or a kind of vehicle, that will help them out a lot.”

Berckenhoff asked the citizens to take note of any commercial vehicles driving unsafely.

“If you let us know, we can go to the (company) and say, ‘Look here, you have some contractors driving way too fast, and we’re going to call DPS or the Sheriff’s Office out here,’” Berckenhoff said.

“They’ll talk to them and tell the drivers not to come back,” he added. “They’ll get new drivers. LCRA is pretty good about it. It does help some.”

After the public hearing, Commissioners voted to set the following speed limits: 40 miles per hour on Teinert Rd., 40 miles per hour on East Parker Rd. and 35 miles per hour on Bittner Rd.