Restoring Sanity Act

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Kevan Bartlett and 4 co-sponsors

SHA can lower certain urban State highway speed limits by up to 5 mph without an engineering study, broadening administrative flexibility for modest reductions.

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Summary / Purpose

SB 424 authorizes the State Highway Administration (SHA) to lower certain statutory maximum speed limits on urban State highways by up to 5 miles per hour without first conducting an engineering and traffic investigation. The change is intended to streamline modest speed reductions on urban highways (business districts and residential districts) where SHA decides a lower maximum is appropriate.

Key provisions

Amends Transportation Article § 21–802 to permit SHA, without an engineering and traffic investigation, to decrease by 5 mph the maximum speed limits authorized under § 21–801.1(b)(2) and (3). Those subsections govern:

30 mph maximum on all highways in a business district and on undivided highways in a residential district; and
35 mph maximum on divided highways in a residential district.

Practically, this authority would allow SHA to reduce those statutory maxima by 5 mph (e.g., 30 → 25 mph and 35 → 30 mph) on qualifying urban State highways under its jurisdiction.

Retains SHA’s existing authority to establish or change speed limits based on an engineering and traffic investigation for other speed changes or for increases.

An altered maximum speed limit becomes effective when posted on appropriate signs.

Effective date specified in the bill: October 1, 2025.

Who is affected

State Highway Administration: gains administrative flexibility to make limited speed reductions without the time and expense of a formal engineering and traffic study.

Motorists and local communities: drivers on affected urban State highways in business and residential districts may experience lower posted speed limits in some locations.

Law enforcement and courts: potential small increase in enforcement actions and related case processing if changes result in more citations.

State finances: potential modest impacts described below.

Fiscal and operational impact

Nonpartisan fiscal analysis (Maryland Department of Legislative Services) finds a minimal fiscal impact:

Transportation Trust Fund expenditures may decrease slightly because fewer formal traffic engineering investigations would be required.
General fund revenues may increase minimally if lower posted limits result in additional speeding citations; District Courts can absorb any modest caseload increase with existing resources.

No direct local fiscal impact anticipated.

Procedural / Timeline

Introduced in the Senate (Judicial Proceedings Committee) by Senator Jackson (First Reader Jan. 30, 2025 in fiscal note); hearing(s) scheduled in late January 2025 (listed as Jan. 31 on committee calendar).

Bill text includes an October 1, 2025 effective date if enacted.

For readers seeking the statutory details, the bill modifies § 21–802(b) to add the subsection authorizing the 5-mph reduction without an engineering and traffic investigation and leaves the rest of SHA’s rulemaking and sign-posting procedures in place.

Bill