How Fast Can I Go?

Pop quiz hotshot. You pull onto a roadway and you don’t know what the speed limit is. How fast can you legally drive?

Many motorists don’t know this but there is a speed set for each and every roadway in the State of Maryland, regardless of whether there is a sign and regardless of if you drove passed it. Imagine you are driving on a side street. You turn onto a roadway, you begin driving, but you have not passed a speed limit sign. You have no idea what the speed limit is. How do you know how fast you can go?

Now imagine that you pulled onto the roadway. You haven’t passed a speed limit sign, and you are going about 50 mph. There are no businesses or homes fronting the road. You feel like you are traveling at a safe speed, and then it happens. Red and light lights start to flash behind you, you are being pulled over. The officer tells you that she measured your speed at 52 mph in a 40 mph zone. Have you violated the law? The answer is easy, yes and no.

There is a statute in Maryland that lists the speed limits for roadways when there is no speed limit sign. Why isn’t there a speed limit sign? Maybe it was knocked down, but most likely, you entered the roadway AFTER the sign, and have not been put on notice by the State of what the speed limit is. In that situation, you are permitted to rely on the statutory speed limits listed in Maryland Transportation Article, § 801.1. These statutory speeds include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Baltimore County alleys: 15 mph
• Highways in a business district: 30 mph
• Undivided highways in a business district: 30 mph
• Divided highways in a residential district: 35 mph
• Undivided highway in other locations: 50 mph
• Divided highway in other locations: 55 mph

In short, always know your speed limit, but if you don’t, at least know the statutory limits.

Craig I. Meyers, Esq.