Question: My question is about speed limit signs. When I see the sign does it mean I go that speed now or when I get to the sign? I’ve driven for 30 years and often wondered about that.
Answer: When a speed limit changes, the new speed limit takes effect at the location of the sign. For anyone that doesn’t care how I got to that answer, all you need to know is that if the speed limit is increasing don’t speed up until you reach the sign, and if the speed limit is decreasing, slow down before you reach it.
For the rest of you, I thought this would be easy. The Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices states that speed limit signs “shall be located at the points of change from one speed limit to another.” Since Washington has adopted the manual as law I thought that was it. It wasn’t it. Washington made a few modifications, which included a change to the section on speed limit signs. The revision didn’t include anything about sign locations.
I haven’t found a reference to give you for a single law or regulation that specifies where a speed limit sign goes, but I can give you a whole bunch, starting at the state level. The Washington State Department of Transportation Traffic Manual, which guides department personnel in traffic design, specifies that speed limit signs be installed “at the location where a speed limit changes to another.” Locally, your city or county likely has a similar rule. In the county where I live, the county code says that all speed zones “shall be...
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