Colorado speed limit standards

The Colorado Department of Transportation published a standard for setting speed limits in August 2002. The document was entitled: Establishing Realistic Speed Limits. The link to a pdf of the brochure is here.

The key part of the standard informs us that the Colorado Legislature has, as in Michigan, mandated that city speed limits be regulated by Colorado State law.

Section 42-4-1102, Colorado Revised Statutes, requires that speed limits are not to be higher or lower than the basic prima facie speed limits unless a Traffic Investigation has justified the change. This law applies to all State Highways, County Roads and City Streets.

The state specified speed limits are explicit: “25 mph in any business district” and “30 mph in any residential district” unless a formal “Traffic Investigation has justified the change.” The law is widely applicable, including to all “City Streets”.

This is hugely interesting!

So the question is then, are speed limits in the City of Northglenn, those that are above or below the statutory speed limits as stated in the Colorado statute, set in accordance with formal Traffic Investigations that meet the statutory standard?

If not, might this then mean that some Northglenn traffic citations are not in full accordance with state law, and thus, could possibly be invalidated in a court of law under appropriate challenge? I note that in the Michigan link provided earlier, some traffic defendants have had tickets overturned when challenged in court on this basis: nonconformance with state law.

Developing.

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