(a) No persons shall operate a motor vehicle at a speed greater or less than is reasonable or proper, having due regard to the traffic, surface and width of the street or highway and any other conditions, and no person shall drive any motor vehicle in and upon any street or highway at a greater speed than will permit the person to bring it to a stop within the assured clear distance ahead.
(b) It is prima-facie lawful, in the absence of a lower limit declared pursuant to Ohio R.C. 4511.21 by the Ohio Director of Transportation or local authority, for the operator of a motor vehicle to operate the same at a speed not exceeding the following:
(1) Fifteen miles per hour on all alleys within the Municipality;
(2) Twenty miles per hour in school zones during school recess and while children are going to or leaving school during the opening or closing hours, and when twenty miles per hour school speed limit signs are erected, except that on controlled access highways and expressways, if the right-of-way line fence has been erected without pedestrian opening, the speed shall be governed by paragraph (5) hereof, and on freeways, if the right-of-way line fence has been erected without pedestrian opening, the speed shall be governed by paragraph (6) hereof;
(3) Twenty-five miles per hour in all other portions of the Municipality, except on State routes outside business districts, through streets and through highways outside business districts, and alleys;
(4) Thirty-five miles per hour on all State routes or through streets and through highways within the Municipality outside business districts, except as provided in paragraph (5) hereof;
(5) Fifty miles per hour on controlled-access highways and expressways, within the Municipality, and on State routes outside urban districts, unless a lower prima-facie speed is established as provided by paragraphs (1) through (4) hereof or Ohio R.C. 4511.21;
(6) Fifty-five miles per hour at all times on freeways with paved shoulders inside the Municipality, other than freeways as provided in paragraph (7) hereof;
(7) Sixty miles per hour on all portions of freeways that are part of the interstate system and are eligible for such speed in accordance with criteria issued by the Federal Highway Administration and on all portions of freeways greater than five miles in length that are eligible for such speed in accordance with criteria issued by the Federal Highway Administration as established by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, 105 Stat. 1968, U.S.C. 154(a), for any motor vehicle weighing 8,000 pounds or less empty weight and any commercial bus, except fifty-five miles per hour for operators of any motor vehicle weighing in excess of 8,000 pounds empty weight and any noncommercial bus.
(c) It is prima-facie unlawful for any person to exceed any of the speed limitations in paragraphs (b)(1) through (b)(5) hereof or any declared pursuant to subsection (h) hereof or Ohio R.C. 4511.21 by the Ohio Director of Transportation or local authority, and it is unlawful for any person to exceed either of the speed limitations in subsection (d) hereof. No person shall be convicted or more than one violation of this section for the same conduct, although violations of more than one provision of this section may be charged in the alternative in a single affidavit.
(d) No person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a street or highway as follows:
(1) At a speed exceeding fifty-five miles per hour, except upon a freeway as provided in paragraph (b)(7) hereof;
(2) At a speed exceeding sixty miles per hour, upon a freeway as provided by ORC Section 4511.21(B)(12), except as otherwise provided in paragraph (d)(3) of this subsection;
(3) If a motor vehicle weighing in excess of 8,000 pounds empty weight or a noncommercial bus as prescribed in paragraph (b)(7) hereof, at a speed exceeding fifty-five miles per hour upon a freeway as provided in that paragraph.
(e) In every charge of violation of this section, the affidavit and warrant shall specify the time, place and speed at which the defendant is alleged to have driven. In charges made in reliance upon subsection (c) hereof also, the affidavit and warrant shall specify the speed which subsections (b)(1) through (b)(5) of, or a limit declared pursuant to, this section declared is prima-facie lawful at the time and place of alleged violation. In affidavits where a person is alleged to have driven at a greater speed than will permit the person to bring the vehicle to a stop within the assured clear distance ahead, the affidavit and warrant need not specify the speed at which the defendant is alleged to have driven.
(f) When a speed in excess of both a prima-facie limitation and a limitation in subsection (d) hereof is alleged, the defendant shall be charged in a single affidavit, alleging a single act, with a violation indicated of both subsection (b) or of a limit declared pursuant to this section by the Ohio Director of Transportation or local authority, and of a limitation in subsection (d) hereof. If the court finds a violation of subsection (b) or a limit declared pursuant to this section has occurred, it shall enter a judgment of conviction under the applicable subsection and dismiss the charge under subsection (d) hereof. If it finds no violation of subsection (b) or a limit declared pursuant to this section, it shall then consider whether the evidence supports a conviction under subsection (d) hereof.
(g) Points shall be assessed for violation of a limitation under subsection (d) hereof only when the court finds the violation involved a speed of five miles per hour or more in excess of the posted speed limit. Convictions for violation of subsection (d) hereof, or any ordinance enacted to reduce speeds in compliance with subsection (d) hereof, shall not be forwarded to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles as provided under Ohio R.C. 4507.40 unless points are assessed as provided in this subsection.
(h) Whenever the maximum prima-facie speed limitations herein have been altered, in accordance with Ohio R.C. 4511.21 by declaration of the Ohio Director of Transportation or by ordinance of Council amending Traffic Schedule IV, either higher or lower, and the appropriate signs giving notice of it are erected at the location a required, operators of motor vehicles shall be governed by the speed limitations set forth on such signs. It is prima-facie unlawful for any person to exceed the speed limits posted upon such signs.
(ORC 4511.21; Ord. 176-97. Passed 3-18-97.)