Provides for speed enforcement measures. (8/1/26)

SB 138 amends Louisiana Revised Statutes section 32:47 governing automated speed enforcement devices used by local authorities to issue citations by mail. The bill modifies three requirements for such devices in school zones and adds a federal compliance provision. First, it removes the requirement that warning signs be bright yellow while retaining the requirement that signs reading "Photo enforcement devices at use" be forty-eight by forty-eight inches, positioned at least seven feet from the ground, and located between five hundred and one thousand feet before the device or camera. Second, it replaces specific pavement marking standards—which previously required two-foot-wide yellow stripes with twelve-inch white lettering reading "Entering School Zone" at school zone entrances and "School Zone Ahead" two hundred feet before the entrance—with a requirement that pavement markings comply with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Third, the bill enacts a new subsection stating that nothing in the law shall require traffic control devices or pavement markings inconsistent with MUTCD standards. Additionally, SB 138 repeals an existing exemption in R.S. 32:43(A)(4) that had allowed a specific category of municipalities to use automated speed enforcement on interstate highways despite a general prohibition against such use.

Local municipal and parish authorities that operate automated speed enforcement systems are directly affected by these changes. Municipalities that were previously exempt from the interstate highway prohibition will lose that exemption upon the bill's effective date of August 1, 2026, and can no longer use automated speed enforcement devices on interstate routes. Local governments maintaining school zones with speed enforcement cameras must modify their pavement markings to comply with MUTCD standards rather than the previously mandated two-foot yellow stripes and white lettering. The removal of the bright yellow sign requirement provides municipalities with greater flexibility in signage appearance while maintaining the textual warning.

The bill operates within Louisiana's traffic enforcement regulatory framework established in Title 32 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes. It aligns state requirements with the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which is a nationally recognized standard developed by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The bill's explicit language that nothing in state law shall conflict with MUTCD standards creates a hierarchy where federal guidance supersedes more prescriptive state specifications. This approach respects federal uniformity in traffic control while maintaining Louisiana's authority to regulate speed enforcement practices by local entities, thus operating consistently with principles of cooperative federalism in traffic safety regulation.