Sport45 wrote:
mowermech wrote:
Montana Code Annotated 61-8-311. Minimum speed regulations.
(1) A person may not drive a motor vehicle at a speed slow enough to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.
(2) On a two-lane highway where passing is unsafe because of oncoming traffic or other conditions, the operator of a slow-moving vehicle behind which four or more vehicles are formed in line shall turn off the roadway at the nearest area where a sufficient and safe turnout exists in order to permit the vehicles following it to proceed. If the shoulder of the highway to the right of the slow-moving vehicle is wide enough and is in a condition allowing safe travel, the operator of the slow-moving vehicle may drive onto the shoulder and proceed at a safe speed until passed. As used in this section, a slow-moving vehicle is one that is proceeding at a rate of speed less than the normal flow of traffic at the particular time and place. The department of transportation is authorized to designate and construct turnouts and to erect official traffic control devices at appropriate places advising motorists of this statute.
(3) If the department of transportation or local authorities within their respective jurisdictions determine on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation that slow speeds on any part of a highway impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, the commission or the local authority may set a minimum speed limit below which a person may not operate a vehicle except when necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.
You CAN get a ticket if there are 4 or more vehicles behind you and you don't move over and let them by IF you can safely do so!
I use the road that will get us where we want to go. Since there are only three freeways in this state (I-15, I-90, and I-94), that means we often use 2 lane roads.
If I read the above post correctly in section 1 and 3 a vehicle travelling at the speed limit is not considered a "slow moving vehicle" because the reduced speed is necessary to be in compliance with the law.
In section 2, the driver of a vehicle exceeding the speed limit could be ticketed for impeding traffic. But I suppose everyone stacked up behind him should be ticketed for speeding.
One must keep in mind that Montana had, at one time, a "reasonable and proper" speed limit, unless otherwise posted. That "reasonable and proper" was to be based on the vehicle, the road, the time of day, and the weather. Back then I passed a MHP car at 110 MPH, in a new Dodge Coronet R/T on a new, empty freeway, on a bright sunny summer day. I guess the cop felt that the speed, in that car, on that road, in that weather, was absolutely "reasonable and proper". He did not come after me. That "reasonable and proper" speed limit is probably the reason for the "compliance with the law" provision: Where there IS a posted speed limit.
Whatever.
The FACT is, spin it however you want, IF you allow 4 or more vehicles to stack up behind you, and don't pull over at the first safe opportunity, you COULD (not WILL) get a ticket!
