The speed limit along four major highways was officially changed to 100 kilometres per hour yesterday.
The change was effected after President Anthony Carmona assented to the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic (Amendment) (No 2) Act of 2017 and Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan signed the requisite Speed Limit Orders. The amended legislation was debated and passed in the Senate on November 28.
While motorists were left confused with the installation of signs of the new limit earlier this week, the new regulations only took effect after they were gazetted and published in daily newspapers yesterday.
The implementation was announced in a press release issued by Sinanan’s ministry yesterday afternoon.
Under the new limit, motorists driving private vehicles and goods vehicles, whose maximum gross weight (M.G.W.) does not exceed 3200 kilos, are allowed to drive at 100 km/h along the Beetham, Churchill Roosevelt, Uriah Butler and Solomon Hochoy Highways.
The previous speed limit of 80 km/h still applies along the Audrey Jeffers Highway, Diego Martin Highway, the Valencia Stretch and Reinzi-Kirton Highway and South Trunk Road Extension in south Trinidad.
In Tobago, the old speed limit will apply to the Claude Noel Highway, Shirvan Road between the highway and Grafton Road and along the Auchenskeoch-Buccoo Bay Road from Shirvan Junction to Montgomery Road.
In the release, the ministry said it will be erecting signs to explain the new limits to motorists.
It also noted that the T&T Police Service received nine additional LIDAR speed guns in November increasing its capacity to 15.