Utah Highways Pages - Utah Laws

Utah Motorist Laws

SPEED LIMITS

Speed limit graphic
provided by
Richard C Moeur

Rural Interstate - 75 mph
Urban Interstate - 65 mph
Selected Undivided Rural Highways - 65 mph
Default Highway Speed Limit - 55 mph
School Zones - 20 mph

In 1987, when the National Mandatory Speed Limit (NMSL) was revised to allow 65 mph speed limits along rural interstates, Utah passed enabling legislation which permitted the higher speed limits wherever permitted by NMSL and approved by UDOT. Thus, when NMSL was at last repealed in December 1995, Utah was quick to post 65 mph limits on urban freeways along the Wasatch Front.

But, the effort to get even higher limits on rural freeways and on undivided roads in desolate areas of the state was a bit more protracted. Utah law permitted only speeds of 65 mph, so higher limits had to be approved by the legislature with concurrence by the governor. The 1996 legislature tackled the issue, and, after much indecision about whether 70 or 75 mph was appropriate, in the final days of that session, decided to follow the lead of Utah's neighbors, which had all posted 75 mph limits. The 75 mph limit was posted along most of the state's rural interstates in May 1996.

Meanwhile, speed limits on Utah's non-interstate roads, remained at 55 mph for a longer time. The same bill which authorized 75 mph on the interstates directed UDOT to undertake speed surveys on secondary highways and post higher limits where it deemed safe. The agency began with the major routes, and within a year had raised the limits to 65 mph on significant sections of US 6, US 40, US 50, US 89, and US 191. Today, there are hundreds of miles of US and state routes with speed limits of 60 or 65.

These signs on I-15 near 53rd South Murray stand as a brief history lesson on Utah speed limits. The signs were originally installed during NMSL, when federal law probited speed limits higher than 55 mph on urban freeways. When NMSL was repealed, a "65" placard was pasted over the "55". Then construction along I-15 brought a return to 55 mph limits on the corridor, and the "65" overlay was removed, leaving the scars visible at the right edge of the "55".

PASSENGER RESTRAINTS

(New laws took effect May 2000)

Seatbelts required for:

All front seat passengers
All passengers under age nineteen

NOTE: Passengers over age nineteen riding in the back seat are not required to wear a seat belt. ...but it is a wise choice, nonetheless!

Child safety seats required for

All children under age FOUR

Prior to the actions taken by the legislature in the 2000 seesion, child restraint seats were required only up to age two, and seatbelts were mandatory for backseat passengers only under age eight. However, the new laws which took effect in May 2000 raised both of those ages, and, more importantly, made such violations a primary offense, meaning that a vehicle can be pulled over merely for carrying children in violation of the law. For adults, violations remain a secondary offense, so a ticket can be issued only if the vehicle has been stopped for some other violation. Remember, however, that adults are only required to wear seatbelts in the front seat.

The primary quirk with Utah's seatbelt law is that it holds the driver of the vehicle responsible for all violations. That seems reasonable when it comes to drivers who transport unbelted minors, but it also means that if an adult passenger fails to buckle, it is the driver, not the scofflaw adult, who will be charged with the offense. The 2003 session of the state legislature failed to remedy this.

OTHER FACTS

Right turn on red: PERMITTED
Left turn on red
- One-way to one-way: PERMITTED
- Two-way to one-way: NO
U turns permitted at insections unless posted
Two-way left turn lanes can be used for beginning or ending left turns
Radar Detectors: LEGAL
Photo-radar: effectively banned (more information below)
Cellular phones: PERMITTED while driving (more information below)

Photo Radar

The use of photo radar by local police in Utah was effectively ended by the 1996 legislature. Photo radar is a device placed along a roadway which snaps a picture of every car and driver exceeding the posted speed limit, allowing the police agancy to mail citations to violators. Until the legislature stepped in, the device was used by police in Layton, West Valley, and Sandy.

The legislature imposed severe restrictions which limited its use to all but school zones on secondary streets. The cities, who had been leasing their photoradar units from a company in Arizona, said that the restrictions meant that it was no longer cost-effective to use the machines (read that to say, the cities were unable to produce enough revenue within the confines of the legislature's restrictions), and photoradar has not been used in Utah since June 1996.

Cellular phones

Over the past few years, the issue of driver inattention while using wireless phones has come to the forefront of the national safety debate as statistics indicate the rising incidence of accidents caused by motorists paying more attention to their conversations than to the traffic around them. Some advocates of legislation restricting cell phone use while driving have suggested that a preoccupied cell phone user may be statistically more dangerous than a driver with a blood alcohol content of 0.10%!

Those facts have reached Utah, but, so far, no legislation limiting cell phone use has survived the legislative process. A bill to prohibit use of cell phones while driving died in committee in the 1998 legislative session. SB142, which was opposed by the Utah Highway Patrol, was defeated by a 3-2 vote in the Senate Transportation and Public Safety Committee.

On a more recent note, a bill whose chances were thought to be the best of any cell phone restriction yet presented died in the 2001 Utah House on February 16. The measure, which had been watered down from its original form following compromises with representatives of the wireless industry, would have made it illegal to carry on a cellular conversation while operating a motor vehicle except in cases of emergency, while reporting a crime, or by law enforcement officials. The bill was rejected 38-33.

TRUCKS

Triple trailers permitted
Speed limits - No statewide lower truck limit (exceptions are posted)
Trucks over 10000 GVW prohibited in left lane of freeway with three lanes in one direction
Truck combinations longer than 98 feet have been prohibited in the I-15 reconstruction zone until late 2000, due to restricted lane width. This prohibition applies from I-215 at exit 301 to 600 North in Salt Lake City (exit 312).

VICES

The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control's package store in St. George. All package purchases of wine and liquor in Utah must be purchased in one of their 77 locations, all easily identified by the straightforward signage. The stores are closed on Sundays and holidays, and even the late-night locations close at 10pm. However, on the flip side, unlike some privately- owned liquor stores I've seen in some non-control states, the stores are very clean and safe. Also, you don't have to pay sales tax on purchases there (the prices are high enough due to Utah's liquor taxes!).

Legal drinking age: 21
Legal BAC: 0.08%
Wine and Liquor sold in state-run stores only (closed Sunday)
Illegal to import any liquor across state lines (although liquor stores in Wendover and Evanston seem to do a booming business ;-) )
Legal age to purchase cigarettes: 19
State Lottery: NO (all gambling is illegal)

"Members" only...

Utah has some very strange liquor laws. Accroding to the law, there are no bars ion the state. Alcohol can be served only with a meal in a restaurant and in private clubs. The latter loophole, originally intended to allow groups like Elks Lodges and Shriners to have alcohol in closed functions, has been exploited so that, law or not, Utah effectively has bars and nightclubs. All such bars are called "private clubs", and if you want to drink in one, you're supposed to pay to become a member. You can by a permanent membership, or, if you're a visitor, by a two week temporary membership for about five bucks.

Sound silly? It gets even more ridiculous: Any member of a private club is permitted to bring guests, who do not have to pay the membership fee when they are with the member. This is called sponsoring. However, a member doesn't even have to know the person they are sponsoring, nor do they have to bring them. So, if you see a nice little pub and you want to drop or two, simply walk in, and one of the members will sponsor you.

It's completely dumb. The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control knows that the game is played, and all Utahns who like to go out for a drink know the drill. So, it really comes down to the out of towners -- our visitors -- who don't know how to game the system who end up buying those temporary memberships. If you're coming to Utah to ski, and you want to drink, do it like the locals do!

Local Option / "Dry Cities" ?

In late June 1999, a ruling by the Utah Supreme Court affirmed the right of local communities to control liquor. The case in question involved the Garfield County city of Boulder, which sought to deny a liquor license to a local restraunteur, for no other reason than that Boulder's citizens did not want liquor served in their town. The Supreme Court's ruling, basically, said that Boulder had that power.

The ruling emboldened other communities to begin to investigate whether they also wished to prohibit alcohol licenses. Lindon (Utah County) and Draper (Salt Lake County) actively pursued anti-liquor ordinances. However, when the dry city initiative was placed on the ballot in November 1999, Draper voters rejected it, and what once seemed to be a rising "dry cities" movement in the state now appears to be dead.

Smoking

Not suprisingly, Utah was one of the first states to restrict indoor smoking. Currently, the ban extends to just about every public place except private clubs. Some attempts by restaurants to declare themselves "private clubs" and thus have a smoking section were stopped cold in the mid 1990s, before that got out of hand like the private drinking clubs have. There is a special section in the law which allows the Salt Lake International Airport to maintain separately ventilated smoking rooms within the terminals.

By the way, the Utah Clean Air Act prohibits smoking not only within buildings, but even up to 25 feet away from the entrance.

OTHER INFORMATION

Sales tax: State and local taxes total a minimum of 5.75% statewide, however this varies widely. Most counties add a local 0.25%. Along the Wasatch Front, the UTA transit tax brings it to 6.50%, and in Salt Lake County it is 6.60%. The Utah State Tax Commission maintains a comprehensive page showing the breakdown and total taxes in each county and municipality.
Area Code: 801 is the area code in Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, Weber, and Morgan counties. In 1997, a new area code, 435, was added for the remainder of the state. Its use became mandatory on September 22, 1998. Area code 801 will be split again, probably in 2003; Utah, Weber, and Morgan counties will be spilt into the new 385 area code.

JULY 24th - PIONEER DAY

Most states have some kind of state holiday. My previous home state of California has Admission Day on September 9. It's a day when the DMV is closed and you can ignore the parking meters downtown, but no one else ever gets the day off. Heck, most of the schools in California are open on Admission Day!

Utah's holiday is different: Pioneer Day, commemorating July 24, 1847, the day that the Mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley and began to transform the barren wasteland at the edge of the Great Basin into the irrigated metropolis I call home, as President Brigham Young declared, "This is the right place."

Pioneer Day is as big a holiday as you get. Salt Lake City hosts the nation's third largest parade, there are fireworks shows everywhere, and most people get the day off. It's fun to have a holiday that my relatives and friends in other part of the country don't get. To them, July 24 is just another summer day, but in Utah, it's as big as the Fourth of July.

DISCLAIMOR:While reasonable efforts are made to provide accurate information on this page, the author of this page cannot assume liability for any loss which occurs as a result of reliance upon the information presented herein. These pages are not in any manner associated with the government of the state of Utah.

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Last updated by Daniel Stober.