SECTION 1.  Chapter 85 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 21A the following section:-

Section 21B.  Notwithstanding section 2 of chapter 85 of the General Laws, a city may establish by ordinance, on public ways under the care and custody of the city, a senior citizen safety zone, which may be an area adjacent to a facility which may be publicly or privately owned and used as senior citizen housing, a hospital, nursing home or assisted living facility, a community center of which senior activities are conducted on a regular basis or a congregate elderly facility approved as a planned unit development by the city.

In a senior citizen safety zone, the city may, by ordinance under the direction of the traffic engineer, take necessary action to reduce vehicular speed by reducing speed limits to not less than 20 miles per hour or such lower speed limit as is set for school zones and by installing signals or appropriate signs and restriping roadways. The traffic engineer may adopt and amend rules and regulations to carry out this section.

The city shall notify the state traffic engineer upon the establishment of a senior citizen safety zone. The city shall notify the state traffic engineer of any reduction of speed on a functionally classified local roadway.

This section shall not apply to any state highway, numbered route or functionally-classified arterial.

SECTION 2.  Section 17 of chapter 90 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2004 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the word “hour”, in line 15, the following words:-

, or (5) within a senior citizen safety zone which may be established by a city or town as provided in section 21A of chapter 85 at a rate of speed exceeding 20 miles per hour or such lower speed limit as is set for school zones.