SECTION 1.  Chapter 85 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 21B the following section:-

Section 21C.  Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, a city or town may establish, on ways within their control, one or more, recreational safety zones, which may be an area adjacent to a park, playground, athletic field, public pool, public skating rink, or other public recreational facility.

A recreational safety zone may be established by a city council, the transportation commission of the City of Boston, the board of selectmen, traffic commission, or traffic director, in the manner set forth by municipal charter or other local law, in the manner set forth by municipal charter or other local law, for the adoption of traffic rules, regulations, ordinances, or bylaws. The locally-designated body charged with regulating traffic may 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, and may adopt The traffic engineer may adopt and amend rules and regulations to carry out this section.

The city or town shall notify the state traffic engineer upon the establishment of a senior citizen safety zone, and 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 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after subsection 5, in line 15, the following words:-

, or (6) within a recreational safety zone which may be established by a city or town as provided in section 21B of chapter 85 at a rate of speed exceeding 20 miles per hour or such lower speed limit as is set for school zones.

SECTION 3. Section 2 of chapter 85 of the general laws, as appearing in the 2008 official edition, is hereby amended by inserting after the phrase “senior citizen safety zones,” the phrase “recreational safety zones.”