Prattville updates speed limits on major roads across the city

Prattville drivers on some of the city’s busiest roads now have a fresh set of speed limits to watch after the City Council adopted an ordinance that rewrote the city’s traffic code for a long list of major corridors.

The measure passed May 19 and was posted on the city website May 21. It amends Chapter 62 of the Prattville Code of Ordinances, Article III, Division 2, sections 62-77 through 62-84, and lays out corridor-specific rules for U.S. 82, U.S. 31, Alabama Highway 14, Cobbs Ford Road and East Main Street, Memorial Drive, Selma Highway, West Fourth Street, Lower Kingston Road, Fairview Avenue, Doster Road, Jensen Road, Bridge Creek Road, County Road 4, Old Farm Road and Bass Pro Boulevard.

Among the clearest changes, the ordinance sets 55 mph on U.S. 82 from Cobbs Ford Road to the west city limits, on U.S. 31 from U.S. 82 to the south city limits, and on AL 14 from Echlin Boulevard to the west city limits. Those are the kinds of arterial roads where traffic can shift quickly from commercial congestion to higher-speed travel, especially as drivers move between shopping areas, residential access points and route changes near the city’s edge.

The city’s new code also matters because it gives enforcement a clearer standard. Prattville Police Department Code Enforcement is responsible for enforcing city ordinances, and the council meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers, where future traffic changes can be taken up in public.

The ordinance lands against a traffic backdrop that has been building for years. ALDOT held a public involvement meeting on Jan. 30, 2024, on access-management work along Cobbs Ford Road from Bass Pro Boulevard to the I-65 southbound ramp. A 2023 report cited ALDOT figures showing average daily traffic near that project area climbed from 10,990 in 2013 to 18,893 in 2019, and described Cobbs Ford Road as Prattville’s bypass and a designated truck route.

Local crash data underscores why those corridors draw attention. Autauga County’s draft Safety Action Plan says there were 6,892 crashes on public roadways in the county from 2019 through 2023, with 54 deaths and 201 suspected serious injuries. In March 2026, a Prattville woman was injured in a pedestrian crash on Alabama 14 near the Autauga County Agricultural Center. In April 2025, another Prattville woman died in a crash on U.S. 82.

For Prattville, the ordinance is more than a code cleanup. It ties posted speeds to the roads drivers actually use every day, and it puts the city’s next enforcement decisions squarely in view.