2021 Nebraska Revised Statutes
Chapter 60 - Motor Vehicles
60-680 - Regulation of highways by local authority; police powers.

60-680. Regulation of highways by local authority; police powers.

(1) Any local authority with respect to highways under its jurisdiction and within the reasonable exercise of the police power may:

(a) Regulate or prohibit stopping, standing, or parking;

(b) Regulate traffic by means of peace officers or traffic control devices;

(c) Regulate or prohibit processions or assemblages on the highways;

(d) Designate highways or roadways for use by traffic moving in one direction;

(e) Establish speed limits for vehicles in public parks;

(f) Designate any highway as a through highway or designate any intersection as a stop or yield intersection;

(g) Restrict the use of highways as authorized in section 60-681;

(h) Regulate operation of bicycles and require registration and inspection of such, including requirement of a registration fee;

(i) Regulate operation of electric personal assistive mobility devices;

(j) Regulate or prohibit the turning of vehicles or specified types of vehicles;

(k) Alter or establish speed limits authorized in the Nebraska Rules of the Road;

(l) Designate no-passing zones;

(m) Prohibit or regulate use of controlled-access highways by any class or kind of traffic except those highways which are a part of the state highway system;

(n) Prohibit or regulate use of heavily traveled highways by any class or kind of traffic it finds to be incompatible with the normal and safe movement of traffic, except that such regulations shall not be effective on any highway which is part of the state highway system unless authorized by the Department of Transportation;

(o) Establish minimum speed limits as authorized in the rules;

(p) Designate hazardous railroad grade crossings as authorized in the rules;

(q) Designate and regulate traffic on play streets;

(r) Prohibit pedestrians from crossing a roadway in a business district or any designated highway except in a crosswalk as authorized in the rules;

(s) Restrict pedestrian crossings at unmarked crosswalks as authorized in the rules;

(t) Regulate persons propelling push carts;

(u) Regulate persons upon skates, coasters, sleds, and other toy vehicles;

(v) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, adopt and enforce an ordinance or resolution prohibiting the use of engine brakes on the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways that has a grade of less than five degrees within its jurisdiction. For purposes of this subdivision, engine brake means a device that converts a power producing engine into a power-absorbing air compressor, resulting in a net energy loss;

(w) Adopt and enforce such temporary or experimental regulations as may be necessary to cover emergencies or special conditions; and

(x) Adopt other traffic regulations except as prohibited by state law or contrary to state law.

(2) No local authority, except an incorporated city with more than forty thousand inhabitants as determined by the most recent federal decennial census or the most recent revised certified count by the United States Bureau of the Census, shall erect or maintain any traffic control device at any location so as to require the traffic on any state highway or state-maintained freeway to stop before entering or crossing any intersecting highway unless approval in writing has first been obtained from the Department of Transportation.

(3) No ordinance or regulation enacted under subdivision (1)(d), (e), (f), (g), (j), (k), (l), (m), (n), (p), (q), or (s) of this section shall be effective until traffic control devices giving notice of such local traffic regulations are erected upon or at the entrances to such affected highway or part thereof affected as may be most appropriate.

Source

• Laws 1973, LB 45, § 97;
• R.S.1943, (1988), § 39-697;
• Laws 1993, LB 370, § 176;
• Laws 2000, LB 1361, § 2;
• Laws 2002, LB 491, § 2;
• Laws 2002, LB 1105, § 455;
• Laws 2017, LB113, § 48;
• Laws 2017, LB339, § 184.

Annotations

• The city is authorized to regulate or prohibit parking on its streets. There is no requirement that such prohibitions be made by ordinance. Morrow v. City of Ogallala, 213 Neb. 414, 329 N.W.2d 351 (1983).

• A city ordinance regulating funeral processions was a reasonable and valid exercise of the city's police power under this section and does not conflict with Nebraska's present right-of-way statutes, sections 39-609(1) and 39-614(1)(a). Herman v. Lee, 210 Neb. 563, 316 N.W.2d 56 (1982).