2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 66 - Motor Vehicles
Article 3 - Registration Laws; Security Interests; Anti-Theft Provisions; Bicycles; Equipment; Unsafe Vehicles; Off-Highway Motor Vehicles; Other Vehicles
Part 11 - OFF-HIGHWAY MOTOR VEHICLES
Section 66-3-1012 - Driving of off-highway motor vehicles adjacent to highway.

A. Off-highway motor vehicles issued a validating sticker or nonresident permit may be driven adjacent to a highway, yielding to all vehicles entering or exiting the highway, in a manner so as not to interfere with traffic upon the highway, only for the purpose of gaining access to or returning from areas designed for the operation of off-highway motor vehicles by the shortest possible route and when no other route is available or when the area adjacent to a highway is being used as a staging area. Such use must occur between the highway and fencing that separates the highway from private or public lands.

B. When snow conditions permit, an off-highway motor vehicle may be operated on the right-hand side of a highway, parallel, but not closer than ten feet, to the inside of the plow bank.

History: 1953 Comp., § 64-3-1012, enacted by Laws 1978, ch. 35, § 208; 1985, ch. 189, § 12; 2005, ch. 325, § 15.

The 2005 amendment, effective January 1, 2006, deleted the former provision that an off-highway motor vehicle issued a registration plate could be moved by non mechanical means adjacent to a highway; provided in Subsection A that an off-highway motor vehicle issued a validating sticker or nonresident permit may be driven adjacent to a highway, yielding to all vehicles entering or exiting the highway, only for the purpose of gaining access to designated off-highway motor vehicle areas by the shortest possible route when no other route is available or when the area adjacent to a highway is used as a staging area and that the use must occur between the highway and fencing that separates the highway from private or public lands; and added Subsection B to provide that when snow conditions permit an off-highway motor vehicle may be operated on the right-hand side of the highway, not closer than ten feet to the inside of the plow bank.