2015 New York Laws
VAT - Vehicle & Traffic
Title 8 - RESPECTIVE POWERS OF STATE AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Article 39 - (1640 - 1646) REGULATION OF TRAFFIC BY CITIES AND VILLAGES
1640 - Traffic regulations in all cities and villages.

 1640. Traffic  regulations  in  all  cities  and  villages.  (a) The
  legislative body of any city or village, with respect to highways (which
  term for the purposes of this section shall include private  roads  open
  to public motor vehicle traffic) in such city or village; subject to the
  limitations  imposed by section sixteen hundred eighty-four may by local
  law, ordinance, order, rule or regulation:
1. Designate through highways and order stop signs,  flashing  signals
  or  yield  signs erected at specified entrances thereto or designate any
  intersection as a stop intersection or a yield  intersection  and  order
  like signs or signals at one or more entrances to such intersection.
2.  Prohibit or regulate the turning of vehicles or specified types of
  vehicles at intersections or other designated locations.
3. Regulate the crossing of any roadway by pedestrians.
4. Designate any highway or any separate roadway thereof  for  one-way
  traffic.
5.  Exclude  trucks,  commercial  vehicles,  tractors, tractor-trailer
  combinations,        tractor-semitrailer        combinations,         or
  tractor-trailer-semitrailer combinations from highways specified by such
  legislative  body.  Such exclusion shall not be construed to prevent the
  delivery or pickup of merchandise or other property along  the  highways
  from which such vehicles and combinations are otherwise excluded.
6.  Prohibit,  restrict  or limit the stopping, standing or parking of
  vehicles; provided, however, that a vehicle may not be found  to  be  in
  violation  of  a  parking regulation if it is parked at a broken parking
  meter at a time when metered parking is authorized.
7. Determine those highways or portions of  highways  which  shall  be
  marked  to  indicate where overtaking and passing or driving to the left
  of or crossing such markings would be especially hazardous in accordance
  with the standards, minimum warrants and sign or marking  specifications
  established by the department of transportation.
8. Designate safety zones.
9. Provide for the installation, operation, maintenance, policing, and
  supervision  of  parking  meters,  establish parking time limits at such
  meters, designate hours of operation of  such  meters,  and,  except  as
  provided  in  section  twelve  hundred  three-h of this chapter, fix and
  require the payment of fees applicable to parking where such meters  are
  in  operation.  Such  fees  shall  be  paid  to such city or village and
  credited to its general fund, unless a different disposition  prescribed
  by  local  law or ordinance enacted prior to or after the effective date
  of this section.
10. Establish  a  system  of  truck  routes  upon  which  all  trucks,
  tractors,  and  tractor-trailer combinations having a total gross weight
  in excess of ten thousand pounds are permitted to travel and operate and
  excluding such vehicles and combinations from all highways except  those
  which  constitute  such  truck route system. Such exclusion shall not be
  construed to prevent the delivery or pick up  of  merchandise  or  other
  property  along  the  highways from which such vehicles and combinations
  are otherwise excluded. Any such system of truck  routes  shall  provide
  suitable  connection with all state routes entering or leaving such city
  or village.
11. Regulate traffic by means of traffic-control signals.
12. License, regulate or prohibit speed contests,  races,  exhibitions
  of  speed,  processions,  assemblages  or parades. Whenever such a speed
  contest, race, exhibition of speed,  procession,  assemblage  or  parade
  authorized  by a local authority will block the movement of traffic on a
  state highway maintained by the state, or on a  highway  which  connects
  two  state highways maintained by the state to make a through route, for
  a period in excess of ten minutes, such authority must,  prior  to  such

  blocking, provide and designate with conspicuous signs a detour adequate
  to prevent unreasonable delay in the movement of traffic on said highway
  maintained by the state.
13.  Prohibit  or regulate the operation and the stopping, standing or
  parking of vehicles in cemeteries and in public parks.
14. Provide  for  the  removal  and  storage  of  vehicles  parked  or
  abandoned  on  highways during snowstorms, floods, fires or other public
  emergencies, or found unattended where they constitute an obstruction to
  traffic or any place where stopping, standing or parking is  prohibited,
  and  for  the payment of reasonable charges for such removal and storage
  by the owner or operator of any such vehicle.
15. Provide for the establishment, operation, policing and supervision
  of a prepaid parking permit system, establishing parking time limits for
  such permits and fix and require  the  payment  of  fees  applicable  to
  parking where such a prepaid permit parking system is in operation. Such
  fees  shall  be  paid  to the city of Albany and credited to its general
  funds, unless  a  different  disposition  prescribed  by  local  law  is
  enacted.  A  prepaid parking permit system may not be established at any
  location at which parking  is  subject  to  a  parking  meter  fee.  The
  provisions  of  this  paragraph shall only be applicable for the city of
  Albany.
16. Adopt such additional reasonable local laws,  ordinances,  orders,
  rules  and  regulations  with respect to traffic as local conditions may
  require subject to the limitations contained in the various laws of this
  state.
17. Make special provisions with relation  to  stopping,  standing  or
  parking  of  vehicles registered pursuant to section four hundred four-a
  of this chapter or those possessing  a  special  vehicle  identification
  parking  permit  issued  in  accordance  with  section  one thousand two
  hundred three-a of this chapter.
18. Declare a snow emergency and  designate  any  highway  or  portion
  thereof as a snow emergency route.
19. Prohibit vehicles engaged in the retail sale of frozen desserts as
  that  term  is  defined  in  subdivision  thirty-seven  of section three
  hundred seventy-five  of  this  chapter  directly  to  pedestrians  from
  stopping  for  the purpose of such sales on any highway within such city
  or village, or on all such highways. Nothing herein shall  be  construed
  to  prohibit the operator of such vehicle from stopping such vehicle off
  of such highway, in a safe manner, for the sole  purpose  of  delivering
  such  retail  product  directly to the residence of a consumer or to the
  business address of a customer of such retailer.
20. Exclude trucks,  commercial  vehicles,  tractors,  tractor-trailer
  combinations,         tractor-semitrailer        combinations,        or
  tractor-trailer-semitrailer combinations in  excess  of  any  designated
  weight,  designated  length,  designated height, or eight feet in width,
  from highways or set limits on hours of operation of  such  vehicles  on
  particular  city  or village highways or segments of such highways. Such
  exclusion shall not be construed to prevent the delivery  or  pickup  of
  merchandise  or  other  property  along  the  highways  from  which such
  vehicles or combinations are otherwise excluded.
21. Serve notice of a violation of  any  provision  of  local  law  or
  ordinance  relating  to  the  prevention of noise pollution caused by an
  audible motor vehicle burglar alarm and over which the city  or  village
  has  jurisdiction  upon  the  owner  of a motor vehicle by affixing such
  notice to said vehicle in a conspicuous place.
22. Prohibit  or  regulate  the  stopping,  standing  and  parking  of
  vehicles in designated areas reserved for public business at or adjacent
  to a government facility.

(b)  Such  a legislative body also may by local law, ordinance, order,
  rule or regulation prohibit, restrict or limit the stopping, standing or
  parking of vehicles upon property  owned  or  leased  by  such  city  or
  village.
(c)  Each  such legislative body shall cause to be determined, for all
  bridges and elevated structures under its jurisdiction, the capacity  in
  tons  of  two  thousand pounds which the bridge or structure will safely
  carry. At bridges or structures of insufficient strength to carry safely
  the legal loads permissible by section three  hundred  eighty-five,  the
  legislative body of such city or village shall cause signs to be erected
  to inform persons of the safe capacity.
(d)  Each  such  legislative  body  of a city or a village shall cause
  signs to be erected to inform persons of the  legal  overhead  clearance
  for  all  bridges and structures on highways under its jurisdiction. The
  legal clearance shall be one foot less than the measured clearance.  The
  measured  clearance  shall  be  the  minimum  height  to  the  bridge or
  structure measured vertically from the traveled portion of the  roadway.
  On  bridges  or  structures  having  fourteen  feet  or more of measured
  clearance, no such signs shall be required.
(e) No legislative body of a city or a village  shall  enact  any  law
  that prohibits the use of sidewalks by persons with disabilities who use
  either a wheelchair or an electrically-driven mobility assistance device
  being operated or driven by such person.