2021 New York Laws
VAT - Vehicle and Traffic
Title 8 - Respective Powers of State and Local Authorities
Article 39 - 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.