2023 New York Laws
VAT - Vehicle and Traffic
Title 8 - Respective Powers of State and Local Authorities
Article 37 - Regulation of Traffic by Department of Transportation and Other State Authorities
1621 - Other Traffic Regulations on State Highways and on Indian Reservations.
§ 1621. Other traffic regulations on state highways and on indian reservations. (a) The department of transportation with respect to state highways maintained by the state, the intersection of any highway with a state highway maintained by the state, and any highway intersecting or meeting a state highway maintained by the state for a distance not exceeding one hundred feet from such state highway maintained by the state, may by 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, restrict or regulate the operation of vehicles on any controlled-access highway or the use of any controlled-access highway by any limited use vehicle, pedestrian, horseback rider or vehicle or device moved by human or animal power.
3. Prohibit or regulate the turning of vehicles or specified types of vehicles at intersections or other designated locations.
4. Authorize angle parking on any roadway.
5. Regulate the crossing of any roadway by pedestrians.
6. Upon a roadway which is divided into three lanes, allocate the center lane exclusively for traffic moving in a specified direction.
7. Order signs erected directing slow-moving traffic, trucks, buses or specified types of vehicles to use a designated lane, or with signs, signals or markings designate those lanes to be used by traffic moving in a particular direction regardless of the center of the roadway.
8. Designate any highway or any separate roadway thereof for one-way traffic.
9. Exclude trucks, commercial vehicles, tractors, tractor-trailer combinations, tractor-semitrailer combinations, or tractor-trailer-semitrailer combinations from highways specified by the commissioner. 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.
10. Prohibit, restrict or limit the stopping, standing or parking of vehicles.
11. 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 and order appropriate signs or markings on the roadway to indicate the beginning and end of such zone.
12. Require the use of lower gears on hills.
13. Regulate traffic by means of traffic-control signals.
14. Designate safety zones.
16. Designate a portion of a slope as a path for the use of bicycles.
17. Order signs or markings to identify the portion of the highway to be used for bicycle travel.
18. Prohibit, restrict or regulate the operation of limited use vehicles on any street or highway.
19. 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.
20. Designate preferential use lanes for specified types or classes of vehicles.
21. Declare a snow emergency and designate any highway or portion thereof as a snow emergency route.
22. 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 state 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.
23. Authorize the use of shoulders or slopes of any state controlled-access highway by motor vehicles.
(b) The department of transportation 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 structures will safely carry. At bridges or structures of insufficient strength to carry safely the legal loads permissible by section three hundred eighty-five of this chapter, the department of transportation shall cause signs to be erected to inform persons of the safe capacity.
(c) Such department of transportation shall cause signs to be erected to inform persons of the legal overhead clearance for all bridges and elevated 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.
(d) The department of transportation may by order, rule or regulation temporarily exclude from any portion of any state highway and any highway and bridge constructed or to be constructed by the state on any indian reservation any vehicle with a gross weight of over four or more tons or any vehicle with a gross weight in excess of any designated weight on any wheel, axle, any number of axles, or per inch width of tire when in its opinion such highway would be materially injured by the operation of any such vehicle thereon. Such exclusion shall take effect upon the erection of signs on the section of highway from which vehicles are excluded, and a notice that such vehicles are excluded shall be published in a newspaper in the county where the highway is situated. The exclusion shall remain in effect until the removal of the signs is directed by the department of transportation.
