Section 1640. Traffic regulations in all cities and villages  


Latest version.
  • (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.