[HISTORY: Adopted by the Township Council of the Township
of Hampton 8-25-2010 by Ord. No. 731. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and designated as the "Traffic Control
Ordinance of the Township of Hampton."
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
The Council of the Township of Hampton.
Any road or thoroughfare situated in the Township which has
been accepted and opened as a public road or which the Township has
assumed maintenance and control over.
The Township of Hampton.
The same as ascribed to it in the Vehicle Code of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 101 et seq.
A.
Unless otherwise provided herein, traffic control and parking regulations
shall hereafter be adopted by resolution of the Council. The Councilmen,
the Manager and the Chief of Police shall, from time to time, recommend
regulations and restrictions to the Council and request that certain
streets be designated by Council to be posted with appropriate traffic
or parking signs. The regulations and restrictions adopted from time
to time by Council regulating traffic and parking on streets within
the Township shall have the same force and effect as though incorporated
specifically herein.
B.
Prior to the enactment of any such resolution of Council, the Chief
of Police, subject to the approval of the Township Manager, is hereby
empowered to make a sixty-day trial of any new traffic regulation.
Council shall be notified in writing of the proposed trial regulation(s)
and the reasons for the same. After the day the trial regulation becomes
effective, it shall govern traffic for a period of 60 days thereafter.
If no resolution incorporating the trial regulation or any part thereof
has been introduced in Council within 60 days of its effective date,
the regulation shall no longer be in force unless or until Council
takes formal action resolving to formally adopt the same.
Resolutions shall recite that they are being adopted pursuant
to this chapter and shall be recorded in a book to be provided for
such purpose, which book shall be available in the office of the Police
Department for public inspection. In addition, signs setting forth
the restrictions and regulations thus established by resolution shall
be erected at appropriate places upon the streets of the Township.
No resolution shall become effective until after an appropriate
sign has been placed upon the street affected by the restriction or
regulation. In no event shall trial or emergency regulations, as set
forth in this chapter, require the erection of any sign to become
effective. Where regulated by the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code,
the signs shall be erected in conformity therewith; otherwise signs
shall be conclusively presumed to be regular in form and properly
placed.
Emergency powers of Chief of Police and/or the Chief Administrator
of the Police Department. The Chief of Police and/or the Chief Administrator
of the Police Department shall have the following powers to regulate
traffic and parking temporarily and in time of emergency, in case
of accident, fire, flood, storm, civil disturbances, time of war or
other such emergency:
A.
To establish temporary parking and traffic regulations.
B.
To prohibit parking temporarily on any and/or all Township roadways.
C.
To prohibit pedestrians temporarily from entering certain limited
areas.
D.
To establish temporary detours, one-way traffic and/or all other
appropriate regulations or restrictions deemed necessary.
Declaration of snow or ice emergency. In order to facilitate
movement of traffic and to combat the hazards of excessive snow or
ice on streets or portions thereof, the Township Manager may declare
a snow or ice emergency and shall cause each declaration to be publicly
announced when feasible.
A.
After a snow or ice emergency has been declared, no person during
the period of the emergency shall park any vehicle on any street in
the Township of Hampton. Vehicles parked on any streets as defined
herein later than one hour after a snow or ice emergency has been
declared by the Manager shall be deemed to be in violation of the
provisions of this chapter.
B.
After a snow or ice emergency has been declared, no person shall
operate any motor vehicle on the Township roadways unless the vehicle
is adequately equipped to provide sufficient traction and power to
keep the vehicle in motion so that other traffic traveling on the
streets will not be blocked or impeded. If drive wheels do not have
sufficient traction, if motor fuel supply is exhausted, or if the
battery becomes inoperative, the vehicle shall be deemed not to be
adequately equipped. Whenever a vehicle becomes stalled or rendered
inoperable on a Township roadway after an emergency has been declared,
the operator shall take immediate action to have the vehicle towed
or pushed off the roadway. No operator shall abandon or leave his
vehicle on the traveled portion of a roadway except for the purpose
of obtaining assistance without delay, in which case he shall leave
the vehicle unlocked but shall not leave keys in the ignition or any
other part of the vehicle.
C.
If the Manager finds that some or all of the conditions warranting
a declaration of snow or ice emergency and resulting in travel and
parking restrictions no longer exist, he may declare the emergency
at an end and terminate the restrictions.
D.
Any motor vehicle found in violation of the provisions of § 296-7 of this chapter shall be removed from the street, towed, and shall subject the owner or operator to the fines and charges as provided herein.
E.
After a snow or ice emergency has been declared, any person who illegally
abandons or stalls a vehicle by reason of failure to have it properly
equipped as aforesaid shall be fined not more than $50 and costs.
After a snow or ice emergency has been declared, any person who illegally
parks a vehicle in violation of this chapter shall be fined not more
than $50 and costs. In addition, where a vehicle is towed, the vehicle
shall be recovered only upon payment of the towing and special charges
established by the Township.
The Council may, from time to time, by resolution designate
certain streets and developments in the Township to be subject to
any one or more of the following types of regulations and restrictions:
A.
One-way streets.
C.
Stop signs.
D.
Traffic control lights.
E.
No left turns, no right turns, or no turn.
F.
Parking regulations, including prohibiting parking on either one
side or both sides of a street.
G.
Fire lanes.
H.
Safety zones, pedestrian crosswalks.
I.
Parking regulations, including prohibiting parking on either side
of a fire lane or of an area designated as through traffic, and establishing
speed limits within the same or any other portion of a parking area
of a shopping center, industrial development or residential apartment
development or complex, and the Council may establish fire lanes in
any such areas and prohibit parking or the obstruction of the same
in any manner by vehicles.
J.
Any other regulation or restriction not unlawful or beyond the power
of the Council to adopt.
Commercial vehicles and/or trucks exceeding a one-ton-load capacity
are hereby prohibited from parking on residential streets in the Township
of Hampton at all times, except, however, that the loading or unloading
of the same for deliveries and moving shall not be prohibited on residential
streets when the same are so parked so as to provide services or accommodate
the residents of the Township of Hampton in providing services, improvements
or repairs needed by such residents or intended for use of a resident,
which vehicles are customarily or ordinarily used in providing such
services or repairs. The prohibitions contained herein shall not apply
to pickup trucks and panel trucks, which trucks are ordinarily and
primarily used as family vehicles and do not exceed the weight limitations
prescribed herein.
Any person violating any provision of this chapter or any regulation
or restriction hereinafter adopted by resolution or any other trial
or emergency regulation pursuant hereto shall, upon conviction thereof
in any summary proceeding before any Magisterial District Judge, be
sentenced to pay a fine according to the schedule of fines set forth
in the Motor Vehicle Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as
may be amended, and costs of prosecution and, in default of payment
of such fines and costs, shall undergo imprisonment for a period not
exceeding 10 days. Each day an offense continues shall be considered
a separate offense. In the event that the amount of the fine is not
set forth in the schedule of fines referred to hereinbefore, then
the Magisterial District Judge may impose a fine of not more than
$300 to be collected by summary conviction as fines and penalties
are by law collected.
A.
Police officers of the Township are hereby authorized to remove and
impound or order the removal and impounding of any vehicle found violating
the provisions of this chapter or any restriction or regulation adopted
by resolution of the Council pursuant hereto of any abandoned motor
vehicle as defined in the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: See 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 102.
B.
Vehicles thus impounded shall be impounded and towed only in and
by garages which shall be approved by separate resolution of the Township
Council of the Township of Hampton. No garage shall be approved by
resolution until it shall have provided a bond to the Township of
Hampton indemnifying the owner of such impounded vehicle against the
loss thereof, or injury or damages thereto, while in the custody of
such pound keeper. The Township shall from time to time by resolution
designate an amount which it considers adequate for such protection.
C.
The Township shall from time to time by resolution designate specific
towing and storage charges.
D.
Within 12 hours from the time of the removal of any such vehicle,
the Chief of Police and/or the Chief Administrator of the Police Department
of the Township of Hampton shall give notice of the fact that such
vehicle has been impounded to the owner of record of such vehicle
designating the place from which said vehicle was removed, the reason
for its removal and impounding, and the pound in which it has been
impounded.
E.
The payment of such charges as determined from time to time pursuant to the provisions of Subsection C (fixing of charges) hereof shall be final and conclusive and shall constitute a waiver of any right to recover the money so paid, unless such payment shall be made under protest. In the event that the charges are paid under protest, the owner or offending person shall be entitled to a hearing before a Magisterial District Judge or court of record having jurisdiction pursuant to the provisions of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code of 1959, Act of June 11, 1963, P.L. 118, § 1, as amended.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: See now the Vehicle Code, 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 101
et seq., adopted June 17, 1976, P.L. 62, No. 81, § 1, effective
July 1, 1977.
