The City Traffic Engineer shall place and maintain traffic control
signs, signals and devices when and as required under the traffic
ordinances of the City to make effective the provisions of said ordinances
and may place and maintain such additional traffic control devices
as he/she may deem necessary to regulate traffic under the traffic
ordinances of the City or under State law or to guide or warn traffic.
All traffic control signs, signals and devices shall conform
to the manual and specifications approved by the State Highways and
Transportation Commission or resolution adopted by the City Council
of the City. All signs or signals required hereunder for a particular
purpose shall so far as practicable be uniform as to type and location
throughout the City. All traffic control devices so erected and not
inconsistent with the provisions of this Title shall be official traffic
control devices.
The driver of any vehicle shall obey the instructions of any
official traffic control device applicable thereto placed in accordance
with the provisions of this Title, unless otherwise directed by a
traffic or Police Officer, subject to the exceptions granted the driver
of an authorized emergency vehicle in this Title.
No provision of this Title for which official traffic control
devices are required shall be enforced against an alleged violator
if at the time and place of the alleged violation an official device
is not in proper position and sufficiently legible to be seen by an
ordinarily observant person. Whenever a particular Section does not
state that official traffic control devices are required, such Section
shall be effective even though no devices are erected or in place.
When lane direction control signals are placed over the individual
lanes of a street or highway, vehicular traffic may travel in any
lane over which a green signal is shown but shall not enter or travel
in any lane over which a red signal is shown.
[R.O. 2012 §315.100; CC 1979 §18-62; Ord. No. A-1799 §26, 11-9-1960]
A. No person
shall place, maintain or display upon or in view of any street, alley
or highway in the City any unauthorized sign, signal or marking which
purports to be, is an imitation of or resembles an official traffic
control sign, signal, marking or device or railroad sign or signal,
or which attempts to direct the movement of traffic, or which hides
from view or interferes with the effectiveness of any traffic control
device or railroad sign or signal. No person shall place and maintain,
nor shall the City authorities permit on any street, alley or highway
in the City any traffic control sign, signal or marking bearing thereon
commercial advertising. This shall not be deemed to prohibit the erection
on private property adjacent thereto of signs giving useful information
and of a type that cannot be mistaken for official signs; provided
that such signs do not hide from view the effectiveness of any official
traffic control signs, signals, markings or devices or railroad signs
and signals.
B. Every
such prohibited sign, signal, marking, device or other obstruction
to expeditious traffic movement is hereby declared a public nuisance,
and the authority having jurisdiction is hereby empowered to remove
the same or cause such to be removed without due notice.
No person shall without lawful authority attempt to or in fact
alter, deface, injure, knock down or remove any official traffic control
device or any railroad sign or signal or any inscription, shield or
insignia thereon or any other part thereof.
The City Traffic Engineer shall have authority to declare any
street or part thereof a play street and to place appropriate signs
or devices in the roadway indicating and helping to protect the same.
Whenever authorized signs are erected indicating any street
or part thereof as a play street, no person shall drive a vehicle
upon any such street or portion thereof except drivers of vehicles
having business or whose residences are within such closed area, and
then any said driver shall exercise the greatest care in driving upon
any such street or portion thereof.