(a) The position of town traffic director is hereby established. The
town traffic director, sometimes referred to in this code as the “director
of traffic,” shall be the town engineer and shall exercise the
powers and duties with respect to traffic as provided in this code.
(b) When the position of town traffic director is vacant or unable to
act, the police chief shall exercise the duties of the town traffic
director.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
(a) The town traffic director shall have the general responsibility and
authority to determine the installation and proper timing and maintenance
of traffic-control devices, to conduct engineering analyses of traffic
accidents and to devise remedial measures, to conduct engineering
investigations of traffic conditions, to plan the operation of traffic
on the streets and highways of the town, to cooperate with other officials
in the development of ways and means to improve traffic conditions,
and to carry out the additional powers and duties imposed by ordinances
of the town or state law.
(b) The town traffic director shall also have the responsibility and
authority to determine the installation of traffic-control devices
to regulate the stopping, standing, or parking of vehicles in the
town in accordance with state law.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
(a) The town traffic director is hereby empowered to make regulations
necessary to make effective the provisions of the traffic ordinances
of the town and to make and enforce temporary or experimental regulations
to cover emergencies or special conditions. No such temporary or experimental
regulation shall remain in effect for more than 90 days.
(b) The town traffic director may test traffic-control devices under
actual conditions of traffic.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
(a) Whenever in this chapter the authority is given to the town traffic
director to do acts as he deems or, in his opinion, are advisable
or necessary or desirable, such acts shall be based on his observations
and studies, according to generally used, accepted traffic-control
principles or techniques.
(b) Traffic innovations and experiments, however, are not to be inhibited
by the provisions of this section.
(c) As to any given traffic-control device, signal, sign, marker, or
marking, it shall be initially presumed that such device, signal,
sign, marker, or marking independently erected at the direction of
the town traffic director has been installed pursuant to his observations
and studies, based on generally used and acceptable traffic-control
principles or techniques.
(d) Any responsibility or authority imposed or conferred on the town
traffic director by the provisions of this code may be performed by
the town traffic director or by those officers, employees, or agents
of the town working under his supervision and control and designated
by him to perform the same.
(e) For the purposes of this article, the definitions provided by the
Texas Transportation Code shall apply unless the context clearly indicates
or requires a different meaning.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
All traffic-control signs, signals, and devices shall conform
to the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic-Control Devices and specifications
approved by the state transportation commission (“the manual”).
All signs and signals required hereunder for a particular purpose
shall so far as practicable be uniform as to type and location throughout
the town. All traffic-control devices so erected and not inconsistent
with the provisions of state law and this chapter shall be official
traffic-control devices.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
The town traffic director shall have the duty of erecting or
installing upon, over, along or beside any highway, street, or alley
signs, signals and markings, or causing the same to be erected, installed,
or placed in accordance with state law, this code, and consistent
with the manual. Such traffic-control devices shall be installed as
soon as is practicable under the circumstances after the specific
device, sign, or signal can be procured.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
The town traffic director is hereby authorized to:
(1) Designate and maintain crosswalks at intersections where in his opinion
there is particular danger to pedestrians crossing the roadway, and
such other places as he may deem necessary, by use of appropriate
devices, marks, or lines upon the surface of the roadway;
(2) Establish safety zones of such kind and character, and at such places,
as he may deem necessary for the protection of pedestrians; and
(3) Mark traffic lanes upon the roadway of any street or highway where
a regular alignment of traffic is necessary.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
The town traffic director is hereby authorized to:
(1) Designate through highways or streets;
(2) Erect and maintain stop signs, yield signs, or other official traffic-control
devices at specified entrances thereto; and
(3) Designate stop or yield intersections at other roadway junctions.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
The town traffic director is hereby authorized to:
(1) Place official traffic-control devices within or adjacent to intersections
indicating the course to be traveled by vehicles turning at such intersections,
and by doing so may require vehicles to either conform to, or take
deviate from, the course normally specified by state law in absence
of such traffic-control devices; and
(2) Determine those intersections at which drivers of vehicles shall
not make a right turn, left turn, or U-turn, and shall place proper
signs at such intersections. The making of such turns may be prohibited
between certain hours of any day and permitted at other hours, in
which event the same shall be plainly indicated on the signs or they
may be removed when such turns are permitted.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
The town traffic director is hereby authorized to:
(1) Determine and designate one-way streets or alleys and shall place
and maintain signs giving notice of said designation; and
(2) Determine and designate streets, parts of streets, or specific lanes
thereon upon which vehicular traffic shall proceed in one direction
during one period of the day and the opposite direction during another
period of the day and shall place and maintain appropriate markings,
signs, barriers, or other devices to give notice thereof. The town
traffic director may erect signs temporarily designating lanes to
be used by traffic moving in a particular direction, regardless of
the color or placement of the centerline of the roadway.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
All traffic-control signs, signals, devices, and markings placed
or erected prior to the effective date of this article, whether by
the town or its agents, and now in use for the purpose of regulating,
warning, or guiding traffic are hereby affirmed, ratified, and confirmed
to be official traffic-control devices; provided, however, that the
ratification of said existing traffic-control devices is not inconsistent
with the provisions of state law or this code.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
It shall be unlawful for any person other than the town traffic
director or his duly authorized representative, acting pursuant to
an ordinance or resolution of the town, to install or cause to be
installed or placed any signal, sign, marking or device purporting
to direct the use of the streets or the activities on those streets
by pedestrians, vehicles, motor vehicles or animals. In any prosecution
of a violation of this article, the manual, or any other traffic ordinance
of the town, proof that any traffic-control device, sign, signal or
marking was actually in place on any street in conformance with the
manual shall constitute prima facie evidence that the same was installed
by the town traffic director pursuant to the authority of this chapter.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
(a) The operator of a vehicle or streetcar shall comply with an applicable
official traffic-control device placed as provided by this code unless:
(1) The operator is otherwise directed by a traffic or police officer;
or
(2) Is operating an authorized emergency vehicle and is responding to
an emergency.
(b) Persons violating this subsection are deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, are subject to a fine in accordance with section
1.01.009 of this code.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
(a) In any prosecution for any violation of this article, it shall not
be necessary for the state to prove the installation or authority
therefor, of any sign, signal, traffic-control device, or marking.
(b) Any person charged with a violation of this article shall have the
right to prove the sign, signal, traffic-control device, or marking
was not so installed or authorized as a defense.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)
(a) A person may not, without lawful authority, attempt to or actually
alter, injure, cover, conceal, knock down, or remove:
(1) An official traffic-control device or railroad sign or signal;
(2) An inscription, shield, or insignia on an official traffic-control
device or railroad sign or signal; or
(3) Another part of an official traffic-control device or railroad sign
or signal.
(b) Persons violating this subsection are deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, are subject to a fine in accordance with section
1.01.009 of this code.
(Ordinance 2014-8-5A, sec. 3, adopted 8/5/14)