The following words and phrases, when used in this chapter,
shall, for the purpose of this chapter, have the meanings respectively
ascribed to them in this section:
A public thoroughfare which ordinarily affords only a second
means of access to abutting property.
Vehicles of the fire department (fire patrol), police vehicles
and such ambulances and emergency vehicles of municipal departments
or public service corporations as are designated or authorized by
the chief of police or his/her designee.
A watercraft, whether operated by machinery, sail, manual
propulsion, or other means, including a rowboat, sailboat, ski boat,
fishing boat, inflatable boat, canoe, houseboat, catamaran, wave runner,
jet ski, yacht, hovercraft, dinghy, kayak, raft, speedboat, motorboat,
outrigger, or other type of pleasure craft, commercial vessel, or
working boat.
The territory contiguous to and including a roadway when,
within any six hundred (600) feet along such along such roadway, there
are buildings in use for business or industrial purposes, which occupy
three hundred (300) feet of frontage on one (1) side or three hundred
(300) feet collectively on both sides of the roadway.
That part of a roadway at an intersection included within
the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite
sides of the street measured from the curbs, or, in the absence of
curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway. The word “crosswalk”
also means any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere
distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings
on the surface.
A space adjacent to a curb reserved for the exclusive use
of vehicles during the loading or unloading of passengers or materials.
Every person who drives or is in actual physical control
of a vehicle.
A space adjacent to a curb for the exclusive use of vehicles
during the loading or unloading of freight.
The area embraced within the prolongation or connection of
the lateral curblines, or, if none, then the lateral boundary lines
of the roadways of two (2) streets which join one another at, or approximately
at, right angles, or the area within which vehicles traveling upon
different streets joining at any other angle may come in conflict.
Where a street includes two (2) roadways thirty (30) feet or more
apart, then every crossing of each roadway of such divided street
by an intersecting street shall be regarded as a separate intersection.
In the event such intersecting street also includes two (2) roadways
thirty (30) feet or more apart, then every crossing two (2) roadways
of such streets shall be regarded as a separate intersection.
A roadway which is divided into two (2) or more clearly marked
lanes for vehicular traffic.
Every highway, street or roadway in respect to which owners
or occupants of abutting property or lands and other persons have
no legal right of access to or from the same except at such points
only and in such manner as may be determined by the public authority
having jurisdiction over such highway, street or roadway.
Every vehicle which is self-propelled and every vehicle which
is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires,
but not operated upon rails.
Every motor vehicle having a saddle for the use of the rider
and designed to travel on not more than three (3) wheels in contact
with the ground, but excluding a tractor.
Whenever certain hours are named herein they shall mean standard
time or daylight saving time as may be in current use in this city.
All signs, signals, markings, and devices not inconsistent
with this chapter placed or erected by authority of a public body
or official having jurisdiction, for the purpose of regulating, warning
or guiding traffic.
When prohibited, means the standing of a vehicle, whether
occupied or not, otherwise than temporarily for the purpose of and
while actually engaged in loading or unloading.
A place adjacent to a curb for the exclusive use of vehicles
during the loading or unloading of passengers.
Any person afoot.
Every officer of the city police department or any officer
authorized to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for violations
of traffic regulations.
Every way or place in private ownership and used for vehicular
travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission
from the owner but not by other persons.
A carrier of persons or property upon cars, other than streetcars,
operated upon stationary rails.
A steam engine, electric or other motor, with or without
cars coupled thereto, operated upon rails, except streetcars.
Any motor vehicle designed or modified for use for recreation
or pleasure, whether self-propelled or towed, often being a large
vehicle equipped with a bathroom, kitchen, and beds for use during
travel and camping, including a motor home, camping trailer, off-highway
recreational vehicle, travel trailer, camper, recreational bus, truck
camper, overhead camper, park trailer, and similar vehicles.
The territory contiguous to and including a street or highway
not comprising a business district when the property on such street
or highway, for a distance of three hundred (300) feet or more, is,
in the main, improved with residences or residences and buildings
in use for business.
The privilege of the immediate use of the roadway.
That portion of a street or highway improved, designed or
ordinarily used for vehicular travel. In the event a highway includes
two (2) or more separate roadways, the term “roadway”
shall refer to any such roadway separately but not to all such roadways
collectively.
The area or space officially set apart within a roadway for
the exclusive use of pedestrians and which is protected or is so marked
or indicated by adequate signs as to be plainly visible at all times
while set apart as a safety zone.
That portion of a street between the curblines, or the lateral
lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines, intended for
the use of pedestrians.
When required, means complete cessation of movement.
When prohibited, means any stopping or standing of a vehicle,
whether occupied or not, except when necessary to avoid conflict with
other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a police officer
or traffic-control sign or signal.
The entire width between the boundary lines of every way
publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the
public for purposes of vehicular travel.
Pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars,
and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using any
street for purposes of travel.
Any device, whether manually, electrically or mechanically
operated, by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and to
proceed.
An unpowered vehicle that is towed by another vehicle or
by animals and used for the transportation of goods, livestock, other
vehicles, crops, boats, freight, and similar items.
Every device in, upon or by which any person or property
is or may be transported or drawn upon a street or highway, except
devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails
or tracks.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-1; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-1; Ordinance adopted 12/17/12, sec. 1; Ordinance adopting 2016 Code)
It shall be the duty of the chief of police or his/her designee
to conduct analysis of traffic accidents and to devise remedial measures,
to conduct investigations of traffic conditions and to cooperate with
other city officials in the development of ways and means to improve
traffic conditions, and to carry out the additional powers and duties
imposed by this chapter and other traffic ordinances.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-2; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-2; Ordinance adopting 2016 Code)
The chief of police or his/her designee is hereby empowered
to make regulations necessary to make effective the provisions of
this chapter and other traffic ordinances 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 ninety (90) days, nor shall it be effective
until approved by the city administrator.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-3; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-3; Ordinance adopting 2016 Code)
It shall be the duty of the officers of the police department
or such officers as are assigned by the chief of police or his/her
designee to enforce all street traffic laws of this city and all of
the state vehicle laws applicable to street traffic in this city.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-4; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-4; Ordinance adopting 2016 Code)
Officers of the police department or such officers as are assigned
by the chief of police or his/her designee are hereby authorized to
direct all traffic by voice, hand, or signal in conformance with traffic
laws. In the event of fire or other emergencies or to expedite traffic
or to safeguard pedestrians, officers of the police department may
direct traffic as conditions may require, notwithstanding the provisions
of the traffic laws.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-5; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-5; Ordinance adopting 2016 Code)
Officers of the fire department, when at the scene of a fire,
may direct or assist the police in directing traffic thereat or in
the immediate vicinity.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-6; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-6)
No person shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any
lawful order or direction of a police officer or fire department official
given to direct or control traffic as authorized in this chapter.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-7; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-7)
It shall be unlawful for any person, when giving a written promise
to appear, or when given a written notice by any police officer to
appear before the municipal court to answer for an offense against
any traffic law of this state, or any provision of this chapter or
other traffic ordinance of the city, to give an assumed or fictitious
name or a false place of residence or address, or any other than the
true name and the true place of his or her residence or address, upon
the request of such officer.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-21; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-8)
It shall be unlawful for any person to operate any vehicle on
any street, alley or other public way in the city unless such vehicle
is equipped in accord with all state laws governing vehicles, particularly
V.T.C.A., Transportation Code, chapter 547 or to fail to use such
equipment as required by such laws or to use any equipment contrary
to such laws.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-8; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-9)
No person shall ride on any vehicle upon any portion thereof
not designated or intended for the use of passengers. This provision
shall not apply to any employee engaged in the necessary discharge
of a duty, or to persons riding within truck bodies in space intended
for merchandise.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-9; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-10)
No person shall board or alight from any vehicle while such
vehicle is in motion.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-11; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-11)
Every person propelling any pushcart or riding any animal upon
a roadway, and every person driving any animal-drawn vehicle, shall
be subject to the provisions of this chapter applicable to the driver
of any vehicle, except those provisions which, by their very nature,
can have no application.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-17; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-12)
The provisions of this chapter shall apply to the driver of
any vehicle owned by or used in the service of the United States government,
or this state, county or city, and it shall be unlawful for any such
driver to violate any of the provisions of this chapter, except as
otherwise permitted herein or by state statute.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-18; 1989 Code,
sec. 17-13)
(a)
The provisions of this chapter regulating the operation, parking
and standing of vehicles shall apply to authorized emergency vehicles,
except that a driver, when operating any such vehicle in an emergency
or in the immediate pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of
the law, except when otherwise directed by a police officer, may:
(1)
Park or stand notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter;
(2)
Proceed past a red or stop signal or stop sign, but only after slowing
down as may be necessary for safe operation;
(3)
Exceed the maximum speed limit so long as it does not endanger life
or property;
(4)
Disregard regulations governing direction of movement or turning
in specified directions so long as he or she does not endanger life
or property.
(b)
The exemptions herein granted to an authorized emergency vehicle
shall apply only when such vehicle is making use, at the discretion
of the driver of the vehicle, in accordance with policies of the state
department of public safety or the city, of audible or visual signals
meeting the requirements of V.T.C.A., Transportation Code, sec. 547.702,
except that an authorized emergency vehicle operated as a police vehicle
need not be equipped with or display a red light visible from in front
of the vehicle. The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle that
is used for law enforcement purposes may operate without using the
emergency warning devices required by this subsection only when the
driver is responding to an emergency call or when he or she is in
pursuit of a suspected violator of the law and he or she has probable
cause to believe that:
(1)
Knowledge of his or her presence will cause the suspect to destroy
or lose evidence of a suspected felony;
(2)
Knowledge of his or her presence will cause the suspect to cease
a suspected continuing felony before the driver has acquired sufficient
evidence to establish grounds for arrest;
(3)
Knowledge of his or her presence will cause the suspect to evade
apprehension or identification of the suspect or his or her vehicle;
or
(4)
Traffic conditions on a multi-laned roadway are such that movements
of motorists in response to the emergency warning devices may increase
the potential for a collision or may unreasonably extend the duration
of the pursuit.
(c)
The driver of an authorized emergency vehicle that is used for law
enforcement purposes may not operate without using the emergency warning
devices as provided above unless he or she complies with regulations
relating to the use of emergency warning devices adopted by the state
department of public safety or the city.
(1989 Code, sec. 17-14)
(a)
Riding roller skates, skateboards, etc., prohibited on major roadways.
No person upon roller skates, roller blades, inline skates or
skateboards, or riding in or by means of any coaster, toy vehicle
or similar device, shall go upon any major roadway (U.S. 77 - Kessler
Avenue, U.S. 90 - Summit Street, Loop 222 - Lyons Avenue, F.M. 957
- James Avenue, a portion of F.M. 957 known as St. John Road) except
while crossing a major street on a crosswalk, and when so crossing
such person shall be granted all of the rights and shall be subject
to all of the duties applicable to pedestrians.
(b)
Riding on sidewalk or hiking trail.
No person upon any
wheeled mode of transportation, including but not limited to bicycles,
unicycles, roller skates, roller blades, inline skates, skateboards,
or coasters, shall go upon any sidewalk or hiking trail within the
city, except to cross such sidewalk or hiking trail while traversing
a driveway or other entrance or exit to real property.
(c)
Exceptions.
Nothing in this section shall prohibit the
use of baby carriages, strollers, wheelchairs or other devices necessary
for the mobility of persons with disabilities, on any city sidewalk
or hiking trail.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-13; Ordinance
adopted 4/7/98; Ordinance adopted 9/4/01; 1989 Code, sec. 15-26)
(a)
No person shall throw or deposit upon any street or alley any glass
bottle, glass, nails, tacks, wire, cans or any other substance likely
to injure any person, animal or vehicle upon such street or alley.
(b)
Any person who drops or permits to be dropped or thrown upon any
street or alley any destructive or injurious material shall immediately
remove the same or cause it to be removed.
(c)
Any person removing a wrecked or damaged vehicle from any street
or alley shall remove any glass or other injurious substance dropped
upon such street or alley from the vehicle.
(1965 Code, sec. 18-14; 1989 Code,
sec. 15-27)
