Palo Alto Municipal Code Ch. 10.12 Traffic-Control Devices

Sections:

* For state law authorizing local authorities to place and maintain traffic signs, signals and other traffic-control devices upon streets and highways - See Veh. C.A., § 21351.

(a) The city manager shall have the power and duty to place and maintain or cause to be placed and maintained official traffic-control devices when and as required under the traffic ordinances of this city to make effective the provisions of said ordinances.

(b) Whenever the Vehicle Code requires, for the effectiveness of any provision thereof, that traffic-control devices be installed to give notice to the public of the application of such law, the city manager is authorized to install or cause to be installed the necessary devices, subject to any limitations or restrictions set forth in the law applicable thereto.

(c) The city manager may also place and maintain or cause to be placed and maintained such additional traffic-control devices as he may deem necessary to regulate traffic or to guide or warn traffic, but he shall make such determination only upon the basis of traffic engineering principles and traffic investigations and in accordance with such standards, limitations and rules as may be set forth in the traffic ordinances of this city or as may be determined by ordinance or resolution of the legislative body of this city.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.31)

No provision of the Vehicle Code or of this title for which signs are required shall be enforced against an alleged violator unless appropriate signs are in place and sufficiently legible to be seen by an ordinarily observant person, giving notice of such provisions of the traffic laws.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.32)

(a) The city manager is directed to install and maintain official traffic signals at those intersections and other places where traffic conditions are such as to require that the flow of traffic be alternately interrupted and released in order to prevent or relieve traffic congestion or to protect life or property from exceptional hazard.

(b) The city manager shall ascertain and determine the locations where such signals are required by resort to field observation, traffic counts, and other traffic information as may be pertinent, and his determinations therefrom shall be made in accordance with those traffic engineering and safety standards and instructions set forth in the Traffic Manual or its successor, issued by the Division of Highways of the State Department of Public Works or its successor, and as set forth in policies and warrants for traffic-control devices, adopted by ordinance or resolution of the legislative body of this city.

(c) Whenever the city manager installs and maintains an official traffic signal at any intersection, he shall likewise erect and maintain at such intersection street name signs visible to the principal flow of traffic unless such street name signs have previously been placed and are maintained at any such intersection.

(Ord. 2713 § 1, 1973: Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.34)

The city manager is authorized to mark center lines and lane lines upon the surface of the roadway to indicate the course to be traveled by vehicles and may place signs temporarily designating lanes to be used by traffic moving in a particular direction, regardless of the center line of the highway.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.35)

The city manager is authorized to place and maintain distinctive roadway markings as described in the Vehicle Code on those streets or parts of streets where the volume of traffic or the vertical or other curvature of the roadway renders it hazardous to drive on the left side of such marking or signs and markings. Such marking or signs and marking shall have the same effect as similar markings placed by the State Department of Public Works pursuant to provisions of the Vehicle Code.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.36)

The city manager is authorized to remove, relocate or discontinue the operation of any traffic-control device not specifically required by state law or this title whenever he shall determine in any particular case that the conditions which warranted or required the installation no longer exist or obtain.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.37)

The city manager shall determine the hours and days during which any traffic-control device shall be in operation or be in effect, except in those cases where such hours or days are specified in this title.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.38)

The city manager is authorized to regulate the timing of traffic signals so as to permit the movement of traffic in an orderly and safe manner at speeds slightly at variance from the speeds otherwise applicable within the district or at intersections and shall erect appropriate signs giving notice thereof.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.153)

(a) Any person by whom or under whose immediate direction or by whose immediate authority as principal or as contractor or employer any portion of a public street may be made dangerous shall:

(1) Erect and, so long as the danger continues, maintain, around the portion of the street or highway so made dangerous, a good and substantial barrier;

(2) Cause to be maintained during every night from sunset to sunrise sufficient lights, torches or flashers plainly visible from a distance of five hundred feet on that portion of the street or crossing so made dangerous.

(Ord. 1714 (part), 1956: prior code § 19.39)