Arcata Municipal Code Art. 3 Traffic Control Services

(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 laws of this City to make effective the provisions of said laws. The City Council shall have final approval authority to install traffic control devices.

(b) Whenever the vehicle code of this State 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 hereby authorized to install 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 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 laws of this City or as may be determined by ordinance or resolution of the legislative body of this City.

The driver of any vehicle shall obey the instructions of any official traffic control device applicable thereto placed in accordance with the Municipal Code of this City unless otherwise directed by a police officer subject to the exceptions granted the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle when responding to emergency calls.

(a) The City Manager is hereby 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. The City Council shall have final approval authority to install traffic control devices.

(b) The City Manager shall ascertain and determine the locations where such signals are required by utilizing traffic engineering and safety standards and instructions adopted by the Federal Highway Administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The City Manager is hereby 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. When authorized signs have been placed designating off-center traffic lanes, no person shall disobey the instructions given by such signs.

The City Manager is hereby authorized to remove, relocate or discontinue the operation of any traffic control device not specifically required by state law or this Chapter whenever he shall determine in any particular case that the conditions which warranted or required the installation no longer exist. The City Council shall have final approval authority to remove traffic control devices.

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 Chapter.