Hollister Municipal Code Ch. 10.08 Traffic Control Devices

The city traffic engineer 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 this chapter or any other traffic ordinances of the city to make effective such provisions.

Whenever the state 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 traffic engineer is authorized to install or cause to be installed the necessary devices, subject to any limitations or restrictions set forth in the law applicable to thereto.

The city traffic engineer may also place and maintain or cause to be placed and maintained such additional traffic control devices as the traffic engineer may deem necessary to regulate traffic or to guide or warn traffic, but the traffic engineer 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 this chapter or any other traffic ordinances of the city or as may be determined by ordinance or resolution of the city council.

(Prior code § 14-37)

The city traffic engineer 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.

The city traffic engineer shall ascertain and determine the locations where such signals are required by resorting to field observation, traffic counts and other traffic information as may be pertinent and the traffic engineer's determinations therefrom shall be made pursuant to standards and specifications adopted by the State Department of Transportation.

Whenever the city traffic engineer installs and maintains an official traffic signal at any intersection, the traffic engineer 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.

(Prior code § 14-39; Ord. 911, § 2, 1998)

The city traffic engineer 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.

(Prior code § 14-40)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to remove, relocate or discontinue the operation of any traffic control device not specifically required by the state Vehicle Code or this chapter whenever the traffic engineer shall determine in any particular case, that the conditions which warranted or required the installation no longer exist.

(Prior code § 14-45)

No provision of the state Vehicle Code or of this chapter 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.

(Prior code § 14-38)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to place and maintain distinctive roadway markings as described in the state 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 markings shall have the same effect as similar markings placed by the State Department of Transportation pursuant to provisions of the state Vehicle Code.

(Prior code § 14-44; Editorially amended during 1998 codification)

The city traffic engineer 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.

(Prior code § 14-41)

Whenever this chapter or any other ordinance or resolution of the city designates any one-way street or alley, the city traffic engineer shall place and maintain signs giving notice thereof and no such regulations shall be effective unless such signs are in place. Signs indicating the direction of lawful traffic movement shall be placed at every intersection where movement of traffic in the opposite direction is prohibited.

(Prior code § 14-42)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to place markers, buttons or signs within or adjacent to intersections indicating the course to be traveled by vehicles turning at such intersections, and the city traffic engineer is authorized to allocate and indicate more than one lane of traffic from which drivers of vehicles may make right-hand or left-hand turns and the course to be traveled as so indicated may conform to or be other than as prescribed by law or this code or any other city ordinance.

When authorized markers, buttons or other indications are placed within an intersection indicating the course to be traveled by vehicles turning thereat, no driver of a vehicle shall disobey the directions of such indications.

(Prior code § 14-47)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to determine those intersections at which drivers of vehicles shall not make a right, left 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.

Whenever authorized signs are erected indicating that no right or left or U turn is permitted, no driver of a vehicle shall disobey the directions of any such sign.

(Prior code §§ 14-48, 14-49)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to determine those intersections within any business or residence district at which drivers of vehicles shall not make a right turn against a red or stop signal and shall erect proper signs giving notice of such prohibition. No driver of a vehicle shall disobey the directions of any such sign.

(Prior code § 14-50)

No person, public utility or any department in the city, except in cases of extreme emergency, shall erect or place any barrier or sign on any street unless of a type first approved by the city traffic engineer. No person shall move or damage any such barrier or sign and no person shall disobey the instruction of any such barrier or sign placed in any street by any public utility or by any department of the city.

(Prior code § 14-51)

A. Whenever any ordinance or resolution of this city designates and describes any street or portion thereof as a through street, or any intersection at which vehicles are required to stop at one or more entrances thereto, or any railroad grade crossing at which vehicles are required to stop, the city traffic engineer shall erect and maintain stop signs as follows:

A stop sign shall be erected on each and every street intersecting such through streets or portions thereof so designated and at those entrances of other intersections where a stop is required and at any railroad grade crossing so designated. Each such sign shall conform with, and shall be placed as provided in the Vehicle Code of the state.

B. Those streets and parts of streets established by resolution of the city council are declared to be through streets for the purposes of this section.

C. The provisions of this section shall also apply at one or more entrances to the intersections as such entrances and intersections are established by resolution of the city council.

D. The provisions of this section shall apply at those highway railroad grade crossings as established by resolution of the city council.

(Prior code §§ 14-52, 14-53)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to determine those intersections at which drivers of vehicles shall yield right-of-way and shall cause proper signs to be placed at such intersections. Every such sign shall conform with and shall be placed as provided in Section 21356 of the state Vehicle Code.

Whenever authorized, yield right-of-way signs are erected indicating that the right-of-way shall be yielded, no driver of a vehicle required to yield the right-of-way shall disobey the directions of any such sign.

(Prior code § 14-55)

The city traffic engineer is authorized to establish and maintain crosswalks and to designate them by appropriate devices or painted signs upon the surface of the roadway.

The city traffic engineer may place signs at or adjacent to an intersection in respect to any crosswalk directing that pedestrians shall not cross in the crosswalk so indicated.

(Prior code § 14-102)