(A) Authority to install traffic control devices. The Town Traffic Engineer shall place and maintain traffic control signs, signals, and devices when and as required under the traffic ordinances of the town to make effective and provisions of said ordinances, and may place and maintain such additional traffic control devices as he or she may deem necessary to regulate town traffic under the traffic ordinances of the town or under state law, or to guide or warn traffic.
(B) Manual and specifications for traffic control devices. All traffic control signs, signals, and devices shall conform to the manual and specifications approved by the State Highway Commission. All signs and signals required hereunder for a particular purpose shall so far as practical 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 or this title, shall be official traffic control devices.
(C) Obedience to official traffic control devices. The driver of any vehicle and the operator of any passenger bus shall obey the instructions of any official traffic control device applicable thereto placed in accordance with the traffic ordinance of this town; unless otherwise directed by a Town Marshal subject to the exceptions granted the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle in this title.
(D) Display of unauthorized signs, signals, or markings.
(1) No person shall place, maintain, or display upon or in view of any highway any unauthorized sign, signal, marking, or device which purports to be or is an imitation of or simulates or resembles an official traffic control or railroad sign or signal, or which attempts to direct the movement of traffic, or which hides from view or interferes with the effectiveness of any official traffic control device or any railroad sign or signal, and no person shall place or maintain nor shall any public authority permit upon any highway any traffic sign or signal hearing thereon any commercial advertising. This shall not be deemed to prohibit the erection upon private property adjacent to highway of signs giving useful directional information and of a type that cannot be mistaken for official signs.
(2) Every such prohibited signs, or marking is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and the authority have jurisdiction over the highway is hereby empowered to remove the same or cause it to be removed without notice.
(E) Interference with traffic control devices or railroad signs or signals. No person shall, without lawful authority, attempt to or in fact alter, deface, injure, knock down, or remove any official traffic control device or any railroad sign or signal, or any inscription shield or insignia thereon, or any other part thereof.
(F) Authority to establish play in the streets. The Town Traffic Engineer has authority to declare any street or part thereof a play street and to place appropriate signs or devices in the roadway indicating and helping to protect the same.
(G) Play streets. Whenever authorized signs are erected indicating any street or part thereof as a play street, no person shall drive a vehicle upon any such street or portion thereof except drivers of vehicles having business or whose residence are within such closed area, and then any said driver shall exercise the greatest care in driving upon any such street or portion thereof.
(H) Traffic Engineer to designate crosswalks, establish safety zones, and mark traffic lanes. The Town Traffic Engineer is hereby authorized:
(1) To designate and maintain, by appropriate device, marks, or lines upon the surface of the roadway, crosswalks at intersections where in his or her opinion there is particular danger to pedestrians crossing the roadway, and at such other places as he or she may deem necessary;
(2) To establish safety zones of such kind and character and at such places as he or she may deem necessary for the protection of pedestrians; and
(3) To mark lanes for traffic on street pavements at such places as he or she may deem advisable, consistent with traffic ordinances of this town.
(Ord. 107, passed 5-18-1962) Penalty, see § 70.99