(A) Traffic control devices. The Police Department shall recommend when/where traffic control signs, signals and devices shall be placed as required under the traffic ordinances of the city, to the Public Safety Committee. The driver of any vehicle shall obey the instructions of any official traffic control device applicable thereto unless otherwise directed by a police officer, subject to the exceptions granted the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle in this chapter.
(B) Traffic devices required for enforcement purposes. No provision of this chapter for which signs are required shall be enforced against an alleged violator if at the time and place of the alleged violation an official sign is not in proper position and sufficiently legible to be seen by an ordinarily observant person. Whenever a particular section does not state that signs are required, such section shall be effective even though no signs are erected or in place.
(C) 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 resembles an official traffic control device 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, and no person shall place or maintain nor shall public authority permit upon any highway any traffic sign or signal bearing thereon any commercial advertising. This shall not be deemed to prohibit the erection upon private property adjacent to highways of signs giving useful directional information and of a type that cannot be mistaken for official signs.
(2) Such prohibited sign, signal or marking is hereby declared to be a public nuisance and the authority having jurisdiction over the highway is hereby empowered to remove the same or cause it to be removed without notice.
(D) Interferences with official traffic control devices. No person shall, without the lawful authority, attempt to or in fact alter, deface, injure, knock down or remove any official traffic control device.
(Ord. 1193, passed 11-5-2018) Penalty, see § 70.99