(Title Amended by Ord, No. 151,833, Eff. 2/10/79, Oper. 2/25/79.)
(a) The Department of Transportation is authorized, subject to approval by resolution of the City Council to designate the preferential use of traffic lanes in streets and highways under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation within the City of Los Angeles and to place and maintain, or cause to be placed and maintained, such appropriate signs, signals, barriers, stanchions or other traffic control devices as may be authorized under the State Vehicle Code or as may be necessary properly to indicate and to carry out the provisions of this section or to warn or guide traffic. (Amended by Ord. No. 151,833, Eff. 2/10/79, Oper. 2/25/79.)
Such preferential use of street lanes shall be based upon competent traffic engineering and surveys and estimates developed or supported by continuing comprehensive transportation planning processes of the city. Such lanes shall be subject to such geometric design standards, scheduling reservations, restrictions, and conditions as the department deems necessary or desirable for increasing the effectiveness of the street system for the safe and efficient movement of people and goods, for the adequate protection for the safety of operation of all motor vehicle traffic, and to protect the adequacy of the facilities to meet traffic needs.
(b) It is the intent of the Council in enacting this section to stimulate and encourage the development of ways and means of relieving traffic congestion on the streets of Los Angeles and to encourage the use of buses, jitneys, taxicabs, car pools and other high occupancy vehicles. (Amended by Ord. No. 147,067, Eff. 5/16/75.)
(c) (Amended by Ord. No. 147,067, Eff. 5/16/75.) For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
“Taxicab” shall be defined as defined in the Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 71.00.
“Jitney” shall be defined as any motor vehicle owned, controlled, operated or managed for public use in the transportation of persons, for compensation, over any public street in the City of Los Angeles, and into which passengers are received and from which passengers are discharged along a fixed route traversed by such vehicle.
“Carpool” shall mean a vehicle containing two or more persons.
“Preferential use of traffic lanes” shall mean the setting aside of one traffic lane for either the priority or exclusive use of buses, jitneys, taxicabs and car pools.
(d) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any vehicle of the Police or Fire Department, any public ambulance, or any public utility vehicle, or any private ambulance, which public utility vehicle or private ambulance has qualified as an authorized emergency vehicle, when any vehicle mentioned in this paragraph is operated in the manner specified in the Vehicle Code in response to an emergency call.
Nor shall such apply to any vehicle of the Transportation Department while used by a Traffic Officer in the performance of such person’s official duties. (Added by Ord. No. 151,833, Eff. 2/10/79, Oper. 2/25/79.)
(e) The provisions of this section shall not apply to contra flow traffic lanes.