Traffic orders of the world - USA (part 1)

Traffic orders of the world – USA (part 1)

Occasionally on this blog I would like to look at traffic controls (and with any luck the equivalent of traffic orders) beyond the UK that exist throughout the world. First up is America.

Wikipedia says the following: (here's a link to the full document)

‘In the United States, traffic laws are regulated by the states and municipalities through their respective traffic codes. Most of these are based at least in part on the Uniform Vehicle Code, but there are variations from state to state. In states such as Florida, traffic law and criminal law are separate, therefore, unless someone flees a scene of an accident, commits vehicular homicide or manslaughter, they are only guilty of a minor traffic offense. However, states such as South Carolina have completely criminalized their traffic law, so, for example, you are guilty of a misdemeanor simply for travelling five miles over the speed limit.

‘The Uniform Vehicle Code is a privately prepared set of United States traffic laws prepared by the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances, a private non-profit organization. Most of the members are state governments, in addition to some related organizations. The extent to which the code is used varies by state.’

Here is a link to the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances (NCUTLO)

Well, it’s a start. More to follow.

Online revised legislation

Gone are the days when you had to wait for updates to be posted to you from Sweet & Maxwell. Revised UK legislation is available online here.

For example, you can find the fully revised Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 here. Just print it out, take it home and keep it safely under your pillow, until the next time you are struggling to get to sleep (I did not just say that - it's an interesting if somewhat cumbersome read).

Describing a parking place

As anyone familiar with the drafting of traffic orders will know there are as many ways to define a parking place as there are people who believe there is only one way to describe that parking place.

Phrases such as ‘a point opposite’, ‘a point in line with’, ‘projected points’, ‘points perpendicular to other points’ and ‘points a certain distance away from another point’, are all used – with varying degrees of success – to describe (at best) rectangular and (at worst) bent, tapering, echelon parking places on roads up and down the country.

Similar variations can be found with the use or non-use of ‘a point opposite’. I was taught that a boundary, common or otherwise, would never require this add-on, whereas a wall or extremity in every instance would. I have since had to learn to relax this rule as each client has its own drafting heritage that is seldom open to question.

Many councils adopt the use of ‘a point opposite’ only when the reference point is on a different side of the carriageway to the area being described. Others do it the way I was taught and some seem to chop and change from one order to the next. I have come to enjoy these variations and embrace them as another quirk in a rather quirky occupation.

Until a few moments ago I had thought that my favourite description for a parking place (if I can say such a thing without inviting too much ridicule) with its continual repetition of the word ‘east’, included the text, ‘from a point X metres east of the eastern kerb-line of East Street, eastwards…’.

However, a quick search on the internet suggests that the only East Street in London appears to be in Southwark and runs from south-west to north-east, so the description presumably read, ‘from a point X metres south-east of the south-eastern kerb-line of East Street, south-eastwards...’. Not quite as succinct but not bad either.

I recently had to describe a cycle parking place on a footway in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, proposed as part of the cycle hire scheme. This must to be the longest description I ever felt the need to use and it went as follows:

‘West Cromwell Road, the north-west side, all that part of the footway which is bounded on the south-west, south and south-east side by an imaginary curved line drawn at a distance of 0.5 metres in a generally northerly direction from and taken perpendicular to the south-west, south and south-eastern extremity of the footway and as extends from a point 4.2 metres south-east of the common boundary of Nos. 2 and 3 Cromwell Crescent to a point 1.3 metres south-west of the common boundary of No. 1 Cromwell Crescent and No. 56 West Cromwell Road and having a width throughout of 2 metres.’

I have no idea what the shortest description is that I've written, but it was unlikely to have been on that footway!

TOM recommends

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