Dear Reader:
The following document was created from the MTAS electronic library known as MORe (www.mtas.tennessee.edu/more). This online library is maintained daily by MTAS staff and seeks to represent the most current information regarding issues relative to Tennessee municipal government.
We hope this information will be useful to you; reference to it will assist you with many of the questions that will arise in your tenure with municipal government. However, the Tennessee Code Annotated and other relevant laws or regulations should always be consulted before any action is taken based upon the contents of this document.
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions or comments regarding this information or any other MORe material.
Sincerely,
The University of Tennessee
Municipal Technical Advisory Service
1610 University Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37921-6741
865-974-0411 phone
865-974-0423 fax
www.mtas.tennessee.edu
Traffic-control Lights
The design of traffic lights is established by state law. Green means go, yellow means caution, and red means stop. All lights must have a uniform arrangement of colored lenses. In vertical lights, red lenses must be above yellow and green lenses. In horizontal lights, red lenses must be to the left of yellow and green. Yellow lenses must be between red and green lenses. Yellow lights must show for at least three seconds, and a city is responsible for setting timers on city-owned lights to comply with this requirement. Right turns during red lights are permitted unless a "NO TURNS ON RED" sign is posted by the city. After a full stop, a left turn may be made during a red light onto a one-way street where traffic moves to the left if a sign granting permission is in place. Motorcycle operators may proceed through an intersection red light after stopping and ascertaining that this can be done safely if the light is controlled by a vehicle detection device that is not activated because of the size of the motorcycle. T.C.A. § 55-8-110.
Traffic-control Signs
Municipalities must comply with the Manual on Uniform Traffic-Control Devices for Streets and Highways, which contains requirements for the design and location of signs, signals, and markings. The manual also spells out rules for posting traffic regulations on or along all streets and highways. T.C.A. § 54-5-108.
To indicate ownership, any local government agency may stamp, etch, or otherwise permanently mark the backs of signs, signals, etc., with letters between one-quarter and three-quarters of an inch high. T.C.A. § 55-8-184.
Pedestrian Traffic
Cities may by ordinance require pedestrians, including people using wheelchairs, to comply with traffic control devices and prohibit crossing a business district street or a designated highway except at crosswalks. T.C.A. § 55-8-133.
Child and Passenger Safety Restraints – Motor Vehicles
T.C.A. § 55-9-602 sets out complicated requirements based upon age, weight, and height for persons transporting children in motor vehicles to follow in restraining them. The statute creates an exception for children unable to be transported in a conventional restraint. Municipalities are expressly authorized to adopt by ordinance the provisions of T.C.A. § 55-9-602.
T.C.A. § 55-9-603 provides that no person shall operate a motor vehicle in Tennessee unless that person and all passengers four years of age or older are restrained by a safety belt at all times when the vehicle is in forward motion. There are exemptions for certain types of vehicles and vehicles traveling at a top speed of 15 mph. This statute provides that it applies only to the operator and all passengers occupying the front seat of a passenger motor vehicle. However, T.C.A. § 55-9-602 apparently supercedes T.C.A. § 55-9-603 with respect to children through age 15. A violation of T.C.A. § 55-9-602 is a Class C misdemeanor, but offenders may, in lieu of a court appearance, pay a fine of $10 for the first offense. If the vehicle operator or passenger is between the ages of 9 and 15, inclusive, the fine in lieu of a court appearance is $50. Clerks’ fees, court costs and litigation taxes also are prohibited for convictions for violations involving children ages 9 through 17.
A violation of T.C.A. § 55-9-603 also is a Class C misdemeanor. A person charged with a violation may, instead of appearing in court, submit a fine of $10 for the first violation and $20 for second and subsequent violations. If a violation involves a 16- or 17-year-old, the initial fine in lieu of a court appearance is $20.
Law enforcement officers observing a violation of T.C.A. § 55-9-603 should issue a citation but not arrest a person solely for a violation of this law.
Helmets for Minors on Off-road Vehicles
It is a Class C misdemeanor for a parent or guardian of a minor to allow the minor to ride on an ATV, dune buggy, snowmobile, or dirt bike without a helmet in most circumstances. A law enforcement officer witnessing a violation must obtain the name and address of the parents/guardians and issue a mail citation, or, if the parent/guardian is operating the vehicle, the citation must be issued directly. Municipalities may adopt the statute by reference as an ordinance violation. T.C.A. §§ 55-52-201, 202.
Railroad Crossings Protection
T.C.A. § 55-8-146 provides that municipalities may erect stop signs at dangerous railroad crossings with the approval of the state Department of Transportation. It was also held by the Tennessee Supreme Court in Southern Railway Co. v. Knoxville, 223 Tenn. 90, 442 S.W.2d 619 (1968), that a general grant of police power empowers a municipality to require by ordinance a railroad to pay for and install crossing gates or signals if they are reasonably required to protect motorists. However, T.C.A. § 65-11-113 authorizes the state, at the expense of the railroad, the state, and the municipality, to require railroads to install certain markings and signals at an unmarked crossing where there has been a fatality and where other conditions outlined in that statute exist. The extent to which those statutes and that case may conflict is not clear.
Tennessee cities may regulate, but not prohibit, the use of engine compression braking devices by ordinance provided that the ordinance conforms to Interstate Motor Carriers Noise Emission Standards as outlined in 49 C.F.R. 325 et seq.
T.C.A. § 55-7-117 states that truck tractors and semi-trailers, as defined in T.C.A. § 55-8-101, shall not use an engine compression braking device unless the device is equipped with an operational, approved muffler.
Federal testing procedures for measuring allowable decibel levels of truck tractor and semi-trailers require certified equipment, testing sites, testing procedures, and inspectors. The testing standards are very complex, and most cities do not have the ability to administer such tests. Cities experiencing problems with noise pollution from engine compression devices are advised to use a visual muffler inspection procedure to reduce the noise level from engine compression braking systems.
MTAS recommends that cities desiring to enforce engine compression braking device standards require that truck tractors and semi-trailers comply with the approved muffler requirements of T.C.A. § 55-7-117. Cities may request appropriate highway notice signs from the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Ordinance Number ________
AN ORDINANCE REGULATING THE USE OF ENGINE COMPRESSION BRAKING DEVICES
Whereas, Tennessee law provides for visual muffler inspection standards as a means to enforce noise pollution; now
Therefore, Be It Ordained by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen of the City of _________ as follows:
Section 1. All truck tractor and semi-trailers operating within the city of ________ shall conform to the visual exhaust system inspection requirements, 40 C.F.R. 202.22, of the Interstate Motor Carriers Noise Emission Standards.
Section 2. A motor vehicle does not conform to the visual exhaust system inspection requirements referenced in Section 1 of this ordinance if inspection of the exhaust system of the motor carrier vehicle discloses that the system:
Section 3. Violations of this ordinance shall subject the offender to a fine of $50 per offense.
Section 4. This ordinance shall be supplemental to other noise control ordinances and regulations of the city, and shall be effective upon its final passage, the public welfare requiring it.
Passed 1st reading on_________, 20__
Passed 2nd reading on_________, 20__
_________________________ ________________________________
Mayor Attest: City Recorder
_____________________________________________________________________________
Approved As To Form: City Attorney
Municipal authority to own, install and operate traffic surveillance cameras was hotly contested during the 2011 Tennessee General Assembly. The one bill to emerge from the discussions and eventually pass was Public Chapter No. 425 (HB1500/SB1684), T.C.A. § 55-8-198, that made significant changes to the traffic enforcement camera landscape existing at that time.
Foremost among these changes is the requirement that a municipality conduct a traffic engineering study prior to the installation of a new unmanned traffic enforcement camera. Such a study must be completed in accordance with the standard engineering practices of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and certified by a licensed engineer specializing in traffic engineering. A traffic camera vendor is prohibited from conducting the study or even participating in the selection of the engineer. Furthermore, any contract with a vendor must explicitly state that the contract must conform to any changes in state law, including all new and existing contracts, as well as contract renewals occurring after July 1, 2012. T. C. A. § 55-8-198(n). The Attorney General has opined that this requirement is constitutional and does not impair existing contracts. Tenn.Op.Atty.Gen. No. 11-61 (2011); Tenn. Op. Atty. Gen. No. 08-179 (2008).
Also present in the legislation are the hurdles it places on municipalities to ticket vehicles turning right (and left onto a one-way) at red lights. To ticket a vehicle, solely using unmanned camera evidence, for failure to come to a complete stop before turning at a red light, the evidence must clearly show the vehicle with a front tire before the stop line when the signal is red and subsequently show the same vehicle with a rear tire past the stop line while the signal is red. Furthermore, to ticket a vehicle, using solely unmanned camera evidence, for making an unlawful right turn on red, a clearly marked “No Turn on Red” sign must be in place.
With respect to speed cameras, as of July 1, 2015, unmanned traffic enforcement cameras used to monitor speed and issue speeding citations are prohibited except within the designated distance of a marked school zone and any S-curve of a public highway or road. T.C.A. § 55-8-198.
These provisions refer to “unmanned” cameras, but what does it fall within the statute if an officer is present? The Attorney General said no: “Where an officer operates a device, it is not “unmanned” for purposes of Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-8-198, but the mere passive presence of an officer near a traffic enforcement camera that otherwise functions automatically does not remove the device from the ambit of the statute.” However, “a camera that is operated by an officer—as, for example, a camera mounted in a patrol car—would not be subject to the restrictions set forth in Tenn. Code Ann. § 55-8-198. Both the purpose and the context of those restrictions, however, counsel against extending this construction to situations in which an officer is present with an automated device, but plays no active role in collecting evidence or issuing a citation. Tenn. Op. Atty. Gen 12-21 (2012).
The bill also changed the procedures for noticing and fining alleged violators. A POST-certified officer must review the evidence, and if a violation is determined, a notice of such must be sent to the alleged violator within 20 days of the occurrence of violation. This notice must state the amount of the fine, which cannot exceed $50, and also state any additional fees or costs that could result from a failure to pay or from being found guilty after contesting the violation. Violators still have 30 days from the mailing date to pay a citation. Additional fines and costs can be assessed after this period lapses.
Beware, however, of contacting a collection agency that turns over delinquent accounts to a consumer reporting agency. In 2012, the Legislature adopted this amendment to T.C.A. § 55–8–198 (m)(1):
(A) “Consumer report” and “consumer reporting agency” have the same meanings ascribed to those terms by § 604 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, codified in 15 U.S.C. § 1681a; and
(B) “Credit report” means any written, oral, or other communication of information, including a consumer report, by a consumer reporting agency bearing on a consumer's creditworthiness, credit standing or credit capacity, which is used or expected to be used or collected in whole or in part for the purpose of serving as a factor in establishing a consumer's eligibility for credit to be used primarily for personal, family, or household purposes.
(2) No person having charge, custody of or control over any records or information regarding a violation of this section, including payments made pursuant to receipt of a notice of violation or a citation, whether timely or delinquent, shall disclose these records or information to a consumer reporting agency. In addition, no information regarding a violation shall be disclosed or identified in any credit report.
Text of Public Chapter No. 425 can be found at http://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/sos/acts/100/pub/Pubc0425.HTM [1]. [1]
Links:
[1] http://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/sos/acts/100/pub/Pubc0425.HTM
DISCLAIMER: The letters and publications written by the MTAS consultants were written based upon the law at the time and/or a specific sets of facts. The laws referenced in the letters and publications may have changed and/or the technical advice provided may not be applicable to your city or circumstances. Always consult with your city attorney or an MTAS consultant before taking any action based on information contained in this website.
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