The “Rules of the Road” are the various statutes regulating operations of motor vehicles on public roadways, traffic laws like speeding or due care, regulations, vehicle equipment laws, etc. These laws are found in T.C.A. § 55-8-101 et. seq. This is where you will find the laws for speeding, stop lights, due care, hands free, etc. Other regulations governing lights and equipment are found in Title 55, Chapter 9, like seat belts, child restraints, headlights, etc. There are other regulations found in other statutes as well.

The Municipal Court Reform Act of 2004 allows a municipal court to possess “jurisdiction to enforce any municipal law or ordinance that mirrors, substantially duplicates or incorporates by cross-reference the language of a state criminal statute, if and only if the state criminal statute mirrored, duplicated or cross-referenced is a Class C misdemeanor and the maximum penalty prescribed by municipal law or ordinance is a civil fine not in excess of fifty dollars ($50.00).” T.C.A. § 16-18-302(a)(2).

In other words, this statute allows cities to pass an ordinance adopting any Class C misdemeanor into its city code and hear those offenses in city court. Most of the Rules of the Road are Class C misdemeanors, but there are a few violations that are Class B misdemeanors like reckless driving (T.C.A. § 55-8-205) or driving on a suspended license (T.C.A. § 55-50-504).

Most commonly, a city would pass a single ordinance adopting all the Class C motor vehicle violations into its city code and that section would be referred to as the “Rules of the Road Ordinance.” In the MTAS sample Rules of the Road ordinance, the header of the sample is labeled “Adoption of State Traffic Statutes.”

When a city adopts the Rules of the Road ordinance, the city can try any of the individual statutes as though there were city ordinances without having to adopt individual ordinances for each of those traffic laws.

In the Supreme Court case mentioned earlier in which the Court determined that the $50 limitation on fines imposed without the opportunity for a jury trial applies to violations of municipal ordinances, the Court discussed ordinances adopting traffic offenses from the state code by reference. The Court did not rule that such ordinances are unconstitutional, however, it did express a concern that municipalities adopting the statutes by reference, and enforcing those regulations could infringe upon the constitutional and statutory authority of the local district attorney general to make decisions regarding the prosecution of state regulations. City of Chattanooga v. Davis and Barrett v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, 54 S.W.3d 248 (Tenn. 2001).