§ 86-101. Traffic engineer.

(a)

[ Established. ] The position of traffic engineer is hereby established. The traffic engineer shall be the director, if he or she is a registered professional engineer in Louisiana, or a designee of the director who is a registered professional engineer in Louisiana. The traffic engineer shall exercise the powers and duties as provided in this chapter.

(b)

Duties. It shall be the general duty of the traffic engineer to determine the installation, maintenance and proper timing of official traffic-control devices, to conduct engineering analyses of traffic crashes and devise remedial measures, to conduct engineering investigations of traffic conditions, to plan the operation of traffic on the streets of city-parish consolidated government, to cooperate with other city-parish consolidated government officials in the development of ways and means to improve traffic conditions, and to carry out the additional powers and duties granted and imposed by ordinances of city-parish consolidated government.

(c)

Authority of traffic engineer. The traffic engineer shall place and maintain official traffic-control devices when and as required under the traffic ordinances of city-parish consolidated government to make effective the provisions of said ordinances, and may place and maintain such additional official traffic-control devices as necessary to regulate, warn or guide traffic under the traffic ordinances of city-parish consolidated government or the state vehicle code. Traffic-control signs, signals and devices shall conform to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and specifications approved by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Without limiting the authority granted herein to regulate, warn, and guide traffic, the traffic engineer, acting on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation, shall also have the following specific authority, subject to the limitations in the state vehicle code or agreements between city-parish consolidated government and Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development:

(1)

To designate crosswalks, safety zones, stops and stands for buses, taxicabs and other passenger common carriers; loading zones, and passenger loading zones.

(2)

To determine and establish the speed limit applicable to a street.

(3)

To regulate traffic movements and lanes by the use of regulatory traffic control devices.

(4)

To regulate the kinds and classes of traffic and the maximum size, number of axles and/or weight of vehicles permitted on a street or portion of a street.

(5)

To determine and designate lanes for the exclusive use of transit buses or high-occupancy vehicles, reverse-flow lanes, and commercial vehicle routes.

(6)

To regulate the stopping, standing, and parking of vehicles, including the installation of parking meters on streets and in city operated parking facilities.

(7)

To determine and designate truck and hazardous material routes subject to laws and/or regulations of this state or the federal government.

(8)

To test traffic-control devices under actual conditions of traffic subject to the laws and regulations of this state or the federal government; and

(9)

To establish fees in accordance with article IX, division 2, "parking meters" and division 4, "parking garages and surface lots" of this chapter and corresponding city-parish council resolutions related to these fees.

(Ord. No. O-149-2012, § 2, 7-17-12)