My apologies. Duly noted. Won’t happen again.
Wisconsin Statutes:
I should have added that even if state laws do not apply to private parking lots, municipal laws may be in effect.
If the property is located in a municipality, the municipality’s road rules govern. The state has jurisdiction only over state roads.
prisoner6655321:
[quote} Hey! How about this? Is it legal to cut through private property (like a gas station) to avoid a light? [/quote]
Many states have laws against driving through private property to evade a traffic sign or signal. I’m not going to bother looking up any laws again since this was discussed in a prior thread.
I lived in a gated community outside Chicago. While it is private property, and the signs are different than regular signs, the association made an agreement with the cops to patrol the area, and enforce traffic laws. I first found out when I got pulled for driving 32 in a 15. My point is that you never know. The private property owner might have made an agreement with the cops, so I would exercise some caution.
Speak for your own state. In many states, state laws apply everywhere, including within municipalities.
We don’t allow personal attacks in GQ. If you’d like to remain a guest of this message board, you will not do this again.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
There was a thread on this awhile back. In many jurisdictions, there’s actually a law on the books worded something like “Circumventing a traffic control device”, to keep people from cutting through gas stations and such to skip lights. It’d be interesting to challenge this in court, though; how can they prove you didn’t intend to use the station, then changed your mind?
State laws apply even within municipalities, but if it is a city street, the city can regulate it by its own ordinance. There are state routes in municipalities, and in those instances the municipality cannot regulate it. For example, a city cannot lower the speed limit on a state route even if it is in the city without the state’s approval.
I was helping a friend out with a traffic ticket and stumbled upon this:
Part of Michigan’s Uniform Traffic Code.
Interesting bit, that Uniform Traffic Code, which, as it turns out, is in actuality a set of administrative rules promulgated by the Director of the Department of State Police, which municipalities can adopt to supplement the Michigan Vehicle Code. I’m guessing that most municipalities do end up adopting the rules as ordinances. If so, Michigan’s traffic law may well be essentially uniform in all aspects state-wide.
Probably mostly. But I bet there are a couple of “independents.”
I used to be a career municipal employee. While I was never a traffic engineer, a few things seeped in through osmosis.
There are professional traffic engineers. They do studies. Those are about the only facts behind this rant.
I know of no large governmental units (catchall phrase to cover states, counties, cities, towns, townships, what-have-you) that have the money to study each and every street in their jurisdictions. That’s why there is always a default maximum speed.
Changes in speed limits along a street are subject to formal study. But the speed that results isn’t always, let us say, scientific. A huge amount of political maneuvering, compromise, and pressure goes into them. (This is especially true on side streets, where an activist neighborhood organization can force speed reductions, as well as speed bumps, speed humps, relining of lanes, or a host of other measures that exactly comparable streets elsewhere don’t get.)
And it’s certainly not true that private sites don’t use traffic engineers. Remember, private developers are the people with money. Every large engineering firm of my acquaintance that works on these big projects does traffic studies.
A little contradiction there. As other posters have shown, signs are not always posted just for show because they do have the law behind them. Given what I’ve learned about malls and similar large private areas, I would make the default assumption everywhere I went that the signs can be backed up with authority one way or another.
I am in western Pennsylvania. This winter, during a snowstorm, I was out cruising in my Jeep Wrangler. I decided to play around in an empty (due to the storm) parking lot. I did everything but roll the thing, and learned a bit about the way my 4 WD handled in skids/etc.
Well, along came a cop. He explained that I was in violation of the law. He explained how reckless driving in PA applied to private parking lots. I thgought I was gonna get a ticket. Then we started chatting about the way the vehicle handled. He had been considering purchasing a Jeep Wrangler. I managed to convince him to “take a test drive” in my Jeep. He tried a few things, thanked me, then went on his way.
No ticket. 
I asked a local PD officer in my city (San Diego, CA), and he gave me the same answer.