How do legal classifications of roads (e.g. Interstate, US Highway, SR, etc.) affect rights?

Factual Questions
1

In the US, there are several different types of public roads that are normally indicated on the road itself by shield insignia. E.g. a red-white-and-blue stylized shield for Interstate Highways, a white one for US Highways (e.g. US Route 1), and a smorgasbord of State, Territory, or Local insignia (e.g. Virginia has at least two shield shapes that indicate something). I’ve also seen this type of thing in Canada, but am not really familiar with it. I’ve driven on the Trans-Canadian Highway which I believe is Federal and also some Provincial or local roads.

I understand that these designations have something to do with how the road is funded. E.g. federal roads may be maintained with Federal money, while state roads are the state’s responsibility.

I am aware of “limited access highways” and how that affects the rights of adjoining property owners to build a driveway or parking lot off the road.

Other than speed limits, does the designation of a road affect rights in any significant way, or does it affect the jurisdiction of legal issues that arise over use of the road? Feel free to respond with your favorite jurisdiction, wherever it is in the world.

E.g.:

“In <State> it’s illegal to use a cell phone while driving on a State Primary Route, State Secondary Route, or County Route. You can, however, use them on US Highways and Interstates because of some weird jurisdictional matter <or something else…>.”

or

“At least the accident occurred after I got off of US 30 and had already made it fully onto State Route 87. Otherwise, we would have to have the injury case go through Federal Court and pay through the nose for an attorney who is familiar with their procedures.”

2

In California, State highways and Interstate freeways are owned completely by the State. There are a FEW exceptions, but for the most part, consider it all State owned.

Streets and portions of highways can have unlimited access. Within incorporated city limits, the city can control the access of highways throughout their jurisdiction. Freeways have limited access, controlled by on- and off-ramps.

So, control of access is by ownership of the land itself.

Control of BEHAVIOR of drivers using the highways is handled by local and State law enforcement, State and municipal laws, plus the actual licensing of the drivers to operate a motor vehicle is granted by the State.

Ultimately, the individual can only drive with the appropriate license, and must drive in accordance with all State and local laws.

I can’t even think of an instance where any violation would be subject to Federal enforcement, unless a criminal is being pursued by Federal law enforcement or agents.

And in every State that I know of, driving is a privilege. For any number of reasons, the State can suspend or revoke your license.

I hope that answered your question.
~VOW

3

The only divide I know of is public and private roads. I think there is some definition of speed limits between county and state highways and cities.

4

Around here, the state is responsible for maintenance on state and U.S. highways, the county is responsible for maintenance on county roads, and the city is responsible for maintenance on city streets. Since maintenance includes things like snow plowing, it’s not unusual to drive a road in winter and have it change from snow-covered, to badly plowed, to completely clear and back in the space of several miles, depending on which jurisdiction is responsible. Ditto for potholes.

5

In the United States, they’re all technically state (or city or county) highways. U.S. route numbers and Interstate numbers are merely for wayfinding purposes, and are assigned by AASHTO, a nongovernmental trade organization. Except for a few roads in National Parks, National Forests, military bases, etc., the federal government owns no roads at all. Federal and state funding, on the other hand, sometimes extends to roads that are unnumbered (at least publicly).

Occasionally, Congress will take a shortcut and specify certain things that are allowed only on certain classifications of highways. Back in the 80s the 55 mph speed limit, for a few years, could be raised only on Interstate highways, so Illinois redesignated State Route 5 as I-88. In addition, there’s a classification, largely unknown to the public, called the National Highway System. I believe allowable truck weights on highways in this system must meet a Congressionally mandated minimum.

6

Probably picking nits but there are a lot of federal checkpoints away from the border on various highways but the scope of enforcement is largely limited to immigration laws , I don’t think there’s any customs stuff going on) Here in California they are common, non border states probably not so much

I suppose it’s also worth noting that there are a lot of federal regulations in place for commercial drivers but enforcement of those does fall almost exclusively on state or local law enforcement. Pretty sure there’s no federal DOT police :smiley:

7

There is a parkway in Northern Virginia that is on federal land and patrolled by the US Park Police. I once got nabbed there for speeding, and decided to challenge the ticket. I had to report to federal court (which ordinarily does not handle anything as mundane as traffic enforcement), where a low-man-on-the-totem-pole Assistant US Attorney (i.e., federal prosecutor) was offering everyone a standard deal: They’d reduce the offense from “over 69 in a 55” to “over 59 in a 55,” if I’d plead guilty. I took the deal, which meant I had to go in front of a federal magistrate judge and recite my way through the same procedural litany as if I was pleading guilty to a federal crime. Somewhere in their records is a federal case file titled “United States v. Tom Tildrum.”

8

To IANSparticus:

I forgot about ICE checkpoints.

But I consider their job to be unrelated to highway or driving controls, other than possibly citing drivers overloading vehicles with immigrants or contraband. I’m sure local and State law enforcement defer to ICE.

Highways/freeways with Interstate designation receive a percentage of Federal funding for construction and maintenance. They also have to be constructed to Interstate standards. These consist of mundane matters, such as lane width, number and type of ramps per mile, curve radii. For the wits who like to ask, “Why are there Interstate highways in Hawaii?” it’s the funding and standards that determine the Interstate classification.

And believe me, State budgets certainly appreciate the Federal funds in their coffers.
~VOW

9

There’s also some funny issues with roads on Indian Reservations. North of me there’s a reservation that has a very high-traffic US Route that goes through it. The tribal police have jurisdiction everywhere on the rez except for that one highway. So the highway patrol does traffic enforcement and accident investigation on only that one highway and nowhere else on the reservation. The tribal cops can also have jurisdiction over tribal members traveling on that highway, as well as anyone traveling on the tribal secondary roads (the equivalent of county roads).

Apparently some accidents can lead to some very odd “where do they bury the survivors?” type situations. Fortunately the two agencies are on good terms and whoever’s closest responds to emergency calls, but it sometimes takes some sorting out to figure out who’s going to write the tickets and the reports!

10

State Highways CAN pass over Indian Reservation Land, BUT–transfer of ownership must be voted on by the entire tribe.

And if there is lack of consideration by the legislators and Governors in the State capitals, then the approving vote will be a LONG time coming.

The only thing more complicated and confusing than Federal ownership or Indian tribe land is the RAILROADS. The Railroads are GODS, and when a State highway must pass over Railroad land, there will be no transfer of ownership. The Railroad will ALWAYS keep the underlying ownership. Should a highway over Railroad land be decommissioned, then the control will be returned to the Railroad.

Thus sayeth the Railroads.
~VOW

11

Way back when I was still living in Philadelphia (at least 50 years ago), there was a bridge over a small creek that happened to be where Philadelphia, Delaware county, and Montgomery county came together. It happened also to be US 1. The bridge was crumbling and no one would accept jurisdiction. Eventually, someone repaired it since it didn’t fall into the creek.

12

Federal Highway Administration rules say that you have to have breakaway posts on mailboxes along any federal road. (So no encasing your mailbox in concrete to deter vandalism.) This is so that vehicles suffer less damage when they wander off the road.

Now, finding out which road qualifies for this rule or not is basically impossible. It doesn’t seem to only apply to #ed US highways and Interstates. Good luck Googling an official answer.

There are no doubt other similar rules for what can be placed near roads depending on jurisdiction.

13

To ftg:

I would think the mailbox rule would be for mailboxes placed within the right-of-way. Outside the right-of-way, you can do pretty much whatever pleases your little heart.

Now, DETERMINING the right-of-way is a completely different story. I’ve seen right-of-way on obscure rural highways vary between 50-foot wide (25’/25’ on each side of the centerline) to a whopping 400-foot width.

And then, of course, there is the story about the highway that ran through a Section which had been completely Government land. The Feds didn’t even BOTHER with a right-of-way width…and at some places, there wasn’t even a complete highway centerline.

People would come to research the right-of-way, and I had to tell them, essentially, “The road is, where the road is.”

Always fun.

(BTW, I’m retired from the State of California, Dept of Transportation)
~VOW

14

ftg, do you have a cite for that claim?

The federal government, you will remember, does not own any of these highways and does not have a general police power.

15

Seems Googling “federal road breakaway mailbox” yields ample citations to support the claim

That said, the government does have the power to regulate how things are done around the roads they pay for are, hence the uniform signage, seatbelt regulations, speed laws, and apparently means of installing signs, posts and other such apparatus

16

To IANSparticus:

The Feds do their work the lazy way: they control the purse strings. US highways and Interstate freeways are owned by the State.

Part of the funding is from the Federal government, but the State has to do everything by the Federal specs.
~VOW

17

Actually, what it turns up are numerous state and county regulations that simply make reference to the FHWA standard as a shorthand way of describing what’s allowed—no matter what number the road carries. So perhaps ftg meant to say “my state requires breakaway posts along certain roads.”

No, actually they don’t. Every few years, Congress is persuaded that some safety concept—55 mph speed limit, uniform drinking age of 21, or uniform truck weight allowances—are so important that the states should be bribed to adopt them, and put such a provision in the current transportation appropriations bill. Otherwise, our Constitution requires that all traffic regulations must be done by the states. Remember, this principle (there is no federal police power) is why Romneycare is legal but Obamacare can be challenged.

18

Apparently people didn’t understand the meaning of “Good luck Googling an official answer.” in my post. If I could find a decent link, I’d give it. (Part of the point is what a mess all this is.)

19

No, ftg made it clear that FHWA standard exist for federal roads, with the caveat that finding out exactly what a federal road is, is hard to come by.

You asked him to provide a cite for this fact.

I said that Googling the search term will confirm that the regulation does in fact exist.

In fact, the first search result (http://www.cpcsigns.com/downloads/federalrulings/breakawaysignsupports.pdf) - PDF - indicates the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices states that “all roadside sign supports in the clear zone shall be breakaway, yielding, or shielded. This requirement applies to all roads, whether publicly owned, or privately owned.”

Going here http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/ we find that MUTCD is published under 23 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 655, Subpart F.

So, there is your cite that the rule exists.

Actually, they do. If you want federal money for your highway, you will follow the federal rules in order to obtain the grant. It’s actually a myth that Congress regulates the speed limit. In fact the federal speed limit was repealed over 15 years ago and each state is free to set its own speed limits. At the same time, there’s a good reason that throughout the US, the speed limit signs look the same, and it’s not the states pooling purchasing power together to get a better deal from the speed limit sign manufacturer.

What you seem to be missing, and as a former CalTrans employee I’m sure VOW can explain it a lot better, is that the 80% of highway spending the feds provide (with mandatory 20% state/local matches) comes with rules. If the rules are not followed, the grant has to be returned to the feds. States are free to fund 100% of road projects if they see fit and they can call all the shots. The economics tend to make taking the fed money, with its strings attached, more attractive.

Here is a tidbit from Title 23 that deals with occupant safety grants:

Also, at the risk of derailing the thread, I’ll also point out you’re factually incorrect on Romneycare-- it was challenged and the challenges either failed by ruling or were lawfully ignored by higher courts, allowing the earlier decisions to stand.

20

Indian reservations are exempt from the National Highway Beautification Act. For example, I-90, the New York State Thruway, is almost entirely billboard-free throughout the state, except for a short stretch through the Cattaragus Reservation between Buffalo and Erie, where the billboards are almost wall-to-wall. Ironic, considering the belief that Native Americans are somehow closer to nature than their white neighbors.

Another interesting quirk - local governments in the US can use amortization to get rid of signs that no longer conform to a new zoning code, except within 660 feet of the right-of-way of a federal aid highway.