Request By:
Mr. John C. Greenwell
Uniontown City Police Judge
P.O. Box 548
Uniontown, Kentucky 42461
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your letter stating that at a particular intersection within the Uniontown city limits there are four stop signs constituting a four-way stop. The stop signs in question, however, are yellow with black lettering and in the shape of an octagon. A city police officer has written several citations to persons not coming to a complete stop at these signs. In your opinion the signs are for warning only.
KRS 189.337, originally enacted in 1966, provides as follows:
"(1) As used in this section 'official traffic control devices' shall mean all signs, signals, markings, and devices placed or erected by authority of a public body or official having jurisdiction, for the purpose of regulating, warning, or dividing traffic.
(2) The bureau of highways shall promulgate and adopt a manual of standards and specifications for a uniform system of official traffic control devices for use upon all roads and streets. The manual and its future revisions and supplements shall be applicable to all roads and streets under the control of the bureau of highways or any county or incorporated city.
(3) All traffic control devices installed on any road or street after the adoption of the manual shall conform to the provisions thereof. Satisfactory operating traffic devices in use on the date of the adoption of the manual may continue to be used, however, if such devices are replaced or revised, they must be replaced or revised in conformity with the provisions of the manual. "
We assume that the roads or streets on which signs in question are located are not state-maintained highways. KRS 189.231 provides that the secretary of transportation may restrict or regulate traffic and may install and maintain traffic control devices upon state-maintained highways in such manner as is reasonably necessary to promote the safety and convenience of the traveling public. We further assume that the streets or roads to which you refer are not Federal-aid highways subject to certain standards imposed by the Federal Government in connection with the granting of Federal funds. See OAG 74-777, copy enclosed, concerning traffic control devices on Federal-aid highways. If there is a question as to jurisdiction and control over the roads involved, you may wish to check with the Kentucky Department of Transportation, Bureau of Highways, or the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, which maintains an office in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Pursuant to the legislative mandate imposed upon the bureau of highways to promulgate and adopt a manual of standards and specifications for a uniform system of official traffic control devices, the bureau, by an official order issued in December of 1971, adopted the 1971 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways of the United States Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, for use on all roads and streets in Kentucky. New official orders have been issued from time to time since then, adopting the abovementioned manual, the most recent apparently being official order No. 082370, signed and approved on May 15, 1976.
In connection with the stop sign, the manual provides that the octagon shall be reserved exclusively for that sign (Section 2A-10). Red shall be the color used as a background for stop signs (Section 2A-11). The stop sign shall be an octagon with white message and border on a red background and is used on roadways where traffic is required to stop (Section 2B-4). In addition, the standard size shall be 30 inches by 30 inches. Where greater emphasis or visibility is required, a larger size is recommended. On low-volume local streets and secondary roads with low approach speeds, a 24-inch by 24-inch size may be used. At a multiway stop intersection, a supplementary plate should be mounted just below each stop sign. This supplementary plate shall have white letters on a red background and shall indicate the number of approaching directions from which traffic is required to stop (for example, "4-WAY" or "All-Way").
If streets and roads over which the city has jurisdiction and control are involved, and if the signs involved were installed, replaced or revised after the adoption by the state of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways, the signs used by the city must conform to the requirements of the manual. As previously noted, a stop sign must be an octagon with a white message and border on a red background and of a certain specified size. Stop signs cannot now use the colors black and yellow and if the signs involved are subject to the provisions of the manual, they are not legal stop signs. The statute does provide that "satisfactory operating traffic devices in use on the date of the adoption of the manual may continue to be used," but we do not know when the signs involved were installed by the city and whether they adhere to the statutory requirements. In the interests of safety, the city may wish to remove the black and yellow stop signs, even if not legally required to do so, as such signs may confuse motorists since almost all stop signs today are red and white rather than black and yellow.