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MUTCD 11th Edition
- Traffic—pedestrians, bicyclists, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars, and other conveyances either singularly or together while using for purposes of travel any highway or site roadway open to public travel.
- Traffic Control Device—all signs, signals, markings, channelization devices, or other devices that use colors, shapes, symbols, words, sounds, and/or tactile information for the primary purpose of communicating a regulatory, warning, or guidance message to road users on a street, highway, pedestrian facility, bikeway, pathway, or site roadway open to public travel. Section 1A.02 contains information regarding items that are not traffic control devices.
- Traffic Control Signal (Traffic Signal)—see Highway Traffic Signal.
- Train—one or more locomotives coupled, with or without cars, that operates on rails or tracks and to which all other traffic must yield the right-of-way by law at highway-rail grade crossings.
- Transverse Markings—pavement markings that are generally placed perpendicular and across the flow of traffic such as shoulder markings; word, symbol, and arrow markings; stop lines; crosswalk lines; parking space markings; and others.
- Traveled Way—the portion of the roadway for the movement of vehicles, exclusive of the shoulders, berms, sidewalks, and parking lanes.
- Turn Bay—a lane for the exclusive use of turning vehicles that is formed on the approach to the location where the turn is to be made. In most cases where turn bays are provided, drivers who desire to turn must move out of a through lane into the newly-formed turn bay in order to turn. A through lane that becomes a turn lane is considered to be a lane drop rather than a turn bay.
- Two-Stage Bicycle Turn Box—a designated area at an intersection intended to provide bicyclists a place to wait for traffic to clear before proceeding in a different direction of travel.
- Uncontrolled Approach—an approach on which vehicles are not controlled by a traffic control signal, hybrid beacon, STOP sign, or YIELD sign.
- Upstream—a term that refers to a location that is encountered by traffic prior to a downstream location as it flows in an “upstream to downstream” direction. For example, “the upstream end of a lane line separating the turn lane from a through lane on the approach to an intersection” is the end of the line that is furthest from the intersection.
- Urban Street—a type of street normally characterized by relatively low speeds, wide ranges of traffic volumes, narrower lanes, frequent intersections and driveways, significant pedestrian traffic, and more businesses and houses.
- Variable Message Sign—see Changeable Message Sign.
- Vehicle—every device in, upon, or by which any person or property can be transported or drawn upon a highway, except trains and light rail transit operating in exclusive or semi-exclusive alignments. Light rail transit equipment operating in a mixed-use alignment, to which other traffic is not required to yield the right-of-way by law, is a vehicle.
- Vibrotactile Pedestrian Device—an accessible pedestrian signal feature that communicates, by touch, information about pedestrian timing using a vibrating surface.
- Visibility-Limited Signal Face or Visibility-Limited Signal Section—a type of signal face or signal section designed (or shielded, hooded, or louvered) to restrict the visibility of a signal indication from the side, to a certain lane or lanes, or to a certain distance from the stop line.
- Walk Interval—an interval during which the WALKING PERSON (symbolizing WALK) signal indication is displayed.
- Warning Light—a portable, powered, yellow, lens-directed, enclosed light that is used in a temporary traffic control zone in either a steady burn or a flashing mode.
- Warning Sign—a sign that gives notice to road users of a situation that might not be readily apparent.
- Warrant—a warrant describes a threshold condition based upon average or normal conditions that, if found to be satisfied as part of an engineering study, shall result in analysis of other traffic conditions or factors to determine whether a traffic control device or other improvement is justified. Warrants are not a substitute for engineering judgment. The fact that a warrant for a particular traffic control device is met is not conclusive justification for the installation of the device.
- Wayside Horn System—a stationary horn (or a series of horns) located at a grade crossing that is used in conjunction with train-activated or light rail transit-activated warning systems to provide audible warning of approaching rail traffic to road users on the highway or pathway approaches to a grade crossing, either as a supplement or alternative to the sounding of a locomotive horn.
- Worker—a person on foot whose duties place him or her within the right-of-way of a street, highway, or pathway, such as: construction and maintenance forces; survey crews; utility crews;
Sect. 1C.02
December 2023
