Chapter 12.04
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Sections:

12.04.010    Short title.

12.04.020    Purpose and policy.

12.04.030    Serious crimes designated.

12.04.040    Responsibility for vehicle.

12.04.050    Parking payment device, municipal permit and garage parking revenue.

12.04.060    School and playground speed zones.

12.04.010 Short title.

This title constitutes the traffic code of the city and may be cited as such. (Ord. 2136 § 1, 1970)

12.04.020 Purpose and policy.

It is declared to be the purpose and public policy of the city to cooperate with state authorities in every way that is reasonably possible in the enforcement of the Washington Highway License Act, the Washington Motor Vehicle Act, and all other laws and regulations of the state relating to the equipment and operation of vehicles on the public highways of the city, and this title is enacted in furtherance of the purpose, and in the exercise of the police power of the city to protect and preserve the public peace, health, safety and economic welfare, and all of its provisions shall be liberally construed for the accomplishment of these purposes. (Ord. 2136 § 2, 1970)

12.04.030 Serious crimes designated.

Repealed by Ord. 4334. (Ord. 2879 § 6, 1985: Ord. 2762 § 4, 1983)

12.04.040 Responsibility for vehicle.

In any traffic infraction case under this chapter, a showing that the particular vehicle described in the notice of traffic infraction was in violation of a provision of this chapter relating to stopping, standing or parking of a vehicle, together with a showing of registered ownership of the vehicle at the time of the violation, shall constitute in evidence a prima facie presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle was the person who parked or placed the vehicle at the point where, and for the time during which, the violation occurred. (Ord. 3377 § 4, 1993)

12.04.050 Parking payment device, municipal permit and garage parking revenue.

The fee required to be paid for municipal garage parking and the payments required to be deposited in parking payment devices as provided by this code are levied and assessed as fees to cover the costs of installations, inspections, supervision, regulation and maintenance involved in the control of traffic and parking upon the streets and municipal property and the duly authorized agents of the director of finance and administration shall, from time to time, collect and deposit the same in a special fund for parking revenue, as directed by the director of finance and administration. (Ord. 3952 § 1, 2004: Ord. 3626 § 3, 1998: Ord. 3573 § 63, 1997: Ord. 3416 § 1, 1994: Ord. 3414 § 1, 1994)

12.04.060 School and playground speed zones.

(a)    The speed limit in school and playground speed zones shall be twenty miles per hour when appropriate signs indicate or when flashing beacons are active, as applicable. School and playground speed zones shall be three hundred feet, or as close as reasonably possible given the physical constraints of placing signage, but with marked crosswalks no less than three hundred feet in either direction from a marked school or playground crosswalk or from the border of a school or playground property. Combined school zones must be approved by the council. The following combined school zones are authorized:

(1)    Approximately one thousand five hundred eighty feet along 132nd Avenue NE from just south of NE 143rd Street to just north of NE 138th Place.

(2)    Approximately four thousand eight hundred feet along 84th Avenue NE from just south of NE 141st Street to NE 126th Place.

(b)    The school and playground speed zones shall be extended beyond the distances specified in subsection (a) of this section if a greater distance is required by RCW 46.61.440 or WAC 468-95-330. (Ord. 4880 § 1, 2024)