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Where does the funding for road striping come from? It is often viewed as a safety issue and, therefore, is said to come out of the General Fund.

This is not a safety issue, but one of authority. Section 1160 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law identifies the Town Board as the responsible party for the implementation of traffic signs and pavement markings. Since these items need to be authorized by local law or resolution to be enforceable and the board is responsible for passing these laws/resolutions, the authority to direct the use of these items is under the direction of the Board. The Highway Department is responsible for their installation and maintenance. As such, the costs related to these items would come from the General Fund. These costs include their purchase, installation and maintenance. Road striping costs should come from the General Fund.

A portion of Vehicle and Traffic Law Section 1660 is provided below for reference: 

§ 1660. Traffic regulation in all towns. a) The town board of any town with respect to highways outside of villages in any such town, but not including state highways maintained by the state except with respect to subdivisions six, eight, nine and ten, subject to the limitations imposed by section sixteen hundred eighty-four may by ordinance, order, rule or regulation:

    1.  Designate county roads and town highways as through highways and order stop signs, flashing signals or yield signs erected on county roads or town highways at specified entrances to such through highways or designate any intersection except those where one or more entering highways is a state highway maintained by the state as a stop intersection or a yield intersection and order like signs or signals at one or more entrances to such intersections.

    2.  Upon a roadway which is divided into three lanes, allocate the center lane exclusively for traffic moving in a specified direction.

    3. Order signs erected directing slow-moving traffic, trucks, buses or specified types of vehicles to use a designated lane, or with signs, signals or markings designate those lanes to be used by traffic moving in a particular direction regardless of the center of the roadway.

    4. Determine those highways or portions of highways which shall be marked to indicate where overtaking and passing or driving to the left of or crossing such markings would be especially hazardous in accordance with the standards, minimum warrants and sign or marking specifications established by the department of transportation.

    5. Regulate traffic by means of traffic-control signals.

This is also discussed in section 9-5 of the Association of Towns’ The Office of the Town Highway Superintendent (also known as the Red Book) and in Chapter 6 of our workbook Running Your Highway Department. The account and ledger code for this is A3310.

Resources:

Association of Towns’ Office of the Town Highway Superintendent (Red Book):
The ‘Red Book,’ officially The Office of Town Highway Superintendent (2017), is published by Association of Towns of the State of New York and can be purchased from them.
Here is a link to the website or you can call 518-465- 7933.
Order form (pdf): https://www.nytowns.org/images/Documents/Pubs/publication%20order%20form.pdf

Running Your Highway Department Workshop Manual:
https://cornell.app.box.com/v/clrp-ws-ryhd

Laws of New York:
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/lawssrch.cgi?NVLWO:

 

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