4511.01.
Traffic laws - operation of motor vehicles definitions
As used in this chapter
and in Chapter 4513. of the Revised Code:
(A) |
"Vehicle" means every device, including a motorized bicycle
and an electric bicycle, in, upon, or by which
any person or property may be transported or drawn upon a highway, except that
"vehicle" does not include any motorized wheelchair, any electric personal
assistive mobility device, any personal delivery device as defined in section
4511.513 of the Revised Code,
any device that is moved by power collected from overhead electric trolley
wires or that is used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks, or any
device, other than a bicycle, that is moved by human power. |
(B) |
"Motor vehicle" means every vehicle propelled or drawn by power other than
muscular power or power collected from overhead electric trolley wires, except
motorized bicycles, electric bicycles, road
rollers, traction engines, power shovels, power cranes, and other equipment
used in construction work and not designed for or employed in general highway
transportation, hole-digging machinery, well-drilling machinery, ditch-digging
machinery, farm machinery, and trailers designed and used exclusively to
transport a boat between a place of storage and a marina, or in and around a
marina, when drawn or towed on a street or highway for a distance of no more
than ten miles and at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour or less. |
(C) |
"Motorcycle" means every motor vehicle, other than a tractor, having a seat or
saddle for the use of the operator and designed to travel on not more than
three wheels in contact with the ground, including, but not limited to, motor
vehicles known as "motor-driven cycle," "motor scooter," "autocycle,"
"cab-enclosed motorcycle," or "motorcycle" without regard to weight or brake
horsepower. |
(D) |
"Emergency
vehicle" means emergency vehicles of municipal, township, or county departments
or public utility corporations when identified as such as required by law, the
director of public safety, or local authorities, and motor vehicles when
commandeered by a police officer. |
(E) |
"Public safety vehicle" means any of the following:
(1) |
Ambulances, including private ambulance companies under contract to a municipal
corporation, township, or county, and private ambulances and nontransport
vehicles bearing license plates issued under section
4503.49
of the Revised Code; |
(2) |
Motor
vehicles used by public law enforcement officers or other persons sworn to
enforce the criminal and traffic laws of the state; |
(3) |
Any
motor vehicle when properly identified as required by the director of public
safety, when used in response to fire emergency calls or to provide emergency
medical service to ill or injured persons, and when operated by a duly
qualified person who is a member of a volunteer rescue service or a volunteer
fire department, and who is on duty pursuant to the rules or directives of that
service. The state fire marshal shall be designated by the director of public
safety as the certifying agency for all public safety vehicles described in
division (E)(3) of this section. |
(4) |
Vehicles used by fire departments, including motor vehicles when used by
volunteer fire fighters responding to emergency calls in the fire department
service when identified as required by the director of public safety.
Any vehicle used to
transport or provide emergency medical service to an ill or injured person,
when certified as a public safety vehicle, shall be considered a public safety
vehicle when transporting an ill or injured person to a hospital regardless of
whether such vehicle has already passed a hospital.
|
(5) |
Vehicles used by the motor carrier enforcement unit for the enforcement of
orders and rules of the public utilities commission as specified in section
5503.34
of the Revised Code. |
|
(F) |
"School bus" means every bus designed for carrying more than nine passengers
that is owned by a public, private, or governmental agency or institution of
learning and operated for the transportation of children to or from a school
session or a school function, or owned by a private person and operated for
compensation for the transportation of children to or from a school session or
a school function, provided "school bus" does not include a bus operated by a
municipally owned transportation system, a mass transit company operating
exclusively within the territorial limits of a municipal corporation, or within
such limits and the territorial limits of municipal corporations immediately
contiguous to such municipal corporation, nor a common passenger carrier
certified by the public utilities commission unless such bus is devoted
exclusively to the transportation of children to and from a school session or a
school function, and "school bus" does not include a van or bus used by a
licensed child day-care center or type A family day-care home to transport
children from the child day-care center or type A family day-care home to a
school if the van or bus does not have more than fifteen children in the van or
bus at any time. |
(G) |
"Bicycle"
means every device, other than a device that is designed solely for use as a
play vehicle by a child, that is propelled solely by human power upon which a
person may ride, and that has two or more wheels, any of which is more than
fourteen inches in diameter. |
(H) |
"Motorized bicycle" or "moped" means any vehicle
having either two tandem wheels or one wheel in the front and two wheels in the
rear, that may be pedaled, and that is equipped with a helper motor of not more
than fifty cubic centimeters piston displacement that produces not more than
one brake horsepower and is capable of propelling the vehicle at a speed of not
greater than twenty miles per hour on a level surface. "Motorized bicycle" or "moped" does not include an electric
bicycle.
|
(I) |
"Commercial
tractor" means every motor vehicle having motive power designed or used for
drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry any load thereon, or
designed or used for drawing other vehicles while carrying a portion of such
other vehicles, or load thereon, or both. |
(J) |
"Agricultural tractor" means every self-propelling vehicle designed or used for
drawing other vehicles or wheeled machinery but having no provision for
carrying loads independently of such other vehicles, and used principally for
agricultural purposes. |
(K) |
"Truck"
means every motor vehicle, except trailers and semitrailers, designed and used
to carry property. |
(L) |
"Bus" means
every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than nine passengers and used
for the transportation of persons other than in a ridesharing arrangement, and
every motor vehicle, automobile for hire, or funeral car, other than a taxicab
or motor vehicle used in a ridesharing arrangement, designed and used for the
transportation of persons for compensation. |
(M) |
"Trailer" means every vehicle designed or used for carrying persons or property
wholly on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle, including
any such vehicle when formed by or operated as a combination of a "semitrailer"
and a vehicle of the dolly type, such as that commonly known as a "trailer
dolly," a vehicle used to transport agricultural produce or agricultural
production materials between a local place of storage or supply and the farm
when drawn or towed on a street or highway at a speed greater than twenty-five
miles per hour, and a vehicle designed and used exclusively to transport a boat
between a place of storage and a marina, or in and around a marina, when drawn
or towed on a street or highway for a distance of more than ten miles or at a
speed of more than twenty-five miles per hour. |
(N) |
"Semitrailer" means every vehicle designed or used for carrying persons or
property with another and separate motor vehicle so that in operation a part of
its own weight or that of its load, or both, rests upon and is carried by
another vehicle. |
(O) |
"Pole
trailer" means every trailer or semitrailer attached to the towing vehicle by
means of a reach, pole, or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing
vehicle, and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregular shaped loads
such as poles, pipes, or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining
themselves as beams between the supporting connections. |
(P) |
"Railroad" means a carrier of persons or property operating upon rails placed
principally on a private right-of-way. |
(Q) |
"Railroad train" means a steam engine or an electric or other motor, with or
without cars coupled thereto, operated by a railroad. |
(R) |
"Streetcar" means a car, other than a railroad train, for transporting persons
or property, operated upon rails principally within a street or
highway. |
(S) |
"Trackless
trolley" means every car that collects its power from overhead electric trolley
wires and that is not operated upon rails or tracks. |
(T) |
"Explosives" means any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that is intended
for the purpose of producing an explosion that contains any oxidizing and
combustible units or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities, or
packing that an ignition by fire, by friction, by concussion, by percussion, or
by a detonator of any part of the compound or mixture may cause such a sudden
generation of highly heated gases that the resultant gaseous pressures are
capable of producing destructive effects on contiguous objects, or of
destroying life or limb. Manufactured articles shall not be held to be
explosives when the individual units contain explosives in such limited
quantities, of such nature, or in such packing, that it is impossible to
procure a simultaneous or a destructive explosion of such units, to the injury
of life, limb, or property by fire, by friction, by concussion, by percussion,
or by a detonator, such as fixed ammunition for small arms, firecrackers, or
safety fuse matches. |
(U) |
"Flammable
liquid" means any liquid that has a flash point of seventy degrees fahrenheit,
or less, as determined by a tagliabue or equivalent closed cup test
device. |
(V) |
"Gross
weight" means the weight of a vehicle plus the weight of any load
thereon. |
(W) |
"Person"
means every natural person, firm, co-partnership, association, or
corporation. |
(X) |
"Pedestrian"
means any natural person afoot. "Pedestrian" includes a personal delivery
device as defined in section
4511.513 of the Revised Code
unless the context clearly suggests otherwise. |
(Y) |
"Driver or operator" means every person who drives or is in actual physical
control of a vehicle, trackless trolley, or streetcar. |
(Z) |
"Police officer" means every officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic,
or to make arrests for violations of traffic regulations. |
(AA) |
"Local authorities" means every county, municipal, and other local board or
body having authority to adopt police regulations under the constitution and
laws of this state. |
(BB) |
"Street" or
"highway" means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way open
to the use of the public as a thoroughfare for purposes of vehicular
travel. |
(CC) |
"Controlled-access highway" means every street or highway in respect to which
owners or occupants of abutting lands and other persons have no legal right of
access to or from the same except at such points only and in such manner as may
be determined by the public authority having jurisdiction over such street or
highway. |
(DD) |
"Private
road or driveway" means every way or place in private ownership used for
vehicular travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission
from the owner but not by other persons. |
(EE) |
"Roadway" means that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily
used for vehicular travel, except the berm or shoulder. If a highway includes
two or more separate roadways the term "roadway" means any such roadway
separately but not all such roadways collectively. |
(FF) |
"Sidewalk" means that portion of a street between the curb lines, or the
lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines, intended for the
use of pedestrians. |
(GG) |
"Laned
highway" means a highway the roadway of which is divided into two or more
clearly marked lanes for vehicular traffic. |
(HH) |
"Through highway" means every street or highway as provided in section
4511.65
of the Revised Code. |
(II) |
"State
highway" means a highway under the jurisdiction of the department of
transportation, outside the limits of municipal corporations, provided that the
authority conferred upon the director of transportation in section
5511.01
of the Revised Code to erect state highway route markers and signs directing
traffic shall not be modified by sections
4511.01
to
4511.79
and
4511.99 of the Revised
Code. |
(JJ) |
"State
route" means every highway that is designated with an official state route
number and so marked. |
(KK) |
"Intersection" means:
(1) |
The area
embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curb lines, or,
if none, the lateral boundary lines of the roadways of two highways that join
one another at, or approximately at, right angles, or the area within which
vehicles traveling upon different highways that join at any other angle might
come into conflict. The junction of an alley or driveway with a roadway or
highway does not constitute an intersection unless the roadway or highway at
the junction is controlled by a traffic control device. |
(2) |
If
a highway includes two roadways that are thirty feet or more apart, then every
crossing of each roadway of such divided highway by an intersecting highway
constitutes a separate intersection. If both intersecting highways include two
roadways thirty feet or more apart, then every crossing of any two roadways of
such highways constitutes a separate intersection. |
(3) |
At
a location controlled by a traffic control signal, regardless of the distance
between the separate intersections as described in division (KK)(2) of this
section:
(a) |
If a stop
line, yield line, or crosswalk has not been designated on the roadway within
the median between the separate intersections, the two intersections and the
roadway and median constitute one intersection. |
(b) |
Where a stop line, yield line, or crosswalk line is designated on the roadway
on the intersection approach, the area within the crosswalk and any area beyond
the designated stop line or yield line constitute part of the
intersection. |
(c) |
Where a
crosswalk is designated on a roadway on the departure from the intersection,
the intersection includes the area that extends to the far side of the
crosswalk. |
|
|
(LL) |
"Crosswalk" means:
(1) |
That part of
a roadway at intersections ordinarily included within the real or projected
prolongation of property lines and curb lines or, in the absence of curbs, the
edges of the traversable roadway; |
(2) |
Any
portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere, distinctly indicated for
pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface; |
(3) |
Notwithstanding divisions (LL)(1) and (2) of this section, there shall not be a
crosswalk where local authorities have placed signs indicating no
crossing. |
|
(MM) |
"Safety
zone" means the area or space officially set apart within a roadway for the
exclusive use of pedestrians and protected or marked or indicated by adequate
signs as to be plainly visible at all times. |
(NN) |
"Business district" means the territory fronting upon a street or highway,
including the street or highway, between successive intersections within
municipal corporations where fifty per cent or more of the frontage between
such successive intersections is occupied by buildings in use for business, or
within or outside municipal corporations where fifty per cent or more of the
frontage for a distance of three hundred feet or more is occupied by buildings
in use for business, and the character of such territory is indicated by
official traffic control devices. |
(OO) |
"Residence district" means the territory, not comprising a business district,
fronting on a street or highway, including the street or highway, where, for a
distance of three hundred feet or more, the frontage is improved with
residences or residences and buildings in use for business. |
(PP) |
"Urban district" means the territory contiguous to and including any street or
highway which is built up with structures devoted to business, industry, or
dwelling houses situated at intervals of less than one hundred feet for a
distance of a quarter of a mile or more, and the character of such territory is
indicated by official traffic control devices. |
(QQ) |
"Traffic control device" means a flagger, sign, signal, marking, or other
device used to regulate, warn, or guide traffic, placed on, over, or adjacent
to a street, highway, private road open to public travel, pedestrian facility,
or shared-use path by authority of a public agency or official having
jurisdiction, or, in the case of a private road open to public travel, by
authority of the private owner or private official having
jurisdiction. |
(RR) |
"Traffic
control signal" means any highway traffic signal by which traffic is
alternately directed to stop and permitted to proceed. |
(SS) |
"Railroad sign or signal" means any sign, signal, or device erected by
authority of a public body or official or by a railroad and intended to give
notice of the presence of railroad tracks or the approach of a railroad
train. |
(TT) |
"Traffic"
means pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars, trackless
trolleys, and other devices, either singly or together, while using for
purposes of travel any highway or private road open to public travel. |
(UU) |
"Right-of-way" means either of the following, as the context requires:
(1) |
The
right of a vehicle, streetcar, trackless trolley, or pedestrian to proceed
uninterruptedly in a lawful manner in the direction in which it or the
individual is moving in preference to another vehicle, streetcar, trackless
trolley, or pedestrian approaching from a different direction into its or the
individual's path; |
(2) |
A general
term denoting land, property, or the interest therein, usually in the
configuration of a strip, acquired for or devoted to transportation purposes.
When used in this context, right-of-way includes the roadway, shoulders or
berm, ditch, and slopes extending to the right-of-way limits under the control
of the state or local authority. |
|
(VV) |
"Rural mail delivery vehicle" means every vehicle used to deliver United States
mail on a rural mail delivery route. |
(WW) |
"Funeral escort vehicle" means any motor vehicle, including a funeral hearse,
while used to facilitate the movement of a funeral procession. |
(XX) |
"Alley" means a street or highway intended to provide access to the rear or
side of lots or buildings in urban districts and not intended for the purpose
of through vehicular traffic, and includes any street or highway that has been
declared an "alley" by the legislative authority of the municipal corporation
in which such street or highway is located. |
(YY) |
"Freeway" means a divided multi-lane highway for through traffic with all
crossroads separated in grade and with full control of access. |
(ZZ) |
"Expressway" means a divided arterial highway for through traffic with full or
partial control of access with an excess of fifty per cent of all crossroads
separated in grade. |
(AAA) |
"Thruway"
means a through highway whose entire roadway is reserved for through traffic
and on which roadway parking is prohibited. |
(BBB) |
"Stop intersection" means any intersection at one or more entrances of which
stop signs are erected. |
(CCC) |
"Arterial street" means any United States or state numbered route, controlled
access highway, or other major radial or circumferential street or highway
designated by local authorities within their respective jurisdictions as part
of a major arterial system of streets or highways. |
(DDD) |
"Ridesharing arrangement" means the transportation of persons in a motor
vehicle where such transportation is incidental to another purpose of a
volunteer driver and includes ridesharing arrangements known as carpools,
vanpools, and buspools. |
(EEE) |
"Motorized wheelchair" means any self-propelled vehicle designed for, and used
by, a handicapped person and that is incapable of a speed in excess of eight
miles per hour. |
(FFF) |
"Child
day-care center" and "type A family day-care home" have the same meanings as in
section
5104.01
of the Revised Code. |
(GGG) |
"Multi-wheel agricultural tractor" means a type of agricultural tractor that
has two or more wheels or tires on each side of one axle at the rear of the
tractor, is designed or used for drawing other vehicles or wheeled machinery,
has no provision for carrying loads independently of the drawn vehicles or
machinery, and is used principally for agricultural purposes. |
(HHH) |
"Operate" means to cause or have caused movement of a vehicle, streetcar, or
trackless trolley. |
(III) |
"Predicate
motor vehicle or traffic offense" means any of the following:
(1) |
A
violation of section
4511.03,
4511.051,
4511.12,
4511.132,
4511.16,
4511.20,
4511.201,
4511.21,
4511.211,
4511.213,
4511.22,
4511.23,
4511.25,
4511.26,
4511.27,
4511.28,
4511.29,
4511.30,
4511.31,
4511.32,
4511.33,
4511.34,
4511.35,
4511.36,
4511.37,
4511.38,
4511.39,
4511.40,
4511.41,
4511.42,
4511.43,
4511.431,
4511.432,
4511.44,
4511.441,
4511.451,
4511.452,
4511.46,
4511.47,
4511.48,
4511.481,
4511.49,
4511.50,
4511.511,
4511.522, 4511.53,
4511.54,
4511.55,
4511.56,
4511.57,
4511.58,
4511.59,
4511.60,
4511.61,
4511.64,
4511.66,
4511.661,
4511.68,
4511.70,
4511.701,
4511.71,
4511.711,
4511.712,
4511.713,
4511.72,
4511.73,
4511.763,
4511.771,
4511.78,
or
4511.84
of the Revised Code; |
(2) |
A violation
of division (A)(2) of section
4511.17,
divisions (A) to (D) of section
4511.51,
or division (A) of section
4511.74
of the Revised Code; |
(3) |
A violation
of any provision of sections
4511.01
to
4511.76
of the Revised Code for which no penalty otherwise is provided in the section
that contains the provision violated; |
(4) |
A violation of section
4511.214
of the Revised Code;
|
(5) |
A violation of a municipal ordinance that is
substantially similar to any section or provision set forth or described in
division (III)(1), (2), (3), or (4) of this section. |
|
(JJJ) |
"Road service vehicle" means wreckers, utility repair vehicles, and state,
county, and municipal service vehicles equipped with visual signals by means of
flashing, rotating, or oscillating lights. |
(KKK) |
"Beacon" means a highway traffic signal with one or more signal sections that
operate in a flashing mode. |
(LLL) |
"Hybrid beacon" means a type of beacon that is intentionally placed in a dark
mode between periods of operation where no indications are displayed and, when
in operation, displays both steady and flashing traffic control signal
indications. |
(MMM) |
"Highway
traffic signal" means a power-operated traffic control device by which traffic
is warned or directed to take some specific action. "Highway traffic signal"
does not include a power-operated sign, steadily illuminated pavement marker,
warning light, or steady burning electric lamp. |
(NNN) |
"Median" means the area between two roadways of a divided highway, measured
from edge of traveled way to edge of traveled way, but excluding turn lanes.
The width of a median may be different between intersections, between
interchanges, and at opposite approaches of the same intersection. |
(OOO) |
"Private road open to public travel" means a private toll road or road,
including any adjacent sidewalks that generally run parallel to the road,
within a shopping center, airport, sports arena, or other similar business or
recreation facility that is privately owned but where the public is allowed to
travel without access restrictions. "Private road open to public travel"
includes a gated toll road but does not include a road within a private gated
property where access is restricted at all times, a parking area, a driving
aisle within a parking area, or a private grade crossing. |
(PPP) |
"Shared-use path" means a bikeway outside the traveled way and physically
separated from motorized vehicular traffic by an open space or barrier and
either within the highway right-of-way or within an independent alignment. A
shared-use path also may be used by pedestrians, including skaters, joggers,
users of manual and motorized wheelchairs, and other authorized motorized and
non-motorized users. A shared-use path does not include
any trail that is intended to be used primarily for mountain biking, hiking,
equestrian use, or other similar uses, or any other single track or natural
surface trail that has historically been reserved for nonmotorized
use. |
(QQQ) |
"Highway
maintenance vehicle" means a vehicle used in snow and ice removal or road
surface maintenance, including a snow plow, traffic line striper, road sweeper,
mowing machine, asphalt distributing vehicle, or other such vehicle designed
for use in specific highway maintenance activities. |
(RRR) |
[Added by
132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, SB 127] "Waste collection
vehicle" means a vehicle used in the collection of garbage, refuse, trash, or
recyclable materials. |
(RRR) |
[Added by
132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 250] "Electric bicycle"
means a "class 1 electric bicycle," a "class 2 electric bicycle," or a "class 3
electric bicycle" as defined in this section. |
(SSS) |
"Class 1 electric bicycle" means a bicycle that is
equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than seven
hundred fifty watts that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling
and ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of twenty
miles per hour. |
(TTT) |
"Class 2 electric bicycle" means a bicycle that is
equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than seven
hundred fifty watts that may provide assistance regardless of whether the rider
is pedaling and is not capable of providing assistance when the bicycle reaches
the speed of twenty miles per hour. |
(UUU) |
"Class 3 electric bicycle" means a bicycle that is
equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than seven
hundred fifty watts that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling
and ceases to provide assistance when the bicycle reaches the speed of
twenty-eight miles per hour. |
Cite as (Casemaker) R.C. § 4511.01
History. Amended by
132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 250, §1,
eff. 3/8/2019.
Amended by
132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, SB 127, §1,
eff. 10/29/2018.
Amended by
132nd General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 49, §101.01, eff.
9/29/2017.
Amended by
131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 429, §1,
eff. 9/14/2016.
Amended by
131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 53, §101.01, eff.
7/1/2015.
Amended by
130th General Assembly File No. 57, SB 137, §1,
eff. 12/19/2013.
Amended by
130th General Assembly File No. 7, HB 51, §101.01, eff.
7/1/2013.
Amended by
129th General AssemblyFile No.70, HB 349,
§1, eff.
4/20/2012.
Amended by
128th General Assemblych.70, HB 2,
§101.01, eff.
7/1/2009.
Effective Date:
01-01-2004; 09-16-2004; 2007 HB9 10-18-2007; 2008 HB562 09-22-2008.