2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE NINE - Highways and Traffic (§§ 1-8 — 5725) › Chapter 27 - Vehicle and Traffic Law (2000) › Subchapter XX - Commonwealth and Local Powers (§§ 5601 — 5609) › § 5602 - Regulations of the Secretary

The Secretary, as deemed necessary, is hereby authorized to design and install signals and lights in specific locations along the public roads pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and it regulations. The Secretary shall draft and adopt a manual of uniform official devices to regulate traffic. Said manual shall contain all the necessary specifications, such as the size and type of the devices that may be installed, the size of the letters and symbols, the distance from specific points at which said devices should be installed and the way they should be installed, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter and its regulations.
The regulatory authority granted to the Secretary in this section includes all matters concerning the speed at which the vehicles are to travel, the direction of traffic, the accesses to public roads, the parking and movement of all types of vehicles, the preferential right of way to traffic on certain public roads over traffic on other public roads, the signs or signals to be made personally by drivers or by means of instruments, the restrictions as to the use of bridges, the special safety measures in certain areas or regarding certain types of vehicles or certain persons, the urban and rural zones solely for the purposes of this chapter, the use of the horn and warning devices at specific places or by certain vehicles and the use of accesses to the public roads.
The provisions of this subchapter and its regulations relative to traffic shall apply to any driver of a motor vehicle in all parking areas open to the public, which shall for all purposes be deemed as public roads.
No local authority may install or maintain official devices to control the traffic in any public road under the jurisdiction of the Department, except through the authorization of the latter.
The Secretary is hereby authorized to establish exclusive lanes to be used by Metropolitan Bus Authority buses and other vehicles designated by the Secretary. The Secretary is also authorized to establish in the public roads one (1) or several special lanes for the exclusive or preferential use of vehicles carrying more than two (2) passengers or through the payment of toll, as provided through regulations. The Secretary is furthermore authorized to establish, through regulations, those provisions needed for the use and availability of exclusive and special lanes, according to public safety requirements, to the need for orderly traffic movement and for the development of mass transit, mandated by the characteristics of said exclusive and special lanes, the specific places where they are located and the characteristics of the buses and the vehicles authorized by the Secretary to use said lanes. In emergency situations, as decreed by the Governor, the Secretary may adopt the procedure that shall apply to the use and availability of the exclusive and special lanes.
History —Jan. 7, 2000, No. 22, § 21.02, renumbered as § 20.02 on June 3, 2004, No. 132, § 17, eff. 8 months after June 3, 2004.