The Florida Senate

316.003  Definitions.--The following words and phrases, when used in this chapter, shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them in this section, except where the context otherwise requires:

(1)  AUTHORIZED EMERGENCY VEHICLES.--Vehicles of the fire department (fire patrol), police vehicles, and such ambulances and emergency vehicles of municipal departments, public service corporations operated by private corporations, and the Department of Transportation as are designated or authorized by the department or the chief of police of an incorporated city or any sheriff of any of the various counties.

(2)  BICYCLE.--Every vehicle propelled solely by human power, and every motorized bicycle propelled by a combination of human power and an electric helper motor rated at not more than 200 watts and capable of propelling the vehicle at a speed of not more than 10 miles per hour on level ground upon which any person may ride, having two tandem wheels, and including any device generally recognized as a bicycle though equipped with two front or two rear wheels. The term does not include such a vehicle with a seat height of no more than 25 inches from the ground when the seat is adjusted to its highest position or a scooter or similar device.

(3)  BUS.--Any motor vehicle designed for carrying more than 10 passengers and used for the transportation of persons and any motor vehicle, other than a taxicab, designed and used for the transportation of persons for compensation.

(4)  BUSINESS DISTRICT.--The territory contiguous to, and including, a highway when 50 percent or more of the frontage thereon, for a distance of 300 feet or more, is occupied by buildings in use for business.

(5)  CANCELLATION.--Cancellation means that a license which was issued through error or fraud is declared void and terminated. A new license may be obtained only as permitted in this chapter.

(6)  CROSSWALK.--

(a)  That part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway, measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway.

(b)  Any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface.

(7)  DAYTIME.--The period from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset. Nighttime means at any other hour.

(8)  DEPARTMENT.--The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles as defined in s. 20.24. Any reference herein to Department of Transportation shall be construed as referring to the Department of Transportation, defined in s. 20.23, or the appropriate division thereof.

(9)  DIRECTOR.--The Director of the Division of the Florida Highway Patrol of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

(10)  DRIVER.--Any person who drives or is in actual physical control of a vehicle on a highway or who is exercising control of a vehicle or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle.

(11)  EXPLOSIVE.--Any chemical compound or mechanical mixture that is commonly used or intended for the purpose of producing an explosion and which contains any oxidizing and combustive units or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities, or packing that an ignition by fire, friction, concussion, percussion, or 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 effect on contiguous objects or of destroying life or limb.

(12)  FARM TRACTOR.--Any motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines, and other implements of husbandry.

(13)  FLAMMABLE LIQUID.--Any liquid which has a flash point of 70 degrees Fahrenheit or less, as determined by a Tagliabue or equivalent closed-cup test device.

(14)  GROSS WEIGHT.--The weight of a vehicle without load plus the weight of any load thereon.

(15)  HOUSE TRAILER.--

(a)  A trailer or semitrailer which is designed, constructed, and equipped as a dwelling place, living abode, or sleeping place (either permanently or temporarily) and is equipped for use as a conveyance on streets and highways, or

(b)  A trailer or a semitrailer the chassis and exterior shell of which is designed and constructed for use as a house trailer, as defined in paragraph (a), but which is used instead, permanently or temporarily, for the advertising, sales, display, or promotion of merchandise or services or for any other commercial purpose except the transportation of property for hire or the transportation of property for distribution by a private carrier.

(16)  IMPLEMENT OF HUSBANDRY.--Any vehicle designed and adapted exclusively for agricultural, horticultural, or livestock-raising operations or for lifting or carrying an implement of husbandry and in either case not subject to registration if used upon the highways.

(17)  INTERSECTION.--

(a)  The area embraced within the prolongation or connection of the lateral curblines; or, if none, then the lateral boundary lines of the roadways of two highways which join one another at, or approximately at, right angles; or the area within which vehicles traveling upon different highways joining at any other angle may come in conflict.

(b)  Where a highway includes two roadways 30 feet or more apart, then every crossing of each roadway of such divided highway by an intersecting highway shall be regarded as a separate intersection. In the event such intersecting highway also includes two roadways 30 feet or more apart, then every crossing of two roadways of such highways shall be regarded as a separate intersection.

(18)  LANED HIGHWAY.--A highway the roadway of which is divided into two or more clearly marked lanes for vehicular traffic.

(19)  LIMITED ACCESS FACILITY.--A street or highway especially designed for through traffic and over, from, or to which owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons have no right or easement, or only a limited right or easement, of access, light, air, or view by reason of the fact that their property abuts upon such limited access facility or for any other reason. Such highways or streets may be parkways from which trucks, buses, and other commercial vehicles are excluded; or they may be freeways open to use by all customary forms of street and highway traffic.

(20)  LOCAL AUTHORITIES.--Includes all officers and public officials of the several counties and municipalities of this state.

(21)  MOTOR VEHICLE.--Any self-propelled vehicle not operated upon rails or guideway, but not including any bicycle or moped.

(22)  MOTORCYCLE.--Any motor vehicle having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, but excluding a tractor or a moped.

(23)  OFFICIAL TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES.--All signs, signals, markings, and devices, not inconsistent with this chapter, placed or erected by authority of a public body or official having jurisdiction for the purpose of regulating, warning, or guiding traffic.

(24)  OFFICIAL TRAFFIC CONTROL SIGNAL.--Any device, whether manually, electrically, or mechanically operated, by which traffic is alternately directed to stop and permitted to proceed.

(25)  OPERATOR.--Any person who is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon the highway, or who is exercising control over or steering a vehicle being towed by a motor vehicle.

(26)  OWNER.--A person who holds the legal title of a vehicle, or, in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then such conditional vendee, or lessee, or mortgagor shall be deemed the owner, for the purposes of this chapter.

(27)  PARK OR PARKING.--The standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, otherwise than temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in loading or unloading merchandise or passengers as may be permitted by law under this chapter.

(28)  PEDESTRIAN.--Any person afoot.

(29)  PERSON.--Any natural person, firm, copartnership, association, or corporation.

(30)  PNEUMATIC TIRE.--Any tire in which compressed air is designed to support the load.

(31)  POLE TRAILER.--Any vehicle without motive power designed to be drawn by another vehicle and attached to the towing vehicle by means of a reach or pole, or by being boomed or otherwise secured to the towing vehicle, and ordinarily used for transporting long or irregularly shaped loads such as poles, pipes, or structural members capable, generally, of sustaining themselves as beams between the supporting connections.

(32)  POLICE OFFICER.--Any officer authorized to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for violations of traffic regulations, including Florida highway patrol officers, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and municipal police officers.

(33)  PRIVATE ROAD OR DRIVEWAY.--Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (53)(b), any privately owned way or place used for vehicular travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission from the owner, but not by other persons.

(34)  RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS.--Any materials or combination of materials which emit ionizing radiation spontaneously in which the radioactivity per gram of material, in any form, is greater than 0.002 microcuries.

(35)  RAILROAD.--A carrier of persons or property upon cars operated upon stationary rails.

(36)  RAILROAD SIGN OR SIGNAL.--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.

(37)  RAILROAD TRAIN.--A steam engine, electric or other motor, with or without cars coupled thereto, operated upon rails, except a streetcar.

(38)  RESIDENCE DISTRICT.--The territory contiguous to, and including, a highway, not comprising a business district, when the property on such highway, for a distance of 300 feet or more, is, in the main, improved with residences or residences and buildings in use for business.

(39)  REVOCATION.--Revocation means that a licensee's privilege to drive a motor vehicle is terminated. A new license may be obtained only as permitted by law.

(40)  RIGHT-OF-WAY.--The right of one vehicle or pedestrian to proceed in a lawful manner in preference to another vehicle or pedestrian approaching under such circumstances of direction, speed, and proximity as to give rise to danger of collision unless one grants precedence to the other.

(41)  ROAD TRACTOR.--Any motor vehicle designed and used for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry any load thereon, either independently or as any part of the weight of a vehicle or load so drawn.

(42)  ROADWAY.--That portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder. In the event a highway includes two or more separate roadways, the term "roadway" as used herein refers to any such roadway separately, but not to all such roadways collectively.

(43)  SADDLE MOUNT.--An arrangement whereby the front wheels of one vehicle rest in a secured position upon another vehicle. All of the wheels of the towing vehicle are upon the ground and only the rear wheels of the towed vehicle rest upon the ground.

(44)  SAFETY ZONE.--The area or space officially set apart within a roadway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and protected or so marked by adequate signs or authorized pavement markings as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone.

(45)  SCHOOL BUS.--Any motor vehicle that complies with the color and identification requirements of chapter 234 and is used to transport children to or from public or private school or in connection with school activities, but not including buses operated by common carriers in urban transportation of school children. The term "school" includes all preelementary, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools.

(46)  SEMITRAILER.--Any vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon, or is carried by, another vehicle.

(47)  SIDEWALK.--That portion of a street between the curbline, or the lateral line, of a roadway and the adjacent property lines, intended for use by pedestrians.

(48)  SPECIAL MOBILE EQUIPMENT.--Any vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and only incidentally operated or moved over a highway, including, but not limited to, ditchdigging apparatus, well-boring apparatus, and road construction and maintenance machinery, such as asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, tractors other than truck tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, road rollers, scarifiers, earthmoving carryalls and scrapers, power shovels and draglines, and self-propelled cranes and earthmoving equipment. The term does not include house trailers, dump trucks, truck-mounted transit mixers, cranes or shovels, or other vehicles designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached.

(49)  STAND OR STANDING.--The halting of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, otherwise than temporarily, for the purpose of, and while actually engaged in, receiving or discharging passengers, as may be permitted by law under this chapter.

(50)  STATE ROAD.--Any highway designated as a state-maintained road by the Department of Transportation.

(51)  STOP.--When required, complete cessation from movement.

(52)  STOP OR STOPPING.--When prohibited, any halting, even momentarily, of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or to comply with the directions of a law enforcement officer or traffic control sign or signal.

(53)  STREET OR HIGHWAY.--

(a)  The entire width between the boundary lines of every way or place of whatever nature when any part thereof is open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular traffic;

(b)  The entire width between the boundary lines of any privately owned way or place used for vehicular travel by the owner and those having express or implied permission from the owner, but not by other persons, or any limited access road owned or controlled by a special district, whenever, by written agreement entered into under s. 316.006(2)(b) or (3)(b), a county or municipality exercises traffic control jurisdiction over said way or place;

(c)  Any area, such as a runway, taxiway, ramp, clear zone, or parking lot, within the boundary of any airport owned by the state, a county, a municipality, or a political subdivision, which area is used for vehicular traffic but which is not open for vehicular operation by the general public; or

(d)  Any way or place used for vehicular traffic on a controlled access basis within a mobile home park recreation district which has been created under s. 418.30 and the recreational facilities of which district are open to the general public.

(54)  SUSPENSION.--Temporary withdrawal of a licensee's privilege to drive a motor vehicle.

(55)  THROUGH HIGHWAY.--Any highway or portion thereof on which vehicular traffic is given the right-of-way and at the entrances to which vehicular traffic from intersecting highways is required to yield right-of-way to vehicles on such through highway in obedience to either a stop sign or yield sign, or otherwise in obedience to law.

(56)  TIRE WIDTH.--Tire width is that width stated on the surface of the tire by the manufacturer of the tire, if the width stated does not exceed 2 inches more than the width of the tire contacting the surface.

(57)  TRAFFIC.--Pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, and vehicles, streetcars, and other conveyances either singly or together while using any street or highway for purposes of travel.

(58)  TRAILER.--Any vehicle with or without motive power, other than a pole trailer, designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle.

(59)  TRUCK.--Any motor vehicle designed, used, or maintained primarily for the transportation of property.

(60)  TRUCK TRACTOR.--Any motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn.

(61)  MIGRANT FARM WORKER.--Any person employed in the planting, cultivation, or harvesting of agricultural crops who is not indigenous to, or domiciled in, the locale where so employed.

(62)  MIGRANT FARM WORKER CARRIER.--Any person who transports, or who contracts or arranges for the transportation of, nine or more migrant farm workers to or from their employment by motor vehicle other than a passenger automobile or station wagon, except a migrant farm worker transporting himself or herself or the migrant farm worker's immediate family.

(63)  BICYCLE PATH.--Any road, path, or way that is open to bicycle travel, which road, path, or way is physically separated from motorized vehicular traffic by an open space or by a barrier and is located either within the highway right-of-way or within an independent right-of-way.

(64)  CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER.--The head, or his or her designee, of any law enforcement agency which is authorized to enforce traffic laws.

(65)  CHILD.--A child as defined in s. 39.01.

(66)  COMMERCIAL MOTOR VEHICLE.--Any self-propelled or towed vehicle used on the public highways in commerce to transport passengers or cargo, if such vehicle:

(a)  Has a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more;

(b)  Is designed to transport more than 15 passengers, including the driver; or

(c)  Is used in the transportation of materials found to be hazardous for the purposes of the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act, as amended (49 U.S.C. ss. 1801 et seq.).

(67)  COURT.--The court having jurisdiction over traffic offenses.

(68)  GOLF CART.--A motor vehicle designed and manufactured for operation on a golf course for sporting or recreational purposes.

(69)  HAZARDOUS MATERIAL.--Any substance or material which has been determined by the secretary of the United States Department of Transportation to be capable of imposing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, and property. This term includes hazardous waste as defined in ¹s. 403.703(21).

(70)  STRAIGHT TRUCK.--Any truck on which the cargo unit and the motive power unit are located on the same frame so as to form a single, rigid unit.

(71)  TANDEM TRAILER TRUCK.--Any combination of a truck tractor, semitrailer, and trailer coupled together so as to operate as a complete unit.

(72)  TANDEM TRAILER TRUCK HIGHWAY NETWORK.--A highway network consisting primarily of four or more lanes, including all interstate highways; highways designated by the United States Department of Transportation as elements of the National Network; and any street or highway designated by the Florida Department of Transportation for use by tandem trailer trucks, in accordance with s. 316.515, except roads on which truck traffic was specifically prohibited on January 6, 1983.

(73)  TERMINAL.--Any location where:

(a)  Freight either originates, terminates, or is handled in the transportation process; or

(b)  Commercial motor carriers maintain operating facilities.

(74)  TRANSPORTATION.--The conveyance or movement of goods, materials, livestock, or persons from one location to another on any road, street, or highway open to travel by the public.

(75)  VEHICLE.--Every device, in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a highway, excepting devices used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.

(76)  BRAKE HORSEPOWER.--The actual unit of torque developed per unit of time at the output shaft of an engine, as measured by a dynamometer.

(77)  MOPED.--Any vehicle with pedals to permit propulsion by human power, having a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels; with a motor rated not in excess of 2 brake horsepower and not capable of propelling the vehicle at a speed greater than 30 miles per hour on level ground; and with a power-drive system that functions directly or automatically without clutching or shifting gears by the operator after the drive system is engaged. If an internal combustion engine is used, the displacement may not exceed 50 cubic centimeters.

(78)  NONPUBLIC SECTOR BUS.--Any bus which is used for the transportation of persons for compensation and which is not owned, leased, operated, or controlled by a municipal, county, or state government or a governmentally owned or managed nonprofit corporation.

(79)  WORK ZONE AREA.--The area and its approaches on any state-maintained highway, county-maintained highway, or municipal street where construction, repair, maintenance, or other street-related or highway-related work is being performed or where one or more lanes is closed to traffic.

(80)  MAXI-CUBE VEHICLE.--A specialized combination vehicle consisting of a truck carrying a separable cargo-carrying unit combined with a semitrailer designed so that the separable cargo-carrying unit is to be loaded and unloaded through the semitrailer. The entire combination may not exceed 65 feet in length, and a single component of that combination may not exceed 34 feet in length.

(81)  TANDEM AXLE.--Any two axles whose centers are more than 40 inches but not more than 96 inches apart and are individually attached to or articulated from, or both, a common attachment to the vehicle, including a connecting mechanism designed to equalize the load between axles.

History.--s. 1, ch. 71-135; s. 1, ch. 72-179; s. 1, ch. 74-213; s. 1, ch. 76-286; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 1, ch. 80-316; s. 23, ch. 82-186; s. 1, ch. 83-68; s. 1, ch. 83-164; s. 1, ch. 83-188; s. 1, ch. 83-298; s. 1, ch. 84-284; s. 9, ch. 85-309; s. 2, ch. 87-88; s. 5, ch. 87-161; s. 1, ch. 87-178; s. 1, ch. 87-270; s. 3, ch. 88-91; s. 2, ch. 88-93; s. 4, ch. 88-130; s. 63, ch. 89-282; s. 3, ch. 91-418; s. 8, ch. 94-306; s. 893, ch. 95-148; s. 1, ch. 95-247.

¹Note.--Substituted by the editors for a reference to s. 403.703(23), to conform to the redesignation of subsections pursuant to s. 8, ch. 93-207.