Section 32-5-1

Powers of local authorities.

(a) Except as herein otherwise provided, local authorities shall have no power to pass, enforce or maintain any ordinance, rule or regulation requiring from any owner or chauffeur or other authorized driver to whom this chapter is applicable, any additional license or permit for the use of the public highways, or excluding any such owner, chauffeur or other authorized driver from the public highway, nor to pass, enforce or maintain any ordinance, rule or regulation regulating motor vehicles or their speed contrary to the provisions of this chapter, nor shall any such law now in force or hereafter enacted have any effect.

(b) Local authorities shall have no power or authority to charge a license or tax upon any motor carrier hauling passengers or any truck hauling freight for hire, when such motor carriers in the usual course of operations enter or pass through any county, municipality or town of this state; provided, that this limitation shall not restrict the right of any municipality to charge a license for the privilege of maintaining or operating a terminal station, depot or waiting room therein.

(c) Local authorities may set aside for a given time a specified public highway for speed contests or races, to be conducted under proper restrictions for the safety of the public. Local authorities may exclude motor vehicles from any cemetery or grounds used for burial of the dead.

(d) Local authorities shall have power to provide by ordinance for the regulation of traffic by means of traffic officers or semaphores or other signaling devices on any portion of the highway where traffic is heavy or continuous and may prohibit other than one-way traffic upon certain highways and may regulate the use of the highways by processions or assemblages.

(e) Local authorities may also regulate or prohibit the parking of vehicles within the limits of their respective municipalities, and may also regulate the speed of vehicles in public parks and shall erect at all entrances to such parks adequate signs giving notice of any such special speed regulations.

(Code 1923, §6269; Acts 1927, No. 347, p. 348; Code 1940, T. 36, §32.)