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MUTCD 11th Edition
- Open-Road Tolling Point—the location along an Open-Road ETC lane at which roadside or overhead detection and receiving equipment are placed and vehicles are electronically assessed a toll.
- Opposing Traffic—vehicles that are traveling in the opposite direction. At an intersection, vehicles entering from an approach that is approximately straight ahead would be considered to be opposing traffic, but vehicles entering from approaches on the left or right would be considered to be conflicting traffic rather than opposing traffic.
- Option Lane—A lane on a freeway, expressway, or conventional road multi-lane exit or multilane split that widens on the approach to allow access, without changing lanes, to:
- Both an exit lane and the mainline at a freeway or expressway exit; or
- Both diverging roadways at a freeway, expressway, or conventional road split.
- Overhead Sign—a sign that is placed such that a portion or the entirety of the sign or its support is directly above the roadway or shoulder such that vehicles travel below it. Typical installations include signs placed on cantilever arms that extend over the roadway or shoulder, signs placed on sign support structures that span the entire width of the pavement, signs placed on mast arms or span wires either independently or that also support traffic control signals, and signs placed on highway bridges that cross over the roadway.
- Parking Area—a parking lot or parking garage that is separated from a roadway. Parallel, perpendicular, or angle parking spaces along a roadway are not considered a parking area.
- Parking Space—an area marked or designated for storage of a vehicle while the driver is not present.
- Preemption Clearance Interval—the part of a traffic signal sequence displayed as a result of a preemption request when vehicles are provided the opportunity to clear the railroad or light rail transit tracks, or a movable bridge, prior to the arrival of the train or boat for which the traffic signal is being preempted.
- Preemption Time Variability—the result that occurs when the traffic signal controller enters the Preemption Clearance Interval with less than the maximum design Right-of-Way Transfer Time or the speed of a train approaching the grade crossing varies.
- Passive Grade Crossing—a grade crossing where none of the automatic traffic control devices associated with an Active Grade Crossing Warning System are present and at which the traffic control devices consist entirely of signs and/or markings.
- Pathway—a general term denoting a public way for purposes of travel by authorized users outside the traveled way and physically separated from the roadway by an open space or barrier and either within the highway right-of-way or within an independent alignment. Pathways include shared-use paths, but do not include sidewalks.
- Pathway Grade Crossing—the general area where a pathway and railroad and/or light rail transit tracks cross at the same level, within which are included the tracks, pathway, and traffic control devices for pathway traffic traversing that area.
- Paved—having a roadway surface that has both a structural (weight bearing) and a sealing purpose for the roadway, such as a bituminous surface treatment, mixed bituminous concrete, or Portland cement concrete.
- Pedestrian—a person on foot, in a wheelchair, on other devices determined by local law to be equivalent, which might include skates or a skateboard.
- Pedestrian Change Interval—an interval during which the flashing UPRAISED HAND (symbolizing DONT WALK) signal indication is displayed.
- Pedestrian Clearance Time—the time provided for a pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk, after leaving the curb or edge of pavement, to travel to the far side of the traveled way or to a median.
- Pedestrian Facility—a general term denoting a location where improvements and provisions have been made to accommodate or encourage pedestrian activity.
- Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon—see Hybrid Beacon.
- Pedestrian Signal Head—a signal head, which contains the symbols WALKING PERSON (symbolizing WALK) and UPRAISED HAND (symbolizing DONT WALK), that is installed to direct pedestrians at a traffic control signal.
- Permissive Mode—a mode of traffic control signal operation in which left or right turns are permitted to be made after yielding to pedestrians, if any, and/or opposing traffic, if any. When a CIRCULAR GREEN signal indication is displayed, both left and right turns are permitted unless otherwise prohibited by another traffic control device. When a flashing YELLOW ARROW or flashing RED ARROW signal indication is displayed, the turn indicated by the arrow is permitted.
Sect. 1C.02
December 2023
