Massachusetts Statutes

Section 12. If four or more persons are the proprietors and rightful occupants of a private way or bridge, and three of them make application in writing to a clerk of the district court of the district or the clerk of the city or town wherein the private way or bridge is located …

Section 13. A proprietor or occupant who refuses or neglects to comply with such vote, when required by the surveyor, shall be liable to him in contract for the amount of his proportion, with ten per cent interest thereon. If a person chosen clerk or surveyor under the preceding …

Section 14. The proprietors and occupants may, at a meeting for that purpose, authorize any person to contract for making and keeping in repair such private way or bridge, may vote to raise such amount as they consider necessary for carrying such contracts into effect; and may ch…

Section 15. If a person sustains bodily injury or damage in his property by reason of a defect or a want of repair or a want of a sufficient railing in or upon a way, and such injury or damage might have been prevented, or such defect or want of repair or want of railing might ha…

Section 16. If a person, without the consent of the county, city, town or person required by law to keep a bridge in repair or his or its agent, permits more than twenty neat cattle or horses to be upon a bridge which is more than fifty feet from one abutment, pier or trestle par…

Section 17. A county, city or town shall not be liable for an injury or damage sustained upon a public way by reason of snow or ice thereon, if the place at which the injury or damage was sustained was at the time of the accident otherwise reasonably safe and convenient for trave…

Section 18. A person so injured shall, within thirty days thereafter, give to the county, city, town or person by law obliged to keep said way in repair, notice of the name and place of residence of the person injured, and the time, place and cause of said injury or damage; and i…

Section 19. Such notice shall be in writing, signed by the person injured or by some one in his behalf, and may be given, in the case of a county, to one of the county commissioners or the county treasurer; in the case of a city, to the mayor, the city clerk or treasurer; in the …

Section 2. If two or more towns within the same county which are required by law to maintain or keep in repair a bridge upon a highway or town way, differ as to the mode or time of doing the same, the county commissioners, upon application of either of said towns, after notice to…

Section 20. A defendant shall not avail himself in defence of any omission to state in such notice the name or place of residence of the person injured, or the time, place or cause of the injury or damage, unless, within five days after receipt of a notice, given within the time …

Section 21. Sections eighteen, nineteen and twenty shall apply to actions against persons founded upon the defective condition of their premises, or of adjoining ways, when caused by or consisting in part of snow or ice resulting from rain or snow and weather conditions; provided…

Section 22. If a town neglects to repair any way which it is obliged to keep in repair, or neglects to make the same reasonably safe and convenient when encumbered with snow, it shall pay such fine as the court may impose.

Section 23. A way opened and dedicated to the public use, which has not become a public way, shall not, except as provided in the two following sections, be chargeable upon a town as a highway or town way unless laid out and established in the manner prescribed by statute.

Section 24. The board or officer having authority over public ways in a town shall, if the public safety so requires, cause such ways to be closed where they enter upon and unite with an existing public way or may by other sufficient means caution the public against entering ther…

Section 25. If, upon the trial of an indictment or action brought to recover damages for an injury received by reason of a defect or want of repair or want of sufficient railing in any way, it appears that the defendant has, within six years before such injury, made repairs on su…

Section 26. If the owner of a lot abutting upon a public way in a city dedicates to the public or permits it to use a portion of his land lying between said way and a building fronting on the same, he shall keep such portion in such condition as, in the opinion of the aldermen, t…

Section 27. If, on premises abutting on a public way, an excavation is a hazard to travelers upon such way who are in the exercise of due care, the person in control of such premises shall be liable in tort to any such traveler who, by reason of a want of a sufficient railing or …

Section 27A. The owner of any land which abuts a public way and on which an excavation has been made within fifty feet of said way shall cause a fence or other barrier not less than five feet in height to be erected at the street line of such way. Such fence or barrier shall not …

Section 3. If any town does not comply with any orders passed by the county commissioners under the preceding section, within the time and in the manner prescribed in such orders and to the acceptance of the commissioners, the commissioners shall forthwith cause such bridge to be…

Section 4. If a delinquent town does not pay its proportion of such expenses and charges within sixty days after the date of such notice, with interest at a rate to be fixed by the county commissioners, not exceeding ten per cent a year from the time when the same was paid by the…

Section 5. When a highway runs through two or more towns, they may appropriate money for the construction, repair, maintenance or improvement thereof in common, and may purchase road machinery therefor in common. Money so appropriated shall be expended by such persons and in such…

Section 5A. The selectmen, highway surveyor, highway commissioners, or other board or officer having charge of the maintenance of highways in any town which accepts this section may enter into agreements for the removal of snow or ice from, including sanding on, such public ways …

Section 6. Any public way which has been spread with tar, oil or similar substance, shall, within three hours thereafter, be covered with sand, gravel, peastone or other similar material in such manner as to render the way safe for travel. But such way may be so treated without b…

Section 7. Surveyors of highways and road commissioners shall remove whatever obstructs the public ways within their respective towns or districts, or endangers, hinders or incommodes persons traveling thereon; and shall forthwith cause snow to be removed or trodden down so as to…

Section 7A. Surveyors of highways, road commissioners, or any other person, agency, or authority responsible for road or highway repairs shall notify the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority not later than forty-eight hours prior to the repair, construction or reconstructio…

Section 8. No surveyor, road commissioner or other person shall, without an order from the board of health, remove or take down fences, gates or bars which have been placed on a way for the purpose of preventing the spread of a disease dangerous to the public health.

Section 9. A surveyor or road commissioner may cause a watercourse occasioned by the wash of a way to be conveyed by the side of the way; but the aldermen or selectmen, upon complaint of a person whose building has been incommoded or whose business has been obstructed thereby, ma…

Section 1. Except as otherwise provided in section two, every city and town shall erect and maintain on the ways therein, except state highways and ways under the control of the department of conservation and recreation, at such places as are convenient for the direction of trave…

Section 10. Towns may make ordinances and by-laws to prevent the pasturing of cattle or other animals, either with or without a keeper; relative to the passage and driving of sheep, swine and neat cattle; prohibiting persons from riding or driving beasts of burden, carriage or dr…

Section 10A. Selectmen in towns, and the aldermen or other board or officer having charge of ways in cities, may by regulation designate certain ways or parts of ways, other than state highways, upon which and the hours during which coasting may be permitted and may in like manne…

Section 11. Whoever violates an ordinance or by-law prohibiting persons from riding or driving at a rate of speed inconsistent with public safety or convenience may be arrested without a warrant by an officer authorized to make arrests and kept in custody not more than twenty-fou…

Section 11B. Every person operating a bicycle upon a way, as defined in section one of chapter ninety, shall have the right to use all public ways in the commonwealth except limited access or express state highways where signs specifically prohibiting bicycles have been posted, a…

Section 11D. Every person engaged in the retail business of selling or renting bicycles, in line skates, scooters, skate boards or other manually-propelled wheeled vehicles shall display in an area conspicuous to customers of the business a sign containing the following statement…

Section 11E. A police officer who observes a traffic law violation committed by a bicyclist may request the offender to state his true name and address. Whoever, upon such request, refuses to state his name and address or whoever states a false name and address or a name and addr…

Section 14A. (a) For purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings:— ''Funeral directing'', the business, practice or profession, as commonly practiced, of (a) directing or supervising funerals or providing funeral service; (b) handling or encasi…

Section 14B. Whenever any commercial vehicle having a gross weight in excess of five thousand pounds other than a motor bus or taxicab, or any automobile service truck, so called, becomes disabled or stops to load or unload any motorized equipment from such vehicle or from a trai…

Section 15. A vehicle, whether stationary or in motion, on a public way, shall have attached to it headlights and taillights which shall be turned on by the vehicle operator and so displayed as to be visible from the front and rear during the period of 1/2 hour after sunset to 1/…

Section 16. Every person shall while driving or in charge of or occupying a vehicle during the period from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise, when requested by a police officer, give his true name and address.

Section 17. Whoever violates any of the provisions of section fifteen or section sixteen shall be punished by a fine of not more than five dollars. The driver or custodian of a vehicle shall be deemed to be the party responsible therefor and shall be liable to the foregoing penal…

Section 17A. Whoever, for the purpose of soliciting any alms, contribution or subscription or of selling any merchandise, except newspapers, or ticket of admission to any game, show, exhibition, fair, ball, entertainment or public gathering, signals a moving vehicle on any public…

Section 17B. Whoever rides upon the rear or side of any street railway car, motor bus, or trackless trolley vehicle without the consent of the person in charge thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty dollars.

Section 18. No person shall move a building in a public way without written permission from the selectmen or road commissioners, to be granted upon such terms as in their opinion the public safety may require; and the superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity to enforce th…

Section 19. Whoever leads or drives a bear or other dangerous wild animal or causes it to travel upon or be conveyed over a public way unless properly secured in some covered vehicle or cage shall be punished by a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty dollars. Any such …

Section 2. The department of highways, in this chapter called the department, shall erect and maintain on state highways and on ways leading thereto and therefrom, and on all main highways between cities and towns, such direction signs, warning signs or lights, curb, street or ot…