Massachusetts Statutes

Section 6. Violations of any provision of the three preceding sections shall be punished by forfeiture of not more than five hundred dollars to the use of the city or town.

Section 7. Cities and towns may appropriate money for the purpose of acquiring and planting shade trees in public ways. The tree warden, or a private organization acting with the written consent of the tree warden, may plant shade trees acquired with public or private funds in a …

Section 8. The department of highways, in this chapter called the department, shall have the care and control of all trees, shrubs and growths within state highways, and may trim, cut or remove such trees, shrubs and growths, or license the trimming, cutting or removal thereof. N…

Section 9. Whoever affixes to a tree in a public way or place a notice, sign, advertisement or other thing, whether in writing or otherwise, or cuts, paints or marks such tree, except for the purpose of protecting it or the public and under a written permit from the officer havin…

Section 1. The county commissioners may license for such time as they determine any suitable person to keep a ferry for hire, and may revoke such license when necessary. Each ferryman shall give to the state treasurer a bond with sufficient sureties for the faithful performance o…

Section 10. Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud such proprietors makes or causes to be made a false statement of the quantity or quality of goods, wares or merchandise laden or to be laden on board of a boat used on such canal shall forfeit one hundred dollars.

Section 11. A collector of tolls on a canal may detain a boat and cause the goods, wares and merchandise laden on board to be weighed; and if it is found that the loading is greater than the quantity stated in the certificate, the master of the boat, in addition to the penalty he…

Section 12. The city council of a city or the selectmen of a town may, for the purpose of determining whether a canal or waterway within the limits of the city or town is dangerous to the public, give a public hearing thereon, after notice in writing, to the person owning, operat…

Section 13. If such order of the city council or selectmen is not complied with within sixty days after written notice of it has been given, or, in the event of an appeal to said department, within sixty days after written notice of its decision affirming such order, the city cou…

Section 14. In every city or town where the tide ebbs and flows there shall be provided on a tidal shore thereof at least one common landing place and where no common landing place exists the city council or board of selectmen shall lay out at least one common landing place and m…

Section 15. Any person aggrieved by the failure of the selectmen of a town to lay out suitable landing places therein, after petition therefor, or by the failure of a town to accept a common landing place laid out by the selectmen, may, if an inhabitant of such town or of an adjo…

Section 16. Upon the representation of ten or more inhabitants of a county to the county commissioners that the exact location of a common landing place in such county cannot be readily ascertained, they shall, after giving the notice required in laying out highways, ascertain th…

Section 17. A town at a meeting called for the purpose may discontinue any common landing place laid out under this chapter. Any resident of the town, or of an adjoining town aggrieved by such discontinuance may, within six months thereafter, appeal to the county commissioners, w…

Section 18. Before any action is taken upon an appeal under section fifteen or seventeen the appellants shall cause a sufficient recognizance to be given to the county, with sureties to the satisfaction of the county commissioners, for the payment of all costs and expenses to the…

Section 19. The city council of a city and the selectmen of a town may make rules and regulations concerning the use of a common landing place laid out under this chapter; provided, that no such rule or regulation shall be effective unless it shall have been published in one or m…

Section 2. The commissioners shall establish at each ferry the fares or tolls for passengers, horses, vehicles and other things there transported, having regard to the length and situation of the ferry and to the number of persons using the same. This and the preceding section sh…

Section 3. Each ferryman shall keep sufficient and safe boats in good repair and shall give ready attendance on passengers on all occasions according to the regulations established for his ferry. If he neglects to keep such boats or to give such attendance, he shall forfeit not m…

Section 4. Whoever suffers damage by the negligence or default of a ferryman may recover the same by an action upon his bond; which may be prosecuted as an action brought on the bond of a sheriff is prosecuted.

Section 5. Whoever without license keeps a ferry and demands or receives pay or toll therefor shall forfeit not more than five dollars for each day during which he keeps such ferry, and shall be liable for all damages caused thereby to any person authorized to keep a ferry.

Section 6. If the commissioners determine that it is necessary to establish a ferry, and no person appears to keep it for the profits thereof, the town in which such ferry is required shall provide a person to keep it at such place and seasons as the commissioners order. Such per…

Section 7. The commissioners may, either when such ferry is established between two towns or thereafter, upon the application of ten voters of either town and after notice to both towns and a hearing, order that such towns shall maintain said ferry either jointly or alternately, …

Section 8. A town which neglects to maintain a ferry as provided in the two preceding sections shall forfeit not more than one hundred dollars for each month such neglect continues.

Section 9. The master of a boat laden with goods, wares or merchandise which enters the waters of a canal to be carried thereon, shall exhibit a certificate signed by him to the collector of tolls, stating the name of the owner of the boat, the name of the place to which it is de…

Section 1. When persons traveling with vehicles meet on a way, each shall reasonably drive his vehicle to the right of the middle of the traveled part of such way, so that the vehicles may pass without interference, except that the department of highways may modify such restricti…

Section 10. The violation by the operator or driver of a motor or other vehicle of any rule, regulation, ordinance or by-law limiting traffic on any specified way to traffic moving in one direction shall not, in respect to any civil liability, render such operator or driver, or s…

Section 11. When traffic control signals are not in place or not in operation the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right of way, slowing down or stopping if need be so to yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk marked in accordance with standards establi…

Section 12. There shall be a surcharge of $5 on a fine assessed against a person convicted of or found responsible for a motor vehicle violation under this chapter or a violation of a special regulation lawfully made under the authority of this chapter. The surcharge shall be tra…

Section 2. Except as herein otherwise provided, the driver of a vehicle passing another vehicle traveling in the same direction shall drive a safe distance to the left of such other vehicle and shall not return to the right until safely clear of the overtaken vehicle; and, if the…

Section 3. No person shall travel on a way with a sleigh or sled drawn by a horse, unless there are at least three bells attached to some part of the harness.

Section 4. Whenever on any way, public or private, there is not an unobstructed view of the road for at least four hundred feet, the driver of every vehicle shall keep his vehicle on the right of the middle of the traveled part of the way, whenever it is safe and practicable so t…

Section 4A. When any way has been divided into lanes, the driver of a vehicle shall so drive that the vehicle shall be entirely within a single lane, and he shall not move from the lane in which he is driving until he has first ascertained if such movement can be made with safety…

Section 4B. Upon all ways the driver of a vehicle shall drive in the lane nearest the right side of the way when such lane is available for travel, except when overtaking another vehicle or when preparing for a left turn. When the right lane has been constructed or designated for…

Section 4C. On any highway with more than one passing lane in the same direction, heavy commercial vehicles, except buses, shall be restricted in ordinary operation to the right-hand travel lane, and in overtaking and passing shall be restricted to the next adjacent passing or tr…

Section 4D. The operator of a motor vehicle shall not stand or park the vehicle upon an on-street path or lane designated by an official sign or marking for the exclusive use of bicycles, except in a case of emergency.

Section 4E. No motor vehicle shall be parked, stood or caused to stand in a lane designated for the exclusive use of buses unless otherwise regulated or posted by an official traffic signal, sign or marking or at the direction of an authorized police officer. A violation of this …

Section 5. Whoever violates any of the provisions of sections one to four C, inclusive, except as otherwise provided herein, shall, upon complaint made within three months after the commission of the offense, forfeit not more than one hundred dollars and whoever drives in the rig…

Section 6. In construing rules, by-laws and regulations concerning the use and operation of vehicles on ways, street railway cars or other cars moving upon rails shall not be considered to be vehicles within the provisions of the five preceding sections, unless it is expressly so…

Section 6A. Every motorman of a car upon a street railway shall, upon the approach of any fire apparatus going to a fire or responding to an alarm, immediately stop said car and keep the same at a standstill until such apparatus has passed. Violation of any provision of this sect…

Section 7. The members and apparatus of a fire department while going to a fire or responding to an alarm, police patrol vehicles and ambulances, and ambulances on a call for the purpose of hospitalizing a sick or injured person shall have the right of way through any street, way…

Section 7A. Upon the approach of any fire apparatus, police vehicle, ambulance or disaster vehicle which is going to a fire or responding to call, alarm or emergency situation, every person driving a vehicle on a way shall immediately drive said vehicle as far as possible toward …

Section 7B. The driver of a vehicle of a fire, police or recognized protective department and the driver of an ambulance shall be subject to the provisions of any statute, rule, regulation, ordinance or by-law relating to the operation or parking of vehicles, except that a driver…

Section 7C. (a) As used in this section the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings: ''Emergency response vehicle'', a fire apparatus, police vehicle, ambulance, or disaster vehicle. ''Highway maintenance vehicle'', a vehi…

Section 7D. The operator of any vehicle involved in a crash in a travel lane on a public way resulting only in property damage shall immediately move or cause the vehicle to be moved to a safe area on the shoulder, emergency lane or median, or to a place otherwise removed from th…

Section 8. When two vehicles approach or enter an intersection of any ways, as defined in section one of chapter ninety, at approximately the same instant, the operator of the vehicle on the left shall yield the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right. Any operator intending to …

Section 9. The department of highways may designate any state highway or part thereof as a through way and may designate intersections or other roadway junctions with state highways at which vehicular traffic on one or more roadways should stop or yield and stop before entering t…

Section 1. The following words used in this chapter shall have the following meanings, unless a different meaning is clearly apparent from the language or context, or unless such construction is inconsistent with the manifest intention of the legislature: ''Alternative fuel'', an…