Private ways vs. public access
A few weeks back, we covered the legalities of private ways. At least, I thought we covered them. After the column ran, I got an e-mail from a lawyer, Irene Del Bono of Natick, who politely told me that I had gotten some of the facts wrong.
I wrote that private ways are open to the public unless they act as driveways for condominium associations and such, in which case they could probably be gated off. Del Bono disagrees; in her view, any group of people living along a private way can vote to close off their street if they desire more privacy.
"A private way is a private way," Del Bono wrote. "An owner along a private way may not unilaterally bar access to other owners and their invitees, as other owners on the way have rights, including the right to have their invitees use the way, but they may certainly put up 'no trespassing' signs or erect a gate provided all owners and public safety officials are provided with keys for emergency access."
I try to keep this column informative and concise, taking my best guess as to how many words readers are willing to digest about check-engine lights, breakdown lanes, and the like. But some topics deserve more ink, and so, this week, a few follow-ups.
Private ways redux
Is Del Bono correct? Can private ways really be closed to Joe Motorist? Having questioned three local city solicitors on the issue, I've come to the rather lame conclusion that there's no one right answer.
I initially wrote that private ways that act as city streets can never be closed off to the general public. Certainly, I was wrong to say "never." Both Donald Drisdell, Cambridge's city solicitor, and Daniel Funk, Newton's, agreed with Del Bono that people living along a dead-end cul-de-sac can close their street to the general public under certain conditions.
"If they close it off, they're also cutting themselves off from snow removal and garbage pickup, not to mention emergency vehicles," Funk said. "Then again, if there's a gate there that has private access [for those vehicles], they might very well be able to do that and treat the street as, 'Hey, this is ours.' "
Mark Rumley, Medford's city solicitor, said the chances of that happening in an urban setting are very low, though. If the private way is linked to a public amenity such as a park or school or a pond, there is no way access could be barred, he said.
All of the attorneys agreed on this point. But Rumley went further. To him, a public road is just another public amenity, so any private way serving as a city street that connects to a public road must also be open to the public.
"In my neck of the woods, the vast majority of the 290 private ways in the city of Medford are ways that give access to or connect to a public way," Rumley added.
The other attorneys weren't so sure about that conclusion. Del Bono contended that private ways open to the public are most likely to be through streets connecting to public ways or public amenities, as opposed to dead-end roads.
Drisdell, meanwhile, talked about "public easement by prescription," which essentially means that a private road that has been open to the public for a number of years becomes part of the public domain, regardless of what the residents who live there say. (Though it might take a legal battle to establish that.)
"The law regarding roads and access in the Commonwealth is a real labyrinth," Drisdell said. "There are just so many subtleties."
For a general rule, the best that might be said is that you can drive down a private way unless residents have put a gate up or posted specifically worded no-trespassing signs. At that point, you would need to call city hall to see whether you can drive down that particular street without breaking the law.
Old stop signs
What do you do when you come to a stop sign?
No, it's not a trick question. But 40 years ago, the answer wasn't as straightforward. Back then, if the roadway was clear, three cars at a time could drive through the stop sign, I wrote in a recent column.
Reader Edmund "Ned" Connolly of Sharon added that stop signs themselves looked different then, too.
"Back in the day there were two types of stop signs," Connolly wrote in an e-mail. "One was the sign we are familiar with today, the universal octagonal red sign. The other was similar but had the words 'Through' above and 'Traffic' below the word 'Stop.' The driver training manual I used (late 1960) instructed that that sign permitted up to three cars to proceed through the intersection without stopping again if traffic permitted. I got my first traffic citation for being the fourth car to proceed at the intersection of Coolidge Hill Avenue with Arsenal Street in Watertown."
Adam Hurtubise, spokesman for the state Executive Office of Transportation and Public Works, said that three-car rule dates back half a century. But both the rule and the old stop signs have been out of vogue for more than 30 years.
"The old stop signs with the legend 'Through Traffic' and other similar legends were holdovers from the '40s and '50s. They are now obsolete," Hurtubise wrote in an e-mail.
"Both the 1966 Massachusetts Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the 1961 Federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices specifically prohibit any legend other than STOP on the face of a stop sign."
Hurtubise doubted whether any of the through-traffic stop signs remain. Should you happen upon one, however, you must follow the modern-day rule, not the old law. "Each vehicle must come to a complete stop at a stop sign," he said.
What drives you crazy about local drivers? Is there a traffic rule you’ve always wondered about, or a pet peeve that never fails to annoy you? Send us a message about it at ciweek@globe.com. We'll check it out. 