CHAPTER 32-14
TRAFFIC REGULATION GENERALLY
32-14-1 Definitions.
32-14-2 Applicability to drivers of publicly owned vehicles--Exceptions.
32-14-3 Power of local authorities--Speed limitations--Vehicle traffic and safety provisions--Exceptions.
32-14-4 Regulation of speed in public parks.
32-14-5 Traffic control devices--One-way traffic--Processions and assemblages.
32-14-6 Restrictions respecting weight of vehicle--Duration of period of restriction--Signs designating restricted area.
32-14-7 Prohibiting trucks or commercial vehicles from use of designated highways--Erection of signs.
32-14-8 Road construction vehicles excepted--Traveling to and from road work.
32-14-9 Conditions imposed by owner upon permissive use of private property.
32-14-9.1 Operation of vehicles on private land prohibited without consent of owner or lessee--Snowmobile use on public right-of-way excepted--Misdemeanor.
32-14-9.2 32-14-9.2. Superseded.
32-14-10 32-14-10. Repealed by SL 1978, ch 158, § 28.
32-14-11 Occupation of towed house trailer or recreational vehicle--Penalty--Exception.
32-14-12 Certain maintenance vehicles exempt from overwidth restrictions.
32-14-13 Golf cart defined.
32-14-14 Ordinance permitting golf carts on highway within platted boundaries--Requirements--Permit--Fee.
32-14-15 Golf cart--Limited operation crossing highway--Violation as misdemeanor.
32-14-15.1 Golf cart--Limited operation on highway.
32-14-16 Golf cart ordinances authorized in municipalities and improvement districts.
32-14-17 Multi-passenger quadricycle--Definition.
32-14-18 Multi-passenger quadricycle--Operation.
32-14-19 Multi-passenger quadricycle--Proof of financial responsibility.
32-14-1. Definitions.
Terms used in chapters 32-14 to 32-19, inclusive, 32-12 and 32-22 to 32-34, inclusive, mean:
(1) \"Alcoholic beverage,\" as that term is defined by subdivision 35-1-1(1);
(2) \"Authorized emergency vehicle,\" a vehicle of a fire department, a police vehicle, an ambulance or emergency vehicle of a municipal department or public service corporation that is designated or authorized by the department or the Department of Health, and an emergency vehicle titled to a local organization for emergency management created pursuant to chapter 34-48A;
(3) \"Automobile transporter,\" a vehicle combination designed or modified to be used specifically for the transport of assembled highway vehicles;
(4) \"Boat transporter,\" a vehicle combination designed or modified to be used specifically for the transport of assembled or partially disassembled boats and boat hulls;
(5) \"Business district,\" the territory contiguous to a highway when fifty percent or more of the frontage thereon for a distance of three hundred feet or more is occupied by buildings in use for business;
(6) \"Commission,\" the Public Utilities Commission;
(7) \"Controlled drug or substance,\" as that term is defined in § 34-20B-3;
(8) \"Crosswalk,\" that part of a roadway at an intersection included within the connections of the lateral lines of the sidewalks on opposite sides of the highway measured from the curbs or, in the absence of curbs, from the edges of the traversable roadway; or any portion of a roadway at an intersection or elsewhere distinctly indicated for pedestrian crossing by lines or other markings on the surface;
(9) \"Department,\" the Department of Public Safety of this state acting directly or through its duly authorized officers and agents;
(9A) \"Electric bicycle,\" as that term is defined in § 32-20B-9;
(10) \"Farm tractor,\" a motor vehicle designed and used primarily as a farm implement for drawing plows, mowing machines, and other implements of husbandry;
(11) \"Highway,\" the entire width between the boundary lines of every way publicly maintained when any part thereof is open to the use of the public as a matter of right for purposes of vehicular travel;
(12) \"Intersection,\" the area embraced within the prolongation of the lateral curb lines or, if none, then of the lateral boundary lines of two or more highways that join one another at an angle, whether or not one such highway crosses the other. However, the area, in the case of the point where an alley and a street meet within a municipality, is not an intersection;
(13) \"Law enforcement officer,\" as that term is defined in § 23-3-27;
(14) \"Local authorities,\" a county, municipal, township, road district, and other local board or body having authority to adopt local police regulations under the Constitution and laws of this state;
(15) \"Metal tires,\" a tire that the surface in contact with the highway is wholly or partly of metal or other hard, nonresilient material;
(16) \"Motorcycle,\" a motor vehicle designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground, except any vehicle as may be included within the term, tractor;
(17) \"Motor vehicle,\" a vehicle that is self-propelled. The term does not include an electric bicycle or multi-passenger quadricycle as defined in § 32-14-17;
(18) \"Official traffic control device,\" a sign, signal, marking, and device not inconsistent with the law placed or erected by authority of a public body or official having jurisdiction, for the purpose of regulating, warning, or guiding traffic. The term also includes a flagman or a sign, signal, marking, or other device temporarily placed or erected by a person working upon, along, above, or under a highway installing or maintaining a public service facility and which is necessary or required to warn, direct, or otherwise control traffic during the time of work or when a hazard exists;
(19) \"Owner,\" a person who holds the legal title of a vehicle or in the event a vehicle is the subject of an agreement for the conditional sale or lease thereof with the right of purchase upon performance of the conditions stated in the agreement and with an immediate right of possession vested in the conditional vendee or lessee, or in the event a mortgagor of a vehicle is entitled to possession, then the conditional vendee or lessee or mortgagor is the owner for the purpose of said chapters;
(20) \"Park or parking,\" the standing of a vehicle, whether occupied or not, otherwise than temporarily for the purpose of and while actually engaged in loading or unloading merchandise or passengers;
(21) \"Pneumatic tire,\" a tire inflated with compressed air;
(22) \"Private road or driveway,\" a road or driveway not open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel;
(23) \"Recreation vehicle,\" a self-propelled or towed vehicle equipped to serve as temporary living quarters for recreational, camping, or travel purposes and used solely as a family or personal conveyance and in no way used for a commercial purpose;
(24) \"Residence district,\" the territory contiguous to a highway not comprising a business district when the frontage on the highway for a distance of three hundred feet or more is mainly occupied by dwellings or by dwellings and buildings in use for business;
(25) \"Right-of-way,\" the right of one vehicle or pedestrian to proceed in a lawful manner in preference to another vehicle or pedestrian approaching under such circumstances of direction, speed, and proximity as to give rise to danger of collision unless one grants precedence to the other;
(26) \"Road tractor,\" a motor vehicle designed and used for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry any load thereon either independently or any part of the weight of a vehicle or load so drawn;
(27) \"Roadway,\" that portion of a highway improved, designed, or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, exclusive of the berm or shoulder. If a highway includes two or more separate roadways, the term, roadway, refers to any such roadway separately but not to all such roadways collectively;
(28) \"Safety zone,\" the area or space officially set aside within a highway for the exclusive use of pedestrians and which is so plainly marked or indicated by proper signs as to be plainly visible at all times while set apart as a safety zone;
(29) \"Semitrailer,\" any vehicle of the trailer type equipped with a kingpin assembly, designed and used in conjunction with a fifth wheel connecting device on a motor vehicle and constructed so that some part of its weight and that of its load rests upon or is carried by another vehicle;
(30) \"Sidewalk,\" that portion of a street between the curb lines, or the lateral lines of a roadway, and the adjacent property lines intended for use of pedestrians;
(31) \"Single axle\" or \"one axle,\" one or more consecutive axles whose centers may be included between two transverse vertical planes spaced forty inches or less apart, extending across the full width of the vehicle;
(32) \"Solid rubber tire,\" a tire made of rubber other than a pneumatic tire;
(33) \"Steering axle,\" any axle on the front of a motor vehicle that is activated by the operator to directly accomplish guidance or steerage of the motor vehicle or combination of vehicles;
(34) \"Stinger-steered transporter combination,\" a truck tractor semitrailer combination with a fifth wheel located on a drop frame which is located behind and below the rearmost axle of the power unit;
(35) \"Tandem axle,\" two or more consecutive axles whose centers may be included between parallel transverse vertical planes spaced more than forty inches and not more than ninety-six inches apart, extending across the full width of the vehicle;
(36) \"Trailer,\" a vehicle without motive power designed for carrying property or passengers on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle;
(37) \"Truck tractor,\" a motor vehicle designed and used primarily for drawing other vehicles and not so constructed as to carry a load other than a part of the weight of the vehicle and load so drawn;
(38) \"Urban district,\" the territory contiguous to and including any street that is built up with structures devoted to business, industry, or dwelling houses situated at intervals of less than one hundred feet for a distance of a quarter of a mile or more;
(39) \"Vehicle,\" a device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public highway, except devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks; including bicycles, electric bicycles, multi-passenger quadricycles, and ridden animals; and
(40) \"Wireless communication device,\" any wireless electronic communication device that provides for voice or data communication between two or more parties, including a mobile or cellular telephone, a text messaging device, a personal digital assistant that sends or receives messages, an audio-video player that sends or receives messages, or a laptop computer. A wireless communication device does not include a global positioning or navigation system (GPS) used to receive driving directions.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0301; SL 1959, ch 250; SL 1967, ch 190; SL 1970, ch 175, §§ 2, 3; SL 1973, ch 195, §§ 1, 2; SL 1975, ch 205; SL 1988, ch 256; SL 1989, ch 256, §§ 9, 11; SL 1990, ch 257, § 4; SL 1996, ch 202, § 1; SL 1999, ch 151, § 4; SL 2004, ch 17, § 136; SL 2005, ch 169, § 3; SL 2008, ch 158, § 1; SL 2013, ch 145, § 1; SL 2015, ch 277 (Ex. Ord. 15-1), § 36, eff. Apr. 20, 2015; SL 2019, ch 135, § 13; SL 2024, ch 118, § 9.
32-14-2. Applicability to drivers of publicly owned vehicles--Exceptions.
The provisions of chapters 32-14 to 32-19, inclusive, and of chapters 32-22 to 32-34, inclusive, applicable to the drivers of vehicles upon the highways, shall apply to the drivers of all vehicles owned or operated by this state or any county, municipality, district, or any other political subdivision of the state subject to such specific exceptions as are set forth in said chapters.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0333; SL 1992, ch 60, § 2.
32-14-3. Power of local authorities--Speed limitations--Vehicle traffic and safety provisions--Exceptions.
Local authorities, except as expressly authorized by chapter 32-25 and § 32-29-2, may not alter any speed limitations declared in chapter 32-25 or enact or enforce any ordinance, charter provision, or bylaw duplicating the provisions of chapter 32-23 or enact or enforce any rule or regulation contrary to the provisions of chapters 32-14 to 32-19, inclusive, or 32-22 and 32-24 to 32-34, inclusive, except as provided by §§ 32-14-4 and 32-14-5.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0334; SL 1974, ch 76, § 3; SL 1999, ch 151, § 5.
32-14-4. Regulation of speed in public parks.
Local authorities 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.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0334.
32-14-5. Traffic control devices--One-way traffic--Processions and assemblages.
Local authorities may provide by ordinance for the regulation of traffic on highways under their jurisdiction by means of traffic officers or traffic control devices on any portion of the highway where traffic is heavy or continuous or local authorities may prohibit other than one-way traffic upon certain highways and may regulate the use of the highway by processions or assemblages.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0334; SL 1980, ch 211, § 3.
32-14-6. Restrictions respecting weight of vehicle--Duration of period of restriction--Signs designating restricted area.
Local authorities, including road districts, may by ordinance or resolution prohibit the operation of vehicles upon any highway or impose restrictions as to the weight of vehicles allowed. Such prohibitions or restrictions apply only to vehicles to be operated upon any highway under the jurisdiction of and for the maintenance of which such local authorities are responsible and only if the highway by reason of physical condition, rain, snow, or other climatic conditions will be seriously damaged or destroyed unless the use of vehicles on the highway is prohibited or the permissible weights of the vehicles are reduced. Any local authority enacting any such ordinance or resolution shall erect and maintain or cause to be erected and maintained signs designating the provisions of the ordinance or resolution at each end of that portion of any highway affected by the ordinance or resolution. The ordinance or resolution is not valid unless such signs are erected and maintained.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0343; SL 1999, ch 151, § 6; SL 2002, ch 158, § 3.
32-14-7. Prohibiting trucks or commercial vehicles from use of designated highways--Erection of signs.
Local authorities, including road districts, may by ordinance or resolution prohibit the operation of trucks or other commercial vehicles or impose limitations as to the weights of such vehicles on designated highways. The prohibitions and limitations shall be designated by appropriate signs placed on such highways.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0343; SL 1999, ch 151, § 7.
32-14-8. Road construction vehicles excepted--Traveling to and from road work.
The provisions of chapters 32-14 to 32-19, inclusive, 32-22 and of 32-26 to 32-32, inclusive, do not apply to persons, teams, motor vehicles, and other equipment while actually engaged in work upon the surface of a highway, but shall apply to such persons and vehicles when traveling to or from such work.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0333; SL 1989, ch 256, § 12.
32-14-9. Conditions imposed by owner upon permissive use of private property.
Nothing in chapters 32-14 to 32-19, inclusive, or in chapters 32-22 to 32-34, inclusive, shall be construed to prevent the owner of real property used by the public for purposes of vehicular travel by permission of the owner and not as a matter of right from prohibiting such use nor from requiring other or different or additional conditions than those specified in said chapters or otherwise regulating such use as may seem best to such owner.
Source: SDC 1939, § 44.0335.
32-14-9.1. Operation of vehicles on private land prohibited without consent of owner or lessee--Snowmobile use on public right-of-way excepted--Misdemeanor.
No person shall operate any vehicle, including, but not limited to, snowmobiles, motorcycles, and all-terrain vehicles, upon any private land without permission from the owner or lessee of such land. The provisions of this section shall not apply to a vehicle used on a highway or other public right-of-way in accordance with the provisions of chapter 32-20A. A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Source: SL 1973, ch 217, §§ 1 to 3; SDCL Supp, § 32-14-9.2.
\r\n
32-14-11. Occupation of towed house trailer or recreational vehicle--Penalty--Exception.
No person may occupy a house trailer or a recreational vehicle as defined by § 32-3-1 while it is being towed. A violation of this section is a petty offense. This section does not apply to a recreational vehicle being towed by a truck, truck tractor, or pickup with a fifth-wheel device, if the recreational vehicle is equipped with safety glazing materials wherever glazing materials are used in windows or doors, with an audible or visual signaling device which a passenger inside the recreational vehicle can use to gain the attention of the motor vehicle driver, and with at least one unobstructed exit capable of being opened from both the interior and exterior of the recreational vehicle. The requirement for safety glazing materials does not apply to vehicles manufactured prior to July 1, 1977.
Source: SL 1970, ch 175, § 4; SL 1977, ch 259; SL 1978, ch 158, § 29; SL 1987, ch 29, § 15; SL 2025, ch 44, § 17.
32-14-12. Certain maintenance vehicles exempt from overwidth restrictions.
The provisions of §§ 32-22-2 and 32-22-3 do not apply to any road grader, snowplow, or snow removal equipment which does not exceed a width of thirteen feet and ten inches and which is being operated under contract to, or leased by, the state, a county, a township, municipality, or a school district, or which is being operated within the corporate limits of a municipality. Any such equipment shall be equipped with revolving lights and any overwidth item shall be equipped with red or orange flags. Such equipment may not operate during nighttime hours except when used for snow removal purposes.
Source: SL 1991, ch 256, § 1; SL 1997, ch 191, § 1.
32-14-13. Golf cart defined.
For the purposes of §§ 32-14-14 to 32-14-16, inclusive, the term, golf cart, means a four wheeled vehicle originally and specifically designed and intended to transport one or more individuals and golf clubs for the purpose of playing the game of golf on a golf course.
Source: SL 2010, ch 164, § 1.
32-14-14. Ordinance permitting golf carts on highway within platted boundaries--Requirements--Permit--Fee.
Notwithstanding § 32-14-15, any municipality or township with an unincorporated town may adopt, by ordinance, traffic regulations permitting the use of golf carts on a highway within its platted boundaries. The ordinance shall require that the golf cart is insured and the person operating the golf cart in the municipality or unincorporated town to hold a driver license and to obtain a permit from the authority having jurisdiction. The municipality or township may charge a fee for the permit. The ordinance may also require the golf cart to display a slow-moving vehicle emblem in accordance with § 32-15-20 or a white or amber warning light in accordance § 32-17-46.
Source: SL 2010, ch 164, § 2; SL 2014, ch 48, § 20; SL 2017, ch 138, § 1.
32-14-15. Golf cart--Limited operation crossing highway--Violation as misdemeanor.
Except as provided in § 32-14-15.1, no person may operate a golf cart on a state or county highway except for crossing from one side of the highway to the other. A golf cart may cross the highway at a right angle, but only after stopping and yielding the right-of-way to all approaching traffic and crossing as closely as possible to an intersection or approach. The operation of a golf cart on a state or county highway in a manner not permitted by this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Source: SL 2010, ch 164, § 3; SL 2023, ch 104, § 1.
32-14-15.1. Golf cart--Limited operation on highway.
Any person may operate a golf cart on a state or county highway if the posted speed limit is twenty-five miles per hour or less. Nothing in this section relieves golf cart operators of any statutory requirements associated with motor vehicle operation within this state.
Source: SL 2023, ch 104, § 2.
32-14-16. Golf cart ordinances authorized in municipalities and improvement districts.
For the purposes of § 32-14-14, the term, municipality, means any municipality organized pursuant to Title 9 and any improvement district established by a county pursuant to chapter 7-25A. A county may adopt, by ordinance, regulations to enforce and administer the provisions of § 32-14-14 on behalf of the improvement district.
Source: SL 2010, ch 164, § 4.
32-14-17. Multi-passenger quadricycle--Definition.
For the purposes of this chapter, the term \"multi-passenger quadricycle\" means a vehicle equipped with fully operative pedals for propulsion by means of human muscular power exclusively. The vehicle must be:
(1) Equipped with at least four wheels and is operated in a manner similar to a bicycle;
(2) Equipped with at least five seats for passengers;
(3) Designed to be operated by a driver, who may use an assist-motor capable of propelling the vehicle in conjunction with human muscular power;
(4) Operated for commercial purposes within a municipality;
(5) Equipped with a steering wheel that gives the driver exclusive control of the direction of the vehicle;
(6) Equipped with at least one tail lamp in accordance with § 32-17-12;
(7) Equipped with at least one stop lamp in accordance with § 32-17-8.1;
(8) Equipped with at least two headlamps with one on each side of the front of the vehicle; and
(9) Equipped with a rear vision mirror in accordance with § 32-15-8.
Source: SL 2024, ch 118, § 1.
32-14-18. Multi-passenger quadricycle--Operation.
Unless otherwise allowed by a municipality, a multi-passenger quadricycle may not be operated on any bicycle path or multi-use path.
Source: SL 2024, ch 118, § 2.
32-14-19. Multi-passenger quadricycle--Proof of financial responsibility.
An owner of a multi-passenger quadricycle must maintain financial responsibility as required by subdivisions 32-35-113(1) and (4).
Source: SL 2024, ch 118, § 3.