BILL REQ. #:  H-3927.1 

Read first time 01/11/2006.   Referred to Committee on Transportation.

     AN ACT Relating to allowing local jurisdictions to allow off-road vehicles to operate on designated city or county roads; amending RCW 46.09.115, 46.09.120, 46.09.180, and 46.37.010; and reenacting and amending RCW 46.16.010.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 46.16.010 and 2005 c 350 s 1, 2005 c 323 s 2, and 2005 c 213 s 6 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
     (1) It is unlawful for a person to operate any vehicle over and along a public highway of this state without first having obtained and having in full force and effect a current and proper vehicle license and display vehicle license number plates therefor as by this chapter provided.
     (2) Failure to make initial registration before operation on the highways of this state is a traffic infraction, and any person committing this infraction shall pay a penalty of five hundred twenty-nine dollars, no part of which may be suspended or deferred.
     (3) Failure to renew an expired registration before operation on the highways of this state is a traffic infraction.
     (4) The licensing of a vehicle in another state by a resident of this state, as defined in RCW 46.16.028, evading the payment of any tax or license fee imposed in connection with registration, is a gross misdemeanor punishable as follows:
     (a) For a first offense, up to one year in the county jail and payment of a fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars plus twice the amount of delinquent taxes and fees, no part of which may be suspended or deferred;
     (b) For a second or subsequent offense, up to one year in the county jail and payment of a fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars plus four times the amount of delinquent taxes and fees, no part of which may be suspended or deferred;
     (c) For fines levied under (b) of this subsection, an amount equal to the avoided taxes and fees owed will be deposited in the vehicle licensing fraud account created in the state treasury;
     (d) The avoided taxes and fees shall be deposited and distributed in the same manner as if the taxes and fees were properly paid in a timely fashion.
     (5) These provisions shall not apply to the following vehicles:
     (a) Motorized foot scooters;
     (b) Electric-assisted bicycles;
     (c) Off-road vehicles operating on nonhighway roads under RCW 46.09.115;
     (d) Farm vehicles if operated within a radius of fifteen miles of the farm where principally used or garaged, farm tractors and farm implements including trailers designed as cook or bunk houses used exclusively for animal herding temporarily operating or drawn upon the public highways, and trailers used exclusively to transport farm implements from one farm to another during the daylight hours or at night when such equipment has lights that comply with the law;
     (e) Spray or fertilizer applicator rigs designed and used exclusively for spraying or fertilization in the conduct of agricultural operations and not primarily for the purpose of transportation, and nurse rigs or equipment auxiliary to the use of and designed or modified for the fueling, repairing, or loading of spray and fertilizer applicator rigs and not used, designed, or modified primarily for the purpose of transportation;
     (f) Fork lifts operated during daylight hours on public highways adjacent to and within five hundred feet of the warehouses which they serve: PROVIDED FURTHER, That these provisions shall not apply to vehicles used by the state parks and recreation commission exclusively for park maintenance and operations upon public highways within state parks;
     (g) "Trams" used for transporting persons to and from facilities related to the horse racing industry as regulated in chapter 67.16 RCW, as long as the public right-of-way routes over which the trams operate are not more than one mile from end to end, the public rights-of-way over which the tram operates have an average daily traffic of not more than 15,000 vehicles per day, and the activity is in conformity with federal law. The operator must be a licensed driver and at least eighteen years old. For the purposes of this section, "tram" also means a vehicle, or combination of vehicles linked together with a single mode of propulsion, used to transport persons from one location to another;
     (h) "Special highway construction equipment" defined as follows: Any vehicle which is designed and used primarily for grading of highways, paving of highways, earth moving, and other construction work on highways and which is not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property on a public highway and which is only incidentally operated or moved over the highway. It includes, but is not limited to, road construction and maintenance machinery so designed and used such as portable air compressors, air drills, asphalt spreaders, bituminous mixers, bucket loaders, track laying tractors, ditchers, leveling graders, finishing machines, motor graders, paving mixers, road rollers, scarifiers, earth moving scrapers and carryalls, lighting plants, welders, pumps, power shovels and draglines, self-propelled and tractor-drawn earth moving equipment and machinery, including dump trucks and tractor-dump trailer combinations which either (i) are in excess of the legal width, or (ii) which, because of their length, height, or unladen weight, may not be moved on a public highway without the permit specified in RCW 46.44.090 and which are not operated laden except within the boundaries of the project limits as defined by the contract, and other similar types of construction equipment, or (iii) which are driven or moved upon a public highway only for the purpose of crossing such highway from one property to another, provided such movement does not exceed five hundred feet and the vehicle is equipped with wheels or pads which will not damage the roadway surface.
     Exclusions:
     "Special highway construction equipment" does not include any of the following:
     Dump trucks originally designed to comply with the legal size and weight provisions of this code notwithstanding any subsequent modification which would require a permit, as specified in RCW 46.44.090, to operate such vehicles on a public highway, including trailers, truck-mounted transit mixers, cranes and shovels, or other vehicles designed for the transportation of persons or property to which machinery has been attached.
     (6) The following vehicles, whether operated solo or in combination, are exempt from license registration and displaying license plates as required by this chapter:
     (a) A converter gear used to convert a semitrailer into a trailer or a two-axle truck or tractor into a three or more axle truck or tractor or used in any other manner to increase the number of axles of a vehicle. Converter gear includes an auxiliary axle, booster axle, dolly, and jeep axle.
     (b) A tow dolly that is used for towing a motor vehicle behind another motor vehicle. The front or rear wheels of the towed vehicle are secured to and rest on the tow dolly that is attached to the towing vehicle by a tow bar.
     (c) An off-road vehicle operated on a city or county road within a local jurisdiction's boundaries is exempt from license registration and displaying license plates as required by this chapter if the jurisdiction has authorized the operation of off-road vehicles under RCW 46.09.180(2).
     (7)(a) A motor vehicle subject to initial or renewal registration under this section shall not be registered to a natural person unless the person at time of application:
     (i) Presents an unexpired Washington state driver's license; or
     (ii) Certifies that he or she is:
     (A) A Washington resident who does not operate a motor vehicle on public roads; or
     (B) Exempt from the requirement to obtain a Washington state driver's license under RCW 46.20.025.
     (b) For shared or joint ownership, the department will set up procedures to verify that all owners meet the requirements of this subsection.
     (c) A person falsifying residency is guilty of a gross misdemeanor punishable only by a fine of five hundred twenty-nine dollars.
     (d) The department may adopt rules necessary to implement this subsection, including rules under which a natural person applying for registration may be exempt from the requirements of this subsection where the person provides evidence satisfactory to the department that he or she has a valid and compelling reason for not being able to meet the requirements of this subsection.

Sec. 2   RCW 46.09.115 and 2005 c 213 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Except as otherwise provided in this section, it is lawful to operate an off-road vehicle upon:
     (a) A nonhighway road and in parking areas serving designated off-road vehicle areas if the state, federal, local, or private authority responsible for the management of the nonhighway road authorizes the use of off-road vehicles; and
     (b) Any city or county road within a local jurisdiction's boundaries if the jurisdiction has authorized the operation of off-road vehicles under RCW 46.09.180(2).
     (2) Operations of an off-road vehicle on a nonhighway road under this section is exempt from licensing requirements of RCW 46.16.010 and vehicle lighting and equipment requirements of chapter 46.37 RCW.
     (3) Operations of an off-road vehicle on city or county roads designated under subsection (1)(b) of this section are exempt from the vehicle lighting and equipment requirements of chapter 46.37 RCW.
     (4) It is unlawful to operate an off-road vehicle upon a private nonhighway road if the road owner has not authorized the use of off-road vehicles.
     (((4))) (5) Nothing in this section authorizes trespass on private property.

Sec. 3   RCW 46.09.120 and 2005 c 213 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Except as provided in subsection (4) of this section, it is a traffic infraction for any person to operate any nonhighway vehicle:
     (a) In such a manner as to endanger the property of another;
     (b) On lands not owned by the operator or owner of the nonhighway vehicle without a lighted headlight and taillight between the hours of dusk and dawn, or when otherwise required for the safety of others regardless of ownership;
     (c) On lands not owned by the operator or owner of the nonhighway vehicle without an adequate braking device or when otherwise required for the safety of others regardless of ownership;
     (d) Without a spark arrester approved by the department of natural resources;
     (e) Without an adequate, and operating, muffling device which effectively limits vehicle noise to no more than eighty-six decibels on the "A" scale at fifty feet as measured by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) test procedure J 331a, except that a maximum noise level of one hundred and five decibels on the "A" scale at a distance of twenty inches from the exhaust outlet shall be an acceptable substitute in lieu of the Society of Automotive Engineers test procedure J 331a when measured:
     (i) At a forty-five degree angle at a distance of twenty inches from the exhaust outlet;
     (ii) With the vehicle stationary and the engine running at a steady speed equal to one-half of the manufacturer's maximum allowable ("red line") engine speed or where the manufacturer's maximum allowable engine speed is not known the test speed in revolutions per minute calculated as sixty percent of the speed at which maximum horsepower is developed; and
     (iii) With the microphone placed ten inches from the side of the vehicle, one-half way between the lowest part of the vehicle body and the ground plane, and in the same lateral plane as the rearmost exhaust outlet where the outlet of the exhaust pipe is under the vehicle;
     (f) On lands not owned by the operator or owner of the nonhighway vehicle upon the shoulder or inside bank or slope of any nonhighway road or highway, or upon the median of any divided highway;
     (g) On lands not owned by the operator or owner of the nonhighway vehicle in any area or in such a manner so as to unreasonably expose the underlying soil, or to create an erosion condition, or to injure, damage, or destroy trees, growing crops, or other vegetation;
     (h) On lands not owned by the operator or owner of the nonhighway vehicle or on any nonhighway road or trail, when these are restricted to pedestrian or animal travel;
     (i) On any public lands in violation of rules and regulations of the agency administering such lands; and
     (j) On a private nonhighway road in violation of RCW 46.09.115(3).
     (2) It is a misdemeanor for any person to operate any nonhighway vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a controlled substance.
     (3)(a) Except for an off-road vehicle equipped with seat belts and roll bars or an enclosed passenger compartment, it is a traffic infraction for any person to operate or ride an off-road vehicle on a nonhighway road without wearing upon his or her head a motorcycle helmet fastened securely while in motion. For purposes of this section, "motorcycle helmet" has the same meaning as provided in RCW 46.37.530.
     (b) Subsection (3)(a) of this section does not apply to an off-road vehicle operator operating on his or her own land.
     (c) Subsection (3)(a) of this section does not apply to an off-road vehicle operator operating on agricultural lands owned or leased by the off-road vehicle operator or the operator's employer.
     (4) It is not a traffic infraction to operate an off-road vehicle on a city or county road if the local jurisdiction has authorized the operation of off-road vehicles under RCW 46.09.180(2).

Sec. 4   RCW 46.09.180 and 1977 ex.s. c 220 s 15 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Notwithstanding any of the provisions of this chapter, any city, county, or other political subdivision of this state, or any state agency, may regulate the operation of nonhighway vehicles on public lands, waters, and other properties under its jurisdiction, and on streets or highways within its boundaries by adopting regulations or ordinances of its governing body, provided such regulations are not less stringent than the provisions of this chapter.
     (2) The legislative body of a city or county may, by ordinance, designate a road or roads within its jurisdictional boundaries to be suitable for use by off-road vehicles.

Sec. 5   RCW 46.37.010 and 2005 c 213 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) It is a traffic infraction for any person to drive or move or for the owner to cause or knowingly permit to be driven or moved on any highway any vehicle or combination of vehicles which is in such unsafe condition as to endanger any person, or which does not contain those parts or is not at all times equipped with such lamps and other equipment in proper condition and adjustment as required in this chapter or in regulations issued by the chief of the Washington state patrol, or which is equipped in any manner in violation of this chapter or the state patrol's regulations, or for any person to do any act forbidden or fail to perform any act required under this chapter or the state patrol's regulations.
     (2) Nothing contained in this chapter or the state patrol's regulations shall be construed to prohibit the use of additional parts and accessories on any vehicle not inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter or the state patrol's regulations.
     (3) The provisions of the chapter and the state patrol's regulations with respect to equipment on vehicles shall not apply to implements of husbandry, road machinery, road rollers, ((or)) farm tractors, or off-road vehicles operating on a city or county road if the local jurisdiction has authorized the operation of off-road vehicles under RCW 46.09.180(2) except as herein made applicable.
     (4) No owner or operator of a farm tractor, self-propelled unit of farm equipment, or implement of husbandry shall be guilty of a crime or subject to penalty for violation of RCW 46.37.160 as now or hereafter amended unless such violation occurs on a public highway.
     (5) It is a traffic infraction for any person to sell or offer for sale vehicle equipment which is required to be approved by the state patrol as prescribed in RCW 46.37.005 unless it has been approved by the state patrol.
     (6) The provisions of this chapter with respect to equipment required on vehicles shall not apply to motorcycles or motor-driven cycles except as herein made applicable.
     (7) This chapter does not apply to off-road vehicles used on nonhighway roads.
     (8) This chapter does not apply to vehicles used by the state parks and recreation commission exclusively for park maintenance and operations upon public highways within state parks.
     (9) Notices of traffic infraction issued to commercial drivers under the provisions of this chapter with respect to equipment required on commercial motor vehicles shall not be considered for driver improvement purposes under chapter 46.20 RCW.
     (10) Whenever a traffic infraction is chargeable to the owner or lessee of a vehicle under subsection (1) of this section, the driver shall not be arrested or issued a notice of traffic infraction unless the vehicle is registered in a jurisdiction other than Washington state, or unless the infraction is for an offense that is clearly within the responsibility of the driver.
     (11) Whenever the owner or lessee is issued a notice of traffic infraction under this section the court may, on the request of the owner or lessee, take appropriate steps to make the driver of the vehicle, or any other person who directs the loading, maintenance, or operation of the vehicle, a codefendant. If the codefendant is held solely responsible and is found to have committed the traffic infraction, the court may dismiss the notice against the owner or lessee.