BoroCall said:
Thanks much for the info - I used to almost have this stuff memorized. I was informed once, some years ago that do to the City's population - the Mayor & City Council have authority over & above the NYS VTL and have the authority to authorize as deemed required, I never really dug in to find out how valid the info was.
Right, Section 1642 of the VTL deals with "Additional traffic regulations in cities having a population in excess of one million" and says "local laws...shall supersede the provisions of this chapter...with respect to the following enumerated subjects" with section 6 being "Operation of authorized emergency vehicles." The NYC DOT Traffic Rules define an "emergency vehicle (authorized)" as "every police vehicle, fire vehicle, emergency ambulance service vehicle, and every other emergency vehicle as defined in ?101 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law," with ?101 being the above definition. So it seems the city Traffic Rules use the same definition as the state does.
Again, related to the lights, the city Traffic Rules state in Section 4-09 (c): "No operator of a motorcycle or motor vehicle, other than authorized emergency vehicles, shall operate said vehicle when displaying other than white or yellow lights visible from in front of the vehicle. No operator of an authorized emergency vehicle shall operate said vehicle when displaying other than white or yellow lights visible from in front of the vehicle except when actually engaged in emergency service".
The only mention of utility vehicles in the city Traffic Rules relating to this, that I can find anyway, is under Section 4-13 Truck Routes. The exceptions under part (2) are: "These rules do not apply to authorized emergency vehicles and authorized public utility company vehicles engaged in an emergency operation as defined in ?114-b of the Vehicle and Traffic Law," even though utility vehicles can't engage in emergency operations according to ?114-b. Still, this part only says utility vehicles could violate rules on truck routes. Also, I'm no expert, there's probably someone else who can answer more definitively.