Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1116 · Article 24. Traffic Signs, Signals and Markings
Lane-use control signal indications
Text — Law content up to date as of October 30, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 1116. Lane-use control signal indications. Whenever traffic is controlled by lane-use control signal indications located over the individual lanes of a highway, only the colors green, yellow, white and red shall be used, and said signals shall indicate and apply as follows:
(a) Traffic facing a steady downward green arrow signal indication is permitted to drive in the lane over which the arrow signal indication is located.
(b) Traffic facing a steady yellow X signal indication shall prepare to vacate the lane over which the signal indication is located because a lane control change is being made to a steady red X signal indication.
(c) Traffic facing a steady white two-way left-turn arrow signal indication is permitted to use a lane over which the signal indication is located for a left turn, but not for through travel, with the understanding that common use of the lane by oncoming road users for left turns is also permitted.
(d) Traffic facing a steady white one way left-turn arrow signal indication is permitted to use a lane over which the signal indication is located for a left turn (without opposing turns in the same lane), but not for through travel.
(e) Traffic facing a steady red X signal shall not use the lane over which the signal indication is located and this signal indication shall modify accordingly the meaning of other traffic controls present.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 30, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/VAT1116
- Text hash
- sha256 25d324d03dafa4bd673e22cce8ec3108fa5692f4b3087a1aeb1f5ec639ee7c23
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.