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Cal. VEH § 21401

This is the official text of Cal. VEH § 21401, part of California’s Vehicle Code — governs traffic laws, driver's licenses, and vehicle registration.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) Except as provided in Section 21374, only those official traffic control devices that conform to the uniform standards and specifications promulgated by the Department of Transportation shall be placed upon a street or highway.

(b) Any traffic signal controller that is newly installed or upgraded by the Department of Transportation shall be of a standard traffic signal communication protocol capable of two-way communications. A local authority may follow this requirement.

(c) In recognition of the state and local interests served by the action made optional for a local authority in subdivision (b), the Legislature encourages local agencies to continue taking the action formerly mandated by this section. However nothing in this subdivision may be construed to impose any liability on a local agency that does not continue to take the formerly mandated action.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.