[Adopted as Ch. 21, Art. II, of the 1977
Code; amended in its entirety 2-1-2007]
No person, firm or corporation shall operate
any motor bus upon any public street or way in the City for the carriage
of passengers for hire, in such a manner as to afford a means of transportation
similar to that afforded by a street railway company, by indiscriminately
receiving and discharging passengers along the route on which the
vehicle is operated or may be running, or for transporting passengers
for hire as a business between fixed and regular termini unless licensed
so to do as hereinafter provided.
Application for such licenses shall be made
to the City Council on forms furnished by the City Clerk and shall
set forth the name, place of residence and post office address of
the applicant, a brief description of the motor bus or buses to be
operated under the license, the routes over which the bus or buses
are to be operated, the hours of operation, the fare to be charged
and such other information as the City Council may require. The truth
of the allegations in such applications shall be sworn to before an
officer authorized to administer oaths.
Every license shall be granted by the City Council.
It shall be signed by the City Clerk and bear the written approval
of the Mayor, and shall be recorded in the office of the City Clerk.
It shall state the name of the person licensed and his place of residence,
a brief description of the motor bus or buses to be operated under
it, the number of persons, exclusive of the operator, which the bus
or buses may carry. Such licenses shall be numbered in order as granted
and shall be expressed to be subject to the provisions of law and
of the ordinances of the City.
The fee for such license shall be as set forth
in Chapter 174, Fees.
No person operating any motor bus under such
a license shall refuse to carry any person offering himself to be
carried as a passenger therein unless such bus is occupied to the
limit of its carrying capacity under its license, or unless such a
person be intoxicated or disorderly.
No person operating any motor bus under such
license shall solicit passengers by outcry or make any noise for the
purpose of soliciting passengers.
No motor bus operated under such license shall
be allowed to stand to wait for passengers in any street, square or
public place, except on such portions thereof and during such hours
as may be designated therefor by the City Council. Said City Council
may, from time to time, designate locations in streets, squares and
public places where, and the hours during which, such buses may so
stand, and may cancel or change such locations or hours as and whenever
the public interests seem to it to require such change.[1]
No such motor bus shall be stopped to take on
or to discharge passengers at any place on any street except at the
curb, nor shall any passenger be permitted to enter or leave the bus
except from the side nearest the curb.
No person operating any motor bus under such
license shall collect fares, make change or take on or discharge passengers
while such bus is in motion; nor shall he have a lighted cigarette,
cigar or pipe in his possession while any passenger is being carried
therein, nor drink any intoxicating beverage of any kind, nor be under
the influence thereof, while engaged in operating such bus.
Every person operating any motor bus under such
license shall stop the same before crossing the tracks of any railroad
at the grade thereof.
Every person operating any such motor bus shall
deliver any article left therein by any passenger to the bus terminal
not later than 24 hours after finding the same and shall receive a
receipt therefor, and his employer shall take proper steps to return
the same to the owner. All such articles delivered to his employer
and not claimed by the owner within 90 days from such delivery shall
be retained by the licensee of the bus in which they were left.
The owners and operators of all motor buses
operated under the provisions of this article shall be subject to
such further orders and regulations as may from time to time be promulgated
by the City Council.
