Santa Clara, CA Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

780 gives the City Manager or designee authority to designate "any street, or portion thereof, as a street on which the operation of commercial vehicles shall be prohibited," after which the traffic engineer must post signs giving notice. Once those signs are up, "no person shall operate a commercial vehicle contrary to the directions of such signs," a flat prohibition that doesn't depend on time of day or intent. The section exempts passenger buses under Public Utilities Commission jurisdiction, so transit and charter buses are not swept in.

770, handles the separate weight-based truck route system: any vehicle exceeding a three-ton gross weight limit must stay on streets the City Manager has designated and signed as "truck routes," normally chosen because the traffic engineer finds them structurally capable of carrying heavy loads. That section carves out an exception letting an over-three-ton vehicle leave a truck route by the most direct path when making pickups or deliveries to a building on a restricted street, or delivering materials for permitted construction, alteration or remodeling work, and it exempts school buses, PUC-regulated passenger buses, and public utility vehicles doing construction or repair.

070, since neither section states an independent fine, meaning violations default to the citywide infraction schedule and prosecutorial discretion to charge as a misdemeanor for repeat offenders.