Re: Stopping for School Buses in Private Parking Lots
Quoting Taxing Matters
Two points on that. First, I used the term "parking lot" and I think you (and most people) readily know the difference between a street and a parking lot. An apartment complex parking lot (whether high rise or not) clearly does not fall within the statute. Second, the statute uses the term "highway" and highway as defined in the statute is limited to those roads/streets that are "publicly maintained." So a private road in a HOA that is maintained by the HOA (and thus not "publicly maintained") would also not fall within the statute. In some states the motor vehicle law definitions to do extend to private roads that are open to the public to use; your state might be one of them. But not all states are the same, and Tennessee has limited its definition to those roads that are publicly maintained.
So, in a suburban neighborhood (not an apartment complex) where the roads are maintained by an HOA, it would be acceptable for someone to pass a stopped school bus that was loading or unloading children?