Every way or place of whatever nature open to the public, as a matter of right, for purposes of vehicular travel, is a highway. The term, highway, does not include a roadway or driveway upon grounds owned by private persons, colleges, universities, or other institutions, but the term includes a roadway or driveway upon grounds owned by any state agency, college, university, or institution if the governing agency, board, or commission by resolution so determines and the Department of Transportation concurs.
S.D. Codified Laws § 31-1-1
Highway defined
Applied in 12 court decisions — leading case State v. Spotted Horse (1990)
Most recently applied in Coester v. Waubay Twp. (March 2018)
Source: SL 1929, ch 251, § 1 (n); SDC 1939, § 28.0101; SL 1968, ch 120; SL 2010, ch 145, § 10.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.