§ 334.03(21) · § 334.03(24)
Right-of-way is land, not just pavement.
EOM 26-01 does not ban license plate readers in Florida. It withdraws permission to put them on a specific kind of land: the right-of-way of a road on the State Highway System.
The statutory definition
§ 334.03(9) · Department
“Department” means the Department of Transportation.
§ 334.03(21) · Right-of-way
Land in which the state, the department, a county, or a municipality owns the fee or has an easement devoted to or required for use as a transportation facility.
§ 334.03(22) · Road
A way open to travel by the public, including, but not limited to, a street, highway, or alley. The term includes associated sidewalks, the roadbed, the right-of-way, and all culverts, drains, sluices, ditches, water storage areas, waterways, embankments, slopes, retaining walls, bridges, tunnels, and viaducts necessary for the maintenance of travel and all ferries used in connection therewith.
§ 334.03(24) · State Highway System
The interstate system and all other roads within the state which were under the jurisdiction of the state on June 10, 1995, and roads constructed by an agency of the state for the State Highway System, plus roads transferred to the state’s jurisdiction after that date by mutual consent with another governmental entity, but not including roads so transferred from the state’s jurisdiction. These facilities shall be facilities to which access is regulated.
A road in cross-section
From the yellow line out, a typical highway is pavement, then shoulder, then a strip of grass, ditch, or slope, then a fence or sidewalk, then private property. The legal right-of-way usually runs past the asphalt — often to a line you cannot see from the car. Poles, cabinets, and cameras in that strip are in the ROW even when they are not in the travel lane.
Width is not uniform. A constrained urban arterial may have a few dozen feet of ROW. A limited-access interstate or Turnpike section may have hundreds. This briefing never treats a single buffer as the legal boundary; the 50 m / 100 m bands on the map are a proximity screen only.
Three Florida road systems
Certified public-road mileage as of 31 December 2025 (FDOT certification letter dated 20 May 2026):
| System | Centerline miles | Who controls ROW | EOM 26-01 |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Highway System | 12,287 | FDOT (and Turnpike Enterprise on its facilities) | In scope |
| County Road System | 71,006.8 | Counties | Out of scope |
| City Street System | 39,585.5 | Municipalities | Out of scope |
| Federal (parks, forests, military, etc.) | 2,277.8 | Federal agencies | Out of scope |
Florida’s certified State Highway System is 12,287.0 centerline miles as of 31 December 2025.
Jurisdiction is not the same as asphalt quality
A road can look local and still be on the State Highway System (many urban US and SR routes). A road can look like a highway and still be a county road. The legal test in the memo is whether the device sits in the right-of-way of a road on the State Highway System — the On-System inventory mapped here.
Inside that inventory, FDOT Districts 1–7 are the geographic maintaining agencies. Managing-district code 8 is Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, which operates Turnpike-system facilities statewide even when the geometry sits inside another district.
Local governments still need an FDOT General Use Permit (Rule 14-20.010) to occupy SHS right-of-way. Those permits “do not authorize possessory, exclusive, or permanent use” and “are revocable at any time by the Department.” That is the legal hook EOM 26-01 uses.
The memorandum does not, by its terms, revoke cameras on county roads, city streets, or private property that are not on the State Highway System.
Local governments remain free, on their own ROW, to keep, move, or take down devices under local policy. That is outside this memo.
See the On-System roads on the map · Read the annotated statutes