Following parking regulations

Discovering parking loopholes: a wonderful skill to have.

We’ve all had bad parking days: they’re a part of every driver’s life, regardless of skill. The difficulties in parking a car can range from easily maneuvering in an open lot to tightly packed, parallel parking on immensely dense roads. While there are no differences in the methods used to park properly from state to state in the U.S., different locations involve interesting techniques to save space and maintain efficiency on the road and in the parking lot. In New York, for instance, stacked parking is one of the most common ways of saving space.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, snow-heavy areas have parking bans and restrictions, designed to keep streets free for plowing in case of inclement weather. The city of Minneapolis has been a particularly strong regulatory system regarding winter parking, with parking bans often being instituted before snow even begins to fall.

These bans last until plows remove all accumulated snow on the roads, and it is the responsibility of the driver to know when and where these bans exist. The bans keep cars from being buried in snow – a sure-fire way to tack on a couple of hours to the evening commute. Getting stuck in the snow seems a delightful punishment when compared to parking infractions in Lithuania, where one city’s mayor crushed an illegally parked car with a tank to send a message to park law violators. That $40 ticket doesn’t seem so bad now, does it?

Getting used to complicated signage can be a skill on its own.

In addition to having quirky space-saving parking technology, New York City also has oddly specific parking regulations. For example, a fine of $115 will be allocated to “vehicles parked illegally south of Houston Street in Manhattan metered spaces reserved for buses from 7 am-7pm daily.” With such convoluted expectations of motorists, it’s important to know what you’re getting into when you choose a space.