Understanding Unique Parking Restrictions (PART 3: Sweden)
Here at Parknav, we hope both you and your families have continued to stay safe and be in good health during these unprecedented times. We also hope you have enjoyed our previous restriction-focused entries in this Series, where we traveled to France and the UK to show you how you can find free parking spaces and also articulate some ambiguous parking rules and regulations specifically in those regions.
One of Parknav’s unique abilities, in addition to generating real-time parking availability information, has been to digitize static parking restrictions in an innovative, highly accurate, low-cost, and more efficient method. As mentioned earlier in this Series, for us to do this successfully, we need to have a deep understanding of parking rules and regulations for all of the cities and countries we digitize. That is why we “dig deep” to notice the more subtle details others tend to overlook. One example can be seen in the UK, where parking is allowed under certain conditions (i.e. outside restricted hours, as long as you don’t block the traffic flow) on single yellow lines in London and other UK cities. If you wish to learn more about this example, be sure to check out Part 2 of this Series.
Today, we are traveling to Sweden in Scandinavia where we found a couple of interesting parking restrictions we would like to share with you. Like any other country in Europe, Sweden follows the Vienna Convention of Road Signs. However, unlike most of Europe, where warning and prohibition signs have a white background, the same signs in Sweden have a yellow or even orange background. The reason behind this is to enhance the visibility of the signs during the winter time, since white signs are harder to see in the snow.
What caught our attention (and may be important or of interest to you), is the different approach of how information is displayed on the parking restriction signs. For example, in Germany, if a parking spot is restricted for specific days and/or times, the parking restriction sign will have an additional plate under the sign displaying those limitations as seen in image 1:
In this example image from Germany in the image above, parking is forbidden from Monday to Friday, between the 7th and 14th hour, which is clearly displayed on the additional plate below the restriction sign.
The same sign in Sweden looks a bit different. Take a look at image 2.
At initial glance, one might assume this sign forbids parking everyday between the 7th and 17th hour. However, the “deeper we dug” to understand the city, we quickly realized this interpretation didn’t make much sense. For example, we knew it wouldn’t make sense for parking to be illegal in residential areas, especially on weekends. As we progressed, we began to notice more and more signs like these, and soon after, we quickly understood what these signs meant.
The Swedes have devised a very interesting system, where they don’t use any additional plates with words for specifying the days when the restrictions are active on. Instead, they do it with brackets and colors.
For example, in image 2, the yellow plate under the sign represents No Parking from Monday thru Friday, between the 7th and 17th hour.
On the second sign, in image 3, the second row (the one with “brackets”) represents Saturday. So, the sign is actually informing us that parking is prohibited on Saturday between the 7th and 17th hour, in addition to Monday thru Friday also between the 7th and 17th hour.
The third sign, in image 4, has an additional 3rd row with red text, which represents Sundays and Holidays. This combination of rows would then represent No Parking everyday between 7 and 17 hours, regardless of weekends and Holidays.
This same system is also used on all other parking signs needing to display the days/times on which the restrictions are active. For example, similar restrictions can be found on Paid Parking Signs as well. In image 5, we can see that the parking is paid Monday thru Friday between the 9th and 15th hour and on Saturdays between the 9th and 15th hour. On Sundays and Holidays parking would be free.
As these signs are intermittently found in all city areas, someone visiting could easily be quite confused as to when the restrictions are active and when they are not, which could lead to hefty fines. Hopefully, this clarification will assist those on the hunt for parking in Scandinavian countries, such as Sweden.
Stay safe and avoid those parking violations with the help of Parknav!
