Understanding Unique Parking Restrictions (PART 5: USA)

Thanks for joining us for the fifth time in our endeavor to help you with understanding unique parking restrictions around the globe. We hope you are staying healthy and positive during these hard times.

Previously, we showed you how to avoid getting parking fines and maybe find a free parking spot in some of the most popular European countries and cities. Now, we are jumping over the big pond to the United States of America.

Parking signs

We saw some confusing signs across Europe, but we saved best for last. From what we will show you, one would think American drivers have a big problem with complicated parking signage, but what if you are visiting the US for the first time and see something like this?

Parknav helps understand confusing parking signs

Ah, obviously the green sign is informing us when parking is allowed, and it says we can pay and park for 1 hour (from Monday thru Saturday, “except” in this case means it is free on Sunday) between 8.30 in the morning until 7 in the evening. So, following that logic you could park but you could end up with a hefty fine or your car towed. Why?

Check the top red sign — “No standing on School Days” (Monday thru Friday) between 7 AM and 4 PM. All right, now you need to do some math and conclude that parking is only available according to this schedule:

- Monday thru Friday: from 4PM until 7PM — you must pay and you can park for an hour at max

- Monday thru Friday: from 7PM until 7AM for free, no maximum parking duration.

- Saturday: street cleaning times are from 8AM to 8.30AM, outside that time frame you can park freely but parking fees and 1 hour limit apply from 8.30AM until 7PM, after 7PM it is again free parking with no duration limits

- Sunday: Free, no limits.

Huh, it does seem a bit complicated to keep track of. Let us show you one more example.

Cities themselves often don’t understanding parking restrictions

In the image above, at first glance, it seems that you can park to the right of this sign group starting at 9.30AM during the workweek, but pay attention to the top “No Standing or Parking” sign — it forbids parking from 7AM up to 9.30AM which is in line with the green parking allowed sign at the bottom, but the restriction that is active from 4PM up to 6.30PM the green sign does not even mention. You are left to figure out this by yourself. You need to pay a lot of attention to avoid getting fined.

Parking restrictions can be overwhelming without Parknav

This is not a joke, this sign was placed in Culver City, California, but since has been replaced with a less confusing one as it attracted too much negative attention. Imagine figuring out if, when and for how long you can park…

Figuring out parking restrictions doesn’t have to be rocket science with the right data

Since couple of years ago authorities country-wide, have recognized these problems and have started removing these complicated signs, replacing them with some that are hopefully easier to understand. Still we recommend you pay very close attention to ALL of the signs that are located in the vicinity of your desired parking spot.

Parking meters and curbs with different colors

Parking meters are used to maintain parking space availability in areas with high parking pressure. Important thing to know is that parking meters have several types which are differentiated from each other by color caps.

Parking meters in San Francisco to differentiate different types of parking.

Why are these parking meters of different colors?

They are used to differentiate between types of parking allowed, check these general rules below:

Gray meters: Regular Pay to park meters, operating hours and max parking duration will be listed on the meter itself, outside operating hours parking is free and there is no maximum parking duration.

Yellow: Only commercial loading during the specified hours, you can park outside the operating hours.

Green: You can pay and park here, but these are short term parking, usually between 15 and 30 minutes. Outside the operating hours, these limits are invalid so you can park freely.

Red: No parking at any time.

Parking meter rules apply to different colored curbs — how do we understand these?

Looking at the image above we can conclude that the parking meter rules apply to different colored curbs. In both cases, for meters and curbs, additional signs placed at the location may limit parking further.

Important: green, white and yellow curbs have operating hours defined by the local municipality. If a sign is not placed, in most cases it will be from Monday to Saturday, between 6AM and 6PM (do check the official city or municipality websites for exact hours). You can actually use these parking spaces to park for free, give it is outside the restricted hours.

Yellow curb parking in Los Angeles

If we take what we’ve read above, parking at the yellow curb is allowed outside the restricted hours, which in this case is after 6PM, so this car is parked legally considering the image was taken at 6.30PM.

Parknav is digitizing all of these parking restrictions world-wide, mapping parking spaces and parking zones so our users can instantly know where it is legal or not to park and whether they will have to pay for the parking space. Be sure to check out all our products and services on the Parknav site.

With this blog, we will conclude this series of Understand Unique Parking Restrictions. If we have some more interesting cases in the future be sure we will bring them to your attention.