So we’ve pretty firmly established that the General Answer in the United States is “yes, it’s illegal on 2-way streets,” correct?
If someone has cites about other jurisdictions, please feel free to post them.
I live in Phoenix and I see this everyday on my street and never seen a single ticket on any car.
The SO says (everytime :rolleyes: ) that this would get a ticket faster than you could get out of your car in Detroit.
If I had headlights on the back of my car, would that make it legal to park facing the “other” way?
Got nailed with one of those, yeah…
I was ticked about it, too:
It was a dead end street, approx. 20m from the end of the street which was a long way (read: 150m) from teh enarest intersection.
The intersecting road? A back access route to a College.
This was also in the middle of summer.
What the heck was the cop doing there in the first place?
(‘Making an example of me’, I guess, is the right answer)
For Illinois, http://www.legis.state.il.us/ilcs/ch625/ch625act5articles/ch625act5sub58.htm (bolding added by me):
When I was in Lismore, NSW, Australia recently, I found that it was illegal to park facing the curb. A local told me it was because it was considered too dangerous to back out into traffic. Just another stupid rule some bureaucrat with nothing better to do throught up because I don’t think it’s any more dangerous than pulling out into traffic head-first.
Whenever I’m in Leon, Mexico, we routinely park on the wrong side of the street (it’s usually more convenient), and so do all the Mexicans. There’s not really any order at all.
As a bonus, the Transito (the transit police) don’t really seem to enforce anything unless you’re a commercial vehicle or doing something really stupid.
From Massachusetts’ Driver’s Manual, 11/97, p.82:
I bet it’s the same across the US, and it’s probably listed in the driver’s manual of all states as well. I also bet I’m the only dork that actually read the driver’s manual, all 131 pages of it, before even getting into the driver’s seat…
The only parking ticket I’ve ever had in my life was in Concorde, MA for parking facing against the traffic, during a two-week visit to the USA. I’ve never had a ticket in 13 years of driving in the UK.
Incidentally, I was impressed that I was able to go to the Town Hall and pay the fine immediately and get it over with. In the England everything would have been done in writing and would have taken weeks.
here in South Australia, if the parks are not parallel, they are angle parks (ie: facing the kerb @ either 45 or 90 degree angles) and personally, I think it’s silly. Especially the 90 degree parks!
A few people have lobbied various councils to change to reverse parking, but it must be too hard to change or something, because it never happens. you’re right, it is just another stupid rule.
HOWEVER, having said that, it probably wouldn’t make any difference. most of the drivers in this state are pretty shocking anyway, so statistically, it would make no difference! 