I was told that it was, a long time ago, but I don’t remember who told me or how credible they were. If you are at an intersection at a red light, but there is a parking lot at that intersection with entrance/exits onto both streets, and you are turning onto said street, is it illegal to cut across the parking lot?
I also heard that if you stop your car and open the door you’re clear from getting a ticket since you can claim you were checking for a flat or something.
I guess it depends on the jurisdiction, but I’d suspect that one could be ticketed for trespassing? I recall a long-ago co-worker getting a ticket for cutting through a gas station lot back in college, but he was such a butt that I just thought “karma’s a bitch.” I never asked him the actual charge or outcome. (And he was probably zooming through the parking lot and didn’t slow down or signal on re-entering the roadway, so he could have faced any number of citations.)
Bear in mind that I remembered that well enough that, at my previous job, I asked one local cop and my husband whether I could get a ticket for cutting through an adjacent business’ lot on my way home at 7 am. (Waiting at the light was usually a long delay, behind a gazillion people turning left toward the city. Cutting through the parking lot meant a quick right turn for me, with almost no traffic going in my direction.) Two police officers concurred that a ticket was technically possible, but highly unlikely for someone not driving like an idiot or causing problems for other customers at that business.
It’s illegal in at least once city in Ohio.
Yes, Westerville has a history of being famous for prohibiting things (it played a prominent role in the history of Prohibition, being at one time the headquarters of the Anti-Saloon League, and was known as the Dry Capital Of The World).
I had an old roommate who cut through a mall parking lot to get to the opposite cross-street and was pulled over and ticketed for “avoiding a traffic control device” (stoplight) or something similar. This was in the Chicago suburbs.
We had to look that up last year when my kid was in Drivers Ed. Where I live, it’s legal unless the city/town specifically has a regulation against it. Our city doesn’t have anything against it but 2 small nearby suburbs (out of many) do.
Here’s a slightly bigger jurisdiction than Westerville which prohibits it:
(Not bothering to look up the statute) In Colorado there is such a traffic law. You must stop in the parking lot someplace other than a stop sign or the exit of the parking lot, or you are guilty of avoiding a traffic control device, or some such.
If I am coming to work from a certain street it is much faster to make a left into a gas station, and then exit through the rear of the gas station onto the street adjoining my work’s parking lot. I rarely go that way, but when I do, I always make sure to come to a complete stop in front of a gas pump, and then proceed, so I’m technically fulfilling the requirements of the Colorado law. “Your honor, once I pulled up and saw that gas was $.15 higher than the station down the street, I just decided to fill up on the way home from work, yeah, that’s the ticket.”
It’s legal in California, according to the traffic school I took last year.
I know in WA it’s illegal to use a parking lot to turn around. 
What if you forget to get in the right lane in time, but still have room to get into the parking lot, and then just decide to go on through? In other words, if you aren’t trying to avoid the light, but have to go right and that’s your only option?
I have seen drivers ticketed for this in California. Granted, this was many many years ago. I don’t know if there’s a statewide law, or local laws, or if that might have just been the usual sort of case of cops making up the law on the spot.
At a certain intersection in my town, the left turn light only lets 3 to 4 cars through at a time, although it’s a busy intersection often with 10 cars (often including mine) waiting to turn left there. I found that it’s faster to drive straight through the intersection and make a U-turn at the next little side-street, then return to the intersection and turn right. And every time I do that, the same cars in the left-turn lane are still waiting there.
My friend from way back when received a ticket for avoiding an official traffic control one night for cutting through a gas station parking lot.
It was a narrow road with parking on both sides, packed snow on the road, plus ice and flowing water where the water main had ruptured.
A waterworks truck was in front of him, stopped and started closing the road.
After getting ticketed by the officer, said friend went back to the crew truck and asked them for a note telling the conditions and fact of the road closing.
As I understood it though, the Judge looked at the ticket, looked at my friend, said dismissed.
Didn’t even ask for an explanation.
Well, you can be ticketed for things like “unsafe maneuver” which can pretty much mean anything. But I’m pretty sure that legally entering and exiting a parking lot doesn’t become an illegal move because there happens to be a traffic light in the vicinity. And anyway my traffic school specifically said that such a thing was allowed, although I don’t remember exactly how they framed it.
Illegal in MA, for avoiding a traffic signal.
I hope it is illegal just because I like the image of a judge saying “I declare thee an Esso Asso” and banging his gavel.
Illegal in NJ. “Operating a motor vehicle on public or private property to avoid a traffic control signal or sign”
It’s a minor violation. 2 points where you need 12 points total to get license suspended.
It was made illegal in Virginia a few years back, I recall the publicity.
In New York State it is ticketable according to Section 1225 of New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law.
Section 1225. Avoiding intersection or traffic control device. No person shall drive across or upon a sidewalk, driveway, parking lot or private property, or otherwise drive off a roadway, in order to avoid an intersection or traffic control device.
It’s illegal in Texas . . . I thought it was called “cutting corners.” That’s how I got my first ticket, when I was in highschool.
Yeah, in Texas it’s at Transportation Code section 545.423, under the heading “Crossing Property”. The statute reads: