I know it’s prohibited on US Army installations. I got a ticket for that once, even though I pulled into the spot from the facing spot in a parking lot with only diagonal spaces. The rationale, apparently, is that you had to be driving the wrong way in the first place to park that way.
Here in Clermont, Florida just outside Orlando our son got a $15 ticket for parking the wrong direction in front of our house. I guess all the major crimes we solved that night.
Years ago, I got a ticket for parking the wrong way in Austin, TX.
A car parked in the wrong direction has the steering wheel on the far side of the flow of traffic, so when pulling out, the chances of seeing approaching traffic from either direction when parked behind or between other cars (moreso if snow covers their windows), is much less likely.
On a similar note, I’ve been in parking lots where I was required to park “head in”.
Illegal in most provinces in Canada that I know of. I was at a new subdivision a while ago looking at show homes, and due to the construction mess and mud, one person parked on the wrong side and everyone else must have followed his lead. The parking patrol showed up and began working their way down the row, so everyone rushed out to move their vehicles.
the real estate agent was pretty ticked; “here we are in a neighbourhood where there’s nobody living yet, it’s strictly house shoppers, and they do this and drive away most of our customers.” I think several major RE and builders were going to complain to council members the next day.
Autos have red reflectors on the rear, not the front. In the days before bright streetlamps, this was not irrelevant. At least one Chicago suburb still requires parking lights any time a car is left parked after dark on the roadway.
Yeppers, my roommate back when I lived there got one, and I know they do ticket for it here in Dallas. Easy way for the city to scratch up a little green.
It’s illegal in NJ. State law.
Huh, I’m totally surprised to learn this is actually illegal in a significant number of jurisdictions. I know a lot of people assume it’s illegal, but they generally can’t form a coherent sentence when asked to explain why it would be illegal to do so on a undivided road or how they could be so certain. It just feels wrong to them, in spite of the fact that its very common and completely safe.
That being said, I doubt any cop would give you a ticket for parking the wrong way on a quiet residential street. A busy major street is a different matter altogether.
It may be completely safe (debatable) but it’s certainly not very common, at least in the US. I hardly ever see it around here, even on residential streets.
Now, it IS very common in the UK, as I mentioned above.
I see it all the time here in California. Also, if you click on the link to the CVC someone posted above you’ll see that the law is new. Years ago when I got in this debate with a roommate we weren’t able to find anything in the CVC that said it was illegal.
Illegal in Indianapolis.
Yes, a friend got a ticket for exactly that when he parked facing the wrong way in front of my house that sees just a few cars an hour (so all the arguments about danger of pulling out unexpectedly are nonsense). But parking was banned on the other side of the street, so the ticket was illogical. It was pure laziness on his part since he could easily have turned around in my driveway.
Definitely illegal in NYC - I was surprised the first time I saw people doing this in NJ.
My take? Very confusing when you turn onto small streets - almost had a few accidents from slamming on my brakes, assuming that I must be turning onto a one way street. All the parked cars facing me on both sides of the street translated in my mind to “one way street”, with my car going the wrong direction!
I don’t understand why others think it’s safe to park this way.
It was illegal in Virginia when I lived there. It is legal in North Carolina, except if you have to cross a solid yellow lane line to do it.
It’s illegal in every jurisdiction I’ve ever checked.
I always assumed it was illegal because parked cars are an indication of the correct flow direction of traffic. If I’m unfamiliar with an area, I can tell whether a street is one-way by looking at the parked cars. If cars on both sides are parked facing the same direction, it’s one-way. If they’re only parked on their respective right, it’s two-way.
Parking facing the wrong direction can make other drivers go the wrong direction down a one-way street, or drive on the wrong side of the road on a two-way street.
Illegal in Cleveland, Ohio, and the nearby 'burbs of University Heights and Shaker Heights, last I heard. I got a ticket for it once.
Odd, I live in California too (Bay Area) and I never see it.
Wrong! In NC it is illegal (a moving violation) to drive on the wrong side of the center of the (two-way) roadway. It does not have to have a marked centerline to be illegal.