If the owners of a private lot say that you can’t park in a specific spot, could doing so constitute trespassing?
I’ll bet they can give you a ticket if they want to. I used to have a garage off a very popular alley, and people parked there and blocked my garage. So I put up a sign that said, NO PARKING.
It was a single garage, and we had two cars, so if there was already a car in it, we sometimes parked the other car outside. We figured we would not get a ticket. This was our property, and the sign was for other people.
Nonetheless, one day we got a ticket.
Now, I didn’t have to pay this ticket. But I did have to go downtown with a photo of my sign, and it was a hassle. The parking magistrate (or whatever she was) said I should have used a PRIVATE PROPERTY NO TRESPASSING sign instead. Or got one of those tow-away zone signs, where the towing company doesn’t tow until you call them.
But, yeah. They can write it.
ETA: And about that private lot thing, a lot of strip mall type places have little signs in front of a certain number of spaces that say, for instance, THIS SPACE FOR NAIL SALON PARKING ONLY. Now, if instead you went into the dog groomer next door, could they give you a ticket? I think so. On the other hand, could they call up some parking official and get your car ticketed before you get in and out with your clean dog? I’m guessing no, and empirical evidence indicates a lot of other people guess the same.
In the civil sense, yes. So the landowner could bring ejectment proceedings.
In the criminal sense? Trespass is not a crime at common law, so if you’re in a jurisdiction where there is a crime of trespass, you’d need to look at that jurisdiction’s criminal trespass legislation to identify the elements of the crime of trespass, and then make a decision as to whether this particular instance ticked all the necessary boxes.
After about 280 days your car gets towed.
What if you do expect a mother, and you can prove it?
My parents’ local store has a long row of ‘parent and child’ parking spots. Every time I visit, my Dad tries to get me to use it. Yes, there is no posted upper age for the ‘child’, but I don’t think it’s quite in the spirit if they’re the one driving… 
Round here, the electric car charging spaces certainly can be enforced, and regularly are, but the expectant mothers and parent and child ones appear to be honour system only.
Depends on the laws in a particular jurisdiction – sometimes trespassing or other property laws can be used for enforcement, the general idea being that a property owner can make whatever parking rules he wants on his own property. For instance, shopping malls near public facilities that have trouble with non-shoppers hogging parking spaces sometimes have authority for their security people to write municipal parking tickets.
Why not?
I guess, what happens is that an expectant mother will have to park somewhere else.
The local grocery store lot has a bunch of “Reserved for Senior Citizens” signs. I ignore them. AARP is marketing to me for a membership, so I figure I’m a senior to somebody.
We need to make more special parking spots. Gold Star families should have their own spots. Veterans, retired police and firemen. Doctors who donate their time overseas. Obese people too. The clergy already seem to have spots at hospitals, lets make it everywhere. People with children, since its hard to control small children walking through a huge parking lot. And I’m sure there are many other groups I’ve forgotten, to them I apologize.:rolleyes:
Definitions - sometimes senior is as low as 55, some places 60, some places only 65 and over. My boss years ago used to get really upset because clerks at various establishments asked him if he wanted the “senior’s discount”. He was only 48, but with a peppered beard and looked “used”.
For the OP - 50 different answers, plus municipal laws.
Generally, if the situation is properly posted, an owner can have a car towed if they park where they shouldn’t. It’s a toss-up - lose a customer, possibly end up paying for the tow if the towee (?) successfully challenges the tow somehow.
Some jurisdictions allow police or “special constables” (Persons so authorized - local security guards or someone) to write tickets when parking laws are violated. What constitutes a violation varies.
I read the story once about one of the prominent Silicon Valley billionaires who was a bit abrasive and was habitually using his company’s handicapped space (privileges of owner). One of his partners said “I didn’t realize that included the mentally handicapped…”
I think this would be a hassle for the lot owners and a likely reason they wouldn’t actually do anything like try to tow you… unless it was very clear in some sort of regulation who can actually park there, under what circumstances, and what kind of burden of proof would be needed when a dispute arises.
Handicap parking is rather easy in that you need the parking tag and it needs to be for you. But there are so many “what-if” scenarios with expectant mothers parking. Husband parks there while going into the store to carry out groceries while pregnant wife walks out to the car… does that count? How do you know whether the 30-something year old woman who parked there is 2 months pregnant or not… should she even get the spot? Seems too burdensome to figure out and I bet the most you’d get is dirty looks.
DON’T mess with pregnant women! You will live to regret it.
Hell hath no fury… etc. (About what women can do to you!)
You get pregnant. Duh.
Parking in the wrong place is a big problem on our overcrowded island. Every car park has to have designated spaces for disabled drivers and they can get a “blue badge” from the local council that works all over. Supermarkets usually have family-with-children spaces, a bit wider than regular, and for the most part there is little they can do to stop anyone else from using them.
The biggest problems come from people parking on private land, or overstaying on a car park. Not the municipal car parks as the council can issue fines, but supermarkets, hospitals and anywhere that has a free car park. Parking charges in town are often steep, so having a quick snack in McDs and then going shopping has its attractions.
It used to be that these places could clamp you (Denver Boot?) and charge and extortionate fee for release, but not anymore. All they can do is stick what looks like a fine, but is actually an invoice, on your screen. If you don’t pay, they can then take you to court on the grounds that you agreed the conditions, CLEARLY SIGNPOSTED when you parked. Towing is not an option unless you are causing an obstruction. If you did it in a hire car, the hire company would pay up and deduct the cost from your credit card.
The cities I work with have to bring the signs in front of the City Council, who will vote it into ordinance. I just checked and we have no ‘expectant mothers’ spots listed. Handicapped spots are all automatically covered, but if you build a shopping mall and put up a bunch of stop signs on the parking lot, the Police can’t enforce the stop signs unless they are voted in. We have a lot of on street residential parking. Some people have actually erected their own no parking/handicapped/visitor parking only signs in front of their house. Police will not enforce these unless they are passed into ordinance. I have seen people go before the council and get handicapped parking signs in front of their house because they or a family member have handicapped tags, but we have a list of which ones are “legal” and which ones have been put up by the home owners. The kicker is if you get a handicapped spot in front of your house and your neighbor has a visitor who has a handicapped tag, they are more than welcome to park in that spot.
Makes for some irritated home owners when they figure out that the spot isn’t reserved just for them.
How about a sign that says “Cars parked here without permission will be stolen”? (I actually know three guys with misspent youths boosting cars…)
Not only is the university notorious for its parking policy, but many of the businesses in the neighborhood are as well. Because it’s in an older area of the city, parking is tight. Many restaurants, strip malls, etc have private parking security. A three dollar cuppa at Starbucks can wind up costing you $39 more if you don’t get properly validated. The fee isn’t paid to the city, but to the private firm, who can file a judgment against you and/or ding your credit report if it isn’t paid (don’t ask me how I know this).
In a country that privatizes prisons and red light camera operations, is it a surprise they franchise the street parking too?
In the movie “Cuba” with Sean Connery(?) about pre-Castro Cuba, someone mentions that one minister’s take-home profit is the parking meter revenue from Havana.