Parking violators: Your neighbors are watching

You might not be aware about some of the ways you can get a ticket for parking the wrong way on your street. Parking your car in the wrong direction, even in front of your house, for example, is illegal, as is parking perpendicular to the curb in a cul-de-sac. And you can’t park more than six inches from the curb.

These rules were outlined by Jim Carroll, a police officer in charge of parking issues for the Mason District, at a meeting for community association leaders in Mason Supervisor Penny Gross’s office March 27. Gross says there’s been an “epidemic” of people parking on the wrong side of the street. That is unsafe, because when you pull out, you’re heading in the wrong direction.

Large commercial vehicles—more 21 feet long, more than eight feet high (including a ladder rack), and weighing more than 2,800 pounds—cannot be parked in a residential area. Of course, that doesn’t apply to temporary business activity. Out-of-state taxi cabs are also banned.

If you see such a vehicle parked in your neighborhood, call the non-emergency police number, 703/691-2131. Carroll says you can leave your number and number if you want a follow-up call but you don’t have to. Parking a commercial vehicle illegally in a residential neighborhood could net the owner a $100 ticket, Carroll says. Parking in a spot designated for the disabled could get you a $500 ticket.

School buses are not considered commercial vehicles so they can be parked in neighborhoods, he says. But because state law requires school buses to be yellow, the law was amended to stipulate that school buses with white roofs (to reflect heat) “shall be considered yellow.”