Is Double Parking NYC Worth the Risk of a Ticket and Tow?

Last Updated on July 30, 2021 by Lawrence Berezin

Double parking in NYC is a risk worth taking…(sometimes)

Double parking in NYC is a gambler’s delight. Imagine, every time you double-park, you risk a…

• Parking ticket
• Hearing
• Losing a hearing
• $115 parking fine

Double parking during street cleaning days

A wonderful member of the driving public (Joe) explained the logic behind double parking in NYC on the unrestricted side of the street on street cleaning days.

There are two days per week that alternate side parking rules are in effect in my neighborhood. Notwithstanding the major legal holidays, legal holidays, and unexpected suspensions, there are still a big number of days I have to move my car. It would make me crazy driving around looking for a vacant parking space during street cleaning hours. I prefer taking the risk of getting an alternate side parking ticket ($45 in Manhattan)…I got two of them last year.”

Does this logic make sense to you? It makes sense to me. Joe knows when to hold ’em.

Double parking to run into a store for “just a minute”

Please, please, triple please, resist double parking, activating your emergency blinkers, and running into the store to pick up a ____________(fill in the blank). It ain’t worth the risk.

There are about 2300 parking ticket warriors and a bunch of police officers who would love nothing better than to nail a double parker. It may not seem like a lot of warriors considering the miles and miles of roadways in NYC, but they are everywhere, watching us.

Solution: Know when to fold ’em.

Double parking while dropping off or picking up your Aunt Tilly

This is the essence of the double parking conversation. Some cognoscenti (The Evil Empire and DOT) claim that a passenger vehicle can never double park…end of the story. While other powerful stakeholders (Adjudication Unit of the Parking Violation Bureau in its guide to parking tickets, page 10 and page 14, and me, Larry B) are resolute in their resolve that double parking is a no standing violation, and therefore, a driver is permitted to stop temporarily and drop off or pick up a passenger (no luggage) and leave immediately.

Do you hold ’em or fold ’em? Depends.

It depends on your propensity for risk-taking. Risk takers will play the odds and stop, drop, and skedaddle. Risk-averse drivers will keep looking for a legal parking space.

The consideration here is a balancing act. How long have you been circling your daughter’s apartment building, and what are the chances of finding curbside space to drop her off at 7P in Manhattan? What are the odds that one of the 2300 warriors has your chariot in her crosshairs?

If the likelihood of finding a vacant parking space before you run out of gas and patience, hold ’em and double park.

Double parking in Midtown on Monday-Saturday between 7A-7P

You’re kidding, right?

Fold ’em

Double parking outside Midtown

It is legal for a commercial vehicle to double park while making a delivery or service call. Here’s the rule…

Double  Parking

Traffic Rules, 4-08 

(f) General no standing zones (standing and parking prohibited in specified places). No person shall stand or park a vehicle in any of the following places unless otherwise indicated by posted signs, markings or other traffic control devices, or at the direction of a law enforcement officer: 

(1) Double parking. On the roadway side of a vehicle stopped, standing, or parked at the curb, except a person may stand a commercial vehicle alongside a vehicle parked at the curb at such locations and during such hours that stopping, standing, or parking is not prohibited, while quickly making pickups, deliveries or service calls, provided that there is no unoccupied parking space or designated loading zone on either side of the street within 100 feet that can be used for such standing, and provided further that such standing is in compliance with the provisions of §1102 of the State Vehicle and Traffic Law. A person may stand a commercial vehicle along the roadway side of a bicycle lane provided all other conditions of this paragraph are met. For the purposes of this paragraph (f)(1), “expeditiously making pickups, deliveries or service calls” shall mean that any period of inactivity at the pick-up, delivery or service call location does not exceed 30 minutes. However, such definition shall in no way limit the discretion of the Department of Finance Adjudication Tribunal to determine whether a violation of this paragraph has occurred

Aggregation of double parking posts

Learning is relentless repetition, and I’ve written 13 articles about double parking. Here’s a link to the category

 Commentary

This brings us back to do. Would you double park in NYC? Is it worth the risk?