PART II: Where to find NYC Parking Laws, Rules, and Regulations

Last Updated on July 5, 2021 by Lawrence Berezin

Check out the links below to find NYC parking laws, rules, and regulations

This is the second of a three-part series about parking laws, rules, and regulations.

Here are four (4) official places where you’ll find NYC parking ticket laws, rules, and regulations:

• NY Vehicle and Traffic Law (“VTL”), article two-B
• Chapter 39 of title 19 of the Official Compilation of Rules of the City of New York (19 RCNY 39-01 et seq.)
• Chapters 1 & 4 of title 34 of the Official Compilation of Rules of the City of New York (34 RCNY 4-01 & 4-08)
• NYC Administrative Code

If you’d like to read Part I, here’s a link.

Chapters 1 & 4 of title 34

This is the control room, the meat, and potatoes, where to look first for NYC parking ticket rules. The Commissioner of Transportation adopted these rules. You will find words and phrases defined in Chapter 4-01. For example, the driveway is,

“Every entrance or exit authorized pursuant to applicable law and used by vehicular traffic to or from lands or buildings abutting a roadway.”

It is interesting to compare the definition of driveway found in Title I, Article I of the VTL:

“§ 114. Driveway. Every entrance or exit used by vehicular traffic to or from lands or buildings abutting a highway.”

Chapter 4 is where you’ll find all the Rules about parking, stopping, and standing in NYC (34 RCNY 4-08). For example, take a look at the rule which prohibits standing or parking in a bus stop zone 4-08 (c)(3):

“No person shall stand or park a vehicle other than an authorized bus in its assigned bus stop when any such stop has been officially designated and appropriately posted except that the operator of a vehicle may temporarily stand therein for the purpose of expeditiously receiving and discharging passengers provided such standing does not interfere with any bus about to enter or leave such zone.”

Can anyone find any place in the rules or definitions to tell the driving public where a bus stop starts and ends?

Check out 4-08(j)(1-9). Do you find it interesting that some of these rules only apply to vehicles bearing NY license plates? Can a vehicle bearing NY plates be issued a parking ticket for expired registration in an off-street, privately-owned parking garage?

Part III of the series of blog posts will cover the NYC Administrative Code.