I have no idea where they figured that this is the proper way to park, but the people two houses over from us (Directly at the back of the culdesac) have decided that they want to park their vehicles on the street, perpendicular to the curb.

A long time ago, when I first moved in, I parked parallel to the curb and got a ticket for the back end of my truck being more than X inches from the curb. Does that apply to these folks? They make it impossible to use the culdesac to turn around, which is compounded by the people across the street parking their car directly behind our driveway so it's difficult to back out.

I don't want to be the jerk guy that called the cops because they parked wrong, but I also don't do well confronting strangers...what are my options here? And what is the code pertaining to parking on the street on culdesacs in College Station?

code/law is same for other streets: parallel to curb.
just like one must park with the flow of traffic.

get enforcement to come by and ticket.

What's the contact number? Or do I just call non-emergency police?

979.764.6363

Which street?

Call non-emergency CSPD 764-3600

talk to the neighbors. they are probably not aware it makes it hard to maneuver.

Before you call enforcement, make sure that you consider their other parking options. If they start parking parallel, they probably park in front of your house, your neighbors house etc. You don't want to have to come back here asking if there is a way to keep your neighbors from parking in front of your house.....Unless your homeowners assn forbids overnight parking, you can't keep them from parking in front of your house.

Oh believe me, the neighbors know that they're wrong by parking like that. I'd call code enforcement and let them deal with it.


Our cul-de-sac is worthless. We have two houses at the round end that are rented out to college kids, so there is always about 15 cars down there. The point of us moving on this street was for the kids, and then these idiots move in and the street becomes as busy as the main road.

Good luck! Bryan Code Enforcement did nothing, but then they don't do much! They can drive past the very thing that's causing a neighborhood to look awful and, apparently, not see it. I suppose their tunnel vision keeps them from having to "work", however.

Just as AggiePhil asked...which street?

Still curious what street (or at least neighborhood) it is. I'll check it out.

Sorry, I haven't been on here until now today. It's Auburn Ct, off of Brentwood. They don't do it 100% of the time, but it's been a 2-3 times/wk thing lately, usually just for a few hours.

Also, code enforcement has definitely been on our street lately, because there were yellow tags on everyone's trashcan the last two trash days warning about fines for not removing it from the curb fast enough.

talk to them.

I do not have evidence that can be documented, but suspect student occupied areas are held to a "higher' standard for code compliance.

I believe the rule of law is applicable to all... student, renter, homeowner, whomever. If you have evidence of disparate treatment please provide.

Code enforcement doesn't handle parking issues governed by the Transportation Code. They enforce city codes and ordinances. We used to have parking officers but their positions were eliminated due to budget issues. If you want enforcement for this issue call the PD non-emergency number given above.

Questions contact: Officer Rhonda Seaton, (979) 764-3591 or rseaton at cstx dot gov

I've got one that continues to park in front of my house, even when her driveway is empty. When I'm in town I'll park perpendicular in spite.

Cannot speak for the thinking of your people, but a buddy lives in the end of a cul de sac, a few times a year several will come over for a game or something. We park perpindicular to get more cars in.

Our thinking is we are at least staying in front of his house. The alternative is we park in front of his neighbor's houses.

Would you rather they park in front of your house and others' or perpindicular in front of the one house?

[This message has been edited by carpe vinum (edited 1/18/2012 9:31a).]

One of the problems with parking perpendicular is that you limit the turning abilities of other vehicles in the cul de sac (emergency vehicles included). Legally all vehicles must be parked with their right wheels within 18 inches of the curb.

If you have to park in front of someone elses house, as long as you are legally parked, they can't really take issue with that - it is a public street. They may not like it but it's not illegal unless there is a city sign posted that limits parking in some manner.

Questions contact: Officer Rhonda Seaton, (979) 764-3591 or rseaton at cstx dot gov

[This message has been edited by TLIAC (edited 1/18/2012 11:20a).]

Scooley01,

Have you had any more problems with this?

quote:

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I've got one that continues to park in front of my house, even when her driveway is empty. When I'm in town I'll park perpendicular in spite.

---

Nom,
Have the resident there park in that spot and see where she parks then. I've thought about parking my truck there just to see what happens.

I to live on the same street and sometimes I have to park on the street due to limited parking around back. But since code enforcement has come around the trash cans actually got put away instead of staying out all week and the yearly lawn cutting came early for most tenants. But this thread got started by a different complaint!

So you're actually mad at the owners of the house for renting it to college students. That's where your 2nd complaint should go, the home owner. The college kids just wanted a cheap place to live.

*slightly ashamed handwave* I am one of the residents in question. We were entirely unaware of the access/turnaround issues, and only started parking like this after 2 of our neighbors set the example. One house even asked us to park this way. After a girl here was contacted by CSPD, we stopped. I sincerely apologize for the problem. However, I can say for certain that we were never approached by anyone with a complaint. If you had simply asked us to stop parking that way, instead of making a thread and calling the cops, then we could have resolved this much earlier. Sorry it took so long to fix.

It's either park like that, or one party takes up the entire street, but we don't want to cause problems. We may be "college kids", but we take good care of the house, mow, edge, rake leaves, bring in our trashcan... You name it.

In the future, please come by and talk to us. I'd love to do what I can to make it a happier and friendlier street.

[This message has been edited by xi xi (edited 2/25/2012 10:45a).]

Scooley01 - maybe you can invite them over for drinks to say "thanks".

For the record, I never called the cops. I just decided to suck it up and deal with it. To be honest, after I made this thread I don't think I've seen anyone park perpendicular...although there's been some double parking going on on occasion.

why do you care about this so much... do you really need to do turn arounds in your culdesac that often? God the things that old people care about is hilarious.

Outside of TLIAC, there is another officer monitoring this thread. Scooley did not call the cops. The officer was kind enough to scope out the situation.

1) I'm not old...I'm 23.

2) I used to turn around in our cul-de-sac daily. Because of where I have to park in our driveway, and the limited turning radius of my old truck, combined with people across the street parking behind our driveway, I had to back out in such a way that I had to turn around in the cul-de-sac. Since I got my new car that turns in tight little circles, I don't have to do that anymore...and perpendicular parking probably wouldn't keep me from turning around either!

It's gonna e kick ass when a GRE truck destroys all the cars parked perpendicular to the curb. Seriously xi, why in the hell would you ever think that is a good idea, let alone legal? "my neighbors did it is not a good excuse..."

I guess the turning radius isn't important that often but when it is - it's very important. I would be extremely unhappy if I lived in a cul de sac and my house was on fire and the engine or ladder truck operations were hampered by illegally parked cars.

The actual radius of that particular street is about 37.5'. Depending on the chassis, that would be close to what it takes for an ambulance anyway, without cars even parking parallel to the curb.

Exactly...the cul-de-sac is fairly narrow to begin with, so we have to be conscious of how we're using the limited space we have. I have seen cul-de-sacs where it wouldn't make a huge difference to have perpendicular parkers because the radius is wide enough...not the case on our street.

And in my old truck, even cars parallel to the curb in certain spots would keep me from turning around...I'd have to reverse a bit to clear the turn. It's definitely not a very well thought-out neighborhood. Plus, there's only one driveway to be shared by each pair of houses...which is an unusual arrangement to me.

OFN, I've seen that style of cul-de-sac parking my entire life, all across the nation. I've even seen it where parking spots are painted that way by cities. And when you're new to a neighborhood, mimicking what your neighbors do is a damn good reason. Our parking that way was absolutely wrong as we now know, and I would never consciously impede emergency vehicles, but there's no need to be an ass.

Scooley, fwiw, I have absolutely no issue with you, and I'm genuinely still sorry that our parking was causing a problem. Regarding the double parking, I know which house you're talking about. It causes problems for us, too, so I went and spoke to them. They seem to be doing it a lot less, now.

AggieDarlin, the officer who knocked on our door at 7am and then watched while cars were repositioned said that he had been sent over by dispatch after receiving a complaint. Just my .02

As for the turning radius issues itself, the street is incredibly narrow. So much so that when cars are "parallel" parked, they are just cutting the corner to get the tires next to the curb. I took my yukon and a f150, parallel parked them to the curb, and measured how much of the street's diameter they took up at the widest/narrowest points. I then parked them perpendicular and measured again. In this case, 5 inches of the street's diameter were diminished by perpendicular parking while allowing 4 trucks to be parked in the place of two. As mentioned, this street uses shared driveways, meaning each house has roughly 2-3 parking spots before filling the street. Now, please don't misunderstand, the issue and the law are now well known at this house and there won't be any more transgressions (at least from us), but it's a poor situation all around.

[This message has been edited by xi xi (edited 2/27/2012 4:07a).]