Finding a place to park your car on the street has become, in most cases, a complicated task. Although it is a regulated parking space, which requires payment of a fee depending on the parking time, the difficulty in finding a free space has increased considerably due to the shortage of available spaces.
Some people resort to all kinds of tricks to secure a place to park their car. From placing a motorcycle to leaving objects to reserve space, drivers deploy creative and sometimes unethical strategies in order to guarantee a parking spot.
What is less common is for a person to appropriate a parking space to reserve the space and prevent other vehicles from using it. A situation like this is reflected in the images spread by the drivers’ platform SocialDrive on X (formerly Twitter) and which took place in a town in France.
The video, which has gone viral and has already accumulated more than 700,000 views, shows how a man occupies a parking space while a car tries to park in it.
The man, who is sitting and talking on the phone, tries to hinder the maneuver of a car that is reversing to park. While traveling in reverse, the vehicle moves the individual a few centimeters and, alerted by the man’s screams, the driver brakes and gives up his attempt to park. At the end of the video, you can see how the car leaves in search of another parking space.
These images raise the question of whether, beyond being an ethically questionable act, it is legal to reserve a parking space for another driver. What does the law say in situations like this?
The Traffic and Road Safety Law specifies that as long as there is shelter, a pedestrian zone or some other suitable space, pedestrians may not remain standing on the shoulder or on the road, even if waiting for the arrival of a vehicle. The regulations add that, until the car arrives, the pedestrian will have to wait on a sidewalk and access the road or shoulder just when they are about to get into the vehicle.
Although the law does not make explicit reference to the assumption of reservation, it can be interpreted that the presence of a person occupying a space on the surface of the road can be understood as an unjustified situation. Therefore, we have every right to park.
In the event that the person who reserves the space does not allow us to park the car, as occurs in the recording shared by SocialDrive, we can contact the local police of the municipality where we are so that the agents can redirect the situation in our favor and proceed. , if necessary, to a financial penalty.
The person who obstructs parking could face a fine of 80 euros, which is the penalty applied for crossing a road outside the pedestrian crossing.
