The parking myth baffling drivers - so do you know the road rule?
Deciphering Australia’s parking no-go zones is often a proverbial minefield, leaving many motorists confused about where they’re legally allowed to leave their cars.
Understanding parking signs is hard enough, especially when they are often confusing and sometimes even contradictory. But when there’s no sign at all, the rules become even more obscure.
Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads has tested the knowledge of road users about the legality of parking across from T-intersections – only to find we’re not too clear on what’s allowed.
Sharing a picture quiz to Facebook on Monday, the road authority posed this scenario: If you pull up at a T-intersection to find cars parked directly across from you, are their drivers within the law?
“You know your road rules and now’s your chance to prove it,” the transport department wrote.
It asked: ”The red, blue and orange cars are parked along the side of the continuing road at this T-intersection. Are all three cars legally parked?”
The scenario baffled dozens, with the responses mixed.
According to the Queensland Government, fines may apply for parking within 10 metres of an intersection unless it is a T-intersection and you are parking along the continuous side of the continuing road.
“I always thought it was illegal to park opposite an intersection so I would say all three were parked illegally,” one wrote.
The transport department revealed it was in fact legal to park across from a T-intersection in Queensland.
“Yes, all cars are legally parked. A driver is allowed to stop along the continuous side of the continuing road at a T-intersection, provided they comply with any other parking restrictions,” it wrote.
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A handful admitted they knew it was within the law to park there, but they wouldn't do it because of the risk of cars being cleaned up by other drivers.
“No signs, no lines, so yes but I wouldn’t knowing how people drive nowadays,” one wrote.
What about T-intersection parking in other states?
Similar parking exemptions apply across the nation.
In Victoria it is also legal to park on the continuous side of a continuing road of a T-intersection. It’s the same in Tasmania, however motorists must leave a three-metre clearance beside their parked vehicle, to allow for passing traffic.
According to NSW Transport, Roads and Maritime Authority, it’s also okay to park if “the intersection is a T-intersection without traffic lights, where you are permitted to stop along the continuous side of the continuing road”. The same rules apply in the ACT.
West Australian motorists are also permitted to park within 10 metres of an intersection without traffic lights “on a continuing road of a T-intersection opposite the terminating road”.
According to the NT Road Users’ Handbook, it is against the law to park “within 10 metres of an intersection without traffic lights, unless a sign allows you to park there”. However it doesn’t specify an exemption for sign-free T-intersections.
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