Stopping and parking — the difference
| What the rule is | Where it goes wrong | What you do | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What “parking” means | Art. 1: parking is standing LONGER than needed for immediate boarding or alighting, or for immediate loading or unloading. Shorter than that is stopping, not parking. | Confusing the two. Where only PARKING is forbidden, you may let someone out. Where STOPPING is forbidden, even that is not allowed. | First establish which of the two you are doing — that decides which ban applies. |
| Where stopping is forbidden | Art. 23(1): on a junction or level crossing; on a cycle strip and the carriageway alongside it; on a crossing or within five metres of it; in a tunnel; at a bus-stop sign; along a bus lane; along a solid yellow line. | Forgetting the five metres at a crossing. They apply before the zebra, and that is exactly where it goes wrong: a stopped car hides whoever is crossing. | At the places in art. 23 do not even stop briefly to let someone out. |
| Exception at the bus stop | Art. 23(2): the ban at the bus-stop sign does NOT apply to letting passengers board or alight immediately. | Extending the exception to the other forbidden places: junction, level crossing, tunnel, crossing, cycle lane, solid yellow line. The exception applies at the bus stop only. | At the bus-stop sign keep the block marking clear, or without marking keep twelve metres away. |
| Where parking is forbidden | Art. 24(1): within five metres of a junction; in front of a drive; outside built-up areas on the carriageway of a priority road; along a BROKEN yellow line; in a loading bay; in a permit-holder space without a permit. | Mixing up the two yellow lines. SOLID yellow forbids stopping (art. 23), BROKEN yellow forbids parking (art. 24). One dash apart, two different bans. | Do not park at a driveway or within five metres of a junction, not even “briefly”. |
| Blue zone (disc parking zone) | Art. 25: parking is allowed only in marked places or by a blue line, and then only with a clearly visible parking disc behind the windscreen. | Adjusting the disc while parked. Art. 25 forbids a disc with a mechanism that shifts the arrival time automatically. | Place the disc visibly behind the windscreen and set it to the whole or half hour. |
The law itself
RVV1990 art. 23 lid 1RVV1990 art. 23 lid 2RVV1990 art. 24 lid 1RVV1990 art. 25 lid 1RVV1990 art. 25 lid 2RVV1990 art. 1
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