JSLALALAND

CITY & ITS PEOPLE

The LA parking sign translator

Everyone who drives in LA has an 'I thought I could park there' ticket. One pole, four signs: this decodes them one by one. Street sweeping, time limits, rush-hour tow-away, permit zones, curb colors, meters, and the new daylighting rule.

Translated from Jasmine’s original Chinese. The illustrated slides are on the interactive reader.

Key points

Full text

  1. Rule 0 | How to read one pole

    Read from top to bottom; every sign applies at the same time, and if any one says no, it's no. Check the arrows, the days (MON–FRI doesn't include weekends) and the times; ANYTIME = 24 hours, holidays included.

  2. Sign ① | Street cleaning

    For example, 'street sweeping every Tuesday 8–10AM': no parking during that window, a $73 fine, LA's most common ticket. Go by the sign, don't guess 'they probably won't sweep this week'; StreetsLA's Sweeping Map shows your street.

  3. Sign ② | Time-limited parking

    "2 HR PARKING 8AM–6PM EXCEPT SUNDAY" = Monday to Saturday daytime, 2 hours max; after 6 and all day Sunday, no limit. But the other signs on the same pole still apply; what comes after EXCEPT is the key part.

  4. Sign ③ | Rush-hour tow-away

    During rush hour, this lane is for driving, and parked cars get towed right away: a $163 fine, no grace period. Getting your car back: a $220 tow fee + $68/day storage + a $115 release fee, so $400+ on day one.

  5. Sign ④ | No Stopping vs. No Parking

    No Stopping means you can't stop even for a second with someone in the car (same $93 fine as a red curb); No Parking lets you briefly drop off people or load things, but you have to stay with the car. 'I'm just stopping for a sec' doesn't fly at a No Stopping sign.

  6. Sign ⑤ | Permit parking zones

    This zone is for residents; without a permit, you can park only as long as the sign says, and some don't allow it at all; some are overnight permit zones, where you need a permit from 2 to 6 a.m., with a $68 fine. EXEMPT means residents, not you.

  7. Curb colors are a kind of sign too

    Red = no parking at all; yellow = loading zone, Monday to Saturday 7AM–6PM, 5 minutes for regular cars, 30 for commercial; white = 5-minute passenger loading; green = 15-minute limit; blue = disabled parking. If there's a sign, the sign wins.

  8. Sign ⑥ | Meters

    Go by what's on the meter for paid hours and time limits; you can use a card or coins, and most of the City of LA also works with LADOT's Park Smarter app. It only counts as broken if there's 'no way at all to pay'; an expired meter is a $63 ticket.

  9. 5 things that get you ticketed even with no sign

    Within 15 feet of a fire hydrant, within 20 feet before a crosswalk (even with no red paint), parked in the same spot over 72 hours, facing against traffic or more than 18 inches from the curb, blocking someone's driveway.

  10. The new daylighting rule

    California law: no parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk on the approach side, and since 2025 you can get ticketed even with no red curb or sign. The City of LA mostly gives warnings for now, but don't gamble; that empty spot right before the intersection is usually empty for a reason.

  11. Parking on a hill

    Hollywood Hills, Silver Lake and Echo Park are all hills. The DMV rule: facing downhill, turn your wheels toward the curb; facing uphill, turn them away so the back of the tire rests against it; then set the parking brake. In Beverly Hills you're required to park this way.

  12. On holidays, some signs take the day off

    On 11 holidays, including New Year's, Thanksgiving and Christmas, the City of LA doesn't enforce meters, time limits or timed no-parking signs; but red curbs, ANYTIME, rush-hour tow-away, disabled spaces and permit zones still get ticketed. Red curbs don't take holidays.

  13. Cross one street, and the rules change

    Santa Monica, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills each have their own rules, fines and appeal process, and driving from the City of LA into Beverly Hills can be a single intersection. Whatever city is on the ticket, that's the city you deal with.

  14. Got a ticket? Here's what to do

    For a City of LA ticket, you can request an Initial Review within 21 days of the citation, online, by phone or by mail, and you don't have to pay first to contest it. Once you've parked, take three photos: the sign, the curb, your car.

  15. The parking ritual

    Read the whole pole from top to bottom, check the arrows, check the curb color, count the distance to hydrants and crosswalks, take photos, set an alarm. If you're not sure, move or use a garage; walking five more minutes beats paying a ticket.

  16. Two-city mirror

    In Taipei, parking is about finding the box; in LA, parking is reading comprehension. 'In LA, the most expensive part of parking isn't the fee; it's the one sign you didn't read right.'

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An original JSLALALAND field guide by Jasmine Chang (@jslalaland).