Ask Phoebe: Parking the wrong way can prove to be costly

Cyclists using pedestrian crossings need to get off their cycles and walk across. Photo / Ted Baghurst

In residential streets in the UK, vehicles can be seen parked on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic. Is it legal in New Zealand to park facing oncoming traffic? If not, what is the law that prohibits it? Is that law a national one or a local body one?

Robert Armstrong, Hamilton

The New Zealand Road Code (a national law) states that you must not park or stop your vehicle on the right-hand side of the road, except in a one-way street, ie facing oncoming traffic.

But before you head off to do just that in, for example, John St in Ponsonby, you might like to note that Auckland Transport's parking infringements include the possibility of a $40 fine for parking facing the wrong way in a one-way street (S.40 Land Transport Act 1998 and Rule & 6.12 Road User Rule 2004, and Rule 4 and Schedule 1 Land Transport (Offences and Penalties) Regulations 1999).

To be on the safe side it's probably better not to park facing oncoming traffic at all. And I can find nothing in Hamilton City Council's bylaws that addresses this issue.

I have noticed cyclists riding along footpaths (in places where there is no cycle lane) and turning on to pedestrian crossings and riding across and expecting traffic to stop. Should the cyclists be walking their bikes across pedestrian crossings? Steve Waddell, Kumeu

As a general case, yes. Cyclists using pedestrian crossings need to get off their cycles and walk across. However, some special crossings are designed for pedestrians and cyclists. These crossings have red, yellow and green signals that display bicycle symbols in addition to the normal pedestrian signals. You are allowed to cycle across when the bicycle symbol is green, which may or may not be when pedestrians cross.

Recently there was a car parked outside my house, untouched for more than six weeks. It has now gone (maybe it was tourists who bought the car, used it, left it there while they went on a bus trip, and then retrieved it on their return) but it made me think - can you just abandon a vehicle on a residential street? Janice Marriott, Mt Eden.

If the car has not been reported stolen, the police are unable to help. If it appears the car has been abandoned, Auckland Transport is responsible for its removal. However, the process to legally declare a vehicle as abandoned can take several weeks and it cannot be removed until that process is complete, unless there is an immediate safety concern. If anyone expresses interest in the vehicle during this process, the vehicle cannot be declared abandoned.