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Oregon police gives driver a ticket for parking smart car perpendicular to the curb

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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

That’s a dumb way to park your smart car.

In a major parallel parking fail, an Oregon smart car driver opted to swoop in perpendicular to the curb instead.

“Smart Car? It failed simple geometry. You can’t legally park perpendicular in a parallel spot,” the Newport Police Department said in a Facebook post. “Officer Lekas had to cite it for Improper Parking.”

Even though the two-seater fit fine in the small spot, police said it violated parking laws by failing to have its wheels parallel and within 12 inches to the curb, according to the state’s vehicle codes.

“We don’t want to bog down a fun post with a bunch of boring legal mumbo jumbo though, so we thought we could shorten it by just saying you can’t park perpendicular in a parallel spot,” the department said.

The improper parking ticket stirred up a debate on the Facebook post, with several readers arguing over the rule since the smart car didn’t block any traffic.

“I love the police, but surely the purpose of that law was to stop cars from parking in the roadway, not to ensure which tires touched the curb,” Randall Reinwasser commented on the post. “They had no idea at the time of drafting that law that cars would be designed in the future as a square box.”

Many pointed out that motorcycles are allowed to park perpendicular to the road, and that smart cars should get the same treatment.

Police supporters disagreed, arguing that even though the smart car fit, it would be blocking the two surrounding vehicles from being able to drive out because of the tight squeeze, while motorcycles would not be an obstruction.

Link with picture...

http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/ore-cops-ticket-driver-perpendicular-parking-smart-car-article-1.2573655

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If that is the actual photo of the incident, the other two vehicles have no issue getting out of the spots.

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The smug smart owners who do this are just laughable. Deserve everything they get. And there is no way a 2.69 m long car is going to fit entirely within a parallel parking space.

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Even though the two-seater fit fine in the small spot

In the photo the car appears to be within the painted lines.

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