occur under a variety of conditions and along a host of roadways. The city’s zoning codes defines an
acceptable parallel parking space as 9’ x 23’, which ts roughly aligned with the requirements in the other
municipalities. DESMAN could not find language defining minimum travel lane widths.
Among the studied communities, most required a minimum ‘no parking’ set back of 20’ from any
crosswalk. While Nashua requires a minimum setback of 25’ from any sign or signal, the other
communities surveyed fixed this distance at between 30’ and 50’. Only half of the communities studied
has a minimum required setback of between 4’ and 5’ to either side of a driveway, in contrast to Nashua’s
requirement of just 2’. Only Ann Arbor and Rochester defined required setback from either side of an
alleyway; Manchester has a blanket prohibition for parking in any alley,
Nashua’s requirement for 25’ from any unregulated intersection was in line, if slightly more conservative
than some of the other municipalities studied and setbacks from fire hydrants were generally in line with
requirements in the other cities. Several communities carried minimum setbacks of 20’ to either side of a
driveway servicing a fire station and a probation of curbside parking for a distance of 75’ along the curb
opposite of the fire station driveway as well as prohibition of curbside parking within 50’ of a rail crossing.
Concord, NH prohibits on-street parking on any roadway where doing so would reduce the width of the
adjacent travel lane to less than 12’; Manchester carries the same requirement in their ordinances.
Minimum widths for parallel parking spaces varied from 8’ to 9’ and minimum lengths for the stalls varied
from 20’ up to 25’. Code for the other communities mandated required travel lane widths of between 10’
and 15’ per lane; in some cases, these requirements depended on whether the roadway was one-way or
two-ways. Concord, NH requires a fixed width of 15’ per lane, which would require 30’ in total width for
a two-way road with no curbside parking; a two-way road way with parallel parking on both sides must
be at least 48’ in width. Manchester requires 12’ of width for a one-way road, but only 20’ of width fora
two-way road, implying that the two-way street encompasses two 10’ travel lanes. Portsmouth requires
at least 14’ in width for single direction roadways or 24’ for two-way roads. In many of these cases, the
width of the one-way roadway is less influenced by the dynamics of vehicles pulling in and out of curbside
spaces than the lateral space required to ensure safe efficient passage of municipal safety and service
vehicles.
Other regulations noted included the following:
* in Albany, NY, the minimum width per travel lane is 11’ unless the roadway must also
accommodate bicycle traffic, at which point the mandated minimum travel lane width is increased
to 13’ per lane.
e in Concord, NC on-street parking is not allowed on any street where doing so would reduce the
clear travel distance between curbs to less than 22’ along a public street or 10’ along an alleyway.
e In Meridian, ID, on-street parking is prohibited for vehicles of 12,000 Ibs. or more GVWR. In
addition, no trailer or mobile home may be parked on a public street for longer than 72
consecutive hours.
* In Portland, ME, unless otherwise posted, no individual may park in front of any business for
longer than one hour between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday through Saturday with the
exception of state and federal holidays.
e =n Rochester, MN curbside parking is not allowed on any one-way street of less than 28’ feet in
total width (curb-to-curb) or any two-way street of less than 26’ feet in width. On one-way streets
