Parking Rules, Restrictions, Parallel Parking, and Accessible Parking

Parking Rules, Restrictions, Parallel Parking, and Accessible Parking

Quick Answer: Guam requires your right wheels parallel with and within 18 inches of the right-hand curb, headed in the direction of traffic. 16 GCA 3402 prohibits parking within 25 feet of an intersection or curb lines, 30 feet on the approach to a stop sign, flashing signal, or traffic signal, 30 feet from the ends of a safety zone, 15 feet of a fire hydrant, and 15 feet of a fire station driveway entrance. Parking in an accessible space without a valid plate or placard costs $300 to $500 and the vehicle may be towed.

The legal parking position

16 GCA 3403(a) sets the standard: every vehicle stopped or parked on a roadway with adjacent curbs must have its right-hand wheels parallel with and within 18 inches of the right-hand curb. Where no curbs or barriers bound the roadway, parallel parking is required unless signs or markings indicate otherwise. The one carve-out is a commercial vehicle actively loading or unloading merchandise or passengers.

Three companion rules complete the picture:

• When angle parking is not clearly designated, park parallel to the curb, heading in the direction of traffic. Backing into a curbside space against traffic flow is not the Guam standard.
• Front and rear bumpers must not be closer than two feet to another vehicle when parked, unless the street is marked otherwise.
• Under 3403(b) the Chief of Police may establish parallel or angle parking zones and mark the pavement with lines designating the spaces. Where a space is marked, you must park within it.

Securing an unattended vehicle: five required steps

16 GCA 3407 is a five-part checklist, and every part is mandatory. No person in charge of a motor vehicle may let it stand unattended without first:

1. Stopping the engine
2. Locking the ignition
3. Removing the ignition key
4. Effectively setting the brake
5. When standing on any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway

Many mainland codes require only the parking brake. Guam expressly requires removing the key, and the driver handbook repeats the instruction: always remove your keys from the ignition after parking. Expect a question that lists four of the five steps and asks what is missing.

Stopping on a highway outside town

16 GCA 3401(a) governs roadside stops outside a business or residential district. You may not park or leave a vehicle standing on the main traveled portion of the highway when it is practicable or possible to leave it off the main traveled portion. The handbook translates this as: park with all four wheels off the pavement if possible.

If you cannot get fully clear, one of two conditions must hold:

• A clear and unobstructed width of not less than 15 feet on the main traveled portion opposite your vehicle is left free for other traffic, or
• A clear view of your vehicle can be obtained from 300 feet in each direction.

3401(c) carves out a genuine breakdown: the rule does not apply to a vehicle disabled on the main traveled portion in such a manner and to such extent that it is impracticable or impossible to avoid leaving it there. Separately, 3401(b) authorizes any peace officer who finds a vehicle parked in violation to move it, or to require the person in charge to move it, to a position where it may lawfully be parked.

The distance table

This is the most heavily tested block of parking law on the permit exam. All of it comes from 16 GCA 3402.

3402 also lists prohibitions that carry no distance at all. You may not park:

• Within an intersection
• On a crosswalk
• On a sidewalk
• In front of a private driveway, except that the owner of that driveway may park there
• Between a safety zone and the adjacent curb
• Immediately next to, or directly opposite, a street or highway excavation or obstruction unless 20 feet of clear main traveled roadway remains
• On the roadway side of any vehicle already stopped or parked at the curb, which is the double-parking ban

Two mainland habits to unlearn. First, Guam sets no setback distance from a crosswalk. Parking on a crosswalk is prohibited outright under 3402(b), but the code fixes no "20 feet before a crosswalk" figure of the sort many states use. Second, Guam's traffic code contains no railroad-crossing parking provision at all, because the island has no railroads and therefore no highway-rail grade crossings. A "50 feet from the nearest rail" answer is imported from a mainland manual and is wrong here.

Restrictions found nowhere on the mainland

Beaches (16 GCA 3409). No person may drive, stop, park, or leave standing any vehicle, motorcycle, or bicycle, attended or unattended, upon the beaches of Guam. "Beach" means all land on the shores of Guam below the high water mark. The exception is narrow: you may drive across the beach to the water's edge for the sole purpose of launching or retrieving a boat, or picking up fish nets and fish, and only for as long as that task requires. The fine is not more than $100.

Religious services (16 GCA 3406). No provision of the code may be enforced to prevent a person attending a place where a religious service is conducted from parking curbside within reasonable proximity of that place during the service.

Official parking signs (16 GCA 3405). The Chief of Police may post signs prohibiting or restricting stopping, standing, or parking where it is dangerous or unduly interferes with traffic or with public access to limited parking near office or commercial buildings. Those are official signs and violating them is an offense in itself.

Owner liability (16 GCA 3404). Proof that a vehicle was parked in violation, together with proof that the defendant was the registered owner at the time, creates a prima facie presumption that the registered owner is the person who parked it. "Someone else was driving" is a defense you have to actually establish.

Parallel parking, step by step

Signal for slowing and stopping before you begin the maneuver, and never leave the vehicle until you have stopped the engine and set the parking brake.

1. Select a space large enough for your vehicle. Stop beside the vehicle in front of the space, about one foot away from it.
2. Back up slowly. At about two feet back, begin turning your wheel to the right, then turn it all the way while still backing slowly, watching for traffic and pedestrians. Keep backing until your vehicle sits at a 45-degree angle to the street, then stop. The handbook calls checking this angle "the secret to successful parallel parking."
3. Straighten your wheels and back up until your front bumper is even with the rear bumper of the vehicle ahead. Then turn your wheel sharply left and continue moving back slowly.
4. Keep backing until your wheels almost touch the curb, with your right wheel approximately six inches from it. Straighten the wheels, move up to the center of the space, and set the parking brake.

Note the two different numbers and do not confuse them. Six inches is the technique target the handbook asks you to aim for. Eighteen inches is the outer legal limit under 3403(a). Aim for six and you have margin; finish at twenty and you have committed a parking violation even though the car looks parked.

When you pull back out, look for vehicles approaching from the rear, give the proper signal, and pull out slowly. You do not have the right of way when leaving a parking space or curb.

Accessible parking

Under 16 GCA 3401(d) you may not park in a designated accessible space on public property, or on private property made available for public use, unless the vehicle displays a special license plate, a removable windshield placard, or a temporary removable windshield placard issued under 16 GCA 7120.1. Note the reach: private lots open to the public, such as shopping centers, are covered.

16 GCA 3401.1 defines the offenses:

• (b) Parking in a designated accessible space without a plate or placard, or blocking access to an adjacent access aisle, is a violation. The aisle counts as much as the space.
• (c) Using a valid plate or placard when you are not a qualified person with a disability is a violation, unless the vehicle or placard is being used in connection with transporting a qualified person. The statute writes in two safe harbors: it is not a violation for the qualified person to remain in the parked vehicle while a companion conducts business on their behalf, nor for the driver to remain in the vehicle waiting for the qualified person to return.
• (d) Letting another individual use your assigned plate or placard is a violation.

Penalty (3401.1(e)): a fine of not less than $300 and not more than $500. The vehicle may be towed, and the owner is liable for reasonable towing expenses, which constitute a lien against the vehicle. Fines are split evenly, 50 percent to the Accessible Parking Fund maintained by the Department of Integrated Services for Individuals with Disabilities and 50 percent to the Police Services Fund maintained by the Guam Police Department.

Fraud is a step up. Under 3401.1(a), providing false information on a physician's or optometrist's certification, altering, modifying, or selling a placard, or copying, forging, or using a fraudulent placard is a misdemeanor, not a mere violation. On conviction the court may confiscate the plate or placard and return it to the Motor Vehicle Division of the Department of Revenue and Taxation, which cancels and destroys it. The holder must then reapply from scratch with a current physician's certification.

Who writes the ticket (3401.1(f)). Citations may be issued by uniformed law enforcement personnel and also by volunteers appointed by the Chief of Police, who must be at least 18, a U.S. citizen and Guam resident, free of felony or family-violence convictions, and certified as having completed a required training course.

Space design (3401.1(j) and (k)). In lots constructed or repaved after the Act, an accessible space must be at least 96 inches wide and 228 inches long, with a minimum 60-inch-wide adjacent access aisle marked with diagonal stripes, and surface slopes not exceeding 1:50 (2 percent) in all directions. The reserving sign must display the International Symbol of Accessibility, state the $300 to $500 fine and that the vehicle may be towed, cite 16 GCA 3401.1, and state that access aisles must not be blocked.