Alternate-side parking

The law is intended to promote efficient flow of traffic, as well as to allow street sweepers and snowplows to reach the curb without parked cars impeding their progress.

From the beginning, the New York City alternate-side parking law was "assailed" by opponents as actually impeding the efficient flow of traffic.

Even for locals, parking tickets are common; working late or oversleeping may cause a car to be left for too long on the wrong side of the street.

Apps and services like SpotAngels offer crowdsourced maps of NYC alternate side parking rules.

Inspired by Stockholm, more and more Swedish cities are abandoning such confusing zones and instead provide permanent parking on one or both sides of the street, with the exception for one day per week from December to May, when snow ploughing and sweeping of sand can be required.

In Denmark (datoparkering), the rules are exactly the opposite of those in Sweden, with parking prohibited on the morning of odd dates on the side of the street where houses have even numbers.

Belgium allows a half-monthly parking rule (Dutch: Halfmaandelijks beurtelings parkeren, French: Stationnement alterné semi-mensuel).