ASSEMBLY, No. 2940

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED MAY 8, 1997

By Assemblywoman CRECCO

An Act concerning parking, supplementing chapter 4 of Title 39 of the Revised Statutes and amending R.S.39:4-138.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. (New section) Notwithstanding the provisions of R.S.39:4-138 to the contrary, any municipality may, by ordinance, permit the parking of motor vehicles within 15 feet of the nearest crosswalk or side line of a street, other than an alley, or of an intersecting highway.

    2. R.S.39:4-138 is amended to read as follows:

    39:4-138. Except when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or in compliance with the directions of a traffic or police officer or traffic sign or signal, no operator of a vehicle shall stand or park the vehicle in any of the following places:

    a. Within an intersection;

    b. On a crosswalk;

    c. Between a safety zone and the adjacent curb or within at least 20 feet of a point on the curb immediately opposite the end of a safety zone;

    d. In front of a public or private driveway;

    e. Within 25 feet of the nearest crosswalk or side line of a street or intersecting highway, except at alleys, unless otherwise permitted under section 1 of P.L....,c....(C....)(now pending in the Legislature as this bill);

    f. On a sidewalk;

    g. In any appropriately marked "No Parking" space established pursuant to the duly promulgated regulations of the Commissioner of Transportation;

    h. Within 50 feet of a "stop" sign;

    i. Within 10 feet of a fire hydrant;

    j. Within 50 feet of the nearest rail of a railroad crossing;

    k. Within 20 feet of the driveway entrance to any fire station and on the side of a street opposite the entrance to any fire station within 75 feet of said entrance, when properly signposted;

    l. Alongside or opposite any street excavation or obstruction when stopping, standing, or parking would obstruct traffic, when properly signposted;

    m. On the roadway side of any vehicle stopped or parked at the edge or curb of a street;

    n. Upon any bridge or other elevated structure upon a highway, or within a highway tunnel or underpass, or on the immediate approaches thereto except where space for parking is provided;

    o. In any space on public or private property appropriately marked for vehicles for the physically handicapped pursuant to P.L.1977, c.202 (C.39:4-197.5), P.L.1975, c.217 (C.52:27D-119 et seq.) or any other applicable law unless the vehicle is authorized by law to be parked therein and a handicapped person is either the driver or a passenger in that vehicle. State, county or municipal law enforcement officers or parking enforcement authority officers shall enforce the parking restrictions on spaces appropriately marked for vehicles for the physically handicapped on both public and private property.

    No person shall move a vehicle not lawfully under his control into any such prohibited area or away from a curb such distance as is unlawful.

(cf: P.L.1989, c.201, s.1)

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill would permit a municipality, by ordinance, to enact an exception to State law to allow the parking of motor vehicles within 15 feet of a crosswalk. Current State law prohibits parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk.

Allows municipality to permit parking within 15 feet of crosswalk.