4 ms·
At least in my region, the phrase is used about evenly to refer to both: - Parking in the roadway next to the row of parallel parked cars/in other ways such th
by InitialLastName 4y ago
At least in my region, the phrase is used about evenly to refer to both:
- Parking in the roadway next to the row of parallel parked cars/in other ways such that parked cars are blocked in
and
- Parking a single car such that two parking spots are obstructed (unjustifiably so, e.g. nobody would likely talk that way about an RV taking two parallel parking spots).
The difference in usage seems to depend on whether you (and your local cohort) spend more of your time parking in parking lots or on the street.
- jameshart 4y agoDouble parking is a legal term for a specific traffic violation. People who use it to refer to parking across two bays in a parking lot are using it wrong. It’s like saying ‘well people in my region use the word “speeding” both to refer to going over the speed limit, and for going through a red light’. People in your region have heard a term and misunderstood it. Laws commonly include exceptions like; > Vehicles used ordinarily for transportation of merchandise may double park for the purpose of, but only while engaged in, the expeditious loading or unloading - that doesn’t mean delivery vehicles can park across two bays in a parking lot.
- InitialLastName 4y ago> People in your region have heard a term and misunderstood it. Language is how people use it. That sounds like a perfectly valid route to adding a colloquial meaning to a word.
- jameshart 4y agoI’m as descriptivist as the next enlightened linguistic scholar, but this phrase has a specific meaning in traffic codes. Misunderstanding it is dangerous.
- kube-system 4y agoThe initial mention of it in this thread was not in a legal context.