Street camping

[wackymac]

If you want to (park, camp, stay overnight) on the street, the west side of Santa Cruz, CA is wide open.  Sometimes the streets look like an RV junk yard.

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

I know this is an old thread, but one of the comments mentioned parking on off ramps, etc..  The police and state patrol are making a special emphasis on this as there have been several fatality crashes on off ramps.  Rest area shoulders will also often draw a ticket, at least in a truck.  They might be nicer if it's an RV and just tell you to move.  Just FYI

 

[Pierat]

What jurisdiction/state is it that is making an enforcement push?

 

[bendts]

What jurisdiction/state is it that is making an enforcement push?

Not sure about what State - but seeing as how most are Bankrupt and they never have enough FRN's to spend - they will be looking for some of yours.

Every Rest Stop i have stopped in has No Parking on Shoulder signs soon after you pull on the ramp.  Although in many by the time i have left in the morning, both the entrance & exit shoulders have been filled up - mostly by truckers.

As for parking on a Freeway Exit or Entrance - Pick the Entrance Ramp, At least there they are not coming of the freeway at speed or High Speed after having a few. Not to say they wont just continue through the stop sign and right down the other side...

And leave your Parking lights on - some of those ramps/rest stops are damn dark.

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

I do know Texas is working real hard around the Austin area, between mile markers 371 down to the 144, tickets start at $100.  Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, and Maryland have been working real hard on this for several years, ticket prices vary by jurisdiction.  Out west though one seems to be pretty safe, as long as you're at least 15 feet off the traveled section of the road.  If you're there more than about 10 hours though, you're likely to get a ticket if the same cop sees you there during two shifts. 

 

[odie1234]

DW and I own some commercial property that sits on a street little used at nights and weekends. A few years ago we started to get stealth campers using a loading area just off the street in front of our building to overnight. I think word got out - maybe there is a network like hobos of old that spread the word about places to stay. So far this year, our tenant has had to call the police 11 times because of stealth camper behavior. Stealing water and power, cooking meth, dropping sewage into storm drains and panhandling our tenant's employees who happened  to be working late are the behaviors I know about. In addition, DCF has removed children from two families stealth camping in front of the building. We are going to have to stand the cost of removing the pull off point and redoing the roadway in front of the building. We had to spend a lot of money to fence the parking lots and put security locks on them because the stealth campers found they could park behind the building and be out of sight of the police patrols. Count me among those who always vigorously supports bans on street camping.

 

[Water Dog]

There's a major creek across the street from our house and the land that is adjacent to it is privately owned, but looks like a greenbelt. I know the owner and have agreed to kind of keep an eye on it for him as he lives out of town. Over the years we have had several people try to spend the night there in a range of vehicles and usually wind up calling local law enforcement to encourage them to move along. The folks usually show up in very old RV's all dented and with broken or missing windows and just make the whole neighborhood look trashy. Problem is if someone wants to do it in a well kept RV....where do you draw the line? If it is okay for one, it seems like it should be okay for all....but if you look the other way, the word gets out, and you find you've opened a campground.