Parking rules

[kharnynb]

Since moving to Savonlinna, my parking trouble have been reduced to 1 month per year ;D
Always remember the disc and you should be ok.

You have to park in driving direction btw, so on a one-way street you can park same direction both sides.

[nolla]

DISCLAIMER: A little late but since this is an important topic which doesn't seem to be discussed much in English, here my two cents:

Thanks for your detailed explanation.

Parking on the side of a street is allowed by default but limited here in such way that it is forbidden during certain hours unless you pay the applicable fee and display the receipt of your payment on the windscreen of your car.

You seem to imply here that parking outside of these hours is allowed, which seems contrary to what others have stated.

I read the sign as:
- Do not park here on 2nd Tuesday from 9-15, or you get *towed*
Otherwise, parking here is generally forbidden, except:
- if you have parking permit K (then you can park whenever you want)
- from 9-21, where you can buy a ticket.

So for me, no parking during Tuesdays 9-15 or weekday evenings.

Correct?

I've lived in Finland for a few years already but just this year I decided to get a driving license. After studying the road signs I arrived at the conclusion that there are certain aspects of the the traffic sign "language" which are really confusing, in particular the parking signs and their related additional panels. The fact that people in this thread, who probably have lived in Finland and have been at least exposed to the system for many years, interpret the signs differently is very telling. In fact I think the consensus in this thread, as far as I can tell, is wrong regarding variant B (second picture).

Variant A


Variant B


To recapitulate it seems to me the consensus in this thread about variant B is the following (ignoring the top "siirtokehotus" sign which is not a traffic sign and for the purpose of this discussion is irrelevant):

you CAN'T park at all in the area, with these two exceptions:

• You can park from 9-21 providing that you pay the parking fee, or
• You can park at any time if you hold a K parking permit (P-Tunnus)

However, according to the official English version of the Driving School Manual that you would get if you enroll in any Finnish driving school, the interpretation would be different:

You can ALWAYS park in the area according to normal rules, but there is one restriction:

• On weekdays between 9-21 you need to pay the parking fee, which for the parking zone (vyöhyke) 3 is 1€ per hour according to hel.fi
• However, this restriction does not apply if you have a Parking permit (P-Tunnus) with the letter K (permit which you can only get for a fee AND if you are a resident of the area, in this case Vallila)

Here some screenshots from pages 80 and 82 from the said manual that prove my point:



Note the conclusion at the end:

Parking in a place with such a sign is thus permitted in the evening and at night. At daytime, parking is permitted for a maximum of half and hour

And here the important section is:

At other times parking is free

So as far as I can tell, your observation about variant B is quite accurate:

In Helsinki, it seems to be used to mark parking zones.

And regarding your question:

But how are these zones different to the ones marked with variant A above?

It seems to me that they both (variant A and variant B) are saying the same thing and serve the same purpose (they both indicate where and when can a car park in the associated area, and when and how much to pay). The differences are just secondary. Variant A seems to be the subset of the traffic sign "language" used when referring to areas that are explicitly made for parking. Whereas, variant B is the subset of the traffic sign "language" used when referring to normal roads (which are not made specifically for parking but for practical reasons are used as parking areas as well). I guess the current international traffic sign standards were not designed at once but probably evolved in sort of an organic process from simpler rule sets and the people who were in charge of this evolution, were of course all different and were not smart enough to keep it simple, unambiguous and consistent. Maybe some did notice the whole system was getting too redundant and counter-intuitive but they couldn't revise older signs and standards for bureaucratic reasons, backward compatibility, legacy...

[MTB]

about variant B.

My _personal_ interpretation. If an area with parking generally allowed unless stated otherwise, you can park at night for free. For example, the amazing city of Espoo is a non-parking area in its entirely, so you need to see a "P" sign if you want to park the car. While in Helsinki, parking is generally allowed unless stated otherwise. So learn some geography if you want to park in Finland.

Also, been fined once just after a sign permitting parking for a fee (paid the fee, and had a ticket visible) on the basis of my car being closer than 4 meters to a pedestrian cross. I explained, then the (variant B) sign is completely wrong, as it allows me to park there (it was placed exactly 4 meters before the pedestrian cross). Finally the pirkko agreed to cancel the fine (that time), but explained that usually she doesn't care and I am lucky I met her on spot.

[Upphew]

Also, been fined once just after a sign permitting parking for a fee (paid the fee, and had a ticket visible) on the basis of my car being closer than 4 meters to a pedestrian cross. I explained, then the (variant B) sign is completely wrong, as it allows me to park there (it was placed exactly 4 meters before the pedestrian cross). Finally the pirkko agreed to cancel the fine (that time), but explained that usually she doesn't care and I am lucky I met her on spot.

The limit is 5 meters. Police has stated that if there is a marked parking spot closer than 5 meters before the zebra then you can park there, else you get fined.