It can’t be done double park, not even a minute or a half: as a basic precept, the maneuver is prohibited, it is considered Serious offense and carries sanction.
Then the details can be taken into account and the perception of agent or his benevolence –at nine in the morning at the gates of a school, for example–, but the law literally indicates the prohibition.
Ticket for double parking
“Remains forbidden park […] in double row”, according to the article 40 of the traffic law, for which the driver, most likely, will receive a fine of 200 euros. This is so because the driving regulations (article 91) establishes that double parking constitutes a “obstacle to movement”. And that, back to the traffic law (article 76, section d), is considered Serious offense.
Besides of physical space let him occupy the car, the other two factors that determine whether a driver is double leaving the car are the absence and time.
Thus, if the motorist abandons the car, no matter how much you leave your hazard lights on and stand by waiting for a person, you’re double parking, which moves the matter to the previous two paragraphs. And to Caballero Bonald: “We are the time we have left”.
In what cases is it allowed?
There is also, however, the legal figure of the stop. The law defines it –Annex I, epigraph 81– as the “immobilization of a vehicle during less than two minutes, without the driver being able to abandon it.”
Thus, as long as he does not leave the car in an inappropriate place and does not get out of it, a motorist can stop on the street for two minutes.
But the limit is often low, and if an agent finds that the vehicle has been stopped longer than necessary, they can file a complaint for double parking, and the loop returns to the beginning.
not hinder
It should also be noted that the stop (exactly the same as a parking lot) must be done in such a way that “Do not impede circulation nor does it constitute a risk for the rest of the road users”.
The foregoing is written in article 91.1 of the traffic code, which abounds in the matter one epigraph below: “Stops or parking lots in dangerous places or places that seriously impede traffic are considered to be those that constitute a risk or obstacle to movement in the following cases”:
- When the distance between the vehicle and the opposite edge of the roadway or a longitudinal mark on it that indicates prohibition of crossing it is less than three meters or, in any case, when it does not allow the passage of other vehicles.
- when prevented join the circulation to another properly stopped or parked vehicle.
- When the normal use of the output step or access to a property of people or animals, or of vehicles in a correctly marked ford.
- When the normal use of the lowered steps for physically handicapped (sic).
- When it is done in the medium, dividers, islands or other traffic channeling elements.
- When it is prevented authorized money order for the corresponding signal.
200 euro fine
Stopping is also not allowed, in a generic way, in cases where, “without being included in the previous paragraphs, they constitute a danger or seriously impede the traffic of pedestrians, vehicles or animals”.
And, in conclusion, “the assumptions of stops […] in dangerous places or places that seriously impede traffic are considered serious infractions”, so the penalty, again, is 200 euros.
According to the law, therefore, almost any maneuver of this type is likely to be considered a serious infraction, so that everything depends on the common sense of those who drive and the specific circumstances of the traffic.
And, depending on the moment, depending on the attitude of the agent, who could also consider some stops or double parking as minor offense, so the penalty will be less than 100 euros, usually 80.