Is sleeping in your car being illegal some sort of FREEDOM©®™ thing that I’m way too European to understand?
Sleeping in a car isn’t illegal necessarily, but there are increasing popup communities that settle in empty/low traffic lots and live out of their vehicles. Like most of America’s problems, our politicans are sending police forces to “clean up” the effect, instead of trying to solve the cause.
Here’s an article on Vehicle Residency https://www.thenation.com/article/society/homelessness-vehicle-residency-housing/
Sleeping in your car is actually illegal in a lot of places.
In Ohio I’d have to wake up every couple of hours to switch parking lots to avoid cops/loitering charges
Not Ohio, but I did sleep on my car on the West Coast on and off for about a year and only got into trouble once. And I didn’t even get a citation, just an oral warning that this wasn’t permitted in that particular town despite there being no signs anywhere (it was written in the city code).
I will say, for all the shit that private property owners get on this site, Walmart is actually one of the places where this is the easiest and least problematic to do. I always tried to avoid private property in favor of more inconspicuous places but I frequently saw quite a few motorhomes parked on their lots after dark and they were still there in the morning, and I’ve heard from others that they’ll generally let you be unless you are causing some sort of ruckus there. Same goes for just sleeping in the car.
In general, if you’re not making a nuisance of yourself or parking right in front of a sign that prohibits overnight parking, you’ll most likely be okay.
Afaik it is allowed as long as its only to regain your driving capabilities and not for multiple nights I’m a row on the same place. The Straßenverkehrsordnung does not state otherwise.
Interesting, I’ve been told that it’s illegal to sleep in your car in Canada when drunk because being in a car with possession of the keys is enough to show intent to DUI and get arrested.
I imagine it’s something you could fight in court and win with a good lawyer, but it always seemed counter intuitive to me.
In some places, parking lots are monitored by security and you’ll be kicked out if you’re sleeping in your car in the parking lot.
I see a lot of areas with “No Overnight Parking” signs or something similar, so they don’t make sleeping in your car illegal technically, but you can’t stay there over night.
Often times it’s loitering charges, loitering being a fancy term for “being out in public whenever it displeases a person of authority”. Sitting on a public bench, having a picnic, walking on a sidewalk, sleeping in your car, whatever, all of those can and will get you loitering charges depending on your exact location in the United States.
Then you have public intoxication charges which on paper are only supposed to apply if you’re causing a public disturbance (despite disorderly conduct already being a charge for that, public intoxication just makes it more severe), but in reality it’s mostly used to harass drunk people who couldn’t get a ride home, or uber home, and decided not to drive while drunk. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had a higher likelihood of getting arrested for public intoxication while drunk walking/public transporting home than of getting arrested for DUI while drunk driving home. But public intoxication and even DUI can also be used if you’re sleeping off drunkenness in your car, while the car is turned off.
In australia, it can be illegal too. Only 1 state has actually made it 100% illegal, that state being Queensland (which is a rather big state too, stupidly enough). Where I’m from (Victoria), it’s not illegal at a state level, but some councils prohibit it in their local bylaws. In the rest of our states and territories the act of sleeping in your car isn’t illegal, but some of the more affluent and snobby areas try to get around that by not offering anywhere to park overnight without permits or living in the area
You have cars? I thought all cars are forcibly seized and replaced with bikes at the border.
It’s because those things happen if you allow people from general Benelux to have a car.
