Double Parking: Civil Disobedience
The government does not need to solve all of society’s problems, even the ones it creates. Communities can understand their own needs and operate accordingly.
New York City has a revolution in the streets every day (except Sunday). In a ritual as regular as the rise and fall of the tides, tens of thousands of New Yorkers openly break the law every weekday. Unlike drug users, turnstile jumpers, and counterfeit-handbag sellers, these scofflaws operate under the watch of police officials, who uniformly ignore their violations.
In neighborhoods all over the city, for hours at a time, lines of cars can be seen double-parked, allowing street cleaners access to the other side of the street. The practice has become so commonplace that many people believe it is legal, but it is not. Yet woe to the traffic cop who ever chose to write tickets for these double-parked cars.
There would probably be riots.
The root of the problem is alternate-side parking. For cleaning purposes, almost every street in New York has certain periods of time, usually an hour and a half on specified days of the week, when parking on one side is a violation. In neighborhoods where there is barely enough street parking on both sides, this creates an impossible situation. There is literally no place for these thousands of cars to go. This is a unique dilemma in which the city government is making a legitimate demand (the streets have to be cleaned) but can offer no accommodation for the practical consequences of its mandate.
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Source: Double Parking: Civil Disobedience | National Review Online
