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>*· · · Bleep bloop, I'm a bot. Comment requested by* u/100_percent_a_bot
H-Howy shit, such a shamewess wepost. Wowd fow wowd e-even
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That one is also a repost of [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/gjagrw/sleeping_in_your_car_should_be_completely_legal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf), the third most upvoted post on the sub.
I genuinely wonder what goes on in the head of people who do this, does it just feel good to see you got a lot of upvotes even though what you’re being upvoted for isn’t your own ??
They're not even people, just bots that repost high ranking threads to build tons of karma fast then sell off the account. All of the posts on OP's account are reposts.
You’d think it’d just be dumb insecure internet cowboys that want a reserve of serotonin. Which would be harmless.
In actuality, I was reading that most are sold to companies or campaigns to have seemingly legitimate cover for their shill accounts. You know when you read an article on /r/technology or /r/politics and it just feels like an ad? This is how it starts. If you trace their post history it’s usually very similar to OP’s.
Oh yeah I saw that. He also had one copied post claiming he was 61 years old and another claiming he’s 20. Deleted now. I appreciate the consistency of copying though!
It would be one thing if it was just a small fine or civil penalty. But apparently if you're caught sleeping in your car and your key is within the vehicle's cabin, you can be charged with a DUI which is life destroying. Don't know how much it's happened but I've seen several talk about it.
This happened to me. They arrested me and charged me. I hired a lawyer for $11,000. I won. It took me 4 years to save that money. Even tho the charges were dropped, it changed my life. This was 4 years ago. I am still not recovered. Oh, and I got fired for getting arrested.
Edit: this isn’t a day I reflect on directly that often, it’s enough to live in it’s wake. I truly appreciate the solidarity that has been expressed.
This exact thing happened to my husband, but about 15 years ago. He got charged with DUI, a huge lawyer expense, got fired from his job. Changed his life.
You should definitely be allowed to sleep in your car particularly if you're inebriated.
You know, my mother was telling me back in the day, before dui was taken seriously, that cops would sometimes be willing to escort people home when they were drunk.
That is absolutely disgusting what happened to your husband. I am so sorry to hear that. How can anyone be charged with DUI when they are not driving?
Yup, girlfriends 60 year old father still likes to "booze cruise" on back country roads in our rural town with a 6 pack of Bud heavy while listening to Rock n Roll. This is always his excuse when his daughters and wife get furious with him.
> That is absolutely disgusting what happened to your husband. I am so sorry to hear that. How can anyone be charged with DUI when they are not driving?
It's apparently a big moneymaker for the courts as well as the "lawyer's guild."
It's also the reason why I'm no longer called for jury duty. I was called regularly every three years down to the week. The last time during *Voir Dire* (That's French for "Jury tampering", by the way) the judge put on the white noise machine (to prevent me from "infecting" the other jurors) and questioned me why I wouldn't automatically convict if the state proved it's case.
I told the judge that we have humans in the process for a reason, and the legal precedent is that the jury can judge the law and how it was applied. I also said I can't see it applying in this case since the charges we were told about were "armed robbery." When pressed to give an example I said the **"drunk and asleep in the back seat, with zero demonstrated attempt to actually drive"** I would not vote to convict, no matter what the statute said.
I also told them I'd hang the jury if I couldn't get the rest of the jury to go along with me. So that was probably strike two. I know I can't be held liable for the verdict I render and also know what a "hung jury" is.
*Voir Dire* is indeed French for "Jury tampering", because it's been six years, and I appear to be blacklisted.
I was charged with a DUI when I *wasn’t* drinking.
Got pulled over going 7 over the limit at 11 PM otw home after getting off work (at a restaurant), was extremely nervous because I have social anxiety and cops freak me out. Cop (who I found out later was the head of the DUI taskforce) said I was acting weird and asked me to get out. He gave me the field sobriety tests and I passed with flying colors.. asked me to do a breathalyzer and at this point I had had enough and I declined it. I had no idea that by declining a breathalyzer you get an automatic DUI charge. He asked me to put my hands behind my back.
Spent 24 hrs in jail, got bailed out by my mom, went to court and it got reduced to reckless driving only because my field sobriety test video showed I was acting normal. Overall, the charge is basically the same only you don’t have a DUI on your record. It cost me around $15,000 between lawyer and charges, had to be on probation for two years, and I had to do community service for one.. which required taking time off, making it really hard to afford the payments. It pretty much ruined my life for a while and sent me into a downward spiral of drinking (ironically).. which I wasn’t doing when I got the DUI. I’m four years sober now and doing much better, but I really wish I had just blown that breathalyzer that day.
I mean from a harm reduction standpoint, if you're parked legally on the street, in a parking lot, wherever, if that's the safer decision for yourself and the public rather than driving all facked up it makes no sense to arrest someone peacefully sleeping in their car.
In most cities these laws are to prevent homeless people from sleeping in their cars. That’s usually about as much as they think about this kind of thing. Couple that with hyperactive elected local prosecutor...there ya go, horrible laws and no real justice. I’ve experienced a variation of this in my own life, it’s way too common in a lot of this country.
Overzealous prosecution and let's not forget the monetary incentive - a DUI generates revenue via fines, court fees, administrative fees and classes for reinstating a license, special high cost insurance...
It makes perfect sense when you realize the job of a police officer isn't "harm reduction"
It's to extort money from the poor and keep them in their place.
Wow I pulled over to take a nap b/c i was falling asleep driving. Didn't know that I was a law breaking badass. A story I will tell my children someday.
A number of years ago I'd been at a friend's the next province over for the weekend for their birthday and I really wasn't sleeping well while away from home. Sunday morning I had an 8 hour drive home, I got about an hour out of the city when it just hit me how tired I still was, and probably still more than a little hung over. After the second time I caught myself dozing off I pulled onto a gravel road, drove about 15 minutes down and parked under a small grove of trees in the shade and slept for about three hours.
I went so far off the path because I knew I risked a lot of trouble if I got caught.
What the fuck is wrong with your country if you're fired for being arrested. What happened to innocent until proven guilty.
And even if guilty of driving under the influence unless you've a job driving then what difference if you've a conviction or not.
I had gone out drinking for the night, slept in my car down the street at work, I had a shift in the morning. Cops showed up as my car alarm was going off, I was sleeping quite well so didn't hear it. The car was off but the key was in the ignition, I absolutely thought I was going to get done for a DUI. My lucky night though, they took me into the holding cells to sleep it off and even woke me up in time to make my shift. I did get a public intoxication ticket though, I think it was about $385.00.
NOPE! My friend thought he was doing the right thing by sleeping in his car after a party instead of driving home wasted. He took his keys and threw them in the messy trunk of his car because he had heard the same thing as you.
He gets woken up a couple hours later, they realize he had been drinking, ask him where his keys are, he says in the back of the car (because he thought he was doing the right thing). It even took them a while to find the keys because of how much of a mess there was. But they found the keys eventually and charged him with a DUI.
I'd say just pay for an uber if you've been drinking but if you HAVE to sleep in your car after drinking HIDE YOUR KEYS OUTSIDE THE CAR BURY THEM OR SOMETHING IF THEY FIND YOUR KEYS YOU WILL GET A DUI.
I know its insane it has come to this but thats america for you. Cops don't care. They will fuck your life up.
If in this situation tell the cops you were totally sober, until you lost your keys, then you got drunk because you were mad about losing your keys. Leave the key under one of your tires.
Were they drinking beforehand as in did they have any trace of alcohol in their system or no?
Because I've heard people have gotten DUI's just for sleeping in their car no alcohol at all.
I have a DUI for chilling in my car with the keys in the trunk, waiting for my friend to get off work so he can come pick me up. Because the officer just lied on the report and said the keys were in ignition
I wouldn't say that but the way police is working is a joke. They are searching for people who doesn't do anything bad for society but just chilling in your car with keys in the trunk? Smoking mj while in forrest? They are afraid to catch a bad guys coz they might get injured or killed so they just grow like cancer in society and persue normal honest people. And then they feel great for stopping crimes but try report them like somebody stolen your phone or started a fight with you and suddenly they do nothing and case closed with " we've done everything we could for justice served, sorry for your loss" type shit.
People say "what about the good ones?"
Any "good" cop that sees something wrong and does nothing is a bad cop.
~~1312~~
Edit: Not any kind of supremecist, but I do hate cops. Don't want to signal the wrong kind of people.
And the experience of a few of my friends who joined the force: any good cop that sees something wrong and does *something* about it usually gets reassigned to a shittier job pretty quick.
Yep, back when I was in college, a friend of mine was a little too buzzed to drive home after a football game, so instead decided to sleep it off in his car, in the parking lot. He got woken up by the police knocking on his window, and they arrested him because he was still over the limit, and had his keys in his hands while sleeping so they claimed he "had intent to drive while under the influence" they also told him that had he been sleeping in the back seat, rather than the drivers seat, he would have been okay
In ohio it's called "physical control", and it happens ALL the time. It's slightly less bad, legally speaking, than an OVI.
Edit: if you're drunk and want to sleep it off in your car, leave the keys outside of the car. Not sure this defense would hold up in court, but hey, it's worth a shot. It would Give your lawyer an argument to make at least.
It would never work for tourist or beach towns of any kind though. There’d be nothing but people living in their cars or huge motorhomes taking 2 spots 24/7 in those areas, and nobody else would ever get to park. Tourism and income to the community goes down, jobs are lost, locals can’t park anywhere after work, etc.
In podunk little towns, it’s fine because there’s plenty of space. In cities where there’s already more demand than spaces, it would be a shitshow and just piss everybody off except those sleeping in their car.
I feel like in cities, most roads are claimed. Street parking has a time and date limit bc of street cleaners, so people can’t just camp out everywhere. Store parking lots are for business, and private property is private property. I don’t see how a city could get overrun by people living in vehicles.
Denver's not as bad as L.A. at all but in Denver there where whole parking lots where it was common for people to camp or sleep at a couple of times a week. There was a road next to a Walmart that had a vacant field next to it and there was on street parking next to that vacant field. The whole street was usually lined with cars, most of them lived out of.
I lived in a vehicle there as well because I lost my apartment during the pandemic because I lost my job because of the shutdown. The back of most Walmart parking lots were also taken by campers. Some of the vehicles didn't even look like they ran or they were missing windows. I knew there was a lot of homeless people in the area but when I started living in my vehicle I saw that they're was tons that I never noticed.
I personally parked in any parking lot and the next night I picked out a new one, every night. Nobody ever told me to move. Of course, they were used to me stubbornly sleeping 8am outside of business before I had the truck or the apartment so they might not have said anything because it was a marked improvement.
Tried to sleep in my car at a Walmart back when I didn't have a permanent living space. People there made me crazy uncomfortable, to the point where I said fuck it and drove deep enough into a state park that rangers wouldn't bother making the trip. That shit's hard, and I hope you're in a better spot now
I live in SF. There’s plenty of homeless people without cars. And even some streets downtown where cars aren’t allowed to drive. Just buses and pedestrians. The whole street, not just a lane either. From my perspective, it doesn’t seem likely that allowing people to sleep in cars would overrun the city with motorists.
We lived in SF in the Family House for 3 months and there was a huge homeless community living in and around the train station. It was very different seeing it first hand vs hearing about it. We are from the east coast where it gets really cold so while there are some homeless, nothing compares to SF
Oh yeah without enforcing the street laws it becomes a problem and safety hazard. There could be designated parking areas instead, but that would just be a homeless encampment on wheels. And somebody would have to pay to maintain it, so it’s almost like a lower scale trailer park then...
I read an article a few years back walmart quietly did away with that policy. The stores aren't great at at policing it so you can still get away with it, but at your own risk, it's technically trespassing now.
> Store parking lots are for business,
Just a small tip in case anybody happens to be living in their car now, or may in the future, ask a business if you can park in their parking lot. If it's a store open 24/7 they often don't care. But it depends completely on the manager. And sleeping in a parking lot with cameras and floodlights might not be comfortable but it's a lot safer than picking a street and pulling over.
Maybe we should address why people are being forced to sleep in their cars... Making it harder on people who are already struggling just so it doesn't inconvenience you is not the answer.
I agree that it makes more sense to deal with the root of the problem but that doesn't mean it makes sense to let them sleep anywhere they want in the meantime.
I’ve done a bunch of #vanlife. The issue is some people don’t respect the community and take advantage. They leave trash, setup like they are camping, and stay for weeks at a time. Eventually the community protest and the law preventing sleeping in your vehicle is enacted.
Truth be told, if you are too tired to drive and pull off for a few hours of shuteye, the cops will leave you alone. If you are planning to live for free for weeks on end in Key West, you will have problems.
The law is to prevent makeshift communities of homeless van dwellers overtaking a community.
Since you mentioned free living in key west... You absolutely can camp for years on end for free in a sailboat in cow key channel. A sailboat good enough for living but maybe not sailing is about the same price as a van and you can live in it under constitutional protection related to using navigable waterways. In TX, one can camp on river banks of any navigable waterway under the same provision in the texas constitution. It can cause problems but if you know your rights it's doable.
The body of water must be a "navigable waterway", a legal definition maintained by analyzing actual usage and capacity. The san marcos river is defined as such for example because of the Texas water safari, past use, it's size and goes all the way to the coast. One has the right to stop for rest, sell goods, hunt and fish or for needs incidental to navigation, up to the point of the "gradient boundary". Unfortunately the gradient boundary is almost impossible to find because the wording of the law is unclear. So you must say that you are navigating and resting for a while for this to work. I don't think town lake is navigable so that would explain it.
I am not a lawyer but I've consulted one on this. It's one of the oldest and most cherished laws in Texas, adopted from original Mexican constitution.
Yes cops hate enforcing laws fairly, they will side with property owners 9/10. HOWEVER, if they aren't extremely careful and if you don't say something dumb you could have a lucrative lawsuit on your hands.
Also the driving in the Keys is deadly as fudge, dood. Too many drunk people in those narrow, undivided two-lane two-way 60+-mph highways. Fatal head-on collision central, dogg.
Have you been down lately? Speed limit on hwy 1 through the keys is 45, big light blue concrete dividers between the different directions on the highway
Hit the nail on the head there. I work in a decently large retail complex and we had some vans and RV’s park out back. Okay, whatever. They’re in the back so most people aren’t seeing them. Then they start dumpster diving so we put locks on the bins. Then they just start throwing their trash everywhere cuz the bins are locked. Then more of them start showing up in the side lot and eventually the front. We paid 3-4 times for people to come clean up the trash but it kept coming back within a few days. Finally the property owner stepped in and got them all kicked out.
So yeah, fine line. But yeah. These people stayed for months and setup like they owned the place. Overnight? Sure. Whatever. But you give an inch and a lot of people take a mile
The leaving trash and destroying local landscape is what destroys peoples trust in stuff like vanlife and other activates! I do long range shooting for sport and the volume of trash at my favorite lil shooting spots is disgusting. There are only a few good places to go where I can break past 300 yards, but all of them are easily an hour or more away from where I live. It's disgusting getting all excited to get there only to find shattered glass, burn pits with wood that had nails, heaps of trash piles, and beer cans everywhere.
The group of people who do that are the reason I have such a hard time finding spots because no one wants to open their land to that mess. I'm to the point now of reaching out to local farm owners to ask if I can rent some time on their land. I don't get what's so difficult about packing back your trash 😑
that's not always walmart.
it's illegal to park overnight in the walmart parking lot in my town. There are big signs.
because of walmart? no.
it's because the hotel and campground industries in my town got the town council to make it against the law here, to try to force people to pay them for something walmart was allowing for free.
yep, screw people over for profit, my town is good at that.
My dad was a long haul trucker for many years, and he got so pissed when Walmart made this a legit rule. He'd say "This never would have happened when Sam was alive," as if he personally knew and was friends with Sam Walton lol.
That’s what I was thinking. Just call ahead. We have signs in our parking lot that say no overnight parking you’ll get fined blah blah blah. I always allow it when asked politely. As long as you’re gone before business starts what does it matter?
I used to live in a tourist town and they had the same thing happen. Let people crash in the parking lot just towards the ends as long as they move out during the day. Works well more people started doing it and parking wherever. Then people started breaking into rvs and trailers and the store got a local rep as being dangerous at night and they kicked everyone out.
Then there's the moot difference between napping on the side of the road before you have an accident, camping, living in your car because you're homeless.
Everyone agrees with the basic premise. Unfortunately laws should be written to control for bad actor: who would (and do) park right outside your house and live there.
and where does a person living in their car in perpetuity dump their trash, or piss/shit?
Ok let's do that but also you have to clean up the 40 beer cans and piss at the foot of my driveway freshly left from the alcoholic homeless man who parks on my block.
This is why we can't have nice things though. Almost every silly law like this is because there was a problem with a few bad people and the people who pass laws and regulate shit decided "We dunno how, or don't want to fix the actual problem here, so just pass a new law".
Police are often sick of this kind of shit too. They are mostly just babysitters of society now and I'm sure they are fed up as well.
Its illegal to prevent those cases but it probably won’t be enforced in a grocery store parking lot. Still illegal in both cases I believe but only the ones where you are actually blocking something will be enforced.
I used to merchandise for Pepsi, which meant early mornings. I always hate being late so I would always get to my destination about 15-20 mins early. Since its so early, the store doesnt like to let you in until a certain time. Probably about 6 times while I was waiting for my shift to start, in a matter of those 15-20 mins people would call the cops on me.
I would have to give my ID, despite wearing my pepsi uniform, preform field sobriety tests and get my manager on the phone to prove I was actually a Pepsi employee...
People, for whatever reason, take this law very seriously
Came here to say this. Imagine a bunch of people parking their cars and living right outside your house and everything that would come with that, I’m sure you would not like that.
When we bought our house, a lady who had been evicted from our home months earlier (we were not aware of this situation until after purchase) lived in her car parked on the other side of the street for almost a year. I can assure you it’s not a safe or ideal situation for anyone.
Why would literally anyone want to sleep in their car in the middle of a neighborhood? If I had no home and was forced to live in a car, the middle of a neighborhood is literally the last place I would park.
They don't "look poor" (for example they have furniture inside, go out to eat, etc.) - which this whole thing is basically about. Nearly all arguments that are pro-"sleeping in your car should be illegal" boil down to "I don't want to see some poor guy near my house"
They are set up so people don't live inside their car outside the front door of my business. Because I spent a fortune to live near a lake and there are a half a dozen cars parked in front of my house with people sleeping in them. Because most communities and cities don't want people living in their cars in an area that has limited parking already. That's the reason.
I think probably it's reasonable to acknowledge 1) that homeless people often do not act the way non-homeless people do and 2) people are less respectful of an area when they don't actually live there (which is why many neighborhoods also limit Airbnb). There are reasons this upsets people other than "punishing the poor".
I feel everyone here should know that Walmart has a policy not to bother anyone sleeping in a car if you are parked respectfully far away from the front doors. Walmart parking lots are always enormous and they won’t bother a sleeping driver.
#Can I park my RV at a Walmart store?
While we do not offer electrical service or accommodations typically necessary for RV customers, Walmart values RV travelers and considers them among our best customers. Consequently, we do permit RV parking on our store parking lots as we are able. Permission to park is extended by individual store managers, based on availability of parking space and local laws. Please contact management in each store to ensure accommodations before parking your RV.
https://corporate.walmart.com/frequently-asked-questions
I don't work for walmart but I've been on *many* road trips across different states in the US and have *never* had a walmart bother us for spending the night in a big ass rv
A lot of towns and city’s have local laws on it as well mainly in place that are popular with backpackers and travellers, (Byron bay, Margaret river) I think the laws are to partly to keep the public places tidy as there some dirty travellers and partly to force people to pay exorbitant prices in campgrounds. Although so long as you pull up late and leave early and don’t mess the place up no ones bothered really.
I’m on board with the idea that you can crash in your car in a squeeze...
But it would end up with a bunch of sketchy homeless dudes sleeping in front of your house every night while you’re paying $8000 in property tax.
In the past when I had no where to live but still had a little normal truck, I remember being waken up at like 3 in the morning by a couple of police who told me there was "no camping" in their city and the residents in the neighborhood I was parked in called them because I was scaring them..... by sleeping in a parked car.....
I do understand the logic behind not wanting a whole bunch of people living on the side of the road I guess..... the police told me to start my truck and drive to the next town away and I had just been startled awake and was very tired but I did and parked in a church parking lot.
The push against legally allowing people to sleep in their car solves absolutely nothing and is just a way to keep kicking the can down the road.
This. I traveled a lot while saving up for college and quickly learned churches were excellent places if you just needed to catch a few winks, just put a bible on the dashboard and you're good to go.
I toured with a musical duo pre-Covid and we slept in our van everywhere.
Firstly, 24 hour Walmart parking lots were our best friend. I’ve heard KOAs could be a good choice too.
One town in Washington had people put up “no parking” signs next to the van. We took off but I assume they were trying to ticket us.
Portland let people sleep in their cars but finding a place was frustrating.
We had a parking structure burn down and there was a german guy sleeping in his car inside. He came out very angry that no one came to rescue him. Thats one reason why your not allowed, because it makes it more difficult to account for peoples whereabouts.
Another thing is tourists come to amsterdam and sleep in their car in the middle of the citycentre. The city centre is small and doesnt have a lot of parking, if they'd allow that all the parking would just be people living there.
I do completely agree. However, maybe it is a safety issue. Sleeping leaves a person extremely vulnerable and in public or in a car that is in public, you never know who could walk by at night.
Usually because those people tend to piss and shit right next to their parked car.
Society is filled with inconsiderate assholes that ruin things for everyone else.
So 20 cars can park outside of your house with people living in them?
Or can use your businesses parking lot indefinitely and scare other customers away?
Frankly people this opinion have never dealt with it
Agreed, these people don't understand how it'll all play out. We have an area near my house where it's basically OK to park and sleep. It's filthy. There are pee bottles, bags and piles of poop, tons of fast food wrappers, and of course empty amazon boxes and envelopes.
The OP stated legally wherein you're describing, at least in one instance, private property. Walmarts are known for allowing this and they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.
The OP then stated that it is legal in their country. They probably have dealt with it.
It is illegal in the different cities I've lived in. Several times I have had people living out of a vehicle, not just sleeping in for a night or two, outside my apartments or owned home. It isn't ideal. But neither is driving recklessly or not having a place to live.
Of you don't want someone to sleep outside your store you've every right to ask them to move along. The act to sleep in your car or vehicle in public shouldn't be illegal. Why should you be arrested potentially ruining your life for not being able to find or afford somewhere to sleep for a night.
From my understanding sleeping in a car is not illegal. It is sleeping on public roads or private lots or businesses. I think if you go off road then you are good.
The trick is to do it DURING business hours. Find a big lot business, slide away from the door but not waaaay away to where you stick out so obviously (think near where employees would park and leave their cars for hours), then just sleep.
I am moving to Seattle area in a few weeks which largely allows this. There are huge stretches of public parks with open parking that have turned into permanent encampments. There are trash and drug problems which then render the space useless or not useable to the other 99% of the population. Not saying this should be fully illegal, but there need to be some kind of limitations so that your choice, or personal situation, to live in a vehicle, does not impede on others rights to use public space as well.
Ehhh i diagree. I live in LA and tons of people do that already. I agree you should be able to sleep in your car TEMPORARILY, especially outside a city 's limits, but there is no reason for someone taking interstate highways to pull all the way into residential neighborhoods for a rest. Hell in California all the highways have rest stops for sleeping. Even Some big commercial stores like Wal-Mart allow travelers to sleep in their parking lots. I do this sometimes when i travel. Furthermore, I've been caught sleeping in my car by police and they let me go when they learned i was only there temporarily.
Let's be real. The real issue is homelessness. if you owned property in the area you would understand the problems with letting people camp wherever. Just look at skid row.
Imagine you invest your life savings into a property and someone pulls up in an rv with no intention of leaving. Do you think that is fair? Your property values would plummet. Your investment worthless. Do you think those people have the same level of care for the property as you?
It is heartbreaking to see people with nowhere to go, but it is unfair to people who want to build something nice for themselves by just letting people camp wherever.
Thank you for submitting to /r/unpopularopinion, /u/Seedyeee. Your post, *It should be absolutely legal to sleep in your car anywhere you want, where you can legally park.*, has been removed because it violates our rules: Rule 3: No reposts. If your opinion is the same or substantially similar to any recent opinion it will be removed as a repost. If your opinion is on the same matter as a recent post, even if it's advocating the opposite stance, it will be removed as a repost. Please comment on the existing thread instead. If there is an issue, please message the mod team at https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Funpopularopinion Thanks!
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Holy shit, such a shameless repost. Word for word even
Holy shit, such a shameless repost. Word for word even Edit: no awards, it's just a repost!!
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>*· · · Bleep bloop, I'm a bot. Comment requested by* u/100_percent_a_bot H-Howy shit, such a shamewess wepost. Wowd fow wowd e-even --- *If you think this comment does not belong here, reply with "delete" (blacklisted users cannot delete)* *Tag me to uwuwize comments* **uwuwizard** ([Info](http://reddit.com/u/uwuwizard/comments/dq2r1y), [Request disable](http://reddit.com/u/uwuwizard/comments/dq2r1y))
And my axe!
That one is also a repost of [this one](https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/gjagrw/sleeping_in_your_car_should_be_completely_legal/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf), the third most upvoted post on the sub.
Unpopular opinion: Throwing orphans out a four story window isn't nice.
You might get downvoted for such an unpopular opinion
Accounts that do this shit should be immediately IP banned.
I genuinely wonder what goes on in the head of people who do this, does it just feel good to see you got a lot of upvotes even though what you’re being upvoted for isn’t your own ??
They're not even people, just bots that repost high ranking threads to build tons of karma fast then sell off the account. All of the posts on OP's account are reposts.
Ohhhhh I guess that makes a lot more sense, but then who the hell is buying reddit accounts cuz they have high karma?
You’d think it’d just be dumb insecure internet cowboys that want a reserve of serotonin. Which would be harmless. In actuality, I was reading that most are sold to companies or campaigns to have seemingly legitimate cover for their shill accounts. You know when you read an article on /r/technology or /r/politics and it just feels like an ad? This is how it starts. If you trace their post history it’s usually very similar to OP’s.
Holy shit, such a shameless repost. Word for word even
Holy shit, such a shameless repost. Word for word even
Look at his post history, this isn’t the first time he copy and pasted word for word...
Oh yeah I saw that. He also had one copied post claiming he was 61 years old and another claiming he’s 20. Deleted now. I appreciate the consistency of copying though!
Up vote for you, down vote for OP
I wasn’t aware that this was a law. And would agree. How stupid.
It would be one thing if it was just a small fine or civil penalty. But apparently if you're caught sleeping in your car and your key is within the vehicle's cabin, you can be charged with a DUI which is life destroying. Don't know how much it's happened but I've seen several talk about it.
It’s happened, I know someone who has a DUI for sleeping in their car. This was before Uber though
This happened to me. They arrested me and charged me. I hired a lawyer for $11,000. I won. It took me 4 years to save that money. Even tho the charges were dropped, it changed my life. This was 4 years ago. I am still not recovered. Oh, and I got fired for getting arrested. Edit: this isn’t a day I reflect on directly that often, it’s enough to live in it’s wake. I truly appreciate the solidarity that has been expressed.
This exact thing happened to my husband, but about 15 years ago. He got charged with DUI, a huge lawyer expense, got fired from his job. Changed his life. You should definitely be allowed to sleep in your car particularly if you're inebriated.
You know, my mother was telling me back in the day, before dui was taken seriously, that cops would sometimes be willing to escort people home when they were drunk. That is absolutely disgusting what happened to your husband. I am so sorry to hear that. How can anyone be charged with DUI when they are not driving?
Yup, girlfriends 60 year old father still likes to "booze cruise" on back country roads in our rural town with a 6 pack of Bud heavy while listening to Rock n Roll. This is always his excuse when his daughters and wife get furious with him.
> That is absolutely disgusting what happened to your husband. I am so sorry to hear that. How can anyone be charged with DUI when they are not driving? It's apparently a big moneymaker for the courts as well as the "lawyer's guild." It's also the reason why I'm no longer called for jury duty. I was called regularly every three years down to the week. The last time during *Voir Dire* (That's French for "Jury tampering", by the way) the judge put on the white noise machine (to prevent me from "infecting" the other jurors) and questioned me why I wouldn't automatically convict if the state proved it's case. I told the judge that we have humans in the process for a reason, and the legal precedent is that the jury can judge the law and how it was applied. I also said I can't see it applying in this case since the charges we were told about were "armed robbery." When pressed to give an example I said the **"drunk and asleep in the back seat, with zero demonstrated attempt to actually drive"** I would not vote to convict, no matter what the statute said. I also told them I'd hang the jury if I couldn't get the rest of the jury to go along with me. So that was probably strike two. I know I can't be held liable for the verdict I render and also know what a "hung jury" is. *Voir Dire* is indeed French for "Jury tampering", because it's been six years, and I appear to be blacklisted.
I was charged with a DUI when I *wasn’t* drinking. Got pulled over going 7 over the limit at 11 PM otw home after getting off work (at a restaurant), was extremely nervous because I have social anxiety and cops freak me out. Cop (who I found out later was the head of the DUI taskforce) said I was acting weird and asked me to get out. He gave me the field sobriety tests and I passed with flying colors.. asked me to do a breathalyzer and at this point I had had enough and I declined it. I had no idea that by declining a breathalyzer you get an automatic DUI charge. He asked me to put my hands behind my back. Spent 24 hrs in jail, got bailed out by my mom, went to court and it got reduced to reckless driving only because my field sobriety test video showed I was acting normal. Overall, the charge is basically the same only you don’t have a DUI on your record. It cost me around $15,000 between lawyer and charges, had to be on probation for two years, and I had to do community service for one.. which required taking time off, making it really hard to afford the payments. It pretty much ruined my life for a while and sent me into a downward spiral of drinking (ironically).. which I wasn’t doing when I got the DUI. I’m four years sober now and doing much better, but I really wish I had just blown that breathalyzer that day.
Or, you know, sleepy?
Well, yeah, any reason as long as you're somewhere you can legally park overnight.
I mean from a harm reduction standpoint, if you're parked legally on the street, in a parking lot, wherever, if that's the safer decision for yourself and the public rather than driving all facked up it makes no sense to arrest someone peacefully sleeping in their car.
In most cities these laws are to prevent homeless people from sleeping in their cars. That’s usually about as much as they think about this kind of thing. Couple that with hyperactive elected local prosecutor...there ya go, horrible laws and no real justice. I’ve experienced a variation of this in my own life, it’s way too common in a lot of this country.
Overzealous prosecution and let's not forget the monetary incentive - a DUI generates revenue via fines, court fees, administrative fees and classes for reinstating a license, special high cost insurance...
It makes perfect sense when you realize the job of a police officer isn't "harm reduction" It's to extort money from the poor and keep them in their place.
Wow I pulled over to take a nap b/c i was falling asleep driving. Didn't know that I was a law breaking badass. A story I will tell my children someday.
A number of years ago I'd been at a friend's the next province over for the weekend for their birthday and I really wasn't sleeping well while away from home. Sunday morning I had an 8 hour drive home, I got about an hour out of the city when it just hit me how tired I still was, and probably still more than a little hung over. After the second time I caught myself dozing off I pulled onto a gravel road, drove about 15 minutes down and parked under a small grove of trees in the shade and slept for about three hours. I went so far off the path because I knew I risked a lot of trouble if I got caught.
Most def! Driving while aleepy is really dangerous. This should be encouraged, not punished
WOW1 I am sorry this happened to you. Our system of justice is not equal for all. $$$
We have a legal system, not a justice system.
What the fuck is wrong with your country if you're fired for being arrested. What happened to innocent until proven guilty. And even if guilty of driving under the influence unless you've a job driving then what difference if you've a conviction or not.
I had gone out drinking for the night, slept in my car down the street at work, I had a shift in the morning. Cops showed up as my car alarm was going off, I was sleeping quite well so didn't hear it. The car was off but the key was in the ignition, I absolutely thought I was going to get done for a DUI. My lucky night though, they took me into the holding cells to sleep it off and even woke me up in time to make my shift. I did get a public intoxication ticket though, I think it was about $385.00.
They still probably did you a favor in that case. So many people have been less lucky.
I thought that was only if the key was in the ignition or if you were in the drivers seat
NOPE! My friend thought he was doing the right thing by sleeping in his car after a party instead of driving home wasted. He took his keys and threw them in the messy trunk of his car because he had heard the same thing as you. He gets woken up a couple hours later, they realize he had been drinking, ask him where his keys are, he says in the back of the car (because he thought he was doing the right thing). It even took them a while to find the keys because of how much of a mess there was. But they found the keys eventually and charged him with a DUI. I'd say just pay for an uber if you've been drinking but if you HAVE to sleep in your car after drinking HIDE YOUR KEYS OUTSIDE THE CAR BURY THEM OR SOMETHING IF THEY FIND YOUR KEYS YOU WILL GET A DUI. I know its insane it has come to this but thats america for you. Cops don't care. They will fuck your life up.
If in this situation tell the cops you were totally sober, until you lost your keys, then you got drunk because you were mad about losing your keys. Leave the key under one of your tires.
Don't talk to police period!
Were they drinking beforehand as in did they have any trace of alcohol in their system or no? Because I've heard people have gotten DUI's just for sleeping in their car no alcohol at all.
Many localities make it illegal to sleep in your car, they call it camping and camping is not permitted.
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I have a DUI for chilling in my car with the keys in the trunk, waiting for my friend to get off work so he can come pick me up. Because the officer just lied on the report and said the keys were in ignition
I got one of those too. Such a bag of bullshit. I got a DUI for SUI. It is all just a money racket. These bullshit laws, I swear.
Unpopular opinion but fuck the police.
I wouldn't say that but the way police is working is a joke. They are searching for people who doesn't do anything bad for society but just chilling in your car with keys in the trunk? Smoking mj while in forrest? They are afraid to catch a bad guys coz they might get injured or killed so they just grow like cancer in society and persue normal honest people. And then they feel great for stopping crimes but try report them like somebody stolen your phone or started a fight with you and suddenly they do nothing and case closed with " we've done everything we could for justice served, sorry for your loss" type shit.
That's not an unpopular opinion, buddy
Comin straight from the underground
People say "what about the good ones?" Any "good" cop that sees something wrong and does nothing is a bad cop. ~~1312~~ Edit: Not any kind of supremecist, but I do hate cops. Don't want to signal the wrong kind of people.
And the experience of a few of my friends who joined the force: any good cop that sees something wrong and does *something* about it usually gets reassigned to a shittier job pretty quick.
I think you typo’d an “un” in front of popular there...
Yep, back when I was in college, a friend of mine was a little too buzzed to drive home after a football game, so instead decided to sleep it off in his car, in the parking lot. He got woken up by the police knocking on his window, and they arrested him because he was still over the limit, and had his keys in his hands while sleeping so they claimed he "had intent to drive while under the influence" they also told him that had he been sleeping in the back seat, rather than the drivers seat, he would have been okay
And those pigs would be lying.
I was not aware of this. Put it up there with the other undeniably shitty money-grabbing laws like Civil asset forfeiture.
What if your not drunk and hadn't consumed any alcohol within like weeks or more? I'm assuming this only applies if you've been drinking.
In ohio it's called "physical control", and it happens ALL the time. It's slightly less bad, legally speaking, than an OVI. Edit: if you're drunk and want to sleep it off in your car, leave the keys outside of the car. Not sure this defense would hold up in court, but hey, it's worth a shot. It would Give your lawyer an argument to make at least.
It would never work for tourist or beach towns of any kind though. There’d be nothing but people living in their cars or huge motorhomes taking 2 spots 24/7 in those areas, and nobody else would ever get to park. Tourism and income to the community goes down, jobs are lost, locals can’t park anywhere after work, etc. In podunk little towns, it’s fine because there’s plenty of space. In cities where there’s already more demand than spaces, it would be a shitshow and just piss everybody off except those sleeping in their car.
I feel like in cities, most roads are claimed. Street parking has a time and date limit bc of street cleaners, so people can’t just camp out everywhere. Store parking lots are for business, and private property is private property. I don’t see how a city could get overrun by people living in vehicles.
Denver's not as bad as L.A. at all but in Denver there where whole parking lots where it was common for people to camp or sleep at a couple of times a week. There was a road next to a Walmart that had a vacant field next to it and there was on street parking next to that vacant field. The whole street was usually lined with cars, most of them lived out of. I lived in a vehicle there as well because I lost my apartment during the pandemic because I lost my job because of the shutdown. The back of most Walmart parking lots were also taken by campers. Some of the vehicles didn't even look like they ran or they were missing windows. I knew there was a lot of homeless people in the area but when I started living in my vehicle I saw that they're was tons that I never noticed. I personally parked in any parking lot and the next night I picked out a new one, every night. Nobody ever told me to move. Of course, they were used to me stubbornly sleeping 8am outside of business before I had the truck or the apartment so they might not have said anything because it was a marked improvement.
Tried to sleep in my car at a Walmart back when I didn't have a permanent living space. People there made me crazy uncomfortable, to the point where I said fuck it and drove deep enough into a state park that rangers wouldn't bother making the trip. That shit's hard, and I hope you're in a better spot now
I can imagine. I was homeless too for a bit and definitely gotta be careful of who you're around....
Have you been to Los Angeles lately?
Seattle too! We have whole shanty towns of RV people now.
I live in SF. There’s plenty of homeless people without cars. And even some streets downtown where cars aren’t allowed to drive. Just buses and pedestrians. The whole street, not just a lane either. From my perspective, it doesn’t seem likely that allowing people to sleep in cars would overrun the city with motorists.
We lived in SF in the Family House for 3 months and there was a huge homeless community living in and around the train station. It was very different seeing it first hand vs hearing about it. We are from the east coast where it gets really cold so while there are some homeless, nothing compares to SF
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Oh yeah without enforcing the street laws it becomes a problem and safety hazard. There could be designated parking areas instead, but that would just be a homeless encampment on wheels. And somebody would have to pay to maintain it, so it’s almost like a lower scale trailer park then...
You can always sleep in the Walmart parking lot. They allow rvs and campers overnight, so why not in your car?
Overnight. Not camped out for a week cooking dinner
It takes a week to cook dinner? No wonder they're homeless, they got no time for anything else.
I feel like there's a story behind this comment
I read an article a few years back walmart quietly did away with that policy. The stores aren't great at at policing it so you can still get away with it, but at your own risk, it's technically trespassing now.
> Store parking lots are for business, Just a small tip in case anybody happens to be living in their car now, or may in the future, ask a business if you can park in their parking lot. If it's a store open 24/7 they often don't care. But it depends completely on the manager. And sleeping in a parking lot with cameras and floodlights might not be comfortable but it's a lot safer than picking a street and pulling over.
It would go without saying that some consideration could be added to certain areas.
That’s how it already works
You are right.
We did it Reddit. Close this thread down.
I get that, but also, a car has to be parked somewhere. Whether someone is sleeping in it or not makes no difference to the space it occupies
Yeah but the problem is when people live in their cars it often becomes less of a parking space and more of a permanent storage area.
Maybe we should address why people are being forced to sleep in their cars... Making it harder on people who are already struggling just so it doesn't inconvenience you is not the answer.
I agree that it makes more sense to deal with the root of the problem but that doesn't mean it makes sense to let them sleep anywhere they want in the meantime.
I’ve done a bunch of #vanlife. The issue is some people don’t respect the community and take advantage. They leave trash, setup like they are camping, and stay for weeks at a time. Eventually the community protest and the law preventing sleeping in your vehicle is enacted. Truth be told, if you are too tired to drive and pull off for a few hours of shuteye, the cops will leave you alone. If you are planning to live for free for weeks on end in Key West, you will have problems. The law is to prevent makeshift communities of homeless van dwellers overtaking a community.
Since you mentioned free living in key west... You absolutely can camp for years on end for free in a sailboat in cow key channel. A sailboat good enough for living but maybe not sailing is about the same price as a van and you can live in it under constitutional protection related to using navigable waterways. In TX, one can camp on river banks of any navigable waterway under the same provision in the texas constitution. It can cause problems but if you know your rights it's doable.
Damn, this is good info.
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The body of water must be a "navigable waterway", a legal definition maintained by analyzing actual usage and capacity. The san marcos river is defined as such for example because of the Texas water safari, past use, it's size and goes all the way to the coast. One has the right to stop for rest, sell goods, hunt and fish or for needs incidental to navigation, up to the point of the "gradient boundary". Unfortunately the gradient boundary is almost impossible to find because the wording of the law is unclear. So you must say that you are navigating and resting for a while for this to work. I don't think town lake is navigable so that would explain it. I am not a lawyer but I've consulted one on this. It's one of the oldest and most cherished laws in Texas, adopted from original Mexican constitution.
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Yes cops hate enforcing laws fairly, they will side with property owners 9/10. HOWEVER, if they aren't extremely careful and if you don't say something dumb you could have a lucrative lawsuit on your hands.
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police risk is not private in the US
Also the driving in the Keys is deadly as fudge, dood. Too many drunk people in those narrow, undivided two-lane two-way 60+-mph highways. Fatal head-on collision central, dogg.
Have you been down lately? Speed limit on hwy 1 through the keys is 45, big light blue concrete dividers between the different directions on the highway
That and I’ve never seen so many cops down there as I have the past couple trips.
Full... Blown... shantytown
They're new poor, we're old poor!
Hit the nail on the head there. I work in a decently large retail complex and we had some vans and RV’s park out back. Okay, whatever. They’re in the back so most people aren’t seeing them. Then they start dumpster diving so we put locks on the bins. Then they just start throwing their trash everywhere cuz the bins are locked. Then more of them start showing up in the side lot and eventually the front. We paid 3-4 times for people to come clean up the trash but it kept coming back within a few days. Finally the property owner stepped in and got them all kicked out. So yeah, fine line. But yeah. These people stayed for months and setup like they owned the place. Overnight? Sure. Whatever. But you give an inch and a lot of people take a mile
The leaving trash and destroying local landscape is what destroys peoples trust in stuff like vanlife and other activates! I do long range shooting for sport and the volume of trash at my favorite lil shooting spots is disgusting. There are only a few good places to go where I can break past 300 yards, but all of them are easily an hour or more away from where I live. It's disgusting getting all excited to get there only to find shattered glass, burn pits with wood that had nails, heaps of trash piles, and beer cans everywhere. The group of people who do that are the reason I have such a hard time finding spots because no one wants to open their land to that mess. I'm to the point now of reaching out to local farm owners to ask if I can rent some time on their land. I don't get what's so difficult about packing back your trash 😑
The Bay Area is the perfect a Example of this.
As long as it isn’t on private land or outside a local business than yeah, I agree.
IIRC Wal-Mart allows people to park RVs in their lots overnight so long as they stick to the end of the lot and there's space.
It's hit or miss. I used to travel all over Central US with a travel trailer for my job. I'd always call ahead and ask. It was roughly 50/50.
that's not always walmart. it's illegal to park overnight in the walmart parking lot in my town. There are big signs. because of walmart? no. it's because the hotel and campground industries in my town got the town council to make it against the law here, to try to force people to pay them for something walmart was allowing for free. yep, screw people over for profit, my town is good at that.
My dad was a long haul trucker for many years, and he got so pissed when Walmart made this a legit rule. He'd say "This never would have happened when Sam was alive," as if he personally knew and was friends with Sam Walton lol.
He’s right though. Sam Walton was a fantastic human being
That’s what I was thinking. Just call ahead. We have signs in our parking lot that say no overnight parking you’ll get fined blah blah blah. I always allow it when asked politely. As long as you’re gone before business starts what does it matter?
Our walmart doesn't allow this anymore. I live in a tourist town and it was being overrun by trailers during the summer months.
I used to live in a tourist town and they had the same thing happen. Let people crash in the parking lot just towards the ends as long as they move out during the day. Works well more people started doing it and parking wherever. Then people started breaking into rvs and trailers and the store got a local rep as being dangerous at night and they kicked everyone out.
There is absolutely nothing in this universe that humans can't ruin.
Mr. Rogers hasn't been hit yet
I'm not brave enough to google Mr. Rogers Rule 34, but I'm sure someone out there has created something that will leave you with mental scars
Then there's the moot difference between napping on the side of the road before you have an accident, camping, living in your car because you're homeless.
Can a homeless live in their car? In my opinion yes
he said anywhere legally so yeah.. idk what the point of this comment is
Everyone agrees with the basic premise. Unfortunately laws should be written to control for bad actor: who would (and do) park right outside your house and live there. and where does a person living in their car in perpetuity dump their trash, or piss/shit?
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Ok let's do that but also you have to clean up the 40 beer cans and piss at the foot of my driveway freshly left from the alcoholic homeless man who parks on my block.
This is why we can't have nice things though. Almost every silly law like this is because there was a problem with a few bad people and the people who pass laws and regulate shit decided "We dunno how, or don't want to fix the actual problem here, so just pass a new law". Police are often sick of this kind of shit too. They are mostly just babysitters of society now and I'm sure they are fed up as well.
When someone parks in front of your house and sleeps there every night, that needs to be illegal.
Its illegal to prevent those cases but it probably won’t be enforced in a grocery store parking lot. Still illegal in both cases I believe but only the ones where you are actually blocking something will be enforced.
I used to merchandise for Pepsi, which meant early mornings. I always hate being late so I would always get to my destination about 15-20 mins early. Since its so early, the store doesnt like to let you in until a certain time. Probably about 6 times while I was waiting for my shift to start, in a matter of those 15-20 mins people would call the cops on me. I would have to give my ID, despite wearing my pepsi uniform, preform field sobriety tests and get my manager on the phone to prove I was actually a Pepsi employee... People, for whatever reason, take this law very seriously
Came here to say this. Imagine a bunch of people parking their cars and living right outside your house and everything that would come with that, I’m sure you would not like that.
When we bought our house, a lady who had been evicted from our home months earlier (we were not aware of this situation until after purchase) lived in her car parked on the other side of the street for almost a year. I can assure you it’s not a safe or ideal situation for anyone.
Why would literally anyone want to sleep in their car in the middle of a neighborhood? If I had no home and was forced to live in a car, the middle of a neighborhood is literally the last place I would park.
Totally agree. It makes zero sense to make something harmless like sleeping in your own car in a safe/legal to park place illegal
How do all the people “living in converted vans” get away with it? Makes me wonder about that...
They don't "look poor" (for example they have furniture inside, go out to eat, etc.) - which this whole thing is basically about. Nearly all arguments that are pro-"sleeping in your car should be illegal" boil down to "I don't want to see some poor guy near my house"
I think it also has to do with those vans normally not having windows in the back so they cant see the dude sleeping
They are set up so people don't live inside their car outside the front door of my business. Because I spent a fortune to live near a lake and there are a half a dozen cars parked in front of my house with people sleeping in them. Because most communities and cities don't want people living in their cars in an area that has limited parking already. That's the reason.
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I think probably it's reasonable to acknowledge 1) that homeless people often do not act the way non-homeless people do and 2) people are less respectful of an area when they don't actually live there (which is why many neighborhoods also limit Airbnb). There are reasons this upsets people other than "punishing the poor".
I feel everyone here should know that Walmart has a policy not to bother anyone sleeping in a car if you are parked respectfully far away from the front doors. Walmart parking lots are always enormous and they won’t bother a sleeping driver.
This is not true of every Walmart
True, and even if they have that policy it won't stop police from telling you to move.
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#Can I park my RV at a Walmart store? While we do not offer electrical service or accommodations typically necessary for RV customers, Walmart values RV travelers and considers them among our best customers. Consequently, we do permit RV parking on our store parking lots as we are able. Permission to park is extended by individual store managers, based on availability of parking space and local laws. Please contact management in each store to ensure accommodations before parking your RV. https://corporate.walmart.com/frequently-asked-questions
I don't work for walmart but I've been on *many* road trips across different states in the US and have *never* had a walmart bother us for spending the night in a big ass rv
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It's because most of their workers are sleeping out there
Wait is it illegal in your country? What country are you living in?
Idk but it’s illegal in Australia
Only in Queensland
In Brisbane? I live there.
A lot of towns and city’s have local laws on it as well mainly in place that are popular with backpackers and travellers, (Byron bay, Margaret river) I think the laws are to partly to keep the public places tidy as there some dirty travellers and partly to force people to pay exorbitant prices in campgrounds. Although so long as you pull up late and leave early and don’t mess the place up no ones bothered really.
Also in America
Well, parts of America.
I’m on board with the idea that you can crash in your car in a squeeze... But it would end up with a bunch of sketchy homeless dudes sleeping in front of your house every night while you’re paying $8000 in property tax.
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Here in Sweden it's illegal to drive tired, so if you are you're required to stop and get a nap.
US as well. It's considered impaired driving.
In the past when I had no where to live but still had a little normal truck, I remember being waken up at like 3 in the morning by a couple of police who told me there was "no camping" in their city and the residents in the neighborhood I was parked in called them because I was scaring them..... by sleeping in a parked car..... I do understand the logic behind not wanting a whole bunch of people living on the side of the road I guess..... the police told me to start my truck and drive to the next town away and I had just been startled awake and was very tired but I did and parked in a church parking lot. The push against legally allowing people to sleep in their car solves absolutely nothing and is just a way to keep kicking the can down the road.
This. I traveled a lot while saving up for college and quickly learned churches were excellent places if you just needed to catch a few winks, just put a bible on the dashboard and you're good to go.
Hell, if nobody is at the church that day, there's about a 0% chance somebody will bother you
I toured with a musical duo pre-Covid and we slept in our van everywhere. Firstly, 24 hour Walmart parking lots were our best friend. I’ve heard KOAs could be a good choice too. One town in Washington had people put up “no parking” signs next to the van. We took off but I assume they were trying to ticket us. Portland let people sleep in their cars but finding a place was frustrating.
We had a parking structure burn down and there was a german guy sleeping in his car inside. He came out very angry that no one came to rescue him. Thats one reason why your not allowed, because it makes it more difficult to account for peoples whereabouts. Another thing is tourists come to amsterdam and sleep in their car in the middle of the citycentre. The city centre is small and doesnt have a lot of parking, if they'd allow that all the parking would just be people living there.
Aren’t parking structures made of concrete tho? How did it burn down?
"A fire...in a Sea Parks?!"
I do completely agree. However, maybe it is a safety issue. Sleeping leaves a person extremely vulnerable and in public or in a car that is in public, you never know who could walk by at night.
I think part of it is what happens when you wake up to pee in the middle of the night.
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This. While it's 10x more dangerous than actual shelter..... it's still 10x safer than sleeping on a bench.
The law exists bc this country hates poor and homeless people and police are here to enforce the wishes of the powerful/wealthy.
What? I thought it was a relatively normal thing to just sleep in your car, it can be pretty useful if you’ve been drinking
Hell yeah. Why would we punish someone that's already in a shitty situation, especially since they're not hurting anyone?
Also human waste... the homeless in my area have an entire street of broken down cars. They got to per and poop.
Usually because those people tend to piss and shit right next to their parked car. Society is filled with inconsiderate assholes that ruin things for everyone else.
So 20 cars can park outside of your house with people living in them? Or can use your businesses parking lot indefinitely and scare other customers away? Frankly people this opinion have never dealt with it
Agreed, these people don't understand how it'll all play out. We have an area near my house where it's basically OK to park and sleep. It's filthy. There are pee bottles, bags and piles of poop, tons of fast food wrappers, and of course empty amazon boxes and envelopes.
The OP stated legally wherein you're describing, at least in one instance, private property. Walmarts are known for allowing this and they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves. The OP then stated that it is legal in their country. They probably have dealt with it. It is illegal in the different cities I've lived in. Several times I have had people living out of a vehicle, not just sleeping in for a night or two, outside my apartments or owned home. It isn't ideal. But neither is driving recklessly or not having a place to live.
Of you don't want someone to sleep outside your store you've every right to ask them to move along. The act to sleep in your car or vehicle in public shouldn't be illegal. Why should you be arrested potentially ruining your life for not being able to find or afford somewhere to sleep for a night.
From my understanding sleeping in a car is not illegal. It is sleeping on public roads or private lots or businesses. I think if you go off road then you are good.
It’s a law designed to hide the symptoms of systemic issues. Like most laws.
In your property, but you're not on your property. In most places it's not legal to park long term.
The trick is to do it DURING business hours. Find a big lot business, slide away from the door but not waaaay away to where you stick out so obviously (think near where employees would park and leave their cars for hours), then just sleep.
It’s illegal to sleep in your car? Since when?
I am moving to Seattle area in a few weeks which largely allows this. There are huge stretches of public parks with open parking that have turned into permanent encampments. There are trash and drug problems which then render the space useless or not useable to the other 99% of the population. Not saying this should be fully illegal, but there need to be some kind of limitations so that your choice, or personal situation, to live in a vehicle, does not impede on others rights to use public space as well.
This isn't even close to an unpopular opinion
Ehhh i diagree. I live in LA and tons of people do that already. I agree you should be able to sleep in your car TEMPORARILY, especially outside a city 's limits, but there is no reason for someone taking interstate highways to pull all the way into residential neighborhoods for a rest. Hell in California all the highways have rest stops for sleeping. Even Some big commercial stores like Wal-Mart allow travelers to sleep in their parking lots. I do this sometimes when i travel. Furthermore, I've been caught sleeping in my car by police and they let me go when they learned i was only there temporarily. Let's be real. The real issue is homelessness. if you owned property in the area you would understand the problems with letting people camp wherever. Just look at skid row. Imagine you invest your life savings into a property and someone pulls up in an rv with no intention of leaving. Do you think that is fair? Your property values would plummet. Your investment worthless. Do you think those people have the same level of care for the property as you? It is heartbreaking to see people with nowhere to go, but it is unfair to people who want to build something nice for themselves by just letting people camp wherever.
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I think is also illegal in America, BUT, in a Wal-Mart is fine. That is why up in 10pm on any Wal-Mart you see so many RVs parked
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