By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writer

Q. Every day, a moped business in town parks a number of its mopeds in a metered parking space outside its establishment and does not feed the meter. They're depriving other people, including customers of stores in the area, of parking. Is this legal?

A. Nothing prohibits a business from parking its vehicles in front of its business. It is also legal for more than one moped or motorcycle to park in a parallel stall so long as none of them encroach outside the stall and, if it's a metered stall, so long as the meter is fed.

It is, however, illegal to park in a metered stall beyond the posted time limit.

"Technically, if it's a one-hour parking stall, you're allowed to park one hour and you could be cited for overparking if you stayed there longer than an hour," said Kevin Fong, a unit supervisor for the parking enforcement section of the Honolulu Police Department's Traffic Division.

But Fong said when there is a complaint, parking enforcement personnel or police officers will mark the tires on vehicles along a specified block and check to see if cars are staying too long.

Q. What am I supposed to do on the freeway when an emergency vehicle is approaching quickly from behind me and there are fast-moving cars on both sides of me? I know that on streets, I'm supposed to pull over to the right. I've been seeing all kinds of strange, and sometimes extremely dangerous, reactions from other drivers, including stopping in the middle lane of the freeway.

A. Honolulu Police Traffic Division Capt. Jose Gaytan said that if you cannot get all the way onto a shoulder, move to the side closest to you. If it appears dangerous to stop, slow down, stopping only when it is safe.

The general rule requires you to "immediately drive to a position clear of any intersection and parallel to, and as close as possible to, the right hand edge or curb of the highway or the nearest edge or curb when the highway has multiple lanes or when the highway is a divided highway or one-way street and shall stop and remain in such position until the authorized emergency vehicle is passed except as otherwise directed by a police officer."

Gaytan said, "You should just keep trying to get out of the way, give them even a partial lane opening so they can squeeze through."

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