Seattle, WA Parking Rules: Curb Color Rules (2026)

140 defines the city's curb-marking color code: red means a tow-away zone; red-yellow-red alternating stripes mean a bus zone; yellow means a truck loading zone, a load-and-unload zone, a taxicab stand, or a no-parking zone adjacent to driveways or alleys; and white means a passenger load zone. This definitional chapter has stood since Ordinance 108200 in 1979 and applies wherever Seattle Department of Transportation crews paint or sign a curb, from downtown commercial blocks to residential streets near hydrants and bus stops. 410, titled 'Tow-away zone,' states plainly that no person shall stop, stand, or park a vehicle within any space signed or marked as a tow-away zone, and that violators will be impounded.

Unlike many of the other curb prohibitions in the same chapter, which only bar parking without addressing removal, this section pairs the parking ban with an explicit impoundment consequence written into the text itself, rather than leaving towing to a separate discretionary decision. Impoundment then proceeds under the City's separate impounding chapter, which folds in Washington's state towing statute by reference. Because the tow-away designation depends entirely on signage or curb paint rather than a fixed citywide list of streets, drivers have to read the curb itself: the same block can carry a red zone in front of a fire station or loading dock and an unmarked legal space a few feet away.

Business owners and property managers who want a red zone installed, or believe one has been posted in error, work through SDOT's traffic operations process rather than through the Municipal Code itself, since the ordinance sets the meaning of the color but leaves placement to the Department.