Merced, CA Parking Rules: Overnight Parking (2026)

Merced has no blanket curfew banning parking on residential streets overnight. Instead, Section 10.28.030 sets the outer limit: no person who owns, possesses, or controls a vehicle may park it on any street, alley, or city parking lot for a consecutive period of more than seventy-two hours. Section 10.28.040 authorizes any police department member authorized by the chief of police to remove a vehicle left standing beyond that 72-hour window, in the manner required by the state Vehicle Code. Within that outer boundary, specific streets or lots can carry tighter, signed restrictions: Section 10.28.250, Overtime parking, makes it unlawful to park longer than the time indicated on posted signs or curb markings once such signs are in place, and if no specific hours are posted, the time limitation defaults to nine a.m. to five p.m. on any day except Sundays and holidays, meaning the default overtime rule does not restrict overnight hours at all.

Separately, Section 10.28.233 shows the city does use dedicated overnight no-parking signage on specific streets, such as Nottingham Avenue, barring any vehicle from stopping, standing, or parking there between six p.m. and six a.m. when authorized signs are erected under Section 10.28.210, confirming overnight bans exist only where the city has posted them for that stretch of road.