Madison, WI Parking Rules: Street Parking Limits (2026)

Madison General Ordinances § 12.128(15) lists the places where no person shall park, stop or leave a motor vehicle standing. Four of them are fixed distances or road conditions that apply without any sign: a highway closer than thirty feet on the approach to a stop sign, flashing beacon or official traffic control signal; a highway closer than fifteen feet to the near side of an intersection with a bicycle way; any bridge, overpass or other elevated portion of highway, or a tunnel; and any highway or public or private alley that is less than eighteen feet wide from curb to curb. Where a street or alley has no delineated curb, the eighteen foot measure is taken across the portion of the roadway improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular travel, and a berm or shoulder does not count toward it.

The only exception is temporary: a driver may stop while actually loading or unloading or receiving or discharging passengers, but only if a licensed operator stays with the vehicle so it can be moved promptly in an emergency or to avoid obstructing traffic.

Other subsections of the same section 12.128 cover related street-side conduct. Subsection (14) bars stopping or leaving a vehicle on the terrace, the strip between the curb line and the paved or traveled portion of the sidewalk, with the same loading and unloading exception and a carve-out for bicycle parking under Section 12.76(4) or moped parking under Section 12.793. Subsection (16) bars stopping, standing or parking within four feet on either side of a roadside mailbox between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Saturday, unless the driver is loading, unloading, delivering mail or newspapers, or is at their own mailbox. Subsection (8) bars parking in a private driveway, or in an unpaved, ungraveled residential yard, without the owner's or lessee's permission, whether or not the driveway is posted. Subsection (17) treats each successive time period a vehicle stays in a time-limited space as a separate violation.