Browsing reddit I found out that it is illegal to sleep / take a nap in your car. Also that if people see you doing it they will 99% call the police. What is the reason behind that? Is sleeping in your car somehow connected to illegal activities or is it just a thing to discourage homelessness? What a tired driver is supposed to do?
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It isn’t illegal, in and of itself, to sleep in your car.
Some context is certainly missing from those comments/posts.
No it’s not illegal to sleep in your car. No police will not be called 99% of the time.
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If it’s during the day in a parking lot you’re taking a nap you’re 100% fine.
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If you’re basically camping overnight in your car on someone else’s property then police may be called.
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If you’re pulled over on the side of the road police may stop by if you’re in an unsafe place or if you stay too long (basically living there).
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*There are whole areas on the side of majors highways designated as places to get some rest if you need a safe place to sleep. Google “rest areas”.
This is not true. There may be munocipalities that disallow this likely for the homelessness reason you suggest, but this is not a national thing.
In one of these paces a driver who is just taking a nap will likely just be woken up with a knock on the window and told to move on.
No one wants a person camped out in front of their house for a few months.
This is the first I’m hearing this…
And it would never occur to me to call the cops on someone sleeping in their car unless I thought they were dead.
You sure about this one, OP?
It’s not *that* you sleep in your car, it’s *where* you sleep in your car that matters
Major highways have rest areas that encourage you to get some sleep if you’re too tired.
You can sleep in your car in your driveway.
The thing isn’t about sleeping in your car. You can do that if you want.
The issue is that wherever you took your car isn’t meant to be used as a home. You’re not supposed to camp out on private property unless you have the permission of the property owner.
We have Rest Areas all across our Interstates and you’ll see people napping in their cars for a little bit before continuing on.
No one is detained or arrested for sleeping in their car. They get in trouble for other things.
You will get woken up by police if your car is on public property or if you’re somewhere you’re not supposed to be at that time, like for example a retail parking lot at 3AM.
But if you’re working retail and you want to sleep in your car on your lunch break, that is perfectly legal.
It’s strongly frowned upon for the driver to sleep in their car as it cruises down the highway. But if it’s a Tesla, you might get away with it.
Never heard of that being a thing
> Also that if people see you doing it they will 99% call the police.
No they won’t. Why would somebody do this?
Well, taking posts like that on Reddit at face value is your first mistake. Reddit has a very strong anti-police bias.
It’s not illegal to sleep in your car.
It is illegal to be in certain places after certain times (many public parks for example are closed after dark.)
If you’re on private property then you have no right to be there unless the owner gives you permission. If the owner, or representative of the owner (like the manager of a gas station), says you need to leave then you have to leave or you’re trespassing.
There’s an interstate that runs through my county and most of the exits have a Wawa/Sheetz/Royal Farms/7-11 or similar 24 hr gas station/convenience store right off the interstate. It’s not uncommon for people to pull off and take a nap in the parking lot in the middle of the night and they’re generally not bothered (and it’s relatively safe since it’s racially a well lit area with customers coming and going at all hours.)
If you’re in front of a closed business then you are automatically going to be a suspicious vehicle/person and will almost certainly end up with an officer knocking on your window to find out wtf you’re doing.
People stop at rest areas off interstates all the time to take naps and rarely are bothered by the police. I’ve done that numerous times on long road trips and have never once had a cop knock on my window.
Some people will call the police for someone sleeping in their car. Usually it gets dispatched as a check the well-being call or a possible impaired/ overdosed driver. The police have an obligation to respond and aren’t going to just ignore a 911 call. This is more likely to happen if you do this during hours when most people are normally awake and active.
Just sleeping in your car isn’t illegal and people claiming that are either flat out lying or are leaving out a lot of details surrounding the incident….probably a combination of both most of the time.
The only time I ever pulled over to take a quick nap and had a cop knock on my window was when I just pulled onto the shoulder of the road to do it rather than go to the rest area a few more miles up the road, and that was because it wasn’t a safe place to do that. The cop woke me up, told me to go to the rear area, and then sent me on my way.
Another thing that the OP might be thinking about is that apparently if you are drunk, you can’t just sleep it off in your car. You don’t need to turn the car on to be considered operating it under influence.
Lol
Depending on locality, they may have a local law preventing sleeping in your car, that is probably only invoked when cops need to deal with a non-compliant, aggressive or dangerous to themselves drunk.
But basically no one is going to call the cops on you unless you stopped your car in the middle of a road (As I experienced once) or you look like you’re dead or dying.
I have napped in my car plenty of times, especially when I was still retail. And I have seen plenty of people napping in their cars. The only time I called the cops on someone sleeping in their car was that one guy who was at a stop in the middle of the road.
It is not at all hard to sleep in your car. During each of my 3 pregnancies (different states), I would often take a car nap, sometimes twice a day. There are plenty of rest areas, streets, and parking lots where you can do this.
It isn’t. The usual concern from a legal standpoint is being in a parking lot without an apparent reason for being there. Apparent reason usually mean patronizing the businesses or establishments the parking lots serve.
I’ve done this on a number of occasions and have never encountered problems. Sometimes on a long drive you just need a few hours. I had a hatchback car where the back seats lowered down. Very easy to throw down a sleeping bag in the back, crack the windows open, and get some very comfortable sleep.
Just can’t do it on private property. But if you’re at a rest stop, a gas/truck station, or even in a big parking lot, you’re fine.
It’s not illegal
Some towns/cities have “no camping” ordinances, basically it’s illegal to sleep anywhere other than inside a home. The intention of this is to make it illegal to be homeless. In those areas the cops may ticket you for sleeping in your car.
Outside of the few select cities, camping is generally legal in the US.
Depends where you are.
Rest stops in my state you can sleep in for up to 8hours.
Some big box stores (Walmart) allow you to sleep in their parking lot.
When you realize a lot of this is to have laws on the books that allow for removal of homeless camps it makes sense.
The issue isn’t sleeping in your car the issue is trespassing while sleeping in your car.
There are very few U.S. wide laws. Most are state/municipal specific. I lived in a vehicle in the US for years and had no problem.
I fell asleep at the wheel crossing into South Carolina on I-77 after second shift. I awoke with my truck slowly serving side to side and a line of cars backed up behind me. This was just before the welcome center, and I pulled in to park and quickly passed out again. Later that morning I awoke wet because the windows were down and it had drizzled that night.
I have a feeling all people’s involved were very happy that I got off the interstate and slept.
Either you’re drunk or you’re trying to live out of your car in front of someone else’s home, which isn’t appreciated. If you sleep in the parking lot of a 24 hour store, nobody bothers you.
It is NOT illegal.
Living in your car in a neighborhood may be against local laws.
Sleeping in your car on the side of the highway is illegal = stupid and dangerous/public safety.
“Sleeping” in your car because you were so drunk you pulled over and passed out, may be grounds of a DUI.
I lived in my car before (broke teenager trying to see the country) and never got bothered by anyone
> Why is it illegal to sleep in your car?
It’s not illegal to sleep in your car. Truckers do this all the time, and many people do this when camping or doing long road trips on the cheap.
It’s usually illegal to be drunk and trying to sleep it off while you’re in the driver’s seat of your car. The law generally considers that close enough to operating it. Sleep it off somewhere out of arm’s reach from the ignition.
> if people see you doing it they will 99% call the police
The 99% is an exaggeration. People calling the police are probably doing it because they think you’re a homeless person, and their mental model of a homeless person involves crime and drugs, and so they don’t want them near their home.
> What a tired driver is supposed to do?
Cross-country driving is a part of American culture, and on any interstate highway in the country you’re generally never more than an hour from a motel (literally “motor hotel”, built for travelers) or a rest stop, where you’ll find trucks and recreational vehicles or trailers with people sleeping in them.
You *might* hear of people pulling over and napping on the side of the road. Police might bother you if this presents a safety hazard, or just because they want to check that you don’t need any help.
Depends on where you’re parked. If there’s no overnight parking then you can’t park there overnight. Some residential areas might limit where/when you can park on the street.
There are public overnight lots. You can sleep there.
Sleeping in your car in general is not illegal. But doing so in places other than a rest stop or truck stop often is. Some of it is to discourage homelessness and loitering. Some of it is to discourage drug use. Some is to ensure that the space is available for said truckers and not taken up by people in smaller vehicles.
It’s really not illegal. I’ve done it multiple times.
Went down to Bristol for nascar a few months ago and slept in my car all weekend. Just gotta find the right spots. Hotel parking lots are hit or miss. Cracker Barrel’s usually have a bunch of RVs in them so I just park near them and nobody’s ever said anything. Truck stops are good options too.
Did you really browse reddit? Or did you look at a couple comments on one post and decide that must be true for the entire US?
No one is calling the cops on you if you’re sleeping in your car unless you’re on private property. If you’re on private property and you’re not supposed to be there, it doesn’t matter whether you’re sleeping in your car or not, you’re trespassing.
It often depends on where you park and they may be caked to do a welfare check yo make sure they are suffocating or suffering from some medical issues or an overdose and are unable to move or respond to communicate that you need help. People die every year after asphyxiating while they sleep in a vehicle. Also not everywhere in the USA is safe from a temperature/climate standpoint to just sleep outside all year so you can be in danger with climate control or adequate cold or hot weather preparations or you could be entombed in snow over the course of your sleep.
Because the government hates the homeless
It’s not, there are just certain places where you can’t park.
My old workplace was right next to a methadone clinic. So we they were flexible with people parking in our lot. I think we only called police ONCE because my coworker found someone sleeping in the car, and they wouldn’t wake up at all. He tried really hard to wake them up too without banging on the window. He was worried he maybe was an OD or in medical distress. The cop was able to wake them up but i think the person got in trouble for being behind the wheel while under the influence. My coworker felt bad for it but it turned into a safety concern for the driver.
The laws are in place to prevent assembling, essentially.
Like many others have stated, there’s not much really wrong with sleeping in your car. It’s that it escalates from there. If it’s allowed to sleep in your car, why can’t you pitch a tent outside it if you’re just gonna pack it up and leave the next day? Why can’t you and a friend sleep next to each other in your cars? What if both of you want tents? It is more about we don’t have time and resources to establish all the different ways this can or can’t be allowed and where it will and won’t be permitted. Then you factor in that the ones who end up suffering are the businesses where folks are setting up at. You could make the argument that what if we established places for folks to assemble and sleep, but then you’re liable for their safety, how long they can stay, and at what point is that any different than a campground? There are laws about providing bathrooms to people, who pays for all that? So it’s easier to just make it illegal as a whole, and then let the street cops use discretion in how they enforce it.
So if you have an area of town starting to collect people for various reasons, maybe you let it slide for a couple days while they get situated. They are human, after all. But eventually you have to step in and make sure it doesn’t get all packed in with people permanently. There’s a big difference between “I’m on a cross country road trip and taking a short nap in my car at a rest stop on I-80 somewhere in Nebraska,” and, “My wife lost her job so we are sleeping in the minivan in wal marts parking lot with a couple other folks we know. We made a little circle with our vehicles and have a private little area to lounge in the center for now.”
I’ve stopped and snoozed in my car on Highway off ramps a few times and never got in trouble/seen a cop. Never heard of this to be honest. Sometimes you’re just too tired to keep driving and it’s cheaper than getting a motel/hotel for the night.
It’s not illegal, in and of itself.
1. It’s not generally allowed on somebody else’s private property. So sleeping in your car at a wal-mart parking lot is not gonna fly.
2. It’s sometimes associated with people sleeping off being drunk, which isn’t allowed.
3. Bizarrely, some states don’t want people to sleep at highway rest stops.. This is usually more to prevent *camping* at them (either the legit sort or the homeless sort) but sometimes police will get grumpy about this.
Plenty of people live (unfortunately) and sleep in their car. It’s not illegal, it’s about where you park the car to sleep.
Back in Fresno, CA in the 1950s, when my parents were still just dating, my father once dropped my mother off at her house in the country and headed home. He soon realized that the fog had settled in so thick that visibility was non-existent and driving was impossible. He pulled over to the shoulder and went to sleep.
He awoke in the morning to a policeman knocking on his window. Since the fog had burned off, he was now able to see that he wasn’t on the shoulder — actually, he’d stopped in the middle of an intersection. It was only providence that kept any other cars from driving through.