Stopping and parking: what do the terms mean?
The Traffic Rules distinguish stopping, parking and loading or unloading. These definitions determine whether a fee can be issued.
Section 1 of the Traffic Rules defines parking as leaving a vehicle, even when the driver remains in it. The only exception is the shortest possible stop for boarding or alighting, or for loading or unloading. This matters: sitting in the car — even with the engine running — does not change the fact that it is parked when it is left for another purpose.
Stopping means any halt of the vehicle. Where stopping is prohibited, it is therefore a complete prohibition: you may not park, load, unload, or set down passengers.
Loading and unloading is the narrow exception. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration stresses two limits: “the shortest possible” means you may do nothing other than the loading or boarding while the vehicle is stopped, and “loading” presupposes goods of some weight, quantity or size. Picking up a coffee is not loading.
The exception applies only where parking is prohibited — for example, at a “No parking” sign, in front of a driveway or in a pedestrian street. It never applies where stopping is prohibited. Read more about loading and unloading.
See the rates overview for the consequences of a breach.