What IS Cruising Anyway?

Here's an amusing sign from downtown Salt Lake City.  Normally a sign saying no parking or no loitering would not pop up on my radar.  And if it just said "No Cruising" and left it to our imaginations, I would also pass it by.  Of course I wondered how they know someone is cruising, so they spelled out the definition of cruising.




Now we're talking.  Cruising is: "passing a control point in a particular direction more than 2 times between the hours of 11 PM and 4 AM."  That's strangely precise.  Except, where is this control point, and which direction?  If you pass it north and then come back south, does that count as two passes?  They're not the same "particular" direction.  And what if you're just bored and you left your house not really going in any particular direction?  Is that a Get Out of Jail Free card.

Below that is a no parking sign.  So if you're about to pass a second time and you catch yourself misbehaving, you're also not allowed to stop there (no parking) and ponder your fate.

In front of the No Parking sign is a parked car.  So, if you just ignore the signs, you're okay.

Anyway, I just like to goof around with these things.  The civil code is SLC 12.12.090.  Let's see what that says ... here you go.

Wow, that page is a must-read.  It is a very carefully written case study about the problems they are trying to address, the exact area and businesses affected, the number of police incidents in 1997 and 1998, and clearer definitions of the things I was joking about up above.  Well done.


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