How close can you park to a driveway in NSW? (there's no set distance).

You’re squeezing into a spot that clips the edge of a driveway, or you’re about to leave the car across your own driveway for ten minutes, and you’re trying to remember the legal distance. Here’s the thing that trips almost everyone up: for driveways, there isn’t one. NSW measures corners, crossings and bus stops in metres — but not driveways. The driveway rule is about obstruction: whether you block the access at all, not how many metres you leave.

This guide covers how close you can park to a driveway in NSW, whether you can park across or in front of your own, and whether it’s legal to park opposite one. It’s NSW-specific and current as at 16 July 2026. It’s general information, not legal advice — for a fine you intend to dispute or anything before a court, contact LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529.

How close to a driveway can you park? There’s no set distance

People arrive at this question expecting a number — a “10 metres from a driveway” figure to match the 10m/20m corner rule. There isn’t one. The NSW Road Rules contain no minimum distance from a driveway. You can legally park right up to the edge of a driveway crossing, bumper to edge, provided no part of your vehicle sits on or across the driveway itself.

That’s the whole test: does your car overhang the driveway access? If it clears the full width of the crossing, you’re fine, even if you’re only a few centimetres clear. If any part of the vehicle covers any part of the driveway, you’ve committed the offence — regardless of how much room the resident has left to get in or out.

So the honest answer to “how close can you park to a driveway” and “how far from a driveway can you park” is the same: as close as you like, right up to the edge — just don’t touch it.

Road Rule 198: the “don’t block it” rule

The driveway rule is Rule 198 of the NSW Road Rules 2014 — Obstructing access to and from a footpath, driveway etc. It has two parts that matter:

• Rule 198(1) — you must not stop in a way that obstructs access to or from a footpath ramp, footpath, bicycle path or passageway.
• Rule 198(2) — you must not stop on or across a driveway or other way of access for vehicles travelling to or from adjacent land.

The NSW Government’s parking rules page states the driveway ban plainly: don’t park “across a driveway, unless you’re picking up or dropping off passengers.” The only exception is a genuine drop-off or pick-up where you stay with the vehicle and move on within about two minutes — or where you’re stopped inside a signed parking bay that happens to sit over a redundant crossing. “Just ducking inside for a second” isn’t covered; leaving the car and walking away is exactly what the rule prohibits.

Note the word stop. In the Road Rules, to “stop” means to halt the vehicle at all, not just to park it. So Rule 198 catches a 30-second stop across a driveway the same way it catches an all-day one.

Two things separate this from the corner rule:

1. No distance to measure. There’s no buffer zone to get wrong — the line is the edge of the driveway.
2. No demerit points. Stopping across a driveway is a penalty-only offence. Unlike stopping too close to an intersection (Rule 170), which carries 2 demerit points because it’s treated as a road-safety matter, the driveway rule costs money but not points.

Can you park across your own driveway?

This is the famous gotcha, and the answer surprises people: no, you generally can’t park across your own driveway either.

Rule 198 protects access — for pedestrians on the footpath and vehicles using the street — not the property owner. It contains no carve-out for “but it’s my driveway.” The NRMA puts it directly: parking across your own driveway “remains an offence in most circumstances,” and councils do fine residents for it. The strip of land between your property boundary and the kerb — including the driveway crossing and the footpath over it — is council land, not yours, so blocking it is no different in law from blocking a stranger’s.

In practice, enforcement is almost always complaint-driven. A ranger doesn’t usually go looking for a car across its own driveway; someone reports it. Inner West Council, for example, only accepts blocked-driveway reports from the affected resident, sends an officer to inspect, and — for a fully blocked driveway — can issue a fine and arrange towing, all “at the discretion of the parking officer.” That discretion cuts both ways: a car neatly across its own driveway on a quiet street with no complaint often goes untouched, but there is no legal right to it, and one annoyed neighbour is all it takes.

The safe version, if you must leave the car over the crossing: pull it entirely onto your own property, past the boundary line, so nothing overhangs the footpath or nature strip. That’s legal. A car that pokes even slightly onto the footpath is not.

Can you park in front of your own driveway?

“In front of” usually means one of two things, and they land differently:

• On the street, across the crossing — same as above. It’s still stopping across a driveway under Rule 198, own home or not.
• In your own driveway, on your land — fine, as long as the whole vehicle is inside your boundary. The moment the bumper juts out over the council footpath or nature strip, you’re back to obstructing access and can be ticketed, even parked outside your own front door.

This is the boundary-versus-kerb question people get caught by. The driveway “crossing” (the paved layback ramp from the road up over the kerb) is council infrastructure sitting on council land. Your property — and your right to park undisturbed — starts at the boundary line, which is typically set back from the kerb by the width of the footpath and verge. A long car in a short driveway is the classic trap: the nose is safely on private land but the tail hangs over the footpath, and that tail is the offence.

Is it illegal to park opposite a driveway?

No. NSW has no rule against parking opposite a driveway — that is, parking on the far side of the street, across from someone’s driveway. There’s no offence for it and no minimum distance, so it’s legal unless a sign says otherwise. A resident who can’t reverse out cleanly because your car sits opposite their driveway may be frustrated, but “you’re making my exit awkward” is not a parking offence on its own.

The catch is narrow streets. On a tight road, the reason you can’t legally park opposite a driveway usually isn’t the driveway at all — it’s another rule kicking in:

• If the street has a continuous (unbroken) centre line, Rule 208 requires you to leave at least 3 metres of clear road past your car. On a narrow street that alone can make the spot illegal.
• If parking there would force through-traffic onto the wrong side of the road or block it entirely, you may be obstructing the path of other drivers.

So “can you park opposite a driveway” comes down to the width of the road and any signs — not to the driveway. If there’s room for traffic to flow and no continuous line or sign against it, parking opposite is legal in NSW. For how those road-width rules work, see the corner and distance guide.

Partial overhangs, dropped kerbs and the boundary line

A few edge cases decide most real disputes:

• Partially over the driveway. There’s no “mostly clear” defence. Rule 198(2) is breached if any part of the vehicle is on or across the crossing. A wing mirror or overhanging tow bar clipping the edge is enough in principle, and a ranger photographing a tyre on the layback has an open-and-shut case.
• The dropped kerb / layback. The sloped section where the kerb drops to meet the road is part of the vehicle access. Parking so your car covers the flared “wings” of a dropped kerb obstructs the crossing even if your tyres aren’t on the flat driveway apron.
• Redundant or disused crossings. An old, unused driveway crossing is still a crossing in law until the council formally removes it and reinstates the kerb. A paved ramp that clearly served a driveway is safest treated as live.
• Full footpath blocking. Separately from the driveway itself, Rule 197 bans stopping on a footpath or nature strip at all (unless a sign allows it), and Rule 198(1) bans obstructing footpath access. If someone with a pram or wheelchair would have to step onto the road to get past your car, that’s an obstruction regardless of any driveway.

What it costs

Stopping on or across a driveway is a $330 penalty with no demerit points, under Rule 198. These figures are from the latest published NSW penalty schedule, re-checked in July 2026 — the financial-year 2026–27 indexed schedule had not been published at the time of writing, so confirm the current amount on your notice. Here’s how the driveway fine sits against the offences people confuse it with:

Note the driveway offence costs the same as a No Stopping fine and more than double a No Parking fine — but, unlike parking too near a corner, it carries no demerit points. For the full schedule and where these figures come from, see our NSW parking fine amounts guide and the official NSW Government penalty notice schedule (PDF, indexed around 1 July each year).

What this guide doesn’t cover

• Exact fine currency. The $330 figure is the latest published schedule as re-checked in July 2026; NSW indexes penalties annually, so always confirm the amount on your own notice or via Revenue NSW.
• Council-specific enforcement policies. Whether a council tows, how fast it responds, and how it handles reports vary — Inner West, Waverley and other inner-Sydney councils are more active on blocked driveways than quieter areas. Check your council’s page for its process.
• Getting into your own blocked driveway. If someone else has blocked your driveway, this is a complaint to your council’s rangers, not something you can resolve by having the car towed yourself.
• Interstate rules. These figures are NSW. The Australian Road Rules are broadly harmonised, but rule numbers, penalties and enforcement differ by state — don’t assume the NSW figures apply elsewhere.

If you’re parking somewhere borderline — half over a driveway, across your own crossing “just for a minute,” or opposite a driveway on a street that’s tighter than you’d like — Chalked is what we’d reach for (we built it). It gives you crowdsourced alerts when a parking officer is spotted nearby, which is exactly when a complaint-driven rule like the driveway one turns a quick stop into a $330 ticket.

For the metre-by-metre distance rules that do exist, see How close can you park to a corner in NSW?, and for decoding the signs that override any of this, see How to read NSW parking signs.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a fine you intend to dispute or any matter before a court, contact LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529.