In accordance with the RA law "On Ensuring Road Traffic Safety", "Parking" is:

Explanation

Immobilising a vehicle for more than 5 minutes, when it is not connected with the boarding or alighting of passengers or with loading and unloading.

The law separates a stationary vehicle by two criteria: duration and purpose. The time boundary is the figure of 5 minutes — memorise that number exactly — and alongside it there is a purpose-based exception: if the vehicle is stationary in order to pick up or set down passengers or to load and unload cargo, it stays in the short category for as long as that work requires, even beyond 5 minutes. Anything outside that purpose and lasting more than 5 minutes counts as prolonged immobility.

The technical reason for this distinction is the occupation of road space. A short halt is part of the natural flow of traffic and unavoidable; but a vehicle left in place for a long period with no defined task effectively removes a lane's width from the network and blocks the sight lines and paths of others. That is why signs and penalties differ for the two cases: in central Yerevan, restrictions on short halts and on prolonged immobility are signposted separately, and you must know which sign prohibits which.

• This definition describes the opposite case — a short halt of up to 5 minutes or one for boarding and alighting — which is the lighter and more permitted category.

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