Parking Your Vehicle Safely With and Without Atlanta Car Insurance

The required Atlanta car insurance coverage doesn’t protect you from trouble like the Atlanta residential parking permit does.

No, your Atlanta residential parking permit does not work here.

Parking in downtown Atlanta and Atlanta car insurance are two of the necessary evils of owning a vehicle and living downtown. To combat these two evils, the City of Atlanta and your car insurance agent can help you out though.

Parking For Those that Live In Atlanta

Atlanta isn’t all money when it comes to understanding that those that live downtown need a place to park for long periods of time. So to accommodate those that live in Atlanta, the city allows residents to purchase a special parking permit that will allow them to park in specific areas beyond the regular parking hours that are posted.

The permit is only $20.00 a year, which personally I think that is a great price. I paid more than $20.00 for my parking permit to park in front of my own apartment on the University of Idaho campus.

Per the City of Atlanta website, these are the areas where residential parking is designated:

• Ansley Park
• Atkins Park
• Glen Iris
• Home Park
• Inman Park
• Inwood Circle
• Midtown
• Myrtle Street
• Saunders Street
• Summerhill
• Vine City

You will need a copy of your driver’s license, current vehicle registration and proof of residency to be able to apply for a residential parking permit. If you try to get a permit by providing false information just to get the permit, you can be subject to a $1000 fine or 60 days in jail.

Getting a parking ticket in Atlanta, or getting caught making trying to get a residential parking permit with false information will not affect your car insurance rates as these are not moving violations that go on your driving record.

Parking and Atlanta Car Insurance

With or without a residential parking permit, parking your vehicle in Atlanta is risky. It’s not like when you have your own home and are able to park your vehicle in a garage or a carport. When you are in downtown Atlanta you are parking your vehicle on the street or in a parking garage with many, many others.

The more traffic you get moving past your vehicle and the more vehicles that are parked next to yours, the higher your chance of ending up with damage to your vehicle. Especially by a driver that hits your vehicle and then leaves without providing their insurance information to pay for the damage they did to your car.

This is why it is so important for you to carry more than the required 25/50/25 liability coverage that the State of Georgia makes you purchase. Liability coverage is only to cover the damages to another person’s vehicle that are caused by you. It will not cover the damage done to your vehicle.

To make sure that your vehicle is covered while parked, you need to have comprehensive and collision coverage added to your Atlanta car insurance policy.