The broom sign on your block decides when you have to move your car. Here's how to read it, every 2026 suspension day, and how to get a reminder the morning of.
Alternate side parking (ASP) is how NYC lets street sweepers reach the curb. On posted days and times, you can't park on one side of the street, and the other side gets its turn on different days. Miss it and you get a $65 ticket. It's one of the most common tickets in the city, and almost all of them come from people who forgot what day it was.
How to Read the Sign
Street-cleaning signs show a red broom symbol, the days and the time window, for example "NO PARKING 🧹 TUESDAY FRIDAY 9:30AM–11AM". The two sides of the same block almost always have different days. Some commercial strips are cleaned every day except Sunday for half an hour, and a few areas have overnight windows marked with a moon and stars.
In NYC DOT's sign database, the most common windows are 11:30 AM–1 PM and 8–9:30 AM, mostly on a Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday pattern. Street cleaning never runs on Sundays.
Find the Rules for Your Exact Block
The sign on your block is the rule. If you don't want to walk outside to check, search the address on NYC Violation Search. The building page reads DOT's sign database and shows the street-cleaning times for both sides of your block next to your garbage pickup days. Because we match the side from the nearest signs, double-check the sign in front of your building the first time.
What a Ticket Costs
An alternate side parking ticket is $65 everywhere in the city. Before February 2020 it was $45 outside Manhattan below 96th Street, but the fine is now the same in all five boroughs.
2026 ASP Suspension Days
ASP is suspended on legal, religious and cultural holidays. These are the 2026 suspension days on NYC DOT's calendar:
| Month | Suspension days |
|---|---|
| January | 1 (New Year's Day), 6 (Three Kings' Day), 19 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) |
| February | 12 (Lincoln's Birthday), 16 (Presidents' Day, Lunar New Year's Eve), 17 (Lunar New Year), 18 (Ash Wednesday, Losar) |
| March | 3 (Purim), 20–21 (Eid al-Fitr) |
| April | 2–3 (Passover, Holy Thursday, Good Friday), 8–9 (Passover, Orthodox Holy Thursday), 10 (Orthodox Good Friday) |
| May | 14 (Ascension), 22–23 (Shavuot), 25 (Memorial Day), 27–28 (Eid al-Adha) |
| June | 19 (Juneteenth) |
| July | 3–4 (Independence Day), 23 (Tisha B'Av) |
| August | 15 (Feast of the Assumption) |
| September | 7 (Labor Day), 12–13 (Rosh Hashanah), 21 (Yom Kippur), 26–27 (Sukkot) |
| October | 3 (Shemini Atzeret), 4 (Simchat Torah), 12 (Italian Heritage / Indigenous Peoples' Day) |
| November | 1 (All Saints' Day), 3 (Election Day), 8 (Diwali), 11 (Veterans Day), 26 (Thanksgiving) |
| December | 8 (Immaculate Conception), 25 (Christmas Day) |
Snow and Emergency Suspensions
DOT also suspends ASP for snow and other emergencies, usually on short notice. These don't appear on the printed calendar. Check 311 or DOT's announcements the night before a storm.
Tips for Landlords and Property Managers
- Post the street-cleaning times for your block in the lobby. Tenants who get ticketed blame the building.
- Tell supers and contractors which side is cleaned on which days, so work vans don't pick up $65 tickets you end up paying.
- If you own several buildings, the 8 AM report lists each block's sweeper times on the days they apply.
Want a reminder instead of a ticket? Add your address to NYC Violation Search. Each morning at 8 AM you'll get that day's street-cleaning window for your side of the street, tomorrow's window so you can park on the right side tonight, and a heads-up when ASP is suspended.