Which Way Do the Wheels Go?

A great deal of Southern California is built on slopes — hillside neighborhoods, canyon streets, steep driveways cut into a grade. California also has a rule about it. Under Vehicle Code section 22509, you may not leave a vehicle standing unattended on a grade over three percent in a business or residence district without blocking the wheels, which in practice means turning them against the curb. It is one of those rules people learn for the test and forget immediately, right up until a car rolls.

The direction, and the logic behind it

Facing downhill: turn the wheels toward the curb. If the car creeps, the front wheel meets the curb and stops there.

Facing uphill with a curb: turn the wheels away from the curb, then let the car roll back an inch or two so the back of the front tire rests against it.

No curb at all, either direction: turn the wheels toward the edge of the road, so a vehicle that moves heads off the roadway rather than down the middle of it.

The logic is consistent and worth holding onto instead of memorizing three rules: you are arranging things so that if the car moves at all, it moves into something solid or away from traffic, not into the street.

Set the parking brake, every time

In an automatic, the parking pawl is a small component being asked to hold a very heavy object, and it was never intended to be the only thing doing it. Set the parking brake first, then release the foot brake and let the car settle onto the brake rather than onto the transmission — you can hear the difference. In a manual, leave it in gear as well: first for uphill, reverse for downhill.

Electronic parking brakes usually engage on their own, but confirm what your specific car actually does when you switch it off rather than assuming. Some do it only in certain conditions.

Why this matters more than it sounds

A vehicle that rolls away causes damage with nobody in it, and that is a genuinely awkward situation: the harm is real, there is no driver, and the questions that follow are about how the car was secured. It happens in hillside neighborhoods more than people realize, and steep driveways account for as many of them as steep streets do — particularly the short steep ones where a car is left running for "one second" while a gate opens.

The other hill hazards

• Steep driveway aprons that scrape a front bumper or an exhaust. Approach them at an angle so one corner leads.
• Blind crests, where you cannot see an oncoming car, a walker or a parked delivery van until you are level with it. Crest at a speed that allows for that.
• Hill starts on a narrow street with somebody close behind you.
• The rollback when you release the brake, which is precisely enough to reach the bumper behind you.
• Wet leaves and loose gravel on canyon streets after a storm, where the grip you expect is not there.

Getting in and out on a slope

On a steep street, doors swing under their own weight. Getting out on the downhill side means controlling a door that wants to fly open into whatever is next to you, and getting back in means holding one that wants to close on you. Take the extra second. Door damage on a hill is one of the more common low-speed claims we see, and it is entirely avoidable.

If a parked car does roll

Treat it exactly like any other collision involving property: stop, photograph the positions, and identify yourself to whoever owns what was hit — leaving a note with your name and address if nobody is there, which is what the hit-and-run section requires of any driver who damages an unattended vehicle. A rolled-away car is generally a claim under your own liability coverage for the damage it did to others, and under collision for your own vehicle. That is a conversation worth having with your carrier rather than a question to answer from the curb.

If you park on a hill every night, it is worth two minutes to confirm what your policy would do — send us the declarations page and we will tell you.