The New Zealand Transport Agency agency wants to ban parking on grass verges in 50km zones. A proposed change would make it illegal to park a vehicle on grass or garden areas bordering any urban road.
The agency said the ban - which is one of several proposed changes to road user rules - would help keep paths clear for pedestrians and stop cars damaging grass and underground pipes.
The agency said it was aware motorists who parked on the verge often thought they were keeping out of the way of traffic so as not to slow cars down.
However, it said slower traffic was "not an undesirable outcome" for the safety of road users.
If the rule went ahead, councils would be able to make exceptions by putting up signs.
AA policy analyst Mark Stockdale said banning verge parking would penalise people in small towns and parts of cities where a ban was not needed.
People would not be able to to keep trailers out of the way of traffic, and it would stop people parking outside sports stadiums and homes of friends and relatives.
He said parking on the verge was sometimes the safest thing to do.
"There are some towns where they might not even have footpaths, all they might have is a grass verge alongside the road."
Some councils, including the Dunedin City Council, already ban verge parking using bylaws.
But the agency said councils were having trouble enforcing their bylaws, because drivers could only be ticketed where warning signs were erected.
In Dunedin, the city council received many complaints about verges being cut up by motorists.
In response, a council bylaw had been instituted this year making it illegal to park on grass verges and signs had been erected at problem sites such as Anzac Ave.
However, in areas were there were no signs, cars could not be ticketed.
In June, Christchurch City Council offered to reimburse motorists nearly $80,000 in tickets after realising warning signs - which are required every 100m - were not in place.
Auckland City Council's group manager of city parking, Brian Tomlinson, said he got around the problem by using open space bylaws instead of the verge parking bylaw.
People were generally good about complying.
"People understand that it's incredibly costly to maintain grass and berm verges," he said.
NZTA spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the proposal was not final.
The NZTA would consider submissions on a range of changes, including a ban on using hand-held mobile phones, in the next few months.
It would then send draft rules to the transport minister for approval.
The NZTA suggested banning verge parking on all roads under the original Road User Rule in 2004.
But the proposal was dropped after submitters and local authorities failed to agree.
