The worst part about driving in Boston isn’t actually driving – it’s parking. From resident permit stickers to fire hydrants to weird hours, you often end up circling the block to find an appropriate spot longer than you’re actually parked in it. And usually, what you deem to be an appropriate spot, an officer deems inappropriate, leaving your car with a nice, bright orange decoration on the windshield.

Fed up with the confusion and endless circling, one Reddit user decided to crowdsource a Google Map that shows the intricacies of Boston-area parking. He writes on Reddit:

I took the initiative and created a public Google Map that we can all edit. Red lines mean “This street (or portion of the street) is Resident/Permit Parking Only, all the time”. Purple (or blue-ish purple) lines means “This street (or portion of the street) is Resident/Permit Parking SOME of the time, but not all the time”. The purple lines have notes added that describe the specific instances (“7am-12noon, Mon-Fri”, “only between Street 1 and Street 2”, “Memorial Day to Labor Day”, etc). If you’re editing/adding, please make sure that both the Red and Purple lines are named with their street, and that the Purple ones have notes describing the specific circumstances.

Thus far, users have succeeded in mapping Medford in its entirety, with streets in Brighton and Brookline beginning to get filled in. Check out the map below, and help color code the streets in your neighborhood. This will come in extremely handy next time you think it’s a good idea to try to find street parking in the Fenway neighborhood. (Hint: it’s impossible.)

View Restricted Parking in Greater Boston in a larger map

Image via Shutterstock/BaLL LunLa