Elon drivers are returning to their parked cars to find white slips of paper tucked under their windshield wipers. But these aren’t tickets.

The Town of Elon Police Department left “courtesy notices” on the windshields of cars parked in downtown Elon. These notices contain reminders of eight parking laws Administrative Sergeant Scott Swink said are often violated.

“The reminders are more of a courtesy instead of an actual citation, that way it keeps money in the pockets of students,” Swink said.

One rule was emphasized through highlights, underlines, bold lettering and italics: drivers cannot move parked vehicles from one space to another within the same block in time-restricted sections. In order to avoid a ticket, drivers must park on a different block. Swink said that there has been a recent influx of drivers parking and then moving to another spot before reaching their time limit.

“Why it became an ordinance is because a way around the violation is to move from one spot to another and identify that as a loophole,” Swink said.

Swink said this emphasis is essential because drivers often move from one two-hour spot to another to avoid violating time restraints. He said the ordinance closes a commonly used loophole and makes it so that anyone who wants to park downtown is able to.

“Elon’s not the biggest town and doesn’t have parking decks, so the emphasis is just try to plan ahead the best you can and that way we can avoid the extra parking tickets,” Swink said.

This rule also applies to drivers who leave time-restricted parking sections and return within the same day. Junior sport management major Billy O’Byrne has received two of these notices over the past two weeks.

O’Byrne parks in the town’s two-hour parking spots on W. Lebanon Ave for his 8 a.m. classes, then leaves to go get breakfast before coming back for his 10:30 a.m. classes. Because his classes are an hour and 40 minutes each, O’Byrne said he never stays in one spot for over two hours.

“It says that if I go get food and come back and still park in 2-hour parking, I’m still allowed to get a ticket, which I feel is very wrong,” O’Byrne said.

Because he has most of his classes in the School of Communications, O’Byrne feels like there aren’t many convenient options for parking besides the two-hour spots.

Other rules laid out included restrictions on the distance cars can be parked relative to intersections and mailboxes and yellow paint on curbs that designate no-parking zones.

The notice also informed drivers that towing for unpaid parking tickets is now strictly enforced.