| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Loading on single yellow line gets a ticket from a parking camera | |
| Posted by: | Clare Margaret | |
| Date/Time: | 12/06/09 07:49:00 |
| Actually, I have much less problem with speed limit enforcement and I don't see it as arbitrary. The risk of fatality rises dramatically with the mph. If you hit a child at 40mph there's an 80% chance they'll be killed, but if you hit them at 30mph there's an 80% chance they'll survive. Much of parking enforcement is not at all about safety, and smooth running of traffic, but about squeazing money out of motorists until the pips squeak. My issue with what Steve Donnelly calls 'motoring offences' is the moronic inflexiblity and intransigence with which they are imposed. The police don't behave like this. They don''t 'fine first, think later'. Which gives me the impression that parking enforcement is NOT so much about keeping traffic running smoothly but about extorting money from motorists. The example you gave Richard, was about lorries being forced into the centre of the road just before a right turn. But the parking space outside the Co Op is NOT just beofre a right turn, it's nicely tucked in. In fact, when the Co Op first arrived there, I was under the impression that it was ok to pull up there and do a quick shop. I've done that many times. Ditto the cashpoint machine. Maybe shopping at the Co Op didn't count as I was carrying heavy shopping? In anycase, if parking there did cause such a danger, why is it ok to load, and why is it ok for the parking enforcement van to sit there? It seems to me that any spurious reason is sufficient to demand that the motorist stump up another £50. Here are a couple of my 'motoring offences'. Visiting a friend in Ealing. Between unloading the children, walking back up the road ( in the rain) to her house, getting the permit, friend getting me a umbrella for return trip down the road to car with permit, I was ticketed. On another occasion, I was at work and making a call to Acton health centre. I waited for a car to move out of the only parking space around and when it did, manouevred myself neatly into the spot between two parked cars. On my return I was ticketed. I had to look at the ticket to find out why. One tyre was indeed, ever so slightly, up on the kerb. Another time, i had parked in a road where the parking was mixed, residents permits and meter. In driving rain, and with a car full of children, I pulled up alonside a meter, paid for a £4.00 ticket and drove on a few parking spaces up to be closer to my friends house. She enquired whether I needed a permit to which I cheerily replied that she needn't bother as I had put a ticket on it. My bad, the bay I had parked in was one up from the meter bay and in a permit only one. In the lashing rain I hadn't noticed that and naturally got the inevitable ticket. The police don't behave like this. They use their judgement. Parking attendants, on the other hand, in their apparent zeal to issue tickets ( er '"keep traffic runing smoothly and safely")don't. When they behave like this, of course motorists will object, look for 'loopholes' and 'spend tax money' fighting these unfair stealth taxes. I always encourage people to contest their tickets now. Motorists are a money making racket it seems. |