Traffic Wardens, evil incarnate or public servants

[tallchris99]

I drive both a car and ride a bike and am atonished when I hear of people wanting to beat up traffic wardens and generally do them down.

How you would enjoy driving if all the roads resembled a huge car park is beyond me.

I find the yellow cap wardens more ameniable than the council employed ones.

I aso find that treating them with respect gets them to forget about 9/10 tickets they were thinking of giving me. Politeness works wonders.

I think they get so much (often) racist abuse that a smile and a polte request astonishes them into pleasent discretion.

I think the roads would be terrible if we let all the w*nkers park where they want with their stupid hazard lights on getting in all our way.

I do wish they would be more pro active with idiots who park in bus lanes.

Crush the cars on tv perhaps?

[mondeoman]

I don't think its traffic wardens per se that are a problme, if they were ticketing those who do park in the middle of roads with their hazards on.. I reckon what rankles most people is that fact that we have to pay coucil tax to build th sodding car parks in the first place, then we have to pay to use them, and if we're over by 20 mins we get hammered again! Thats when we lose it. Make free parking all over town, with a few safety driven exeptions, then clamp down hard on those who park illegally... same as speeding really. Be sensible, give people their freedoma dn the need to comtrol will nearly always go away, as long as the limits and rules are sensible and appropriate to prevailing conditions.


This "one law suits all" cr** is killing freedom in this country.

[ianpicknell]

quote:I don't think its traffic wardens per se that are a problme

I agree. People don't object when traffic wardens give tickets to people who've stopped on a red route to buy a packet of fags at the newsagent. (At least I don't.) People object when the rules are arranged to generate money, not alleviate parking problems. For example:

Why do cars parks have pay-and-display rather than pay-on-exit? Because people are bad at estimating how long they'll be, so the council can give out parking tickets and make more money that way.

It's illegal to park next to an out-of-order meter. However irritating that is, I can understand it to some extent. (Otherwise people would park and then just trash the meter). But I've known of people receiving tickets for parking at out-of-order meters outside the timeframe that the meter operates! (E.g. Sunday or evenings!)

Why do pay-and-display machines at the side of the road only measure in 30 minute increments and why don't give change? Because they can make more money that way!

When do some councils use ticket machines in residential areas which don't roll-round the allocated time to the next day (meaning you can't put money in late at night to cover your car for the 8:30am restriction the next morning). Because they can turn up at 8:30am and ticket all the people that are still in bed!

Makes my blood boil!

>> Edited by ianpicknell on Friday 28th June 12:36

[phil1]

I agree.

What about the unusual price for an hour. No change is offered so when you don't have the exact money to pay the 60p (not London prices!) for an hour they make a nice 40p profit. Why not vary the time rather than the amount. If 60p is an hour and 1.60 is up to 3 hours, why the hell can't I have 2 hours for my pound instead of them keeping the change.

Around here they've also introduced the machines that ask for part of your reg plate before producing the ticket. You're not even renting the space anymore. I pay for the space and if I want to leave early and donate my ticket to some old dear then why can't I. Oh yes, they can double charge for the space if they prevent that.

Thieving local council rules

[mondeoman]

Time to take a sledgehammer to these as well as the revenue cameras then.......

[jammygit]

I live in central croydon - down a quiet residential road that is not an acess road (ie there is no need to go down it unless you are visiting or returning to your home). Because of its close location to the town centre, it has yellow lines, with pay and display parking - you need a residents permit. £30 a year - ok fair enough.

However, on fact finding recently - as I appear to be having difficulty in finding a space near to my home - there were in the region of 150 spaces Vs over 300 permits issued for my immediate area (to rub it in, these spaces are available to public on payment of tickets). And yes, tenants not in a space by 9am on a Saturday (when most are off work) are regularly ticketed for the sum of £40. Even though they are not causing any parking obstructions etc.

I even had my car towed away a few weeks ago at 9.20AM on a Saturday from outside my own home. Cost £160. Again I was not parked in an obstructive manner. I cannot have off street parking as there is no room. I do not like to leave my car in any adjacent roads as you cannot keep an eye on it. The councils response (and Wardens) - tough - the rules are rules - In particular - To the dear lady at the compound when I stated that due to the marked increase in car-crime I like to keep the car near to my home where I can see it 'You should have thought about that before you bought the car'

Great - so now the council/wardens don't give a f**k about security, reasonable bevaviour. All it is is $$$$

[Steve Harrison]

There are plenty of car parks in Epsom. Sure you have to pay but they're not expensive so why is it that some tw@t always has to dump his car on the high street and stuff up all the traffic while he goes to McDonalds or the cash machine because he's too f**king lazy to walk fifty yards?

There are only two traffic wardens for the whole borough so they know they'll get away with it. I tried to argue with a local councillor that if the money from speed cameras can go to pay for more speed cameras, why not use money from parking fines to pay for more traffic wardens and we could remove a LOT of the congestion through the town centre.

All I got was a load of cr@p about how that would require decriminalising parking to allow the council to enforce it and besides, the council had tried to set it up and there had been an outcry.

Er, no. What they tried to set up was a Controlled Parking Zone which meant that we'd all have to pay fifty quid per year for the privilege of parking outside our own houses and we'd all be issued with twenty "guest tickets" per year. Jeez, not even I am such a sad c**t that only twenty people come to see me in a whole year !!

So, to answer your question, public servants - although I agree with some of the earlier respondents that there are some really dopey parking rules and these still need sorting out.

[outlaw]

quote:
There are plenty of car parks in Epsom. Sure you have to pay but they're not expensive so why is it that some tw@t always has to dump his car on the high street and stuff up all the traffic while he goes to McDonalds or the cash machine because he's too f**king lazy to walk fifty yards?

There are only two traffic wardens for the whole borough so they know they'll get away with it. I tried to argue with a local councillor that if the money from speed cameras can go to pay for more speed cameras, why not use money from parking fines to pay for more traffic wardens and we could remove a LOT of the congestion through the town centre.

All I got was a load of cr@p about how that would require decriminalising parking to allow the council to enforce it and besides, the council had tried to set it up and there had been an outcry.

Er, no. What they tried to set up was a Controlled Parking Zone which meant that we'd all have to pay fifty quid per year for the privilege of parking outside our own houses and we'd all be issued with twenty "guest tickets" per year. Jeez, not even I am such a sad c**t that only twenty people come to see me in a whole year !!

So, to answer your question, public servants - although I agree with some of the earlier respondents that there are some really dopey parking rules and these still need sorting out.

decriminalising parking has been set up in a lot of places now .

where evere it has been the tickets isueing has gone mad.

its i nice tax for th council to mke so spare cash.

[Big_M]

I wish we had more traffic wardens in our village. The roads are narrow and we have a brick wall at the end of our front garden. Although there are double yellow lines either side of the road, numpties quite often park right opposite our drive. As a consequence it is impossible to get the car out. The double yellow lines are often on the road for a reason ie not safe, obstruction. We also have people who park on the zig-zag lines by the level crossings - I am quite tempted to take photos and send them to the cops.

[Neil Menzies]

quote:
decriminalising parking has been set up in a lot of places now .

where evere it has been the tickets isueing has gone mad.

its i nice tax for th council to mke so spare cash.

Edinburgh has gone mad on this. The 'Blue Meanies' are on performance targets, individuals get bonuses for issuing the most tickets, etc etc. Nothing about safety, parking regulation, or anything vaguely justifiable, just pure profiteering.

Recently a whole pile of ticket machines were vandalised - not the individual meters, the pay and display variety - so half the city centre was uncontrolled. They got that fixed fast...

[TJMurphy]

What I really hate (which is slightly off-topic) is roads which have red lines, because having parked cars would really obstruct the flow -- and then painting parking bays into the road I'm thinking particularly of the Earls Court Road leading down to the A4 which always seems to be complete chaos. But there are other ones around as well.

[tallchris99]

I live in Selsdon and there is a free car park yet people still park illeagaly worsening a pretty bad traffic situation and worse then start giving it large to the wardens. I have intervened twice with cars of teenagers threatening the poor buggers in their oversized uniforms. I don't agree with revenue focused traffic restrictions but think it is perfectly reasonable to hit hard inconsiderate people who park wherever they like particulary in bus lanes or my total pet hate on the zig zags of Zebra crossings...

[nigelbasson]

I used to rent a room in my mates house in Northampton and he gave me his secondary residents parking permit. However - the permit was only valid from 10am to 6pm and the parking restrictions ran from 8am to 6pm. The result - I had to find one of the few 2 hour max stay spots when I came home from work and remember to get up in the morning and move it into a permit holders spot at 10am.

Very annoying on a Saturday morning after a heavy Friday night!

[ianpicknell]

quote:is roads which have red lines, because having parked cars would really obstruct the flow

Agreed - this is just too funny. When they first came up with the idea of red routes I liked it, purely because it was simple. Yellow lines could be double, single or dashed, there might be little dashes on the pavement etc., and you always had to stop and read the sign to work out what the bd rules were.

But red routes were simple - red line along road - no stopping. Simple. Easy. No-one could claim they didn't understand. And then they went and fd it up. We have single red lines, double red line, parking bays with red lines, parking bays with white lines, etc. etc. so you still have to stop the car and read the damn sign to work out that you're not allowed to stop the car!

Check out the red route rules from the Highway Code:

quote:
Red lines are used on some roads instead of yellow lines. In London the double and single red lines used on Red Routes indicate that stopping to park, load/unload or to board and alight from a vehicle (except for a licensed taxi or if you hold an Orange Badge) is prohibited. The red lines apply to the carriageway, pavement and verge. The times that the red line prohibitions apply are shown on nearby signs, but the double red line ALWAYS means no stopping at any time. On Red Routes you may stop to park, load/unload in specially marked boxes and adjacent signs specify the times and purposes and duration allowed. A box MARKED IN RED indicates that it may only be available for the purpose specified for part of the day (eg between busy peak periods). A box MARKED IN WHITE means that it is available throughout the day.