Blinkered parking!

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mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Illegal parking is selfish and inconveniences other people. It isn't dangerous though and shouldn't be treated like speeding or running red lights.
I'm just back from a medical centre where the usually wide open and easy entrance junction has been reduced to give-and-take around a blind corner by some idiot parking their tinted-windows works van half on the pavement right by it. Surely you can appreciate how that's dangerous? Tow the van and ban the driver IMO!

If the van is working nearby, that work site should provide parking, else they'll have to park a bit further away and walk. Possibly they could negotiate with the medical centre for a space in the usually-half-empty car park.
 

MiK1138

Veteran
Location
Glasgow
Nah. They shouldn't get points, a more proportionate response would be to coyote them by dropping a 1000kg weight on their car. Plus it would encourage the manufacturing sector, which they keep saying they want to do.
Ah but where do you park the crane that drops the weight,
 

Randy Butternubs

Über Member
Illegal parking can be dangerous, particularly when Trumpton or Ambo want to get up the road but cant. It also can force pedestrians into the road, can obstruct a drivers view of pedestrians and other road users. Problem is, give people an inch and they inevitably start taking a mile. It should be ruthlessly enforced, and should be regarded every bit as seriously as speeding etc - if you can't control something as basic and fundamental as depositing a vehicle in a safe and lawful manner, then you really shouldn't be entrusted to do anything else with it.

Yeah ok, there are extreme cases where you could argue that illegal parking encourages dangerous behaviour but this is the exception rather than the rule. Even then this argument is, in my opinion, a bit like when someone I know told me that slow, elderly drivers are a dangerous menace as they force others to do risky overtakes! The burden of responsibility for avoiding crashes is surely on those doing the driving? If someone has selfishly plopped down something you can't see past then slow down to pass it.

I fully agree that parking should be more heavily enforced and surely, since it generates revenue, the only reason it isn't is public backlash? I've no time for people whining about those mean old traffic wardens. I can't agree that it is as serious as speeding etc. though. Fines are appropriate.

I'm just back from a medical centre where the usually wide open and easy entrance junction has been reduced to give-and-take around a blind corner by some idiot parking their tinted-windows works van half on the pavement right by it. Surely you can appreciate how that's dangerous? Tow the van and ban the driver IMO!

I can't comment on that specific van and I'm sure a lot of work vans are parked in a needlessly selfish manner (ie. not moving after having unloaded). However I can't see how certain jobs could get done without some traffic disruption. Sometimes people need to move very heavy things that you cannot realistically carry any significant distance. If it needs to go to somewhere with yellow lines then what do you do?

Case in point: I once helped to move a reception desk/unit from my workshop into a luton van. The thing was bloody massive and weighed over half a ton. It took 6 of us with 2 pump trucks and a manual fork lift over an hour to maneuver it over the pavement and into the van. All the while we were blocking half of a narrow, relatively high traffic road. No yellow lines so nothing illegal about it but it could easily have been more disruptive than if it was somewhere with yellow lines. What else could we reasonably have done?
 

KnackeredBike

I do my own stunts
They could probably do with making the fines across the country the same as London. The problem is for £35 you can chance it in many locations for little risk. For £65 it starts to become less attractive to leave a car on double yellows to pop into a shop.
 

captain nemo1701

Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
Location
Bristol
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Randy Butternubs

Über Member

Snarkiness is not conducive to reasonable discussion. As I said in my post permission was not needed in my case. More generally, getting permission in advance prevents you being fined but does nothing to prevent you inconveniencing others. The fact that getting permission to block roads is possible only reinforces that it is sometimes necessary.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Snarkiness is not conducive to reasonable discussion. As I said in my post permission was not needed in my case. More generally, getting permission in advance prevents you being fined but does nothing to prevent you inconveniencing others. The fact that getting permission to block roads is possible only reinforces that it is sometimes necessary.
But applying for permission at least allows the public to require mitigation measures or to restrict the length of time or time of day that it will be there, which is much better than the current "fark the disabled, they can share the 40mph carriageway with heavy motor vehicles to get around me even though I consider it too dangerous to park my precious precious van on it" approach which I encountered yet again this morning. A short driving ban of such paid drivers would focus their mind both on learning to park correctly and actually doing it.

There's always an excuse, isn't there? Somehow we can move huge things vast distances, sometimes even whole buildings, but one reception desk and that's too difficult not to obstruct others.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
Case in point: I once helped to move a reception desk/unit from my workshop into a luton van. The thing was bloody massive and weighed over half a ton. It took 6 of us with 2 pump trucks and a manual fork lift over an hour to maneuver it over the pavement and into the van. All the while we were blocking half of a narrow, relatively high traffic road. No yellow lines so nothing illegal about it but it could easily have been more disruptive than if it was somewhere with yellow lines. What else could we reasonably have done?

Offence - Unnecessary obstruction.

Solution - Apply for a temporary road closure order. 2 or 3 hours one Sunday would be likely authorised under the circumstances you describe. Unfortunately, someone will have to invest some effort into the application, and pay the fee, when it is just so much easier and cheaper to not seek the proper authority and block the road.
 
I was almost run over by a speeding parker!
I was about to cross a side road along an A road arterial route when a car comes at excessive speed along the A road, then without signalling or slowing turns into the side road, then without signalling or slowing down crosses to the other side of the road and slams on the brakes to park where I was just about to step off the pavement. The driver was oblivious to his many errors.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Offence - Unnecessary obstruction.

Solution - Apply for a temporary road closure order. 2 or 3 hours one Sunday would be likely authorised under the circumstances you describe. Unfortunately, someone will have to invest some effort into the application, and pay the fee, when it is just so much easier and cheaper to not seek the proper authority and block the road.

sounds like a disproportionate lot of hassle for delivering a fridge or some bricks or whatever.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
sounds like a disproportionate lot of hassle for delivering a fridge or some bricks or whatever.
If it's as simple as a fridge, just wheel it a bit further from a safe loading bay - why is that a problem? Pallets of bricks are generally dropped quickly, but such construction deliveries mostly seem rather better regulated anyway - it's been a long time since I've been obstructed by one.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
sounds like a disproportionate lot of hassle for delivering a fridge or some bricks or whatever.

It matters not if they're delivering a pack of fags or a Sherman tank - the law re highway obstruction rules and regs are what they are.

Why should everyone else be inconvenienced or endangered because someone else thinks its a disproportionate hassle? After all, shoplifters think its a disproportionate hassle to pay form stuff, speeders think its a disproportionate hassle to be delayed by 30 seconds by obeying a speed limit, so why should any other class of law or rule breaker be ignored because to do the right thing is a 'disproportionate hassle'?

What makes them so special?

If you don't feel able to obey the rules of the road, then don't use the road. The regulations aren't simply an inconvenience to be ignored when it seems expedient to do. They're there to ensure convince and safety for all road users, not just whomsoever may be too lazy to park properly and havebto carry something an extra hundred yards.
 
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