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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not understand traffic warden hatred?

88 replies

jaggythistle · 19/12/2010 22:05

Please tell me if I am being unreasonable to think that it is as simple as this : if you don't park where you're not supposed to, you won't get a ticket?

I haven't had one in 12 years of driving based on this theory, am I just lucky not to live or regularly visit a 'difficult' area?

I often hear people ranting about tickets, but excluding obvious mistakes in handing out the ticket, are they just daft to have not read the parking regulations for where they parked?

This has often crossed my mind and now I have somewhere to get an answer Xmas Grin

OP posts:
maryz · 19/12/2010 22:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nancy75 · 19/12/2010 22:34

in 20 years of driving i have had one parking ticket, i had a valid pay and display ticket that ran out at 4pm, the ticket was given at 4.05pm, the only issue i had was that i had returned to the car at 3.45, 15 minutes before my ticket ran out! Fortunately there was a policeman nearby who confirmed, in writing that the car was not even parked there at 4.05. I had the ticket overturned after 6 months of letters ect. Not all parking wardens are honest.

Original poster
jaggythistle · 19/12/2010 22:34

hehe!

Well we are TTC #2...

OP posts:
ccpccp · 19/12/2010 22:35

The simple fact is - parking wardens are cnuts.

The more they ticket, the more they earn. Its a terrible temptation and they take the piss all the time.

It stopped being about traffic flow when councils were told they could spend the ticket revenue as they wanted. Now its a factored in, expected, ticket more if revenues are down, industry. Fairness doesnt come into it. They do whatever they can get away with.

bringmesomeFIGGYpudding · 19/12/2010 22:35

Our now traffic wardens are quite nice, they aren't over zealous and they are reasonable which is alwasy a bonus!

bringmesomeFIGGYpudding · 19/12/2010 22:40

ccpccp - knuts (intentional or not I keep thinking on a non dirty version but can't remember where from Grin)

more seriously though, this is the problem the more you ticket the more you get paid and they rely on the fact that people don't have time to dispute it. Sadly for them people are wising up to their little ways!

As I say our local ones have been quite nice but then he is a retiree who likes walking around town!

jaggy good luck with ttc #2, 2 is more quite lovely and quite a challenge (not that I'd do anything different and you so lose the pfb attitude and become way more chilled but you also lose the ability to sleep when they do blah blah blah!) I challenge thee to become jiggy then!

bringmesomeFIGGYpudding · 19/12/2010 22:41

Oops, glass of vino too many by the looks of the last post....... hoping ykwim in it!

bringmesomeFIGGYpudding · 19/12/2010 22:42

And now you've all left me!

jiggyjaggythistle · 19/12/2010 22:44

here you go Xmas Grin

bringmesomeFIGGYpudding · 19/12/2010 22:48

superb!

maighdlin · 19/12/2010 22:59

OP YANBU my mum and aunt hate traffic wardens and are horrible to them when THEY park illegally. they are constantly getting tickets and not for going over the time parking on double yellows etc i have zero sympathy for them.

i hate clampers though mainly because they are illegal in NI. a car in NI can only be clamped if there is no valid tax disc on it.

never have been clamped or ticketed because i park where i am allowed to and pay it. and i never speed, don't see why everyone is in such a bloody hurry. with some exceptions, there is no need to risk your license, money or other peoples LIVES for you to get there 1 minute earlier.

borderslass · 19/12/2010 23:00

maryz
it is in the highway code as advisory

229
Before you set off

you MUST be able to see, so clear all snow and ice from all your windows
you MUST ensure that lights are clean and number plates are clearly visible and legible
make sure the mirrors are clear and the windows are demisted thoroughly
remove all snow that might fall off into the path of other road users
check your planned route is clear of delays and that no further snowfalls or severe weather are predicted.

We had a lovely traffic warden always had time for everyone unfortunately he retired and as been replaced by a not so nice one, although I have never had any sort of ticket in 19 years of driving.

wineonafridaynight · 19/12/2010 23:03

YANBU. I have had a ticket (2 actually) but never understand peoples anger with wardens. They are doing a job! It was my fault I got a ticket!

In my defense for one, the parking regulations had been the same since I was a child - there were single yellows and you could park after 7pm. They changed them to double yellow lines, I parked there and didn't realise until I came back to find a ticket. They had changed them that day.

wineonafridaynight · 19/12/2010 23:04

YANBU. I have had a ticket (2 actually) but never understand peoples anger with wardens. They are doing a job! It was my fault I got a ticket!

In my defense for one, the parking regulations had been the same since I was a child - there were single yellows and you could park after 7pm. They changed them to double yellow lines, I parked there and didn't realise until I came back to find a ticket. They had changed them that day.

Megletitsnow · 19/12/2010 23:05

YANBU. I've also managed to drive for 12 years without a parking ticket or speeding fine. Parking restrictions are there for a reason, often to allow the emergency services to access a road / building.

And I clean snow off the top of my car.

I did an advanced driving course once . (never quite finished it due to having dc's)

edam · 19/12/2010 23:37

I used to like traffic wardens - when I lived in London and was a pedestrian all the time. Very satisfying to see selfish gits who park in disabled bays, or at bus stops, or on double yellows, get their comeuppance. Especially if you are trying to catch the bus that they are blocking.

However, dh did once get a ticket that I thought was unfair. I had a foot injury and was heavily pregnant. Dh had to drive me to the doctors for an ante-natal appointment. I couldn't get out of the car and up the steps on my own, so he had to leave the car for one minute literally to help me up the steps and into the waiting room. In that time, he got a ticket!

The warden MUST have seen the heavily pregnant woman being helped up the steps and slapped the ticket on the second we were through the doors. Git.

We appealed and it was cancelled but in a snide 'OK we'll let you off THIS TIME but don't even think about doing it again' way. Yeah right, I'm going to get run over again just for the pleasure of being helped up the steps at the doctors'...

jiggyjaggythistle · 20/12/2010 10:53

So I am being reasonably not unreasonable to think hating all traffic wardens is a bit much then. Xmas Smile

Happy now.

Shaxx · 20/12/2010 11:19

I got a ticket one Sunday when I parked on a street in a meter bay (they used to be free on Sundays). If I'd parked literally a meter in front on a single yellow line, I wouldn't have got a ticket.
Dh once got a fine through the post saying his 14 days were up and he hadn't paid his parking fine so it was double. He was so confused as he'd had nothing on his window and he couldn't even imagine where he'd parked illegally.
When we found out when and where, he realised he had parked there but he'd definitely bought a pay and display ticket and stuck it on his window.
Thankfully, he found his pay and display ticket in his ash tray so was able to prove he wasn't illegally parked and wrote to them asking if traffic wardens now operate fraudalently.
I'm not a fan of traffic wardens.

missalien · 20/12/2010 11:34

I got one yesterday after braving the snow to go get some food. Free car park outside but was supposed to put on a free ticket. Was too busy with baby and trolleys in the snow realise . Forty quid to pay within two weeks. Im on maternity and have very little income. Thats kids presents buggered

JaneS · 20/12/2010 11:37

I don't get it.

You park in the wrong place, without reading the sign, on a blue moon, etc., you get a ticket. I've done it myself. It's really annoying. It's also our fault!

Wardens aren't superhuman, they can't magically tell why the car's in the wrong place.

poppyknot · 20/12/2010 11:40

Your DH was lucky Shaxx. My DH had a ticket displayed but it was back to front and they refused to cancel the fine......

FindingAManger · 20/12/2010 11:41

YANBU - if we didn't have traffic wardens no one would be able to get a park at all, as the parks would all be taken first thing in the morning, and there's be no parks for the rest of us, apart from a few 'right place right time' lucky ones.

purits · 20/12/2010 11:58

We have a car park, run by the Council, right next door to the supermarket.
We needed milk so I asked DC to go fetch some whilst I stayed in the car for the few minutes it took, with the engine running. A very nice supermarket person warned me that the Council used their Big Brother cameras to catch people like me and fine them for non-purchase of a ticket!

jiggyjaggythistle · 20/12/2010 12:03

If you're not purchasing a ticket though, are you not open to whatever penalty there is?

There is a cash machine next to double yellow lines near beside the entrance to my nearest town centre parking area, ALL DAY people are stopping there for 'just a few minutes' causing an obstruction to the busy traffic, just at a junction.

I appreciate that you are in a car park so not likely to obstruct much, but it's the 'just a few minutes' defence that makes me Confused

May I ask why you chose not to use the supermarket car park?

oneortwo · 20/12/2010 12:03

yanbu. I wish there were more parking wardens round here Hmm

and why is it okay to justify hatred for a whole profession because there are some bad eggs. Yes there are examples of people who get 'done' when they've obv just gone to buy a ticket, but there are examples of bad doctors, teachers, bin men, posties.....
Yes you hear it a lot on the radio, but people don't ring up when they've been treated fairly do they? and it IS possible that some like a soap box and exaggerate slightly, it is possible that "I was gone for 30 seconds max" is unlikely TBH, you would have seen them approaching in that timescale.

I remember a TV program about britians most hated car park owner, a woman who had clearly parked right across the middle of 2 spaces was on her soap box. And people were complaining that they'd gone OUT of the car park "to get change" and were clamped when they got back. Well fair enough TBH - before I go into town I check I have keys,mobile,wallet,car park change...

If everyone played fair and was considerate of other road users then maybe the hatred would be justified.

And its a bloomin hard job out there in the cold. plus they are not the ones that set the criteria for a ticket!

Thank you to any parking attendants out there! Drivers in my town are selfish enough, would be impassable if not kept in check

(we have BTW been 'done' when we had a ticket in the past, I'm not denying it happens! but out of all the times we've used town parking, one mistake isn't bad going)

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