to not understand traffic warden hatred?

[jaggythistle]

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

[jiggyjaggythistle]

near beside? what am I on about?

I think i meant just near...

[BettyCash]

It annoys me ppl hate them so much.. But refuse to give up the car. FFS

[chakalala]

YANBU - people just need to pay for the parking and not overstay.Its quiet simple really, overstay = parking ticket.

Same with clamping, dont park on private land - you wouldnt want anyone parking their car on your driveway would you?

But saying, some of the wardens are over zealous

[HeroWantage]

YANBU; we have a lovely local traffic warden that used to help me take the buggy up the steps....however, round our way you can have parked legally in a residents' bay, and then the council suspend the residents' bay for whatever reason, and then tow you away.

I know that you're supposed to check your car every 24 hours, but often car is parked nowhere near your house, and memory is a frail creature...

[kenobi]

Without parking wardens there would be chaos in London so I get your point.

However: when 36 weeks pregnant and the size of a HOUSE I was parking up outside my NCT class but looked in my purse and had no money. I waddled slowly ran into nearest shop to get change for the meter leaving car on yellow line (illegal I know). I came out to see him the parking warden give me a ticket and said 'Look - I was getting change - please don't" He ignored me of course and I took the ticket, got in my car, parked it in the only space - which was a 100m walk from the nearest machine. In the time it took me to go to the machine and come back, he ticketed me again. He must have followed me as it was obvious I couldn't walk very fast.

The first ticket was harsh but legal. The second was absolutely outrageous.

So that's why I spent the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy hating traffic wardens. To be fair, it gave me something to think about when I was 2 weeks overdue.

[Lovecat]

A place near us (where I no longer go to shop) has a mad system whereby you have to get a 'free' scratchcard from the shops to place in your window, thereby proving you are there to visit the local shops and not just loitering for no apparent reason

Only trouble with this is there are only about 4 shops in a very long street that give them out as they are fed up with people coming in for the ticket and not buying anything. So, you may be parked nearly half a mile from the nearest shop that does tickets, and if there's a queue in the shop, you can easily be 10 minutes parked before you get back to your car with the ticket.

We got had like this, she was writing it out as we got back to the car and no amount of reasoning with the warden could persuade her to let us off. The council upheld it too, as we were allowed 'reasonable' time of 5 minutes and then they were allowed to ticket. On Christmas eve. Never been back so it's their shopping parade's loss.

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

It depends where you like, so in my experience YABU but in other parts of the country it maybe YANBU
We live in Westminster which makes tens of millions out of parking fines each year. We have had about 12 tickets cancelled on appeal and paid two in the last 10 years or so. These include tickets on a car in a disabled parking bay whilst displaying a blue badge, tickets that we received through the post, tickets on a car than we had sold even though the new owner had paid the fines (happened whilst waiting for DVLA to change registered keeper) etc. They even sent the bailiffs in relation to those fines and we only managed to get them to stop when we sent the council's own receipts for payment to the Chief Exec of the Council.

So I don't like those traffic wardens who abuse the system and I don't like the adminstration behind them who are at best inefficient and at worst incompetant.

[MsSparkle]

I parked in a carpark once that was free from 7pm until 8am. I arrived at 7am and bought a 4 hour ticket which, because it's free to park until 8am, expired at 12 midday.

Come back to my car and a warden had put a ticket on it at 11.02am because obviously he had waited by my car, thinking because i arrived at 7am, it expired at 11am.

I appealed and it was cancelled but it was the hassle of having to appeal that annoyed me even though i had done nothing wrong and the fact he waited at my car until 11.02am.


I think if someone has overstayed in a carpark for 5 minutes, it's not the end of the world. It's people who park on yellow lines and cause caos and hold ups that should be targeted, but where i live it's not. Your more likely to be fined for overstaying in a carpark for 5 minutes then if you were parked illigally, holding up traffic somewhere.

[trixie123]

I used to live in an area where you needed a residents permit to park, but they would issue more permits than there were spaces so within a four road radius of the zone it was sometimes impossible to park legally when you came home late at night. On more than one occasion I would therefore park on a single yellow in the zone, not obstructing anyone and have to get to it early the next day before the wardens were about. Once or twice I got up and there was still nowhere to move it to and I got a ticket. THAT pissed me off because they can see I have a permit (for which we had to pay) and obviously I would have parked legally if I possibly could have done. There was nowhere within a 15 in walk of my house that was any different. Suggestions on a postcard please!

[HowsTheSerenity]

I have been given a ticket when the car was outside the lines. Fair enough you would think, but then I measured and it was 1.2cm over the line. Bit of slack would be nice.

Another time I got one when I was running late as the youngest DC had to go to the toilet so I sent to older two to the car. They were there in time but I got a ticket as the warden said as there were no adults there it was still illegally parked as I was over the time by 3 minutes when I arrived.

So I realise they do a job that no one else wants and do not deserve the abuse but after what happened I do get somewhat peeved off.

[jessiealbright]

Figgypudding

Knuts are small coins used by the British magical community in the Harry Potter series.

[oneortwo]

but once you add the 1.2 to the width of the line itself, well..., just park inside the line like the rest of us! its not fair on the people who need the space beside you! If the person the other side thinks the same way as you it renders that space un usable for someone who's baby car seat is the seat of their travel system.

That one was justified IMO

[bringmesomeFIGGYpudding]

trixie, that is why we moved, as we only had an hours resident permit and then anyone could park at any time, meaning lugging baby and shopping for miles wasn't great. Obviously wasn't the sole reason for moving but it was a helluva sweetener

[TinselInDisgrace]

DH got a parking ticket from one of those evil parking lot operating companies for having parked for 3 hours 2 minutes. It turned out that there is a three hour parking restriction in that car park, but it was only coincidental that he was 2 minutes over. He only found out about the time limit when he got the ticket in the post. There is one sign in the car park that in any way informs you of any parking restrictions and it's about 15' up on a pole at one end of the car park. There is no way that anyone would think to look up there and there really is no other indication that there might be restrictions. What made it worse is that they time your parking with photographs of your car entering and leaving the car park. He probably wasn't parked in the space for over 3 hours at all.

The idiot paid it, rather than complaining.

[kenobi]

Riven okay, but what about me being ticketed twice in five minutes because I couldn't walk fast enough back from the machine? How does that fit into the 'your fault, you deserved it' theory? It's not always black and white...

[DontLetTinselDragOnTheFloor]

the first ticket was justified, the second you should have appealed.

[kenobi]

DLTDOTF - yeah, but still proves my point that it's not black and white. As does Lovecat's post.

They are a necessary evil - while they are necessary they can be really quite evil.

[KittyTwoShoes]

I've only ever got one parking ticket, because I generally do think it's people's own faults. But last year I parked outside a children's park (which also annoys me - only park for miles, and you have to pay to park there! All the other parks I know have free parking) and got back to my car with my three little nieces ten minutes before the time ran out. I loaded the girls into the car, at which point one says she feels ill then throws up over her sister juat as a warden passed.

I took them out of the car, stood the vommed-on one by the door and rinsed her off with a bottle of water while the ill one perched on the pavement throwing up into a bag. The warden asked when my ticket would run out, I told him, and he stood there and waited. I said I was going to nip to the machine in a minute to get a new ticket and he said, "What, and leave those children?" I said I'd take them with me. He said, "I have toddlers, by the time you get them out of the car and down there and back again your ticket will be up." So I offered him the pound and asked him if he'd go and get me another thirty minutes. He refused. And the minute the ticket ran out, he gave me an £80 fine. Tosser.

Yes, our time was up, but that seemed harsh. I appealed but they said our ticket had run out so I shouldn't have been there. Still makes me angry!

[oneortwo]

"DLTDOTF - yeah, but still proves my point that it's not black and white. As does Lovecat's post.

They are a necessary evil - while they are necessary they can be really quite evil."

just because some go a bit far does not justify hatred of the whole bunch.

And for the people who were 1 min over etc. you were cutting it a bit fine then weren't you? I allow time get back and toddler tame, or get a longer ticket.

[oneortwo]

and they're prob on a time scale that doesn't allow them to wait 3 mins at every car so people can sort themselves out. Plus with CCTV and all they prob can't go making exceptions off their own bat! could be done for fraud if employers thought they were letting people they might know off

[HowsTheSerenity]

oneortwo - I was over the back of the line not the side. He would have had to get down and measure to make sure it was really over. Part of the wheel was in but part was over. That is what annoyed me. He had to get on his hands and knees to check!

[HowsTheSerenity]

DLTDOTF - I appealed both. BOth appeals were rejected.

[jiggyjaggythistle]

HowsTheSerenity - Am I being thick or does that mean that if your wheel was over the back line of the space, then the back/bumper of your car would be well into the space behind. Would that not be the reason for a ticket?