Traffic warden app idea

[BadParkingRevenge]

Where I live there is so much terrible and dangerous parking. Across dropped kerbs, on double yellows (often meaning you can't see when turning into narrow streets, leading to dangerous reversing), on pavements where roads have been pedestrianised/paved over, cars half in the road not parked properly, diagonally in a space too small...

Most seems to be people who can't be bothered to walk a few steps to local shops or takeaways. There is space to park in the streets, just not right next to where people want.

I commented to a friend that the council could make a fortune sending a parking warden round. Friend joked there should be an app where we get a discount on council tax for taking pics and reporting these drivers. But seriously - I wouldn't even need an incentive beyond stopping selfish dangerous parking, and I think an app would be a good idea!

Knowing how people hate traffic wardens maybe I am a terrible person...

So, AIBU to think an app where the public can photograph and report terrible parking is a good idea?

Ps. I'm not actually doing market research as am not capable of designing such an app!

My local council has an app called 'fix my street' and one of the options there is reporting bad parking like you've described... not sure how quickly they'd come out for it though. They did respond to my report about a run over deer outside my house quite quickly a few years ago, but completely ignored my report about a huge hole from a dislodged manhole right outside a school.

Sounds like East Germany

Yeah definitely set up an app that doesn’t take into account any context at all.

What they need is competing companies of Traffic Wardens. You send a photo/press a button on the app, and whichever company gets there first gets to serve the ticket to the offending parker 😀
A bit like firefighters in 18th and 19th centuries, who tried very underhand tactics to scupper the other companies.

You can’t avoid traffic wardens where I am. They’re a big money maker for the council.

We have Fix my Street too. I’ve made a couple of comments on there over the years, and nothing has ever happened to fix it.

We have love clean streets for highways and it does get actioned - you click at location and take a pic of defect.
A parking warden app could work in same way. I suspect it’s chicken and egg. Would need to spend on extra wardens to man it before the extra revenue came in from all the extra tickets and local government doesn’t work like that.

We do need something like it though. If people park on pavements and block pedestrians from getting by, they deserve to be fined (I would crush their cars too (not with them in it)).

This lunchtime I saw someone on a yellow line, in a bus stop, facing the wrong way to the direction of travel. I'd really like to have shopped them (and if you were wondering, it was indeed an Audi).

We only get traffic wardens in my town one day a week now as they come under the county council rather than the district council. So the crazy parkers can do what they like. And of course on the day that they do condescend to pay our town a visit, they concentrate on fining people for being longer in the car park than they should be, rather than actually dealing with dangerous and illegal parking.

Is there any context to illegal and dangerous parking? If there isn't room to park safely you go elsewhere. And (gasp!) walk a little bit.

It wouldn’t really work because there wouldn’t be enough traffic wardens to rush out and check all the reports before the cars moved

plus the public don’t really understand the laws around parking so a lot of it would be tosh

its not for illegal and dangerous parking. It’s for (maybe) illegal parking.

if someone is in a residents bay without a permit, that’s not dangerous.

They wouldn't need to check the reports in person - you'd get a fine in the post. However, there's need to be some system for stopping AI/photoshopping. Otherwise you'd get the same problem that you get with ANPR and cloning registration plates.

Oh you’re one of those who think they can park anywhere aren’t you. Bet you drive a massive Land Rover.

Yes I would love this, far too many idiotic drivers, usually in huge cars they can’t drive, dumping them in dangerous areas, especially near the school.

That’s never going to happen.

how would it be evidenced? Oh yes Mrs smith said you haven’t got a valid parking permit. Where is your evidence? Oh well you know she just reported it.

Surely all councils have a website where you can report and provide evidence of bad parking. Ours does, but then it relies on a warden seeing the report and going there and the car still being there when they do. And by the time anyone bothers to act on the report the car is long gone.

They can’t ticket on the basis of a photo alone - a warden has to be there. And that seems reasonable - how could they know that a photo hadn’t been doctored or there wasn’t context (eg pulling up on a double yellow because an ambulance was coming)

Dangerous driving and parking can be ticketed by the police on the basis of video evidence without an officer being there, but that would be things like driving along the pavement, not just being on a double yellow and has to be video not photo (which is dangerous as the driver will not be happy about being filmed). Some people near us did get somewhere by filming a road where drivers regularly drove along the pavement so they could squeeze past, despite there being mums with buggies walking to the nursery on that street - I think some fines were issued.

We’ve had some horrible near misses on the walk to school due to selfish parking totally blocking visibility for children trying to cross the road so I would report the fuckers at the drop of a hat if anyone would actually do something about it.

People would be sending in AI photos trying to get people fined. It's great in theory but in practice probably not workable.

I just report on the local council's website. I live opposite a corner and people regularly park vans across the corner over double yellows in a way that makes it dangerous for pedestrians to cross because they can't see what's coming; and makes it inconvenient for drivers who sometimes can't get past. And I've seen those vehicles with tickets too, it definitely helps.

But it's true that I don't know the context. Maybe the driver's actually having a terrible day, burnt the toast and is running late and therefore deserves to be allowed to park how they like regardless of someone else's petty so-called "rules" 🙄.

Why don't we just ban vehicles and people? Love a good ban and narc thread.

Not remotely - I've never had a parking ticket in my life. I don't drive a massive Land Rover. I did used to volunteer for St John's Ambulance however and it's amazing how people don't make space for ambulances/medical cars when they have little option but to park as close to the incident as possible. Hence why I mentioned context. Me not agreeing with the app doesn't magically make me a bad driver. It also doesn't magically give you the right to be a rude old trout.

The evidence would be the photo of them parked on double yellows, or whatever.

These aren't minor infringements I'm talking about, it's dangerous stuff.

Agreed with PPs that AI/doctored images could be a problem though.

Surely being an ambulance would make it obvious why it was parked somewhere it otherwise shouldn't be?

Perhaps you are imagining some expensive NIMBY type neighbourhood, where people would actually be petty enough to complain about where an ambulance parked? It is quite the opposite here - the bad parking is selfish lazy people who would rather park entirely on the pavement than walk a few metres to the nearest takeaway.

So how does the app make a Parking attendant go check?

the public aren’t consistently good or qualified judges over what’s dangerous.

Why? Did they have apps for reporting bad parking in E. Germany?

A few photos showing a car parked, say, at the end of a narrow street on double yellows is clearly parked where they shouldn't be. Doesn't need a parking warden to go and check.

I'm not talking about obscure unclear situations.

Can you upload video footage to the local police? Does pavement parking count as anti-social behaviour maybe?