Traffic Wardens. Good or bad?
Discussion
Lets differentiate between traffic wardens and parking attendents.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
puggit said:
Lets differentiate between traffic wardens and parking attendents.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Ok Parking attendants.
if people don't give them the opportunity to dish out fines........Can you see the point here?
Gently Bentley said:
They keep the roads clear at peak times and fine people who park where they know fine well they should not be parking.
Oh I was only away 2 mins.
Eh hello...NO PARKING. None, zilch, nil, niemalds, zero.
Does anybody thing these people much hated by most are stopping parking anarchy?
Oh I was only away 2 mins.
Eh hello...NO PARKING. None, zilch, nil, niemalds, zero.
Does anybody thing these people much hated by most are stopping parking anarchy?
They can as good or bad as the policy they are enforcing, provided they have brains.
Edinburgh's current grey ones are sentient and noticably better than the previous Blue Meanies who were staffed with some sort of sociopathic pond slime.
(I'm proud to have helped them lose the gig, by exposing dihonesty.
) Too many parking restictions where there is no obstruction issue though.
Gently Bentley said:
puggit said:
Lets differentiate between traffic wardens and parking attendents.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Ok Parking attendants.
if people don't give them the opportunity to dish out fines........Can you see the point here?
Sounds just like " Dont speed and youll get no tickets" to me....
Now, let me think....
I watched a London parking attendant ticket a car at a meter when 5 min parking remained
I watched a London parking attendant ticket a BT van working an open manhole (specifically exempt from parking)
I watched a London parking attendant ticket a motorcycle for "overhanging" the MC bay (4" of road left to the bollard)
Do I think this has anything to do with safety.....?
Do I think this has anything to do with traffic flow.....?
I am not a supporter of privatised enforcement of matter that are, or are considered to be, "justice" based. Financial incentive to ticket people leads to bad justice. Errosion of respect for Traffic attendants has consequences for Traffic Wardens and ultimately for Police.
I watched a London parking attendant ticket a car at a meter when 5 min parking remained
I watched a London parking attendant ticket a BT van working an open manhole (specifically exempt from parking)
I watched a London parking attendant ticket a motorcycle for "overhanging" the MC bay (4" of road left to the bollard)
Do I think this has anything to do with safety.....?
Do I think this has anything to do with traffic flow.....?
I am not a supporter of privatised enforcement of matter that are, or are considered to be, "justice" based. Financial incentive to ticket people leads to bad justice. Errosion of respect for Traffic attendants has consequences for Traffic Wardens and ultimately for Police.
Deltafox said:
Gently Bentley said:
puggit said:
Lets differentiate between traffic wardens and parking attendents.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Traffic Wardens are effectively part of the police force - their role is keeping traffic moving.
Parking Attendents are council employed. Their sole role is to generate revenue to pay for over-inflated public sector pensions. They use intentionally confusing and draconian parking regulations to help them reach their targets.
Ok Parking attendants.
if people don't give them the opportunity to dish out fines........Can you see the point here?
Sounds just like " Dont speed and youll get no tickets" to me....
I'm sorry DeltaF I'm going to take what I hope is an objective view here based on some local colour.
Our nearest local town centre is a collection of mainly one way streets which also compose in some cases through routes. Complicated story old Georgian canal town through which both cut and major river run, plus large canal basins marina moorings etc. (not that that is relevant other than to try and demonstrate road building options are limited, cue bypass discussion but that is another story)
The plague upon this town is parking by people who basically just take the piss. Just one example from a while back, a woman got very voluble in local paper that she had been ticketed delivering goods to a relative's shop and only stopped just long enough, only a minute per Gently Bentley original post.
The reality was that she was stopped for a significant amount of time, not only creating an illegal and unnecessary obstruction, but also half on yellow zig-zags for a TLC pedestrian crossing and half on the crossing itself. Now in my old fashioned view of things, I think that by getting a mere parking penalty she got off lightly. From my perspective she should have been reported on summons for a number of issues and got points as well, but that's just me being a self confessed grumpy old git.
Last Friday she was at it again, completely taking the piss, however she will come again at a more convenient time.
The problem is that the Neighbourhood team is overwhelmed with the usual crap, the station doesn't have anybody on front desk for 2/3 of the day, when it does it's a civvy volunteer. Yes it's crap isn't it, but that is from the force which was graded the best in the recent reports. The community bobby does her best but, quart pint pot etc.
Therefore the taking the piss parking, bus at bus stop, muppet parked opposite bus stop on DYL because he/she can't be arsed to walk 200m from pay and display car park or 350m from free car park, artic can't get through gap, so whole town grinds to a halt.
People who park similarly for hours safe in the knowledge that there is no enforcement until such time as a busy plod gets so pissed off he/she deals with a miscreant, ref woman on X-ing mentioned above. Only for plod then to get grief in press on basis of blatant lies from the guilty.
So everyone says, build a by-pass. Fair enough one option. A £50 million pound bypass!!!!
On the other hand, most of the regulatory markings in town are outwith the legislation in various ways.
So, assuming, and I admit it is a ginormous assumption that signs and road markings are duly fixed in accordance with regs. What to do?
What I would like to see, are traffic wardens* as described above by puggit.
What we will get are parking attendants. What I hope we will get, and what the council have promised, is parking attendants who act like traffic wardens, ie not a revenue raising operation. Only time will tell on that. Not optimistic in long term tbh.
However it will not stop those who are nicked, ref woman on X-ing complaining it's just a revenue raising operation which iirc is exactly what she did in her complaint.
So yes, if Gently is saying don't park like a twunt and you won't get nicked..... well it isn't rocket science is it?**
* Please just remember from many previous posts I'm no fan of civilian enforcement.
** To stress all comments made on basis that signage etc is correct and in place.
Edited by Flat in Fifth on Friday 29th September 10:41
that somebody on another thread didn't want. Best non alco-frolic as both of us will be honing our... :cough: ... driving later I guess. Gently Bentley said:
They keep the roads clear at peak times and fine people who park where they know fine well they should not be parking.
Oh I was only away 2 mins.
Eh hello...NO PARKING. None, zilch, nil, niemalds, zero.
Does anybody thing these people much hated by most are stopping parking anarchy?
Oh I was only away 2 mins.
Eh hello...NO PARKING. None, zilch, nil, niemalds, zero.
Does anybody thing these people much hated by most are stopping parking anarchy?
Beg to differ. The residents parking schemes are nothing more than a cynical money making scam, and the attendants, despite all the claims to the contrary, are there to screw you. My wife got a ticket earlier this week. She went to see a friend who lives in a road with a CPZ. She goes into the house, and her friend is busy feeding her baby, and the husband is on the phone. By the time they had filled in the scratch card that you have to give to visitors to display in their cars the attendant had got her. At another friends the woman ran out to the car with the scratch card as soon as she saw my wife appear, leaving her baby, because the scenario I described before had happened so many times. I'm sure there is some regulation saying that they must wait some finite amount of time before ticketing, to allow people to get the scratchcards, but in reality they ticket you, knowing that most people with busy lives don't want the hassle, and don't have the time to fight the ticket.
Basically it is a tax to park outside your own house, which will never go down, and you have to pay for the scratchcards your visitors need. In some parts of London they are charging people a pound an hour for these scratch cards. If you ever get asked by the council if you want a CPZ, the answer should be no, it'll create far more problems than it solves.
I'm sorry these people are the scum of the Earth, and deserve absolutely no respect whatsoever.
Quite often the council areas are all made urban clearways so that people can't stop, a favorite idea is to make these zones outside of shops, so that the shopkeepers can't get delivery drivers to stop outside of their shop.
Now, I am sure this has nothing to do with the fact that the deliveries will have to continue so the delivery drivers will continue to stop outside the shop and pay the fines..
Now, I am sure this has nothing to do with the fact that the deliveries will have to continue so the delivery drivers will continue to stop outside the shop and pay the fines..
In Essex all our double yellow line work has been "de-criminalised" in as much as it is no longer a police matter, in fact, we have no power to deal with cars on yellow lines (although oddly we still have obstruction so if push came to shove)
The council deal with all yellow lines - This has freed up officer time as now when the call comes in we simply say, "Ring the council on this number" and it becomes someone elses problem (which makes a change
) LOL
The only reason I made the post tonight was that today I saw a good bit of enforcement, we have a private school on one of the main roads into town and this morning is was rainy so normally EVERY parent brings (it seems like) TWO cars each and fill up both sides of the road but there was a warden / enforcement officer (whatever they are called) standing in the rain ensuring parents parked in the side roads and walked their kids in with umbrellas - Safer in my view (a clear road - easy to see people crossing) and a lot less frustrating for passing motorists.
The council deal with all yellow lines - This has freed up officer time as now when the call comes in we simply say, "Ring the council on this number" and it becomes someone elses problem (which makes a change
) LOL The only reason I made the post tonight was that today I saw a good bit of enforcement, we have a private school on one of the main roads into town and this morning is was rainy so normally EVERY parent brings (it seems like) TWO cars each and fill up both sides of the road but there was a warden / enforcement officer (whatever they are called) standing in the rain ensuring parents parked in the side roads and walked their kids in with umbrellas - Safer in my view (a clear road - easy to see people crossing) and a lot less frustrating for passing motorists.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff