while we’re on the subject how come disabled badge holders are allowed to park on double yellows? you often seen them parked in very dangerous places, on bends, outside shops etc. often compounded by the fact that they are driven by elderly people wearing hats! Being disabled in some way doesn’t magically make that parking spot less dangerous.

I think the idea of double yellows is regarding convenience/traffic flow rather than safety.

Bit of both. Having a disabled badge doesn’t entitle you to park like a **** though, the rules say:

You may park on single or double yellow lines for up to three hours if it is safe to do so but not within 15 metres of a junction or where there are restrictions on loading or unloading – indicated by yellow kerb dashes and/or signs on plates.

You are not entitled to park on yellow lines in ‘off-street’ car parks.

so you can still be ticketed for unsafe parking.

I woulod be very much in favour of “zero tolerance” towards anyone who breaks the rules.  Within a couple of years either behaviour would change or there would be no cars left on the road a they would all be banned

If the powers that be will not enforce the rules why can we not?  As I said – try parking in a cycleway in amsterdamn – if you can get past the tutting you WILL find your car dmagaed.  Would you park there again?  No.

Yeah, that’s just laughably idealist.  How long before over zealous car haters misinterpret the law and start vandalising everything?  There is a reason vigilantism isn’t allowed.  Damaging a car is clearly not ‘enforcing the rules’ is it?  Would I trust you to have the presence of mind to judge if a car was suitably parked or not?  Nope.

two different things.

vigilantism by cyclists in Amsterdam works.  NO one parks in cycleways as they know their car will be damaged

Zero tolerance to all road users breaking the law by the police would take almost all car drivers off the road in a few months or they would learn to stop breaking the law.  Most car drivers do not realise that most of them break the law continuously.  while this is allowed to continue then pedestrians, cyclists horse riders etc will continue to be killed.

How many car drivers observe speed limits?  the 2 second rule?  1.5 m clearance while passing cyclists?  Red lights?  Illegal parking? – and before you say some of that is only Highway code rules remeber breaking highway  code rules is all the evidence need for careless driving

I am going up town shortly – I’ll take some photos of all the illegally parked cars that make my journey more dangerous etc etc

17 cars parked on double yellow, double red or double parked – every one of them making my journey more dangerous.  5 cars in ASLs  One van parked in an ASL on a double red line

Thats in a two mile ride in town ( leith walk for those who know Edinburgh

Want photos?

See loads of this. Reduces risk of supermarket car park dinks I guess, but could end up with a nice scrape down the nearside if people aren’t paying attention 🙂

The full set almost.  double red line, cycleway. lead in to ASL[url=https://flic.kr/p/2bYThQW]DSC_0697[/url] by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

Just nicely blocking the cycleway But its OK I have my magic free parking lights flashing

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2bYThYG]DSC_0692[/url] by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

This one was still there on my return  an hour later.  double yellow lines, with 10 m of a junction, blocking the pavement so a baby buggy or wheelchair user could not get past and also blocking an allyway.[url=https://flic.kr/p/PjLBs8]DSC_0678[1][/url] by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

Zero tolerance to all road users breaking the law by the police would take almost all car drivers off the road in a few months

Where are you getting the 100,000s of traffic police from and why not use that same approach for all other crimes (arguably more important crimes than bad parking if you can imagine those crimes)

I guess if we have 40 million people employed as police officers the crime numbers would drop dramatically so maybe that is your plan?  Although that would lead to the obvious question of who is policing the police…

Parking and other minor road crimes could easily be camera or PCSO engorced – and would be a revenue gain for the country.  It really would not take tyhat many folk along with cameras to enforce the law.

17 illegal parkers in one 20 min ride today – thats £1000 in fines.  Got to be some profit in that

See every newspaper tho for any initiative to reduce bad driving ” war on motorists”

<p>Parking is decriminalised in Edinburgh hence the wardens. Note the key word: decriminalised.</p><p>As a driver I have never been anywhere quitr so anti motorist as Edinburgh, you have one of the better cities though in that it’s easy to park and ride. But for a tradesman (you know, those folk in vans trying to make a living) it is damn near impossible to park legally hance the amount of vans you see parked illegally.</p>

you can still be ticketed for unsafe parking

Unfortunatley a traffic warden cannot ticket a disabled badge holder for unsafe parking on double yellow lines, it has to be done by a police officer, leading to dangerous parking at our local school as they know they can get away with it.  (Local police are ‘too busy’)

squirrellking – actually Edinburgh is very pro motorist – hence the stupid unusable cycleways – done like that so as to not take any space from cars.  Cyclists get 1.%% of the roads budget despite being 5%+ of the traffic

As for the tradesmen – you really do have my sympathy but zero tolerance and proper enforcement of parking regs would help you greatly as there are loads of “loading bays” that are there for you to use – but they are always full of cars parked in them so you cannot use them.  If loading bays were enforced properly you could use them.  But they are not so yu cannot.

17 illegal parkers in one 20 min ride today

…and one nosy parker. 😉

Doesn’t quite excuse the ‘great pleasure’ in causing damage though does it?

I didn’t realise I needed excusing, I’ll make sure I seek your permission for any opinions in future. I would take great pleasure in watching a bus sideswipe that Honda up there too FWIW, or a shopping trolley rolling into any of the cars badly parked in a disabled bay. Karma innit. I’m not condoning going out with a bat to smash a car up, but if I think I can fit through, at the expense of rubbing alongside someone who’s parked like a ****, I’m going to do it. This has probably happened 10 times, I’m not some pushchair vigilante.

This basically sums up my thoughts:

Obviously I can’t condone deliberately damaging a car, but I do think that if every car parked on the pavement had a scrape running down the full length of one side then the problem would disappear quite quickly.

We’ve got a multistory at work for the dedicated use of the office building. It’s free to use, so no enforcement and there is currently a spate of folk parking across 2 spaces so their beloved [insert hated vehicle of choice] doesn’t get scratched. There’s enough space for everyone, but not if we all have 2 spaces. Arseholes.

Tesco carpark a couple of weeks ago, very busy and the only space I could find was one where the car behind was intruding into “my” space by about 1m. I reversed in as tight as I could so I wasn’t sticking out blocking a lane in the car park and yep, you’ve got it – came back to a passive aggressive note thanking my for my inconsiderate parking that had prevented them getting their shopping into the boot of their car. Wish I’d taken a pic!

I didn’t realise I needed excusing, I’ll make sure I seek your permission for any opinions in future.

Oh, no need to ask permission.  Just don’t expect to post on a public forum about acting like a %#£&, and not have people confirm that you are indeed a %#£&. 😜

I’m not condoning going out with a bat to smash a car up, but if I think I can fit through, at the expense of rubbing alongside someone who’s parked like a ****, I’m going to do it. This has probably happened 10 times, I’m not some pushchair vigilante.

Yes, yes, very clever.

if you can get past the tutting you WILL find your car dmagaed. Would you park there again? No.

But to take your reasoning to the next logical level, if the powers that be won’t act against illegal Parkers or the cyclists who damage those cars, surely the owners of the damaged cars are entitled to beat the cyclist to a pull and take the bike to sell to pay for repairs.  Anarchy is a two way street.  Or maybe a multiway street.  Or maybe no one would agree it was a street at all if they really are anarchists

To go back to disabled badge holders – I know a guy who has had the great misfortune to hold one ever since he has a had a driver’s license.  He doesn’t want to park like a dick but very few councils, business etc. understand their obligations to those with disabilities and even less motivation to live up to them.  Randomly denying access to disabled parking or road access, not having any parking, putting the handicapped parking at the other end of the facility from the accessible entrance/lift.  Getting crap from busybodies who don’t know what privileges the badge provides telling him he can’t park there.  Getting tickets from traffic wardens who don’t know the rules, which takes him a day to sort out Everytime, and that’s if he can find disabled parking near the building and access.  I once had to move his adapted vehicle because some ejit had parked so close to the drivers door I had to climb over from the passenger side (driving a vehicle adapted for hand operation is something else!)

I don’t know how he has the energy to go anywhere anymore and he has my enduring respect for not giving up entirely.

All that to say I try my best to cut those badge holders as much slack as I can muster even if they are a bit dickish in their parking.  For some, their bads days are far worse than any of us can possibly imaging.

Parking and other minor road crimes could easily be camera or PCSO engorced – and would be a revenue gain for the country.  It really would not take tyhat many folk along with cameras to enforce the law.

Sorry Tj, it doesn’t work that simply unfortunately.

A good friend is anti social / litter patrol / Park warden / parking warden for Falkirk. They have same level of proof required for such things as littering or vandalism. So body cameras, notepads of notes made as a police officer would, still camera evidence, corroboration etc.

Lots of angry people = often need to use panic button/call for police back up as someone’s threatening to kick the sh*t out of them. That’s at least two police and a van, for a few hours

Often idiots will go to court, trying to blame officers and ‘yeah I know there’s a video of me driving my car around the Kelpies, but honest it wasn’t me’.

Then you get the folk who *know* where the wardens are, and despite having been prosecuted and warned many times, they still allow dog to foul everywhere – but only when wardens are not there ..

Matt we could do zero tolerance of bad parking and it will be a revenue raiser but the politicians are scared of or bribed by the road lobby

squirrellking – actually Edinburgh is very pro motorist – hence the stupid unusable cycleways – done like that so as to not take any space from cars. Cyclists get 1.%% of the roads budget despite being 5%+ of the traffic

Must have changed since I was last there, Edinburgh is an utter nightmare to drive in and the only place I will, without fail, leave the car outside the city. You could be through Glasgow city centre and hitting Hermiston Gait quicker than the last time I drove into Leith along Ferry Road at rush hour.

As for the tradesmen – you really do have my sympathy but zero tolerance and proper enforcement of parking regs would help you greatly as there are loads of “loading bays” that are there for you to use – but they are always full of cars parked in them so you cannot use them. If loading bays were enforced properly you could use them. But they are not so yu cannot.

That’s nice, what if they’re all day at a job though? Where do they park once they have unloaded?

legally in a parking bay – same as anyone else.

I agree Edinburgh is congested – but nothing to do with the council being anti motorist.  Mainly to do with the layout of the city.  YOu should try cycling round it – cyling provision is poor and some of the road design is lethal

Matt we could do zero tolerance of bad parking and it will be a revenue raiser but the politicians are scared of or bribed by the road lobby

Wow, I fear we are now entering the world of paranoid delusions.  You might be surprised to find politicians are unlikely to take your argument seriously when it involves he public taking matters into their own hands and damaging cars they believe to be incorrectly parked.

Don’t conflate the two things please

I merely pointed out that in the Netherlands no one parks in cycle lanes because their car will be damaged if they do.  At no point did I suggest that we should do this. or that is was the right thing to do

Zero tolerance for bad parking is a completely different thing.  It need political will and enforcement.  Currently we have very little enforcement of bad parking – why – because there is no political will to do so.  But no – too many entitled motorists many on here who deem any attempt to get them to obey the law to be an infringement on their freedom to do as they want.

Edinburgh defence.  Predictable.

I don’t think anyone is condoning the bad parking on this thread, only that your ideas to address it are laughable.  You seem to think that anyone that doesn’t completely agree with you is also part of the problem, which again, is laughable. Ho  Ho Ho.  Don’t see many examples of ‘entitled motorists’ posting on this thread?  Examples?

This thread just reminded of this photo ^^^ I took a while back.. Yes, that is the main pedestrian crossing right in the middle of Newcastle directly in front of central train station. Tosser

Had a taxi driver this morning at the airport whe I was dropping my wife off.. 100s or empty spaces but no he parks smack bang on the middle of the road. Bell end

I do stand by the ‘I’m not sure we have the resources to make this happen’ statement I made.

However I do agree with TJ on the fact that if we could get on top of so many small ways that people undermine not only law but reflect a selfishness, people would change very rapidly….

Or you could just get some perspective.  A bit of bad parking really isn’t that serious a crime and certainly not worthy of diverting resources that would have been used for the many more serious crimes that are already not tackled properly.

I think you are veering into a pensioners view of the world…

Gammon!

It would not divert resources – it would be a revenue generator.  If i can find 17  ie £1000 worth in 20 mins then it would generate revenue – and bad parking makes cycling more dangerous and difficult and unpleasant.

The problenm is not resources – its political will.

As an example – lothian buses all have cameras that can catch people driving and parking in bus lanes.  It was suggested that this be used for prosecutions.  Blocked by government.   This is despite fitting specific bus lane cameras in hot spots to catch people.