15 mins free parking on double yellows

[longdogs]

I thought this was a great idea first of all. I'm sure we have all needed to park for a few minutes to but a paper or post a letter but did not want the cost and hassle of finding a car park. But having thought about it, would it work?

Surely the high street would be jammed all day long with drivers having their 15 minutes free parking. So in that case, why have the parking restrictions at all?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23488437

 

[JBR]

Many local councils have, perhaps inadvertently, been discouraging town centre shopping by painting yellow lines everywhere and yet failing to provide sufficient car parking spaces on the grounds that they believe we should all use buses. Hence the ongoing exodus of shoppers to out-of-town shopping centres and supermarkets.

In their greed to make money out of their citizens, councils are now beginning to realise that when shops shut down, due to lack of customers and high business rates, town centres are beginning to become 'ghost towns'. Despite this, these same councils seem to have plenty of money to pay for lavish banquets, expensive foreign 'fact finding' trips for councillors, and non-jobs such as 'diversity officers'.

It seems to me that this latest ploy is a belated and desperate bid to lure shoppers back into town centres. Once again, a poorly thought-out ploy by incompetent council officials and central government.

 

[big-all]

i don't care what anybody says
introducing "instant fines " for non dangerous disgressions in motoring and life in general is to raise revenue

its said to free up police time but when a £60 fixed penalty notice can be issued in say an average off perhaps 12- 15 mins
or a "bus lane or box junction" incident can be detected by an operator assigned to collecting the remote camera "evidence " as quickly as possible often several thousands off pounds a day per operator it is fully a big brother evil money making venture

 

[joe-90]

Yeah they all put the money in their pockets? FFS grow up. Councils and governments have NO money. It's OUR money. Let's raise Council Tax and stop fining idiots on the road instead.

 

[longdogs]

Many local councils have, perhaps inadvertently, been discouraging town centre shopping by painting yellow lines everywhere and yet failing to provide sufficient car parking spaces on the grounds that they believe we should all use buses. Hence the ongoing exodus of shoppers to out-of-town shopping centres and supermarkets.

In their greed to make money out of their citizens, councils are now beginning to realise that when shops shut down, due to lack of customers and high business rates, town centres are beginning to become 'ghost towns'. Despite this, these same councils seem to have plenty of money to pay for lavish banquets, expensive foreign 'fact finding' trips for councillors, and non-jobs such as 'diversity officers'.

It seems to me that this latest ploy is a belated and desperate bid to lure shoppers back into town centres. Once again, a poorly thought-out ploy by incompetent council officials and central government.

Excellent post. I totally agree with you. As usual it's taken far too long for them to admit that they are doing the wrong thing. The 'dying' town centre has been an issue for years. Personally, I purposely avoid going to my local high street because of the traffic wardens and the camera cars.

The parking restrictions are supposedly there to prevent drivers from blocking the highway. So, if these plans go ahead, the highway will be permanently 'blocked', so surely the restrictions were not needed in the first place - apart from the revenue it created.

 

[ellal]

I thought that 'double yellows' were meant to designate dangerous areas to park, and single yellows meant to designate restricted areas...

At present you can 'load' on single lines, so this would just be a time extension...

If however you could 'load' on double lines, surely the dangerous element should be taken into consideration unless they are painted in the wrong place...

Sounds like another load of carp akin to opening up the hard shoulder to traffic on motorways in order to defer the congestion issue!

 

[big-all]

Yeah they all put the money in their pockets? FFS grow up. Councils and governments have NO money. It's OUR money. Let's raise Council Tax and stop fining idiots on the road instead.

they have an operator sitting in his air conditioned office his job is to watch the traffic at a box junction they get 5 seconds to leave the box junction or they get a fine through the post
they say its to keep traffic moving but they refuse to put up signs warning that the junction in actively monitored and all offenders will be fined as the 7 to 10k revenue a day from that one location would be lost

 

[JBR]

Yeah they all put the money in their pockets? FFS grow up. Councils and governments have NO money. It's OUR money. Let's raise Council Tax and stop fining idiots on the road instead.

they have an operator sitting in his air conditioned office his job is to watch the traffic at a box junction they get 5 seconds to leave the box junction or they get a fine through the post
they say its to keep traffic moving but they refuse to put up signs warning that the junction in actively monitored and all offenders will be fined as the 7 to 10k revenue a day from that one location would be lost

Yes it's true. I saw that documentary too.

I wouldn't dream of living in London.

 

[big-all]

i don't drive my self i have never had a licence so i have no axe to grind
its the way the systems that are supposed to be used only for safety are being used for big brother issues
a warning notice that all offenders will be ticketed would reduce the offending to virtually zero if the claim off making the junction "safer" was the the main motive
indeed they could alter the traffic light timing by about 15 seconds to drastically reduce offending but money is the only reason for the status quo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21023615

 

[jeds]

Yeah they all put the money in their pockets? FFS grow up. Councils and governments have NO money. It's OUR money. Let's raise Council Tax and stop fining idiots on the road instead.

they have an operator sitting in his air conditioned office his job is to watch the traffic at a box junction they get 5 seconds to leave the box junction or they get a fine through the post
they say its to keep traffic moving but they refuse to put up signs warning that the junction in actively monitored and all offenders will be fined as the 7 to 10k revenue a day from that one location would be lost

Yes it's true. I saw that documentary too.

I wouldn't dream of living in London.

Saw it too, and it's clearly just another money making venture. But the mrs made a fair point; why are those people driving onto the box - what are they gaining? Put yourself in the car trying to turn right and finding some moron sat on the box blocking your way and we'd all be saying there should be some bloke sat in a room sending out fines to these selfish barstewards.

 

[AndrewSchofield]

Yeah they all put the money in their pockets? FFS grow up. Councils and governments have NO money. It's OUR money. Let's raise Council Tax and stop fining idiots on the road instead.

they have an operator sitting in his air conditioned office his job is to watch the traffic at a box junction they get 5 seconds to leave the box junction or they get a fine through the post
they say its to keep traffic moving but they refuse to put up signs warning that the junction in actively monitored and all offenders will be fined as the 7 to 10k revenue a day from that one location would be lost

Yes it's true. I saw that documentary too.

I wouldn't dream of living in London.

Saw it too, and it's clearly just another money making venture. But the mrs made a fair point; why are those people driving onto the box - what are they gaining? Put yourself in the car trying to turn right and finding some moron sat on the box blocking your way and we'd all be saying there should be some bloke sat in a room sending out fines to these selfish barstewards.

We drove through Bath once in very heavy traffic. We came to a big box junction where we were turning right. Further up the road we were turning into there must have been another set of lights that were on red when our lights were on green, but on green when the traffic opposite us were on green. Therefore the exit from the junction we needed was never clear. We had no choice but to enter the box while the lights were on green, despite having nowhere to go, if we hadn't we'd have literally been sat there for hours.

 

[JBR]

We drove through Bath once in very heavy traffic. We came to a big box junction where we were turning right. Further up the road we were turning into there must have been another set of lights that were on red when our lights were on green, but on green when the traffic opposite us were on green. Therefore the exit from the junction we needed was never clear. We had no choice but to enter the box while the lights were on green, despite having nowhere to go, if we hadn't we'd have literally been sat there for hours.

I've had similar experiences locally. At busy times (and not so busy for that matter) you can wait to go straight on over the box when the traffic ahead clears. In the meantime, the lights change and traffic from the right (it's a T-junction) enter the box, which I think is legal if you're turning right. Then the lights go to green and you can't get in. By the time they begin to leave the box, our lights have gone back to red.

Fortunately, there are no 'fine cameras' at that junction - yet - so in practice we just enter the box and wait! Still, I think they need to re-think how these things work.

 

[jeds]

I see that not all junctions are easy but the junction on the tv prog was a straight through one. People were just following the vehicle in front onto the box without leaving a gap. The traffic stops - stranding them on the box - and then the lights change and they are stuck there. The traffic trying to get across the box from the right cannot move because they are sat there in the way.

 

[pred]

I thought that 'double yellows' were meant to designate dangerous areas to park, and single yellows meant to designate restricted areas...

At present you can 'load' on single lines, so this would just be a time extension...

If however you could 'load' on double lines, surely the dangerous element should be taken into consideration unless they are painted in the wrong place...

Sounds like another load of carp akin to opening up the hard shoulder to traffic on motorways in order to defer the congestion issue!

An Irish guy once told me that a single yellow line is "No parking at all" whereas a double yellow is "No parking at all, at all"



Its the way I tell them...

 

[conny]

A problem with this idea, (and I know some of you will not agree with what I'm about to say), is that 'Genuine' disabled people are able to get out and do their own shopping by using their blue badge in these areas. If anyone is allowed to park on them willy-nilly then disabled people are going to find it even harder to park near to shops to do their own shopping. This will result in more of them becoming housebound and requiring someone else to do something they are able to do themselves at the moment.