Parking and Clamping
This was discussed on Radio 5 Live yesterday morning, after reports that the government were to ban clamping on private land. It is probably right to ban the aggressive aspects of this, but what do you do if say you have a private car park on your offices that is always being blocked by illegal parkers. They also interviewed the man who refused to get out of his clamped car, so it could be towed away. Most had sympathy with the man, but I don’t, as he shouldn’t have parked where he did in the first place.
When I could drive, I never parked illegally and I think that in over forty years of driving, I’ve only had a handful of tickets. most of which were because I misread a sign or put the wrong amount of money in a meter.
Now that I use buses a lot, I realise how illegal parkers are a complete menace and slow the traffic a lot more. My post about chaos in Trafalgar Square was partly about illegal parking, but mainly about stupid idiots, who were trying to drive where they shouldn’t.
The irony about the BBC phone-in was that the stand-in presenter, Stephen Nolan admits that he gets lots of parking tickets outside the BBC in Belfast, because he claims there is nowhere to park. Surely, he should use the bus. But then he is almost proud of his very obese state, so I suppose the extra walk would be just too much for him.
I hope the BBC don’t pay his parking tickets.
Edinburgh’s Tram To Nowhere
I do not like badly conceived and managed projects, as you’d expect from someone, who designed one of the first modern project mangement systems. I had thought that there was nothing that could match the Cambridge Busway for being badly designed, managed and executed project. But it would appear that the Edinburgh Tram, may come close.
Strangely, the two projects have a lot in common; both will be about 40 kilometres long ,both are running years late and massively over budget. Although the Edinburgh Tram will cost six times more than the Cambridge Busway.
They also get up the public’s nose spectacularly. In the Cambridge case, buses proclaim, “Will I be on the Busway soon?” and in Edinburgh, a static tram is parked to block Princes Street.
The Edinburgh Static Tram
I suppose the static tram does have a point, in that it makes getting a bus in the centre of Edinburgh very difficult, so by the time the tram comes into service in 2014, people will be more likely to use the tram. That could be the only reason, as what idiot would deliberately create a traffic jam with something that doesn’t work. Even those twats with 4x4s and supercars get parking tickets, when they block the roads outside Harrods! Why hasn’t someone stuck a parking ticket on the tram?
To make it worse, I saw this sign too!
Edinburgh Road Sign
So trams can turn right, despite the fact the only one is static!
Free Hospital Car Parking
I’ve been visiting my friend in Addenbrooke’s a lot and the car parking is expensive. But at least I have a space to put my car. Even if sometime the charges are a bit weird. For instance, each visit on a Sunday costs three pounds no matter how long you stay! But if I have two short visit on a weekday, they are only £1.80.
Apparently, now in Scotland, the policy of free car parking is causing problems, as everybody drives and there is no money for more car parks.
I think years ago, when the parking was free at Addenbrooke’s people used to use the hospital car parks there and then go into town. So it may be a good idea to have free hospital car parking, but it is one of these things that people will abuse.
Stansted Car Parking
When returning from the wedding at the weekend, I brought a guest who had been taken unwell in Holland. The problem was that her car was safe in the long-term car park at Stansted Airport.
So how do you extract a car from the parking, without going into the terminal?
It actually doesn’t show on their web site, but it couldn’t have been any easier. I asked in Customer Services and they said that I should just collect a ticket from the barrier, drive in and then park by my companion’s car. I then had about forty minutes to get out.
What a sensible and user-friendly system!
The Anonymous Widower 