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Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - lezebre
Parking more than 50cm from the kerb, as it was widely reported today, could soon result in a fine! - due to one of the new measures announced to keep the traffic moving.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - PhilW
"one of the new measures announced to keep the traffic moving"

Shouldn't that read "to raise more money from the motorist"? Strange thing was that one of the cars on TV which could have been fined had its off side still within the dotted white line which defined the parking space.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Bromptonaut
\"one of the new measures announced to keep the traffic moving\"
Shouldn\'t that read \"to raise more money from the motorist\"? Strange
thing was that one of the cars on TV which could
have been fined had its off side still within the dotted
white line which defined the parking space.


This is part of the Traffic Management Bill and has been the subject of much sensationalist reporting today on the goggle box. DVD kindly gave us a tiny url for the text of the bill in the \"motorists face more fines\" thread. It\'s at www.tinyurl.com/3a2q7 . Look at clause 87 and Schedule 10.

The target is double parking. If the bill is passed unamended it will apply only in designated \"Special Enforcement Areas\", initially London, plus other areas operating civilian enforcement that choose to apply.

Proof of the pudding will be in enforcement, and there will be a few hard cases along the way, but it just ain\'t the way the \"meeja\" are portraying it.

And the car within the box would be covered by a permitted exception.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - PhilW
Simon,
Link doesn\'t work for me - can you check it?

{Link has been sorted sorted. The full stop placed at the end was causing the problems. DD}
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - AdrianM
Hurrah, though I should think this would be difficult to enforce.

If parked within a designated/marked space, no problem no matter how far from curb as long as within confines of marked area.

But..
I have a neighbour whose idea of parking is simply to stop the car in the road and get out. A real problem in narrow residential roads with parking on both sides. The good part about these new rules is that it allows me to feel justified in my self-righteous indignation when I see her car "parked" (hah) inconsiderately.

BTW, she also empties her ashtray in the road, often outside my house. If I ever catch her in the act........

Now, now, breathe......and relax.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Bromptonaut
Can't get the tiny link to work now, the full url is:-

www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm20...f

And the thread with DVD's post in starts with the word drivers rather than motorists.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Civic8
As a matter of interest have you not noticed the drivers that cannot park the vehicle in the space allotted in certain parking place`s.I don`t have a problem with that but to those that do not know the car they are driving that include`s 4x4`s they do need to know how to drive it and need to know there are others in smaller cars that drive as well.I gather as most may realise.some don`t care and continue as if it has no interest to them.In other words I hope they do get fined may make them learn how to drive?
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - PhilW
I must admit I have often thought of doing a few of those sticky labels on the computer reading "You have won todays award for carp parking" and liberally sticking them on windscreens when I see examples but I've never had the courage! (or perhaps not had the time due to spending too much time reading this board!)
Smug, self-righteous Phil
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Civic8
Maybe the law will do it for you/me.I think it time they were fined.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - SteveH42
Maybe the law will do it for you/me.I think it time
they were fined.


Difficult one to enforce though. How about the situation where there is only one space left and cars either side are parked offset (the same way) so that you have no option but to park straddling the line? Nowt you can do about it other than not park, yet you'd get a fine still. What you really need to do is catch the initial idiot who just dumps it and move them so the problem doesn't arise.

On a similar line, I noticed when I was back home at Christmas that some of the locals (well, friends of mainly) have taken to driving up and just parking in the middle of the road. (Cul-de-sac) Annoying enough if you want to leave there and then but some of them were nowhere near the end of the road and were there upwards of 30 minutes, in one case if they could have been bothered to turn the wheel there was ample space to park in!
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - volvoman
Well for me there's 2 problems - people who just can't park and those who just can't be bothered to park and just abandon their white vanz in the middle of Orpington High Street this afternoon right in front of me because they are in dire need of a pizza! Personally, I've got not sympathy for either category and the sooner Mr Plod/Mr Warden starts cracking down on them the better! I'm going to bed now!
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Dwight Van Driver
Its already here in relation to part of the day:

No person, except with the permission of BiB, cause or permit any motor vehicle to stand on a road at anytime twixt sunset and sun rise unless the nearside of the vehicle is as close as maybe to the edge of the carriageway.

Usual exemptions apply

Reg 101 MV (Con and Use) Regs 1986

DVD
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Nortones2
Its just a sort of ASBO for drivers really...Brought on by the half-soaked.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - SteveH42
anytime twixt sunset and sun rise


The 'Taxi Driver' exemption?
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Pugugly {P}
This is the latest PFI. In this case partly funded by the Alloy wheel re-furb industry association. We are losing it chaps.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - cockle {P}
Locally we have had an initiative running between the local police and the fire brigade. Basically, fire brigade were complaining that they can't get down some of the streets due to poor parking, therefore, in conjunction with local police, they are now making a note of the VRN and putting a warning notice on the vehicle, police also make a note of the VRN on a database. If the same VRN crops up twice on the police database they tow away for causing an obstruction.
In my view anything which concentrates minds on parking responsibly is useful, I don't want to be the one needing a fire engine or ambulance in the middle of the night while it is delayed because someone can't be bothered to turn their steering wheel a couple more times.
Let's face it 50cm is 20", if you can't get a car within 50cm of the kerb then perhaps you ought to consider whether you are really competent to hold a driving licence in the first place. Perhaps the answer would not be to fine them but issue them with a notice withdrawing their licence until they could pass a retest!


Cockle
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - hxj

Isn't this another lot of moaning and complaining about nothing.

Previously only the police and traffic wardens could book a car that was say double parked or causing an obstruction, now local authority parking enforcers can as well.

Nothing but sensible.
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - SteveH42
I agree that 20" should easily be possible - it is a reasonable proportion of the width of most cars for starters.

On-street parking is another matter though. My street is very narrow and everyone has to park sensibly to leave space for anything as big as an emergency vehicle to get down. It can be hard to get exactly to the kerb though. For some reason my mother struggles a lot in close manouvering. She's absolutely fine out on the open road but can't see to do the 'shuffling in', especially when she only has just over a car's length to work with. She does tend to get it within 6" of the pavement but this could technically leave her open to being towed away on your example as the street is so narrow. The alternative of course would be banning parking down one side of the street to make sure there is space...

Meanwhile, back on my street, we had a case recently where two people from a neighbouring street parked at the entrance. One woman in a Pug that was 6-8" off and a large box van, also 6-8" off. I could barely get the Yaris through the gap - the council couldn't even get in with their small van to collect the refuse. *That* is OTT...
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - cockle {P}
On-street parking is another matter though. My street is very narrow
and everyone has to park sensibly to leave space for anything
as big as an emergency vehicle to get down. It can
be hard to get exactly to the kerb though. For some
reason my mother struggles a lot in close manouvering. She's absolutely
fine out on the open road but can't see to do
the 'shuffling in', especially when she only has just over a
car's length to work with. She does tend to get it
within 6" of the pavement but this could technically leave her
open to being towed away on your example as the street
is so narrow. The alternative of course would be banning parking
down one side of the street to make sure there is
space...


Ditto, Steve, my road also is narrow, in fact if a car parked each side then you wouldn't get a third one through the gap so I realise the problem.
Perhaps I should have explained better but the roads the fire brigade are having trouble with are quite long parallel roads built in the 30's and you can park both sides with care and leave a large enough gap, just. The problem is it does need everyone to be aware when parking that emergency vehicles are wider and do need the room. In the same roads the ones which have buses running up and down them have indeed been made no parking on one side and some have had the verges 'hardened' to allow parking within a designated part of the footpath, not all of it, I hasten to add. The fire brigade have intimated that if this initiative doesn't solve the problem then they will ask the council to look at banning parking on one side of these roads, so it's probably in their interests to park 'nicely'.

Cockle
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Oz
Best would be a Park And Ride scheme to assist motorists incapable of meeting the 50 cm rule.
Oz (as was)
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Flat in Fifth
Seeing as its measured from the edge of the mirror what about this little accessory??

tinyurl.com/39the
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - NorthernKev {P}
Can't people just be forced to going to a driving instructor and pay to learn how to reverse park? The driving instructor then signs that he is happy with the person's ability to park when the person is actually competent?

I was waiting for a friend at Sheffield train station in the short stay car park, the number of people who couldn't park in a resonable sized bay amazed me, instead of parking they they had to drive round and round whilst waiting. Amazing.

Kev
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Welliesorter
Can't people just be forced to going to a driving instructor
and pay to learn how to reverse park? The driving instructor
then signs that he is happy with the person's ability to
park when the person is actually competent?


Errm... that's what examiners are for. Reverse parking has been one of the standard driving test manouvres for some time. Parking in a standard bay was added several years ago. It's also common for an examiner to ask a test candidate to pull up along the side of the road to check that they are following the correct procedure (signals, observations etc.) when moving off again.

Or are you just arguing for complusory re-examination of people who passed before recent additions to the test? To achieve this you'd have to re-test all but a tiny proportion of the motoring population. Has anyone here done the hazard perception test? I haven't and I've had my licence for less than a year.

For what it's worth I'm not good at parking but if my car is poorly positioned, I'll take another shunt until I get it right.

Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - NorthernKev {P}
Yeah yeah, I past my test 18 months ago, and I'm a demon parker [not the naff coat the Gallaghers wear!], no offence to most people on here, but it seems to be the older people who are worse at parking than the young [generally!!].

And yes, I have frequently argued for frequent re-testing, as it's quite scarey that I hopefully will never be tested on my driving ability ever again.

My point being is what's the point of being fined 10/20/30/50/whatever quid for something you cannot do. My way, the person's happy cos they can now park, everyone else is happy cos they can park, and the government is happy because the people are happy and not having to fine people for bad parking, err, I think I see the problem...

I didn't do the hazard perception test, thankfully, from what I've seen/heard, never has something seemed so unfair and guaranteed a lot of potentially good drivers stuck coughing up £20ish to press a button on a computer. Reactions cannot be mesured on a computer simulation as good as in an actual car, you just don't get a feel for the dangers...

Kev

Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - patpending
it's a lovely pic flat, and we could do the same for a surprisingly small outlay.

That is a bog standard Ford Focus rear view mirror*. I should know, I tried to park a Focus in my garage once.

pat


* I could be wrong of course. The morrot might have had to be shortened by about three foot to enable the retrofit to the Escort, I can't really tell. :D
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - Dwight Van Driver
FiF

Driver just about to be booked for two offences. Sea sight.

DVD
Its OK,we can walk to the kerb from here - AF
In a town local to me, the council introduced a residents parking scheme. In order not to upset anybody, they allowed parking on either side of the road, and marked out the parking bays (which were several hundred feet long) with white lines.

The only problem was that the gap between the white line for the parking bay on left of the road and the white line for the parking bay on the right (i.e. the bit you could drive down) was only 4 feet wide.

Although there were no parking restrictions on this road prior to the introduction of the residents parking scheme, nobody was stupid enough to park so there was a car both sides of the road. Now there was a residents parking scheme, well they were entitled to park there since they had paid, weren't they.