CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Legal parking(?)
(29 posts)-
Posted 11 years ago #
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Posted 11 years ago # -
I remember when the Smart Car was launched the press like to bang on about this great new car that was short enough to park end on in parking bays when that clearly wasn't the case. As demonstrated here.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I'm not sure I'd be too bothered by the Smart car parking. It is close enough into the side.
Posted 11 years ago # -
I was about to post to say it's no longer than my (wife's) beast is wide, but being an empiricist at heart...
The Smart Car was 2500mm long until 2007, but subsequently grew to 2695mm today (bumper to bumper).
An XC90 is only(!) 2112mm (mirror to mirror), and a Transit is currently 2374mm (mirror to mirror).
Yes, the Smart can stick some of the length over the pavement, but so could a mirror.
On street parking space permissible widths are 1800-2700mm, although I've seen debates that these are now too small.
Upside is definitely that one can't be doored by a Smart car! [edit:when it's parked as above]
Robert
Posted 11 years ago # -
I am pretty sure its been done on here before, but whats the situation with Essential User Permits and the law?
I have walked my son to Sciennes twice in the last 10 days, and on both occasions there were 2-3 cars parked on double yellows right on the corner of Hatton place where it intersects with Chalmers Crescent.
Am I wrong that EU permits are not able to just dump the car anywhere? I had presumed (wrongly?) that they are ok on permits/single yellows etc but double yellows are a no-no.
I am not that bothered about the space they take up, rather that the double yellows are there for a reason - and children cross there going to school (mine !)and parking on them reduces sightlines significantly.
Its just laziness anyway, as there are plenty of singles/permits jsut along the road.
Before I waste my time talking to the Parking dept, can anyone enlighten me.
Ta
Posted 11 years ago # -
I find it amusing that modern cars are now so obese that they can't even pass each other on residential streets anymore
Posted 11 years ago # -
Modern cars are basically living rooms on wheels. Big comfy recliner armchairs, entertainment system, climate control, drinks holders, etc. It's not enough to just have a car, it needs to be big, luxurious and look a bit extravagant. Even the 'average' cars are heading that way.
Yes there is also crumple zones, side impact protection, etc. but most of the sizing up is to do with comfort and status.
Posted 11 years ago # -
It never fails to make me laugh, with bitter irony, that there's all these 4x4 SUVs that never get muddier than the large puddle outside the supermarket.
I remember several years ago, when I worked in Historic Scotland, that a colleague was trying to hire us a couple of Landrovers for going into some wild places. Not exactly driving up hillsides covered in whins and scree, but definitely farm-tracks and the kind of deep-rutted tracks that would eviscerate a regular car.
Arnold Clark told my colleague that yes, we could have a few Landys. No problem. What model would we like? 'What do you mean, do they have off road tyres'? Oh...you actually want go off the main road????? Oh no, we don't allow that...'
Posted 11 years ago # -
@Nelly - well done and I hope you get somewhere. I don't know the legal situation (though SRD may be able to remember it as she's tried tackling this before) but I have seen parking wardens and police pass by these vehicles time after time without doing anything about them.
One time I saw a car without one of those "I'm important" special parking permits (sorry, can't remember exactly what the permit says) and it was being lifted onto a crane, so it's not that they just don't enforce the law on Hatton Place.
It's a crazy situation - those double yellows are there for safety, as you say, and yet they're blocked most of the time by parked cars. Even crazier, I have yet to see the real proper marked permit parking spaces in Hatton Place anywhere near full up. Ever.
Posted 11 years ago # -
edit: I got blue badge and Essential User mixed up :)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Interesting to note that blue badge holders and EUPs can park on double yellows if loading isn't prohibited. I thought loading was always prohibited on double yellows.
Blue badge holders are also not allowed to park "where it would make it difficult for others to see clearly, e.g. close to a junction" and notably "In a cycle lane". I don't know if the regulations are sensible enough for this to also apply to EUPs.
Posted 11 years ago # -
A few years ago a friend and I were walking into Sainsbury's in Linlithgow, and passed a woman parking a big 4x4 in a disabled space, without a blue badge. My mate asked as she got out the thing "excuse me, do you realise you've parked in a disabled space?"
She replied "yeah, my car's too big for normal spaces".
Posted 11 years ago # -
"I thought loading was always prohibited on double yellows."
Loading restrictions are marked by single or double yellow stripes. So you can load/unload on a yellow line.
You can load/unload passengers even if there are loading restrictions (I think).
Posted 11 years ago # -
Posted 11 years ago # -
Prompted by the observation above that cars are getting bigger...
Spotted this in the basement car park at work today.
So, both are designed to carry four people. I know which I'd rather use to travel to an Italian hilltop town, and I know which I'd rather use to drive through that town.
It is noticeable, though, that the small car fills the whole basement with the stink of old-fashioned exhaust fumes, but none of the modern cars do. New cars are cleaner.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Posted 10 years ago # -
The cones are instead of the 'invisible' chain.
No idea if someone has actually decided it's dangerous!
Posted 10 years ago # -
There's a prize BMWchump who parks across the dropped kerb at the end of Marionville Road. Car is too long for the bit of pavement so overhangs on both ends, completely invalidating that piece of pavement for its intended use of walking on.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Apparently there have a spate of thefts of parking restriction signs along the QBiC, the one that tell you what the single yellow lines mean. Maybe there is a need for some guerrilla action, involving some yellow paint, to show what the parking restriction should really mean...
Posted 10 years ago # -
In a 20 minute wait outside the Meadows side of Sick Kids yesterday, I saw three different staff members dash out, move their cars 10m, reset their "essential users" time discs, and dash back in.
Clear abuse of the system for commuting, which appears to be systematic.
Posted 9 years ago # -
move their cars 10m
That'll fool the parking wardens!
Posted 9 years ago # -
No need to fool; just pay the bribe. I assume that must be how it works as I watched one today walk past a van parked on a double yellow on the main road to go round the corner into a residential street to start checking whether any tickets had expired by a second.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Double yellows are police traffic warden matters though aren't they? Blue meanies (as was) can't do anything about that?
Posted 9 years ago # -
Essential User passes have been abused by Sick Kids staff for years.
What irritates most is the ones who park dangerously close to corners - just because it's convenient.
Surprised there have not been more accidents due to this.
Posted 9 years ago # -
@WC - Edinburgh has decriminalised illegal parking, so yellow lines and kerb markings are covered by the parking attendants, although this only applies to a few cities in the UK who opted for this route. Thus the parking attendants issue tickets for more than just overstaying in marked bays:
Unfortunately, double parking, footway parking, etc still belong to the police and their (diminishing) pool of traffic wardens.
Robert
Posted 9 years ago # -
Aha, cheers Roibeard.
Posted 9 years ago # -
Roibeard - not diminishing - there are no police traffic wardens left in Scotland. They were done away with to save money:
http://www.scotland.police.uk/whats-happening/news/2014/february/208129/
Posted 9 years ago # -
As Morningsider says. You now need to persuade an actual police officer that it's something they should spend time on. Good luck with that.
Posted 9 years ago #
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