CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh

Parking in Edinburgh should be free

(44 posts)
  • Started 12 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from Min

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12

  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I don't know where to begin.... (from the Scotsman story on the Council not being able to fine for double parking):

    "There is no problem finding a parking space in Edinburgh. The problem is that the council have banned people from using them by having unnecessary restrictions and over zealous parking wardens. Parking should be free everywhere in Edinburgh. Some have suggested this would make parking more difficult. Are drivers going to think - Oh it's free, I'll leave the car right there all day? Nonsense. Some may,but the vast majority will use their car for it's intended purpose, transport. And those that do leave their car all day, well at least they're out and about and no doubt spending money in shops rather than driving round in circles for hours looking for a parking space. It's a total nonsense. Park wherever you want, but do not cause an obstruction to other road users. Simple."

    Posted 12 years ago #

  2. steveo
    Member

    Hear Hear! I pay my road tax I should be able to use the road as I please. Pavements too, I heard the upkeep for them comes from the same pot so I should be able to park on them.

    One day I'd like to organise a "Do as the Commentators say" day. Remove all the council controlled restrictions, bus lanes, Princes St, parking etc and just let "them" go nuts. I'd take that day off I think...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  3. SRD
    Moderator

    oh yeah, 'if Edinburgh was run by the people who comment on the EEN'....just imagine...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  4. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    I wouldn't, I'd come in with some popcorn and watch the carnage....

    Another fromt he same pen: "A double parked vehicle causing an obstruction is very rare indeed. Also, it is common curtesy to allow other vehicles to manouvre past a double parked vehicle and all drivers are aware of this fact and double park accordingly"

    Posted 12 years ago #

  5. SRD
    Moderator

    "A double parked vehicle causing an obstruction is very rare indeed."

    Tell that to the folks in the colonies who lost their homes last year...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  6. steveo
    Member

    I wouldn't, I'd come in with some popcorn and watch the carnage....

    Maybe, but i'd walk!

    Posted 12 years ago #

  7. Smudge
    Member

    "Parking in Edinburgh should be free from private cars"

    Fixed?

    Posted 12 years ago #

  8. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I wouldn't have much problem with a free-for all on marked parking bays if it freed up the parking inspectors to concentrate on double yellow / double parking / cycle lane parking / pavement parking.

    It might go some way to stop the council treating parking enforcement as a way to collect "revenue", rather than a way to provide safer streets for people.

    I'm sure drivers will quickly realise that an unregulated system of free parking bays quickly results in far less bays being available (longer stays and driving "seems" a more attractive option) and that a force of wardens more zealous for tackling antisocial parking will discourage them for parking outwith the bays. That would seem to be a quite satisfactory solution to me.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  9. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Aye, but then the revenue for those enforcement officers will dwindle. Very nice, very neat, solution though.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  10. Min
    Member

    I particularly like the fact that, in the same paragraph, it is easy to find a parking space while at the same time one has to drive around for "hours" looking for a space.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  11. PS
    Member

    Point this neo-liberal dimwit to Aberystwyth's experience of no traffic wardens...

    There's lovely

    Posted 12 years ago #

  12. minus six
    Member

    Given that George Osborne has just announced he's cancelling fuel duty increases again next year -- in support of all those hard pressed families thinking of downsizing from two cars to just the one -- come on Edinburgh Council !!! its time to do your bit, and make parking free.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  13. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    Someone pointed out recently that all cars get free parking subsidised by the taxpayer on our streets. That does seem like quite an imposition.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  14. LaidBack
    Member

    Free parking on a Sunday gives you a good taste of how it would be if car owners were allowed to self regulate. Not only does it make it difficult to park in the free for all, the sight of buses being obstructed on some streets is quite common.
    So 'free parking' merely makes the city an unpleasant place to walk, cycle or use public transport' in my view. Plus it's not that nice to drive either, with all these other people in their cars spoiling it for the honest hard pressed motorist.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  15. cb
    Member

    Another parking story.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  16. cc
    Member

    The Evening News is beneath contempt.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  17. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "We have trackers on all our cars and it shows that I pulled up outside the Missoni at 4.03am; the parking ticket shows that he began writing me up just one minute later at 4.04am so he must have been hiding in a doorway or something."

    That does sort of assume the time on the tracker and the time on the ticket machine, are synchronised... If one is 3 minutes fast, the other 3 minutes slow, plus the one minute differece, that's 7 minutes right there.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  18. cc
    Member

    Also the parking wardens have mopeds. You can get quite far on a moped in sixty seconds.

    Also the warden could have walked round the corner.

    I have no sympathy for this law breaker.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  19. steveo
    Member

    “I really cannot believe it. There wasn’t a ­sinner to be seen on the street when I pulled up. Granted I did park on double yellow lines but they pounced on me within a minute.

    So he admits his guilt and then complains. You were busted man up and move on. Non.Story.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  20. recombodna
    Member

    Double yellow lines are 24 hours and are an instant ticket..... where's the story?

    "Traffic warden does job properly shocker"???

    Posted 12 years ago #

  21. wangi
    Member

    You can load/unload on double yellows...

    Posted 12 years ago #

  22. fimm
    Member

    Tell that to the folks in the colonies who lost their homes last year...
    ?
    The only time I ever saw our street blocked by a double parked car - it was a police car...
    (People do often double park the bins, though, which means the bins sometimes can't be emptied.)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  23. cc
    Member

    Of course people park on double yellows every day on the Quality Bike Corridor. And they park on double yellows ALL day every day on Hatton Place in Marchmont and that's NEVER enforced. Nice to hear that there is one small segment of road which isn't invisible to the parking wardens.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  24. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "You can load/unload on double yellows..."

    Does that include passengers....? ;)

    Posted 12 years ago #

  25. recombodna
    Member

    "You can load/unload on double yellows..."

    I think he was probably there for more than 60 seconds. At that time in the morning the warden would have been in a car or on a moped. The driver would have had to be away from the vehicle for the amount of time it took the warden to stop write the ticket, print the ticket, stick the ticket on the window then take a photo of the ticket on the window the drive away into the Night ....... or morning...

    Mind you I got a ticket on sunday in stockbridge because my front wheel was slightly in a bus stop...... that bus doesn't even run on a sunday.... OUTRAGEOUS!!!! Maybe I should write to the evening news!!!.......

    Posted 12 years ago #

  26. bdellar
    Member

    On Leith Walk / Brunswick, people often park on the double red lines. Heurgh.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  27. kaputnik
    Moderator

    You can "unload" (whatever that means) on double yellows, so long as there aren't yellow striped bars on the pavement/kerbstones, which prevent this.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  28. crowriver
    Member

    yellow striped bars on the pavement/kerbstones, which prevent this.

    Oh, if only that were true. They'd have to be armed with land mines or sidewinder missiles to prevent Edinburgh drivers from parking next to them.

    My "favourite" chancer parking around McDonald Road/Brunswick Road is the old "I'll only be a minute" routine to justify blocking the cycle lane/junction. Either: driver/passenger sitting in car, therefore "waiting/loading"; or empty vehicle but leave driver side window half open, thereby hinting "oh, I've just popped to the bank/library/shop/auntie Flo's, it's loading/unloading really it is".

    Posted 12 years ago #

  29. AKen
    Member

    You can load/unload on double yellows...

    If you leave the vehicle unattended then it's parking, not loading.

    Posted 12 years ago #

  30. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "If you leave the vehicle unattended then it's parking, not loading."

    If there's only one of you it's difficult to load without leaving the car unattended for a short period of time... [/pedant]

    Posted 12 years ago #

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