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10 Feb 2001, 21:42 (Ref:64010) | #1 | ||
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Before I start, let me say that this is a personal hatred of mine and I'm not alone because where I live, the local council sees car parking as a major way to make money.
A few years ago, parking meters were introduced on the main parking streets in the town charging at 40 pence per half hour and the traffic wardens set about fining anyone who was just a minute late. This caused major complaints because one of the areas people parked was round the Town Hall which happens to be a pretty major landmark because of its clocktower and it was often pointed out to the council that people had been using the clocktower as a guide for when they were due back to their cars and then discovered that the meters were a few minutes ahead of the time given on the clocktower. The next step in the car parking money making machine came when the parking meters on the car parks were changed to ones where you had to imput your car registration. The council's reasoning for this was that they were losing too much revenue from people passing tickets with time left on them onto people entering the car park as they left. Last month, the last section of road I knew of in the town centre where you could park for free was painted with double yellow lines. People are majorly unhappy, the shopkeepers complain of people staying away and even the traffic wardens say that the parking policy of the council has gone mad. On principle I refuse to park in my hometown because the costs are just so ridiculous, they even charge for Sunday parking!!! I used to live in a cathedral city which is a big tourist magnet, they could make a fortune if they chose to charge parking on Sunday, but they don't. As for my hometown, well, why should I go there anymore, I've got the Trafford Centre on my doorstep, or even if I go into Manchester, the parking is free on a Saturday and Sunday!!!! |
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10 Feb 2001, 22:09 (Ref:64020) | #2 | ||
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A pet hate of mine too, Carrie
Well, my hometown (you've seen the pictures!) is tiny. There's little to actually want to park up for! Mind you, we do have a Woolworths, so it can't be all bad! I guess we're pretty lucky. The town's six car parks charge 10p for 30 mins, 30p for an hour or 50p for 4 hours. There are no meters, but plenty of double yellows. The charges are so low, nobody passes on tickets, and I've only ever seen one traffic warden. Not like Ipswich hospital; £2.80 for two hours!! And we all know what hospital waiting times are like... |
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10 Feb 2001, 22:20 (Ref:64023) | #3 | |||
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10 Feb 2001, 23:08 (Ref:64034) | #4 | |||
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Milton Keynes were never supposed to charge car parking fees around the shopping centre which was the promise when it was built. But.. more and more of it is being charged now. There are still free parking spaces but try and get one of those on a Saturday. And I believe that all of the shopping centre surroundings will soon all be pay and display.
Another thing that annoys me is that they ask you to determine your parking stay before hitting the shops. The amount of times that I have paid a couple of quid only to find out that I only spent half an hour or an hour in there. Our parking does start charging at 20 minutes though which is good if you are only going to the shops for a quick visit at lunch time. If you can call charging at all good! The hospital charges unless you are visiting the healthcentre there but no one checks if you are so it is nearly impossible to get a parking space in there. Thankfully, I don't use that doctors any more (horrible, horrible place). I don't know if the enforce with clamping at our hospital but most people will be to dubious to find out. Quote:
We obviously don't pay enough council tax...... [cough, cough] |
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11 Feb 2001, 03:04 (Ref:64088) | #5 | ||
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When I lived in Atlanta, parking was included with rent. In the great tradition of Charge for EVERYTHING, the apartment complexes and flats in Toronto charge as much as $50 per month extra for parking. Downtown parking is $2.00 per half hour or $175 and up per month. If your business has parking included, they could be vampires and they would get waiting lists of people to work there. (We have a laneway with parking, but it is a Chinese puzzle to get in and out of.) And of course there is alternate-side-of-the-street parking in winter, which requires you to go out and move your car at midnight!
I think parking is one of those things that is looked on as a cash cow to The Bureaucrats -it's another thing you must have, and if they control the supply, what are we going to do? |
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12 Feb 2001, 14:09 (Ref:64368) | #6 | ||
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Parking is a notional hatred here in the Netherlands as well. Most cities all feauture $1,50 to $3 hourly rates. Sanctions include those yellow iron rimclaws (dunno the English term ) which will cost you somewhere around $250. Even relatively small cities feature them now. Ordinary tickets vary from $40 to $60.
To get your own parking place near your house in the center of Amsterdam will cost you at least $100.000 and a wait of three years and more The principal is really sickening and very annoying to lots of people who work and live in the cities. Parking paradise? Barcelona! Now that's a city right? Free parking everywhere except for some large guarded underground parking garages. Works perfectly fine ... |
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13 Feb 2001, 15:41 (Ref:64554) | #7 | |
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cambridge is useless. the city centre has 4 main car parks, all of which cost around a tenner for 5 hours. never go to the pictures and do some shopping and park there.
park and ride is always busy, and the buses are never there when you want them (1.20 per person, 2 kids per adult free), so i formulated my own park and ride system. the place with the best bus service is hills road sixth form college, which has a bus every few minutes. the students parking is the residential area nearby. so, i park down the residential streets, and i can walk into town in 20 mins or catch a bus for 1.20 return. works perfectly, especially on saturdays during the mid afternoon scrum. there hasn't been any free parking near the city centre for ages. it's usually cheaper (and less time consuming) to drive to stansted airport and catch a train from there.... |
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16 Feb 2001, 13:53 (Ref:65065) | #8 | ||
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Us Aussies are amazed that many American and European homes don't have parking spaces. Paying to park your car near your home just seems preposterous to us.
However, parking in the centre of the major cities is strictly controlled, with plenty of meters and some clamping going on as well. In major cities there are many secure undercover parking stations that cost several dollars per car. Outer suburbs and small country towns have free parking everywhere. Also, major shopping centres realise that if you want customers you must provide them with free parking, or they will go some where else that does. |
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