I am on the road everyday in my line of work ,and get annoyed by the seemingly endless
stream of parked cars on a lot of roads,which means i am forever stopping for oncoming
traffic,we have an old chap who parks his car on the road outside his house on the corner as you turn in to the estate from the main road and have seen people nearly drive in to it
many times,still its up to him and just one of the frustrating things about driving,one of the
reasons i wanted an auto.
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Unfortunately, when most people between 17 and 75 have cars, and the makers keep producing new ones, and many houses can't park more than one or two, they will overflow onto the street - and the pavements too, doesn't seem to matter which these days. We live in a car-based society - rough with smooth, etc, etc.
Will there be a motor equivalent of the folding bike or the self-erecting tent?
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Don't Citroen do them already those Transformer thingy's
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Blame councils too.
There are loads of empty spaces on roads where they made it residents only for just 1-2 hours of the day. Why?
An example is near Park Royal underground station in London. All houses there have large driveways enough for 2-3 cars at least. Very few cars are parked on road by residents.
Yes, parking signs say Mon-Fri 0900-1000 and 1500-1600 residents only.
Why not allow commuters to park which remain empty anyway?
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Perhaps someone living in the neighbourhood has some 'clout' with whoever's responsible for organising parking restrictions?
I can understand the 1500-1600 restriction if there are schools nearby. A small minority picking up their little ankle-biters show little consideration for anyone else, but the 0900-1000?
We had a posh road next to a health club (why do people drive to health clubs, shouldn't they jog there?) that had a problem with cars parked across drives etc. They managed to get a residents only type restriction.
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Why not allow commuters to park which remain empty anyway?
No, no, no. You misunderstand. The council doesn't want you to drive to the station. If you don't live within walking distance you must get the bus!
I've been through this argument with Brent Council, and that's their attitude. I suggested that by allowing commuter parking near stations they would encourage greater use of public transport (especially in the outer suburbs where public transport is thinner on the ground) but they just wouldn't have it!
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You are about 100 years too late with that observation wade.
You ought in 1910 to have proposed that cars would not be licensed on British roads unless the owner had a registered location off-road in which to keep it, and all shops, offices, stations, public buildings, etc only allowed to accept motoring customers up to the level of their own registered off-road parking spaces. Leaving a motor car on a public road would be a criminal offence.
I think the development of transport, housing, working practices, quality of life, might have been rather different by now.
But you are too late to do anything about it.
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I have family who live 500 yards from a railway station on the Herts/Cambs border - their residential road has single yellow lines on each side with no parking allowed between 9.00-10.00am on one side and 3.00-4.00pm on the other, to stop railway commuters clogging up the street all day. Sure enough, a Civil Enforcement bod putters up on a moped at the allotted hour to check all the residents have moved their cars across the road at lunchtime.
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Sure enough a Civil Enforcement bod putters up on a moped at the allotted hour to >>check all the residents have moved their cars across the road at lunchtime.
How much would your relatives charge to 'manage' a commuters car and move it when it needed moving. I sense a business opportunity, they could leaflet drop known commuter parking areas.
:-)
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Don't worry: I've read (in the BR, so it must be true) that the poor, persecuted Motorist is being bled dry by grotesquely unfair taxation, along with petty rules on speed and parking, and predatory enforcement practices. This will inevitably lead to car owners realizing in their millions that it's no longer worth the bother and deciding to walk instead. Soon the streets will abound with free parking and the road will be as open as it was in the days when only one household in five could afford a car, and when even that wouldn't start if there was an R in the month.
Unless - and don't tell Them you heard this from me - it's somehow possible that car ownership and use are cheaper in real terms than they've ever been, and that, for the most part, we've never had it so good. Nah, thought not; let's not be silly.
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Commuter parking is an issue around my neighbourhood, we are unfortunate enough to be just outside a restricted parking zone (where I think it is residents only parking 9am-10am), so of course we are a prime spot for parking, with every available inch of kerb space taken up (the difference between the a weekday and the weekend is amazing).
I understand the argument for encouraging public transport by having parking near stations, but the end result for the residents can be a real pain. There is the stop, start of driving down those road, but what bothers me more is the fact that it makes the roads far more difficult to cross, especially with a pram.
I believe there are plans to extend the restrictions further, and I guess that they will get to a point where the distance to walk from the available parking to the station finally makes the bus (of which there are many) the more attractive option.
I think that the balance is not quite right because, I believe, that people who could get the bus will take the car because it is more convenient, so they eventually extend the zone further and further. At that point the people who are doing it for convenience can just switch to the bus, but the people who genuinely do need to travel by car, find themselves with a substantially increased commute (because they have to walk further, or because they have to drive in, park, then find a bus and take it to the station).
I think that it would be better to have paid parking near the station, which might deter some of the "convenience drivers" while still allowing the others to park close to the station.
Of course, there is the argument that making people pay punishes those that live further outside of the city, but if you choose to live further outside of the city then maybe you just have to pay. Alternatively you could live much closer and pay a fortune, or live in a small flat rather than a decent sized house.
Edited by SteelSpark on 01/02/2010 at 22:25
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I am very very lucky I can always park where I want outside my house apart from when Mr Honda decides to me lazy and park outside my house, if he does I make sure I park in Mr Honda's wife Polo space.
The other issue we live near two big primary schools so at school opening and closing times I sometimes have to park 500 yards away. I get very annoyed about this because most of them only live in walking distance away.
I always make an effort to make sure my neighbours can park ok (as longs as they do) but I take offence when other people park here all day to their shopping. I often park near a tram station but I always make sure I park in a different place each day. One time I parked near there I ended up with a nail in my tyre!
It is interesting you say living in the city is more expensive, in Manchester the surburbs have always been much more expensive until recently when the city centre has become popular.
Each week I walk about 20 miles, get on average four buses, four trams and two trains. I use other forms of transport just as much as my car and my criteria is simple I will take which ever option is less hassle. I never once driven into the city centre which is 3 miles away from me because I can either drive to a tram station and catch a 10 minute tram service (cheaper if I don't have a weekly bus pass) or get a bus which takes half an hour but run every five minutes.
If I move house one of my main criteria is its near a tram or train station but also has off road parking.
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I saw on TV a while ago that in Tokyo you have to prove that you have off-road parking for a car before you're allowed to own one. That's one reason for the popularity of very small boxy cars in Japan.
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It is interesting you say living in the city is more expensive in Manchester the surburbs have always been much more expensive until recently when the city centre has become popular.
Yes, you're right. What I mean is that if you want to live to the same standard (in terms of space, garden, neighbourhood).
A three bedroom house with a decent sized garden in a "nice" neighbourhood would cost much more towards the centre of London.
There is plenty of property that is cheaper in the centre of London than outside, but you typically going to have to significantly reduce your expectations in terms of space and neighbourhood.
I think that Manchester is a bit different because its centre is much smaller than London, I think that you can get from the suburbs into the centre much more quickly than you could in London, so demand for property in the centre is much less and, again, you get much more space outside of the centre - so why buy a small flat in the centre, when you could get a much bigger house a bit further out.
I think even in Manchester there is a belt inbetween of bigger houses, but in much less desirable neighbourhoods.
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I know what you mean. Actually places like Wilmslow are a lot 'posher' than where I live but size for size is it is actually cheaper. I was very surprised how 'cheap' smaller property in Alderly Edge is for example but it has a lot of mansions so is a very rich area.
There are places which were once very posh in Manchester such as Whalley Range which became very popular in Victorian times for the rich city workers, over time these workers have moved closer towards Cheshire and the big houses in Whalley Range have been converted into flats and the area really suffered. However much of innercity Manchester in the past few years has been booming. There is a growing trend for people moving towards or in the city again (in 1997 the population of the city centre was less than 1000, now its well over 20,000 and growing 1000s each year).
The reason for this I think is mainly that cars and transport in general as become so expensive people are now swapping traveling to work for their gardens and suburban niceness.
I for example spend around £50 a week on transport if you include the cost of my car, fuel, insurance, bus travel, tram travel, train travel and the odd taxi when I am feeling too drunk to get the night bus home.
That said here parts of Wythenshawe (once an area where you couldn't sell houses) are now doing very well because it is on the motorway network, build some new flats call the area a new name, advertise its next to the M56 and M60 and all the sudden all the city workers want to live there.
I think the cost of transport and the increase in transport poverty will change where people want to live.
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cars and transport in general has become so expensive
Areas like Whalley Range developed because of cheap public transport - that was just about all there was. Even pushbikes were a novelty, never mind widespread ownership of cars. Now that most people prefer to drive, not enough use trams and buses for those to be viable in times of better pay. Fuel may be getting dearer but car ownership is still cheap in historical terms. These days people have learnt to shop once a week because they have a car to lug all the stuff home. In Whalley Range's heyday many people sent the house staff to the local shops every other day. There weren't any fridges so that was necessary too. The whole way of life is different - it has evolved because many more people could afford to travel further. It may be a good thing if they start to think about travelling less. Won't be easy though.
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I live in the next down south from Whalley Range, and am blessed with so many local specialist food shops that a weekly super market shop dosn't happen. In fact I rarely drive to a supermarket unless my mother wants to go with me.
I just find this entire subject of settlement and transport very interesting. I wonder if places like Didsbury would have become so popular if it didn't have a railway station even though its been closed for over 40 years?
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we have an old chap who parks his car on the road outside his house on the corner as you turn in to the estate from the main road
You could check out if he breaches HC 243:
"243
DO NOT stop or park
opposite or within 10 metres (32 feet) of a junction, except in an authorised parking space"
I had someone who was constantly parking opposite a junction and just gave them a photocopy of it... he moved car to somewhere more sensible after that! Never threatened him or anything, just suggested he read it and took note!
Most people just don't think of the consequences of their actions when parking.
Edited by b308 on 02/02/2010 at 10:59
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True b308 i think i need a copy of that HC243 for a few round here its just
plain dangerous apart from anything else.
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