Parking Tickets

Dont get me started on parking tickets, parking inspectors, parking management, parking meters, etc. Really a flawed system which breeds a really bad vibe, especially when it's brought about by deception and misleading conditions. I got caught out by a very misleading system tonight. The carpark said no fee between 6pm and 7am, however it didn't make it clear that it was still restricted to 3 hours and you had to get a ticket. But the tickets are issued with 1 hour of valid parking and after hours, apparently the next 2 hours is implied... my ticket was stated as valid 'til 6:12, the parking infringement notice said my ticket expired at 8:12... didn't say anything to indicate that on the ticket itself. Very misleading. It resulted in me having a significant grudge against the private operator of the car park and the urge to get back at them in my lifetime. One way or another, they will pay.

Parking restrictions in general just give me the shits. The excuse they use is that it's traffic management, to make sure residents have enough parks, etc. But it's not that at all. I could design a very efficient parking scheme for the area and it would deal with traffic to give good parking for everyone and still keep the residents happy AND make the roads safer for drivers and pedestrians with more appropriate markings and parking allocation. But that's not the aim of the traffic management... it's about revenue through parking fines. No-one wins, the average anger-level rises, people get more angry and selfish, society in general suffers.

Oh well, it's good incentive to get on the bike more. I've started riding to uni now, so that will save me some money in petrol, car upkeep and parking fines. Hopefully enough to save up to fund my rally aspirations.