parking meters with reg

[joescrivens]

No kids thank goodness!

If you want more time then it's easy enough to add another hour or two or to come back again. It's such a non issue. You're making a mountain out of a nab hill

How is making a thread out on the topic making it a mountain?

Also too much time isn't the issue it's time left over. How can you know something is going to take a certain amount of time for fun. It might be rubbish then you leave early.

Or do you forcefully stay somewhere because you paid for it so as not to have any time left on your ticket.

 

[leftcurl]

surprsed he got away with that.

Whether you have a ticket or not is usually irrelevant. They prosecute you for not showing it properly

late 80's early 90's... that's when beer mats used to double up as tax discs in some parts

 

[big soft moose]

wheras these days you can scan a tax disc and photoshop it (or a parking ticket for that matter)... or thats what ive heard anyway

 

[Headless Lois]

Its very irritating, and obviously an excellent revenue generator.
It's not even cost efficient to pay by mobile and then top up if you're running late, as usually the one hour rate is so high.
It's particularly galling when you emerge from West Oxfordshire, where it is free to park, to go to Oxford, where you're left wondering why they are charging the value of your car to park it

A

 

[nilagin]

Local car parks here are 20p an hour, if I don't have 20p or the places are too tight I just park in a side street.
When my eldest son was born he had to spend a few days in an incubator, because we were in and out of the hospital each day and spending quite a few hours there each day, the Maternity ward had all car park charges waved.
I was amazed a few weeks back. I went to Gatwick to pick my son up. Parked in the Short Stay Car Park, machine gave me a ticket with my reg. no. printed on it. I was there at least 20 minutes. Drove to exit inserted ticket into the machine, machine gave me ticket back, barrier went up and off we went, no charge.:shrug:

 

[Mike Jackson]

No kids thank goodness!

If you want more time then it's easy enough to add another hour or two or to come back again. It's such a non issue. You're making a mountain out of a nab hill

You obviously live in an area with much more relaxed parking rules than down here. We don't have much choice of going elsewhere so have to fork out the 50p per twenty minutes parking charges if we want to go to the shops. You have to pay for more time than you need in case you don't get done in time because there is no option to extend the time. Once the ticket expires you have to leave that parking zone and not return for between 2 and 4 hours.

I used to nip into the town centre on a Sunday when parking was free and have a browse around the shops. I normally came home with a book from one of the four bookshops in the town centre. A couple of years back the parking restrictions were extended to a Sunday so I rarely just go down for a browse now. It's a case of only going down if it's strictly necessary and going to the shop you need and come home again. My browsing tends to be with the likes of Amazon online now. Not surprisingly the two of the small independent book shops have closed and the third is struggling. This has happened to quite a few of the retail outlets in the town and some of the larger merchants have pulled out as well.

 

[MartynK]

Public/street parking is free and largely unrestricted in the small town about 3 miles from us. The closest large town is about 20 miles away, and there is plenty of free parking in the town centre for up to 3 hours. In theory, there's a 'no return within two hours' policy but there are very few checks - I've never seen a parking warden there - and you can just move the car to the other free parking area on the opposite side of the road.

 

[joescrivens]

I was amazed a few weeks back. I went to Gatwick to pick my son up. Parked in the Short Stay Car Park, machine gave me a ticket with my reg. no. printed on it. I was there at least 20 minutes. Drove to exit inserted ticket into the machine, machine gave me ticket back, barrier went up and off we went, no charge.:shrug:

that's pretty standard in all airports I thought? The first half hour is free the next is charged at some extortionate rate to cover all those people who get 30 mins for free

 

[srichards]

The poor town centres are the reason lots of people shop out of town now. Parking is free. Councils are thick. If they want people to visit the town centre then there has to be easy parking. There's so much choice. They also quite happily agree to more out of town shopping centres and to expand exisiting ones then wonder why their town centres are ghost towns with loads of empty shops.

There are also a few out of town antiques barn type places near to me which have a more interesting range of shops than the usual dull chains you find in most out of town places. They're not bothered whether you're there for 10 minutes or all day.

The more people let councils know that they don't go there because of their attitude to paying visitors the more they'll have to do something.

 

[nilagin]

that's pretty standard in all airports I thought? The first half hour is free the next is charged at some extortionate rate to cover all those people who get 30 mins for free

Didn't realise that, I'd have thought they would have had a minimum charge from the second you drive in. Still I suppose it stops people cluttering up the service roads.

 

[Dave *]

In theory, there's a 'no return within two hours' policy but there are very few checks - I've never seen a parking warden there - and you can just move the car to the other free parking area on the opposite side of the road.

Just wait

One of our more relaxed local authorities around here (parking wise) seem to be short of cash so they have bought a Toyota IQ and put video cameras on the roof.

First thing they started enforcing is parking times and return to bay times. Probably because its so easy for them, drive down a road and its theoretically as many fines in 5 minutes as a warden would issue in a couple of hours.

This is the little "marvel"

 

[Ploddles]

Just wait

One of our more relaxed local authorities around here (parking wise) seem to be short of cash so they have bought a Toyota IQ and put video cameras on the roof.

First thing they started enforcing is parking times and return to bay times. Probably because its so easy for them, drive down a road and its theoretically as many fines in 5 minutes as a warden would issue in a couple of hours.

This is the little "marvel"

Seen a few of them in Southend recently as well.

Main problem is for Blue Badge holders. You get a ticket through the post and then have to appeal it as you were parking legally, within the rules for Blue Badge holders.

At least with a parking warden they wouldn't have issued the ticket in the first place.