Posts Tagged ‘parking’

Family parking spots always seemed like an unnecessary thing to me. Sure, the extra space is nice. But that would be nice for everybody. Adults need to be able to get out of the car, too. It is not like families are disabled: why should they get preferential parking right next to the shop?

Now that I have a family, they still seem silly. I’m not going to unilaterally disarm by not using them, of course. That would be stupid. But I’m not convinced that any of us really need the parking spots to be there.

Indeed, they are not there in many car parks, and somehow we manage to survive.

Another oddity is that Homebase have family parking, but no changing facilities. That would have been a much welcome addition when Venla decided that mid-trip was the appropriate time to start screaming.

Earlier this month we visited Chris & Cara in Warrington. The darkness, rain and fog literally put a dampener on the journey. Between the weather and the traffic it took us two hours to get there. More and more it seems difficult to get anywhere without allowing for significant margins due to the traffic. Coming home was much improved though, making the journey in less than an hour and a half.

One of the advantages of Warrington is that even with the apartment blocks right in the centre you can find parking. They also have a Toby Carvery, so what more could you want in a town? Dinner was excellent, as was the company. Well worth the trip.

If you’re going to mark on double yellow lines, at least get it near the curb. Or consider turning your wipers off when it is not raining.

You have to be a bit of a dick to park in a disabled bay when you’re not disabled. The same thing applies to parking over two parking spaces. But parking over two disabled spaces – that takes a special kind of asshole.

Audi drivers are definitely the new BMW drivers. There is a parking space literally less than a metre to the right of this shot.

Audi drivers really are the new BMW drivers. There is a parking space literally just off camera to the right (opposite the curb you see behind you), but this guy chooses to park on double yellow lines while he stops for lunch at the same cafe I was grabbing a sandwich from.

On Wednesday, I received a letter from the company that runs my car park.

It stated that some permit holders where parking there on a Sunday even though their permit did not entitle them to and if this continued, they would get their parking enforcement company to start issuing tickets.

Now, I have no idea if they sent this to everyone or not, but I do know that I am pretty much the only person who parks there on a Sunday. So I can’t help but feeling a little bit victimised by this.

Apparently, even though I have been parking there for two years now without any problems even after explaining to them when I first signed up I would be there all the time, the standard permit I have only covers Monday to Saturday and if you want to park there on a Sunday, you have to pay extra.

This is despite the fact that all council car parks are free on a Sunday and nobody parks there anyway so it isn’t like they need the space.

You could of course argue that this is just a company trying to pull as much cash as it can from every available orifice but pragmatically, it’s just them being wankers. They make virtually no money out of having this separate pay extra policy because no permit holders park their on a Sunday anyway, so the only person they are getting extra money out of is me. Their price gouging brings them little reward, but plenty of angry blogging.

Perpendicular parking for the win.