There’s been a few articles lately about bad parking cards being used, such as this one from 1 News.
Puzzling “bad parking cards” have been left on windshields in Auckland and Tauranga this week, to the surprise of two drivers confused at what they did wrong.
Auckland Transport said it understands parking could be a “very emotive issue” but warned others from pursuing the “very high risk” approach to dealing with parking.
An Auckland driver told 1News they noticed the card on their windscreen yesterday and believed it was placed on their car at a Takapuna supermarket on the North Shore.
On the front, the card read, “Attention: You Parked Like An Idiot”, whilst on the reverse the card-writer wrote: “There is room for 3 and u took 2! (sic)”
The accused motorist told 1News: “I don’t remember any particularly bad parking but obviously someone took umbrage to it.”
The North Shore man said he wasn’t bothered by the card, but thought some people could find being called an “idiot” a “bit abusive”.
A spokesperson for Auckland Transport (AT) said the agency understood parking could be “a very emotive issue” for some, but it encouraged people to report problems instead.
“We don’t endorse these cards,” AT said in a statement.
“Parking can be a very emotive issue, but a member of the public challenging another person is potentially a very high-risk scenario.
“Instead, we encourage anyone who witnesses illegal parking to contact us so we can deal with the situation appropriately. We also encourage all road users to behave with courtesy and think of their fellow road users.
“Safety of everyone who uses the roads is our priority, so we appreciate all calls to AT when you witness something on the network that raises concern.
They continued: “For those in Auckland tempted to leave a card, please call AT and report the parking behaviour as we are best placed and equipped to assist.
“Also, by reporting any issues officially we can look at the bigger picture. This may influence potential change to an on-street environment as needed.”
This kind of method of public action is nothing new and similar techniques have been seen in many other cities around the world – so it’s likely that’s where the inspiration for this version has come from.
I don’t know who’s behind these cards but it’s likely the reason they have done so is because of Auckland Transport’s response to illegal parking has been so weak. Over the years we’ve seen or heard about many many situations where Auckland Transport either don’t respond to reports about bad parking or in some cases have but then done nothing about it – including situations where that bad parking has direct safety consequences.
In some areas AT have made a bit of progress through things like camera enforcement – using both fixed and car-mounted cameras – but by in large, AT’s inaction has directly resulted in bad parking becoming endemic across the region.
While it’s not an excuse, one of the reasons AT have been so lax on parking enforcement is because it’s often just not worth their time. This is because the government set parking fine rates and those have been unchanged for nearly a quarter of a century. Had they kept pace with inflation, they would be around 80% higher than they are today and much more in line with what is seen in Australian cities.
Mayor Wayne Brown has been quite vocal about wanting parking enforcement.
Frustratingly, the previous government had a chance to update these and the Ministry of Transport recommended changes go out for consultation but then Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allen blocked it.
There’s another idea from overseas we could also look to import to help address the parking problem – citizen enforcement.
While most cities let the public report illegal parking, some take it a step further by issuing tickets based off publicly reports and some will even pay people to do so.
For example in Houston, after a short course, members of the public are able to issue tickets to people who park illegally in disability spots. New York takes it a step further by paying people who successfully report trucks or buses that idle too long US$85 from a US$350 fine. There are specific rules for what any submission from the public needs to include and they’re all reviewed by at least two reviewers, including a supervisor before a ticket is issued. There have been suggestions to expand the programme to other types of parking offences.
Given they already undertake remote camera enforcement for both parking and bus/transit lane infringements, adding some form of citizen based reporting seems like it would fit in and have the potential to increase enforcement without adding significantly extra costs or safety issues for staff.
Add in the idea of paying people a proportion of the fine and I’d bet AT we would quickly see people would stop using cards like the one above.
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There were cards saying “You parked like a d*ck” with an appropriate drawing in Wrocław, Poland, where I lived before moving to Auckland. Same idea.
And yes, I agree that AT can’t be bothered. I informed them multiple times about wrongly parked cars in Avondale, they came once after a few hours and let me know that the car was no longer there…
Enforce parking like private companies do – people will quickly learn.
Yes. I went to Joy Bong Thai restaurant in Karangahape Road, where, when taking our orders, the waiter asked if anyone had parked in the Wilson car park across the street. Apparently the Wilson enforcement staff are meticulous and will issue punishment at the earliest possible opportunity. Customers who are used to AT’s lackadaisical approach to enforcement have been caught out by Wilson actually doing its job.
Wilson’s business model depends on managing the space and minimising freeloading. It’d be nice if AT could take the same approach to managing our streets.
Storage space is essential for every task undertaken by road vehicles.
In the case of the private car, this storage space, (car parking) is extraordinarily extensive. Multiple available carparks per car even in our most densely populated city. And a huge amount of this is on extraordinarily valuable land in the centres of our towns and cities. Land that commercially rationaly should be used more productively.
At a private level how many garages have been turned into more productive use? Especially if the general public, via their their local council, offers replacement space for free.
We have the absurd position where there publically provided, and publically mandated parking provision is a massive distortion to economic land use allocation. This completely irrational landuse subsidy creates a significant negative distortion to our economy.
In somethings, we demand that our government and councils become “more commercial” but for bizarre reasons push back extremly heavily against them doing just that, in administering a huge part of their extremly valuable land holdings devoted to storing the private motorcar.
100% for the convenience of the driver, as is most of our city.
“Especially if the general public, via their their local council, offers replacement space for free”
Huh? What is replacement space?
Buy or rent a house with a garage and then use the garage as living or storage space while ‘replacing’ the garage with ‘free’ on-street parking.
Family in our neighborhood have a double garage. When door is open you can see they have it set up with a child fence and mini playground. They park their SUVs on the street.
Not condoning it, but I did once kick a dent in the side of a car that repeatedly blocked a footpath on my way to work. It was some d**k who blocked the footpath on sh1 in an urban area forcing people to walk on the road. I left a brief note threatening to escalate the damage and the problem resolved itself.
I’m surprised that you would admit this. While bad parking is annoying, it’s is not criminal. Kicking a dent in someone’s vehicle is criminal damage and would get you into a lot of trouble.
I hope you are ashamed of yourself.
Um, what? parking on the footpath is 100% against the law. There’s a $1000 fine on conviction.
https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2004/0427/latest/DLM303610.html
Boohoo, a few scratches & broken wing mirrors and eventually people will stop parking on the footpaths
Vigilantism is the natural consequence of authorities ignoring their duty to do *any* meaningful enforcement. There is no other viable path forward for an individual. I would expect ever increasing amounts of it in the future if nothing changes regarding fines and council. People who should have otherwise received a pass (ie you’re having an actual emergency) will be caught in the crossfire.
boo hoo, send the GCSB to find my IP adress. Blocking the footpath next to SH1, in between 2 schools and a shopping centre, and forcing people to walk out on the road with the trucks etc is far worse. All because this precious person couldn’t park 50m away in the legal on road spaces.
No, just because someone parked illegally (against the law but not a criminal activity) doesn’t give you the right to engage in vandalism of another person’s property, which is a criminal offence.
What other crimes would you commit because in your head you think are justified? I can assure you that your current line of defence would not sit well in a court of law.
You are the worst kind of offender, someone who feels so self entitled that you defend obvious criminal activity with mock outrage.
I wonder how you would feel if someone burned down your home because they were offended by a non consented retaining wall or fence.
Auckland lawyer is probably right, so change your defense.
Your honour, I was walking down the footpath and became temporarily dazed by the sun reflecting off what I now realise was the parked car’s bonnet and immediately crashed into the illegally parked car causing damage to my foot.
Donna are you happy that school children in some locations ride their bikes on the footpath which is illegal and causing pedestrians to avoid them.
Should people smash their bikes to teach them a lesson?
Amazing that Greater Auckland has allowed this comment to stay.
It really is frustrating that AT doesn’t take this seriously, and also that the fines are set so low. Upping them and actually enforcing them would go a long way to correct this terrible behaviour I see everywhere for sure. On the weekend there was a bus diversion set in place (maybe Point Chev, I can’t remember now) because of badly parked cars. And it’s like… THEN TOW THEM? But nah, better not do anything crazy like anything at all to people who park so badly that buses can’t get through, heaven forbid anyone in an Almighty Car suffer any kind of consequences for disrupting traffic.
The Coyle Park bus circle debacle was defeinitely a big thing in 2021. I don’t know if AT has started enforcing it, but the whole scenario stinks.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/12/parked-cars-in-auckland-s-point-chevalier-cause-1-4km-detour-for-bus-users.html
If you park your car in a way that impedes bus operations like this, you shouldn’t expect to find it ticketed. You should expect to find it GONE. Towed away, preferably to a car pound in the furthest reaches of Auckland (Wellsford?) so that it takes all day to get it back. Nothing like suffering utter inconvenience to prevent repeat behaviour. I am sure the bus passengers feel the same way.
It was still happening a few weeks ago
FFS 🙁
If anyone from AT is reading this, here is the reason that people are making up their own parking enforcement cards. Not due to an explosion in citizen justice, but due to systematic dereliction of duty by AT.
“but due to systematic dereliction of duty by AT.”
..caused by the constant restructures and redundancies that AT is asked to make by Council.
It is persistent culture – despite restructures – that causes AT to shirk its job of enforcing regulations.
Oh cool, so awesome that they continue to do literally nothing except inconvenience public transport. And yes, I’m betting if they get towed, even if it was to a closer place than Wellsford (lol), then they’d not do it again.
Yes why they so slack on this. Maybe that their parking spot guides are actually allowing this to happen?
Also parking wardens mainly don’t work weekends I think.
CAUSE: There are too many people in Auckland, trying to use the free parks and open spaces. These people don’t want to walk for more than three minutes, so they park where-ever they want. Solution: Install some signs that show a tow truck removing illegally parked cars.
Bus Driver – so basically as everyone has said, enforcement of some sort. Ticket the drivers parked on yellow lines. And keep doing so.
Or, install some signs saying cars will be towed – just like towing companies do for the bus lanes. I’m sure towies will be keen for the easy revenue, just like they are for bus lanes.
The other problem that feeds into this is ATs aversion to installing broken yellow lines where they are needed.
Several roads in my vicinity are too narrow for cars to park on both sides of the road, and still leave sufficient road space between them for larger vehicles like buses to pass. This ends up meaning that drivers who can’t be bothered to walk from a safer and more considerate parking space either park on the road anyway, blocking it, or park with two wheels and varying proportions of their car on the pavement, arguing it is necessary to leave the road clear for traffic.
Having seen this in action, and walking school buses impeded/ school activity buses literally stuck and unable to move down the street (nor to reverse due to traffic building up behind), I’ve previously requested AT install broken yellow lines on one side of the street to avoid this. The response has been that the fire service say the street as measured on paper is wide enough for emergency access, so this isn’t required, and besides, the street is apparently safer like this as it slows drivers down.
The fact that the house at the end could burn down before a fire appliance could get to it, and ATs own buses have to make detours when the road is blocked by parked cars seems to pass them by.
I am, of course, if the opinion that if you can’t park safely and legally, leaving from for vehicles to pass you, you should park elsewhere, but not everybody seems to think like that!
Coyle Park is a really good example of where a different approach and new tools / legislation is needed. When AT does decide to try and enforce Coyle Park on busy weekend, they have to send two wardens, with security and occasionally call the police – due to the physical and verbal abuse that the wardens receive down there. If they tow vehicles, they lose money (yes, that’s our money) on every tow due to the pitiful infringement / tow fees.
A solution? Allow AT to enforce parking infringements in known hotspots from CCTV cameras. Increase the penalties. If folk don’t pay the fines, stop them crossing the border until they do. Making parking wardens endure physical and verbal abuse to issue fines that are not a meaningful deterrent is a failed approach that is long due a refresh.
Agreed.
Just tow the fricking cars. Every single time. It cannot be about AT’s income level.
Seems like a no brainer, have an app that you use to submit photos with a GPS & time stamp and start issuing tickets.
Much like you can do in the UK with dashcam videos, basically free traffic enforcement without police on the roads involved and the fear of being spotted at any time by anyone
I have a camera attached to my bike helmet, and I would say every day I would have footage of people running red lights to the extent that they are the second or third car going through after I have a green to go.
I did look at uploading a clip to police after one case, where I had let a couple of red light runners go through, started to enter the intersection and had to brake for a truck that had ignored the red
It was so difficult to make a report, I decided to not bother and instead tracked the manager of the (sign written) truck company and let them know instead.
Enforcement seems so far behind the times. Imagine if you could just upload video to a channel as easily as Youtube and share it with police who could decide if to issue warning or ticket in the worst case
I could easily do the same with cyclists running red lights and worse on cycleways where there is a pedestrian crossing. This includes when there are special traffic lights for the cycle rider. If the walker has an umbrella for some reason the bikes observe the lights better.
Yep, it turns out that is people that break laws not cyclists or car drivers.
However, a truck running a red light is a much bigger threat to a cyclist than a cyclist running a red light is to a truck. Not to mention a truck driver is a professional driver, it is quite literally their one job that they are struggling to do.
When on bike you also have a very good 360 degree almost unhindered view, so I often will run a red light carefully when I know it’s just for people crossing and there are none about eg Quay St some places. Sometime for vehicle access ways when there is no one in sight for as far as the eye can see. If I don’t, the car won’t get hurt, only me.
Grant. Your comment sums up why the problems exist in the 1st place.! You think it is OK to break the law because you don’t see a problem with it and dont think thre is any harm done. it is exactly the same as the inconsiderate parkers and even some vehicle red light runners. They dont see any harm (even if consequences are worse). Eg There are many times in the city where it woukd be safe to turn but there is a timed red arrow due to assuming peds are crossing when there are none.
I wonder why people don’t like cyclists.
Well, it’s quite different. I also drive but don’t go through a red light, park illegally, would be a bad habit. You can’t see for sure out of your car to turn on that red & if you get it wrong you may kill someone. On a dedicated cycle lane, I may carry on when it’s a red when you can see perfectly it’s only for peds crossing of which there are none around. I feel I’m almost a pedestrian when going slow on a bike anyway. Believe me, you have to use the path illegally to stay alive in NZ sometimes. If I did get it wrong, I could brake, swerve and miss them or at worse slightly injure them. Bit naughty I know, perhaps I shouldn’t & sets a bad example plus stirs up hatred in some (mainly because they are jealous & perhaps stuck at the lights waiting). Come on though, get off your high horse and pick on something that matters. I’m assuming you don’t cycle, or not very often in an NZ urban environment. If you can’t see the difference then this is the problem in the first place if you ask me.
There is a big difference between bikes and cars when it comes to waiting for a green light and then going.
In a car, this is a relatively safe thing to do.
On a bicycle you will get a stampede of cars behind you and you’re a sitting duck if someone makes a mistake and hits you. This is made much worse in Auckland since we allow parking on almost all streets. I would almost say it is so dangerous you should avoid doing this if at all possible. This is how people die.
At a pedestrian light or at a light with a Barnes Dance crossing, an accident will be MUCH more likely if you wait for green on a bicycle, vs. going at walking pace through the pedestrian phase, AND the consequences will probably be worse.
Would be a good idea if people cycling could treat traffic lights as stop signs when no one is around. Seems to work just fine where this is official.
Or if they removed our dumb traffic light systems and installed Dutch systems. That way the lights would change really quickly for everyone. Right now, the sensors can’t detect half of all cycles.
I guess that Kiri Allen was worried about the coming election. Labour certainly should have picked up on the parking fines straight after an election – which Simeon Brown should be onto like a shot now.
Enforcement needs to be fully self-financing, otherwise the public pays more than the offender. Some of the costs include trying to get people to pay accumulated infringement debt (cheaper for some people than paying for parking).
Maybe Careless Driving ($3000) should apply to driving onto a footpath and abandoning a car there (for a time)?
Unfortunately, towing a car away makes the tow company liable to care for the car until it is collected, which makes for large, remote, secured parking lots and limited availability of tow trucks and their drivers, to respond to reports of cars in bus lanes etc. Relocating a car to an legal parking place as near as convenient for the towie, and leaving it with a clamp, might seem OK but does not meet the duty of care.
Vigilante (or plain frustration) action puts the action into the same, or worse, category of fault as the offence (or infringement – there is a difference). Government must act to make it affordable to get drivers to comply with controls.
I doubt Simeon Brown will do anything. He was on TV a few days ago saying that increased speed cameras could be nothing more than revenue gathering unless they were in “problem areas”.
Simeon – is speeding allowed or not?
Yes “unless they were in “problem areas”.” is a very subjective term. Like where they may still place speed tables on the roads.
Dear God, car drivers getting hypersensitive about a mildly snarky anonymous note. I wonder what they’d do if someone criticised their parking face to face, probably go full berserker.
This is one reason I hate driving, because I know I’m no good at parking!
If we removed parking time limits and replaced them with priced parking (but with say first 10min free) then all the enforcement for 1 would not be needed & could focus on the other areas
Still need plenty of enforcement – or how else would you assume you get paid?
Also most inner suburb residents are going to get very upset at having to pay for ‘their’ park outside their house
Why should the first 10 minutes be free? If I travel on the bus to do an 8 minute errand my fare isn’t free. Short car trips need to be discouraged.
It could be 5 mins. The ability to pick up / drop off needs to be retained. (if it was AI camera enforced and every car had parking account, then the free drop off could be removed)
Only rich people drive, after all.
Bad parking also affects pedestrians – it is quite common while waling the suburbs to find inconsiderately parked cars blocking the footpath. The worst cases are those who park with about a metre of the car in the private property thus completely obstructing the footpath, forcing pedestrians onto the road. This is a hassle for the able-bodied but actually dangerous for those in wheelchairs or pushing a child in a stroller. The late Andy Smith of Walk Auckland and Living Streets Aotearoa handed out bundles of his yellow cardboard feet to place under the wipers of offending cards. On the front side they had the message “Don’t tread on our toes” and on the back more detail: “PLEASE don’t park on trhe footpath – it puts others at risk – You could be towed or fined – Children could be hit if forced onto the road – Wheelchairs and pushchairs can’t get past – Vision-impaired people could injure themselves. I put lots of these out over the years – if ignored then I dobbed them in. Unfortunately because governments over the decades have been slack about revising the permitted fines for “stationary vehicle offences” (i.e. bad parking), which have become unrealistically low, Councils are limited in their ability to enforce the rules.
Yep I have put many of those yellow notes on vehicles. With fines you may find ownership of many repeat offender vehicles is in the name of a company so they dont have much impact
Yes lots like that in Point Chev. A lot of new houses where owners feel it is OK to park across the footpath rather that use their garages. And there is usually plenty of parking on the street.
I might print some of those cards.
Stickers (with drawings of your choice) work well too.
Love this idea. Anyone know where I can get hold of pre-printed stickers? Ideally with choice wording about SUVs, utes etc as well as bad parking.
https://www.livingstreets.org.nz/reclaiming_footpaths
Future cat lady 🙁
Inconsiderate parking is rife in Ponsonby and some other inner city suburbs with limited capacity for onsite parking. When I was a primary caregiver for our baby I got very frustrated at having to walk out onto the road with the pushchair because of entitled aholes with multiple vehicles parking their Audi or whatever across the footpath. A group of local parents got notices made and I had no problem (discreetly) placing those on the windscreen and reporting repeat offenders to AT. I really feel for disabled people who find mobility parking blocked. I would fully support some sort of easier reporting where you could attach a photo
Totally, I used to tell people (normally tradies who have this weird thing we they need to park as close as possible to their work site even though there are perfectly good objects for carrying tools, etc and for most of the day you don’t need to be right next to your vehicle or couriers who are terrible anyway) to move as i had both pram and dog trying to walk along the road. And the usual response was get f*** mate.
Yep… or the one that made my blood boil when asking a tradie to move his vehicle so the walking school bus could use the footpath: “live dangerously. I’m not parking on the road – my ute might get damaged”!
We are in an age , “people” where are prepared to take “direct” action,against what they feel is unjust. Maybe “shaming” the authorities to do, what they are paid to do.
Local govt costs are starting to hit home,big time, hoovering up some extra cash from transgressors gets my vote,even if some of it is mine .
Careful, that will be deemed “revenue gathering”.
Someon Brown is cautious on WK plans to increase speed cameras by 30% (only 50), insisting it should only be for problem locations and not revenue gathering….
I suspect Someone has not thought his transport plans through. If he wants brand new 4 lane roads over much of the North Island, then the money from general taxation won’t be anywhere near enough to pay for them. Revenue gathering will be essential.
Yes bring on general public reported enforcement. For starters let’s get the fines increased. Absolutely ridiculous.
Could someone just delete all the public car parks? No one has a right to occupy public space as a person, even during a protest. Why do cars get given so much space? There are inert and driven by idiots, and nobody can park, absolutely nobody can park a DODGE RAM, except perhaps in the front window of a Hamilton jewellery shop. Shits and giggles with bad parking cards but we all continue to suffocate our cities with noxious fumes and that is not funny.
I used to work with a guy who would park on the street and not pay every day. Over a year the cost in fines was about half the cost of leasing a car park so it made financial sense.
I’ve been repeatedly disappointed with the debacle of reporting illegal parking over several years now.
The online form often hasn’t worked. If it has managed to work and it be responded to a few hours later then often the response has been “no action required” or “clear on arrival” despite neither being even slightly true.
I haven’t gone rogue vigilante yet, but completely understand why some do.
Of course the simple solution to this is AT taking enforcement seriously and proactively policing the rules. Even with the low fines, frequency would make a difference.
Clearly this is a city wide issue, but I particularly notice it out west with all the development and lack of safe bike lanes.
They probably struggle to get the staff they need to so such a job, imagine the abuse they would suffer. Though I suspect it’s more the budget allocation to line in the spread sheet is lacking.
Yeah Sorry, while I agree parking fines need to be reviewed. Hard disagree with fostering a culture of snitching on fellow citizens. I find this very adversarial. Breeds a social culture of distrust, contempt and disdain between fellow members of the public (and what’s to stop this being extended beyond traffic enforcement?). I don’t fancy the thought that every time I venture outside I could be stamped on for a one off innocent mistake for an increasing array of infringements I may unintentionally fall a foul of by a “busy bodies” (and there will no doubt be some doing this as a game). Not a culture I want to live in as much as some people’s behaviour may irritate me.
Have left politely worded notes on people’s cars asking them not to park too close to the intersection as it blocks visibility causing safety issues. They’ve all happily complied. Doesn’t hurt to be friendly.
I’m all for reducing our reliance on our cars, but until such a time the powers to be actually take the provisioning of fast, frequent and reliable public transport seriously to the Auckland public (Lengthy shutdowns of the rail network for example should never be happening, why isn’t GA making more of a fuss about this?), many will need to rely on their cars in order to have functional lives in this car dependent city.
“why isn’t GA making more of a fuss about this?”
Literally every second post is about increasing PT speed, frequency & reliability. Regarding shutdowns there was a mention on the Friday post about this.
The comment quoted referred specifically to rail shut downs. Apart from a blog article last year. It looks like we’ve only had the odd mention of it since then.
I know we are getting off track (pun not intended). Given how Rail shutdowns undermine public confidence in the train network (if not the public transport network as a whole) I would have thought the likes of GA would be demanding answers from Kiwi Rail, Auckland Transport, Et al and asking what assurances they can provide that once the work is complete, we won’t have to endure regular and lengthy shut downs again anywhere near to the same extend we have been.
“Breeds a social culture of distrust, contempt and disdain between fellow members of the public”
The ship has well and truly sailed on this one. Drivers are continually in contempt of others, and have sowen massive distrust. I cannot walk on any crossing, without checking for red light runners or waiting for the vehicle to almost stop. There are constant excessively loud vehicles, this is never enforced, I have seen on half a dozen occasions little kids holding their ears scared / crying when loud bikes go rev and drive up and down 30km areas on Quay st. There are vehicles every night that drive round and wake up large portions of the city center residents with speakers mounted on the outside of their cars.
It also seems that you also think that having a system of reporting is a step change. It is not. The police rely on tips and call ins for everything. Simply allowing them to process more tips and act on them with greater productivity is no different to what we already have.
oops looks like someone got offended with a little card….
Oops, looks like someone had an issue with reading / comprehension. My comment was referring to Citizen Enforcement referenced further down the article, not the little cards.
Great article. I know someone who has been issuing stickers to vehicles parked on the footpath and cycle paths. It’s awesome.
Yes funny, I was going to do this on all the local cars on footpaths etc and ordered some of the Living Streets walking feet. Oddly since getting them I haven’t really found hardly any offending cars to put them on.
“you also think that having a system of reporting is a step change. It is not”
The issue I have is giving people monetary rewards for snitching on others. What is to stop people doing this as a game or sport to the point of being pedantic? No doubt people who have a genuine emergency / reason are going to be hammered, there will be collateral damage. (It looks like has been touched on by yourself already in an earlier comment)
(My Apologies, this was supposed to be a reply to Jack who was responding to my comment. I’m currently on a mobile device)
I’d settle for a reporting system that was acted on, fast and easy to use. Short of monetary rewards. Without money, people will still do it as a game and be extremely pedantic, and that’s good.
“…people will still do it as a game and be extremely pedantic, and that’s good”
Will agree to disagree on the “that’s good” part. What’s being suggested come across as almost totalitarian. Will be pushing back against this level of “strong arming” when current alternatives for getting around this city remain unviable. Life for the average resident is already stressful as it is.
I wish to reiterate, as an individual, I’m all for eliminating car dependency and am staunchly pro transport choice – I’m in regular contact with Transport agencies, Council and the government pushing them to improve public transport including cycling options (along with urban planning discussion that would facilitate these initiatives) but advocates need to be reasonable. Work with the public, not against the public.
True, I agree in general but the reason a lot of the alternative ways around the city are unviable is because of this very reason; cars are parked in bus lanes cycle lanes and across footpaths.
I’ll stick with using these cards if I have any.
By the time you report these people to AT it’ll be an hour and that person would have likely left.
Calling AT to lodge a report is waste of time. They take too long to come out
“New York takes it a step further by paying people who successfully report trucks or buses that idle too long US$85 from a US$350 fine’
In Perth citizens can dob in a car or truck that is emitting clouds of smoke. The citizen fills in a card and mails it off to the Council. The Council then sends the vehicle owner a notice, requiring them to take their vehicle in for an inspection. Could the same system apply to smelly cyclists who hang out at my local cafe on a Sunday morning. The notice could say; ” Dear smelly cyclists, you have been reported for: ( ) blocking the door to my local cafe with your bike. ( ) wearing bright colored lyrcra. ( ) Riding 4 abreast along a bike lane.” etc
What enforcement – and the reaction – looks like. $200, bravo:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/costs/gold-coast-mum-fights-200-fine-for-parking-in-her-own-driveway/news-story/a83d648e2e2b253d9bdff82ca532e2de
Note: misleading headline. In summary, she parked across the footpath, which is outside her property boundary.
Get over it AT is handicap.
It’s such a pleasure to find somebody online who genuinely knows what they’re talking about, if you don’t mind me saying so right now. You actually acquire the ability to bring a concern to light and make it a significant issue. It would be great if a lot more people read this and understood and appreciated this aspect of your tale. I find it hard to comprehend that you haven’t gained greater popularity given that you unquestionably offer the gift.
While out riding my bike last week I had a number of encounters with people that were breaking the law.
1. The driver of a white Corolla station wagon who drove through a red light, at least 30 seconds after it had gone red at a speed well above 80kph. This was about 11am at the intersection of Beach road and Te Taou Cres and lucky I was waiting for the signal for the diagonal crossing, not using the ped lights to just cross Beach road or else Id be dead.
2. The guy riding a motor scooter on the Western Cycle way near Te Atatu . He was wearing a high viz jacket and gave me a cherry wave as he rode past at a reasonable speed of about 20kph.
3. The Cyclist that ran a red light in Glenfield road, doing about 40kph and almost knocked down a girl aged about 10, who was crossing on the lights.
The point I would make is that New Zealanders are a combination of useless drivers, self entitled road users and worryingly detached from reality when it comes to their ability to control a vehicle. This does not seem to matter if they are driving motorized vehicles, cycling or even walking. I’ve seen buses and the police run red lights, I’ve watched cyclists being ‘Roberts’ countless times (yes, you do need to wear a helmet) and I’ve seen plenty of pedestrians, nose deep into their phones, walk into other people of wander off the pavement and onto the road. If we were to start handing out little stickers to each other or ‘dobbying’ each other in, there would be no time left in our days.
Yes you are right, people should not park illegally, but as the recent birthday boy once said, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’.
The use of “bad parking cards” is a form of citizen activism, albeit one that Auckland Transport (AT) discourages due to its potential risks immaculate grid