Citizen Parking Enforcement & a Result & Pat on the Back fro

[Heltor Chasca]

Today I'm being a right show off and I make no apology. I got some cowboy to leave town out here in the South West. The Wild West.

Situation: transporting 6 YOD home from school this afternoon on the back of Surly BD through a typically badly designed town. But...

...Although typically badly designed for cycling, I still believe that what little infrastructure we have, we have the right to unimpeded, legal access...

...so at a particularly dangerous crossing, a vehicle is parked on the pavement and road over the dropped curb! Person still sat in driver's seat! Great opportunity to tap on window [emoji48]...

...I have a great skill in that I don't look like a polite, diplomatic kind of fellow, but by the shear fact that I'm genuinely mild of manner has the effect of shaking feet in boots to great effect. Long story short, I told the 'gent' to move his vehicle PRONTO so I could get myself and my precious cargo off the road onto the crossing...

...driver gets out of car in that way that drivers do when someone shakes them out of their tin-can-world...

...and then decides not to do whatever he planned to do...

...does some stuttering and gesticulating...

...I politely explain that things aren't going to happen until he moves his vehicle out the way so I can carry on with my safe journey home...

...he reverses, maybe 3 or 4 metres down the road and parks illegally again...

...my diplomacy kicks in again [emoji6]...

...Too much pressure and the gentleman of higher-parking-privileges-than-you & me drives off for a more welcoming reception elsewhere I guess.

That odd, 'YES!' ...feeling mixed in with...that, 'Daddy. Why have you just been cross with that rude man?' confuses me...

...UNTIL another school run dad from another school, another neighbourhood, walks up to me with his 2 kids, shakes my hand and says something like, 'Fair play to you man, they always park there, just no one tells them.

So the moral of the story is: Don't be so polite and British, grow a beard, some long hair, put a cute 6 year old girl on the back of your bike as emotional blackmail and reclaim your cycling territory....

...but why do these things only happen to me on a Friday?...b

[Cunobelin]

... or avoid the conflict and send a video asking whether they are going to cease their stupidity

[Flinders]

Glad you spoke out, and glad you were sensible about how you did it and didn't put yourself at risk.

Too many things go wrong in this world because people don't speak up. Bullying is one example. People look away and stay out of it, or even worse, they actually join in to please the bully, and all that happens is it gets worse - sometimes even the coward themselves ends up on the receiving end in the long run.

I think cowardice is responsible for a lot of evil in this world - it leads to nearly every other sort of bad behavior given enough time.

[brooksby]

There's some building work being done on a house near me. The house actually has a drive, but there's a skip on it (as well as another one on the shared-use path which goes in front of the property). But every couple of days the builders park their vans and their cars on the shared-use path, and they almost but not quite block the path. The adjacent road is a 50 mph A-road, so its not exactly easy to hop off the pavement and go round, and I'm damned if I'm going to get off and walk past (and I'm too much of coward to take them up on it verbally...). Long story short, I don't see why I should have to do too much if they are illegally parked - so if their wing mirrors get knocked flat against their vehicles as I pass them (no actual damage caused) then I hope that they consider their position. "I did not see that wing mirror sticking out from that illegally parked car! ... No, nor that one!" Yes, I know it's childish but it feels kind of satisfying...

[Bmblbzzz]

Good job, well done!

[Postboxer]

I'd almost enjoy being a traffic warden/parking attendant if I was allowed use of a 'Don't Park Here!' embossing hammer.

[jezer]

The solution may be to do away with all parking restrictions, they are ignored anyway. Motorists would perhaps learn that it's not cyclists that hold them up. Meanwhile, we could ride through with smug expressions

[Mike Sales]

The solution may be to do away with all parking restrictions, they are ignored anyway. Motorists would perhaps learn that it's not cyclists that hold them up. Meanwhile, we could ride through with smug expressions

In Aberystwth they did away with wardens for a year. They were welcomed back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news/9302318/Town-that-scrapped-traffic-wardens-welcomes-them-back-after-enduring-car-chaos.html

[Bmblbzzz]

I've noticed that in the parts of Bristol with residents' parking zones, people are much less likely to park on the pavement than in those without. This is visible even from street to street.