Parking Mad

By Pearl Bullivant on April 7, 2013 in Other

Photo: Sir Donald Stokes

This month, a reader has asked for my views on parking rangers and parking fines. Having abandoned my Ford in favour of walking, buses, Go Get and the occasional taxi, I’m out of touch with the outrage against parking rangers, plus I’m not actually sympathetic to any driver who repeatedly receives parking tickets. If the sign says ‘No Parking’, it means no parking!

Being booked for staying in a two-hour zone an extra ten minutes will elicit some sympathy, but an hour over and you are just hogging the space and deserve to be fined. However, I do find Randwick Council to be totally insidious when the rangers refuse to action complaints from residents about vehicles blocking their driveways. Funny, but the same rangers, who are supposedly overworked or have clocked off when you call, seem able to creep around at 8pm near Melrose Parade, Clovelly and the streets surrounding the Prince of Wales Hospital booking cars encroaching street corners or parked on verges. These same rangers have no qualms booking you as you idle the car for a couple of seconds in a ‘No Stopping’ zone (only because every parking spot is taken by a 4WD on a latte fix) as you drop Grandma off, with her walking frame, outside a doctor’s surgery.

And can Waverley Council explain why the rangers will not accept a vandalised parking meter as a valid excuse for not feeding the meter, despite the fact that you have made the effort to call the relevant number on the meter to report it broken and left a note on the dash explaining the situation? Don’t expect the fine to be waived; the council will be seeing you in Waverley Court and if that’s not revenue raising, what is it? Stupidity on the part of the ranger?

The only people who appear to be immune from the scourge of the parking ranger are yummy mummies. A family car sticker (complete with boat and horse and mummy shopping) on the back of a pristinely clean black Range Rover, plus the mere fact that one is on a mission to get the kiddies to school before the essential coffee morning or gym class, seems to make one a protected species when it comes to parking and traffic fines. As per the letter from ‘Sad Parent, Clovelly’ (The Beast, March 2013), these women have no qualms about putting children’s lives at risk. They clog roundabouts and intersections – the ones near St Catherine’s School on Albion Street and St Charles’ on Carrington Road appear to be favourites – without raising the wrath of a police officer. They park in teachers’ car parks, ignoring the ‘Staff Only’ signs because they don’t apply to them as they rush to get Perseus to tennis, Acrisus to swimming and Leonardo to violin. And they flaunt the ‘Disabled Parking’ scheme with Nanna’s sticker.

Any YM worth her street cred is an expert at the double park, which comes in handy when you need to stop the Jaguar in the middle of the road to give a review of the latest groovy small bar to a friend on the footpath, oblivious to the traffic mounting up behind. But why even bother going to the hassle of double parking when one can embrace the latest illegal parking phenomenon: parking in other people’s driveways or the car park of an apartment block, pretending to be an inhabitant? Just pull into an unoccupied driveway for school pickup and the ranger won’t be the wiser as to whether you actually live there – such a clever trick when the street is littered in ‘No Parking 3-4pm’ signs!

Move over Gangnam… it’s Parking, Yummy Mummy Style!