Vehicles parked on cycle lanes

[Annoying Twit]

My question on cars parked on the pavement was shortlisted for (Leicester) Mayor's Question Time, but I wasn't asked it at the meeting tonight. I spoke to some visually impaired people there who asked their own questions (about disabled access, or lack of it, at the new Bus Station and the 'Shared Spaces' in the city having no curbs - not good if you have a seeing eye dog trained to follow curbs). They were keen that I return and ask the question again, and said that they would support me.

[Cunobelin]

We had this on as a regular issue in Portsmouth, outside a Taxi Office




As a number of offences are being committed, easy to solve?

Not at all, The Police cannot act because it is a parking offence (double yellow lines) which is now the Council

Council cannot act as he is on the pavement which is a Police matter

Police cannot act on the pavement parking because of the double yellow lines issue

Police also cannot act upon the fact he is parked within the confines of the zebra crossing as again yellow lines take priority

Council cannot act on the yellow lines as the parking on the crossing is aPOlice matter and takes priority


After about 6 months of denial, and a letter in summary to both, neither was able to take any action and blamed the other


The eventual answer was in the Driver's licensing by the council!

Complaints that by obstructing the pavement and parking illegally breached the "duty of care" element and the Council issued "penalty points" on the offending driver's licences. After the first driver was threatened with loss of his license due to "totting up" the problem was solved overnight

Shame that the Police and Council were too lazy to take the appropriate action earlier

[karlt]

Lay a bike on the pavement outside their office, chained to a nearby piece of street furniture so they can't move it. Refuse to take it away until they agree to stop blocking the highway.

[Flinders]

Lay a bike on the pavement outside their office, chained to a nearby piece of street furniture so they can't move it. Refuse to take it away until they agree to stop blocking the highway.

They would just drive over it.

[karlt]

Lay a bike on the pavement outside their office, chained to a nearby piece of street furniture so they can't move it. Refuse to take it away until they agree to stop blocking the highway.

They would just drive over it.

I was thinking more in terms of making it rather hard for pedestrian access to their office.

[mjr]

I think you mean neither council nor police were willing to act, rather than couldn't.

They were working as a TEAM, which means something like "Toll! Eines Anderes Macht's!" which is German for "Great! Someone else will do it!"

[Cunobelin]

I think you mean neither council nor police were willing to act, rather than couldn't.

They were working as a TEAM, which means something like "Toll! Eines Anderes Macht's!" which is German for "Great! Someone else will do it!"

I was quoting their response, rather than my interpretation

[Annoying Twit]

The RNIB briefing on cars parked on the pavement suggests collecting photographic evidence, particularly if it shows pedestrians struggling to get past. This can then be sent to councils and police to encourage them to do something.

[mjr]

The RNIB briefing on cars parked on the pavement suggests collecting photographic evidence, particularly if it shows pedestrians struggling to get past. This can then be sent to councils and police to encourage them to do something.

Has that ever worked? I tried it for a while but it seemed I might as well be sending the photos to a hole in the ground.

[Annoying Twit]

I have read that it worked, but not specific examples. I can't remember which of the documents I read before the 'Question Time' had it in it.

Though, I saw it mentioned that enforcement of parking on footpaths had been more frequently enforced by councils than when the police were responsible for it as it is 'self-funding'. It might be more enforced when councils believe that there is money in it. If there is regular off-street parking, you'd think that would be an easy win.

[MikeF]

We had this on as a regular issue in Portsmouth, outside a Taxi Office




As a number of offences are being committed, easy to solve?

Not at all, The Police cannot act because it is a parking offence (double yellow lines) which is now the Council

Council cannot act as he is on the pavement which is a Police matter

Police cannot act on the pavement parking because of the double yellow lines issue

Police also cannot act upon the fact he is parked within the confines of the zebra crossing as again yellow lines take priority

Council cannot act on the yellow lines as the parking on the crossing is aPOlice matter and takes priority


After about 6 months of denial, and a letter in summary to both, neither was able to take any action and blamed the other


The eventual answer was in the Driver's licensing by the council!

Complaints that by obstructing the pavement and parking illegally breached the "duty of care" element and the Council issued "penalty points" on the offending driver's licences. After the first driver was threatened with loss of his license due to "totting up" the problem was solved overnight

Shame that the Police and Council were too lazy to take the appropriate action earlier

The council should be able to act because the car is parked on double yellow lines. The parking restrictions apply from the centre of the road to the edge of the highway; the parking restrictions don't just apply to the carriageway. However part of the car is still covering DYL so whether the car is partly on the pavement is irrelevant.

[Vorpal]

The council should be able to act because the car is parked on double yellow lines. The parking restrictions apply from the centre of the road to the edge of the highway; the parking restrictions don't just apply to the carriageway. However part of the car is still covering DYL so whether the car is partly on the pavement is irrelevant.

Unless someone wants an excuse not to do their job.

[Rob Archer]

Some years ago we had a serious issue in our street with people completely blocking the narrow (80cm) pavements with their cars forcing pedestrians to walk in the road. The police wouldn't do anything because 'if they didn't park on the footway it might restrict access for emergency vehicles'. (The main problem was large 4x4s and vans). Some residents did a bit of research and produced a flier with the words:

'This vehicle is parked illegally and is causing an obstruction. The vehicle has been photographed and the police are aware. Please note that most insurance policies will not cover damage incurred while the vehicle is illegally parked'

The problem stopped almost overnight. The issue of insurance cover may have been the key.

Could the same approach be taken for cycle lane obstruction?

I'm a trendy consumer. Just look at my GT-S7275R using hovercraft full of eels.

[Cyril Haearn]

I think you mean neither council nor police were willing to act, rather than couldn't.

They were working as a TEAM, which means something like "Toll! Eines Anderes Macht's!" which is German for "Great! Someone else will do it!"

You are right, in Germany we do say: toll, ein andere machts. In American it means: together everyone achieves more.

Sag freund, was it dann Theorie? Wenn's laufen soll und laeuft doch nie. Und.. was ist denn Praxis? Fragt nicht so dumb, wenn's laeuft und keiner weiss warm.

What is theory? When it should work but it never does.
What is practice? When it works and no-one knows why.

[thirdcrank]

I'm posting this about bus lane enforcement because most of Leeds' bus lanes permit cycling.

Leeds City Council's bus lane enforcement cameras have recently come in for some shock-horror cash cow reports of innocent drivers being fleeced of megabucks.

My own feeling about this type of enforcement is that done properly, it's likely to be very effective. As an example of its not being done properly, was in the early stages when the camera footage was not properly checked against the reg details and somebody with a tractor in the Hebrides or somewhere similar got a ticket for a Leeds bus lane. Trying to dig a bit deeper than the wails of people who have received a fixed penaly letter, I've looked at the Leeds City Council www which is not particularly user-friendly, at least for dimwits like me.

Additional cameras are being progressively installed on bus lanes in Leeds so citywide data are not necessarily comparable over time but one item seems very striking: if you compare the offences detected by any camera in the first week after installation with a week a year or more later, with one exception, there is a really significant fall. In one case, that was 87 in the first week and only one in a week about a year later.

It's included in this PDF "Annual Parking Report" Table 6 on p 8

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/docs/Annual%20P ... 4-2015.pdf

Table 5 on p 7 is about the council's success rate in terms of fixed penalties being overturned when a driver requests adjudication. There's still room for improvement.