Page 1 of Traffic Wardens...

:/ A topic probably more controversial than Passion of the Christ, and certainly more annoying than Splash Dvd going bankrupt- >:( traffic wardens. :/

I could sit here and moan my arse off about them, tell you stories of how they tried to give me tickets for parking in a seemingly legal place, but... i thought i`d see if anyone had any better stories.

Lets face it, some of you are gonna be traffic wardens yourself, and jolly nice folk i`m sure. Some of you probably have strong views on the proffession- to say it nicely... ;)

Anyone have an opinion? >:( - 8)

News article of interest! - http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/23/newsid_2518000/2518671.stm

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The problem is not with police traffic wardens who use common sense and their own judgement when ticketing cars. The problem is with the council wardens who go around mercilessly applying tickets to a car that is more than 2 inches over a yellow line. They will not listen to reason and the ones I have encountered are ignorant, arrogant and not the brightest of people.

Police traffic wardens on the other hand are often quite helpful and do a thankless job pretty well.

Nick

Got to agree with you there Monkey, the worst wardens are the ones in Edinburgh. I have read that they have ticketed hearses and ambulances.

Will

Here is part of a story from Mainichi Daily News last year.

Quote:
A paper bag containing 4 million yen was found on July 19 by two traffic wardens in a cardboard box placed near a first-floor staircase at Kokura Minami Police Station in Kitakyushu.

They immediately handed the cash over to the lost property office, located just a few meters away.

The wardens who found the money renounced their right to claim it saying there was something "creepy" about the money.

Just proves that not all wardens are bad, huh? Well, at least not in Japan.

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<Opcode> I was gonna call 911.... but I was downloading a file.

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I suspect the real problem is quotas. If you have a traffic warden issuing no tickets, they aren`t filling their quota, and they probably will be seen as not doing their job properly. :/

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Don`t blame the warden, blame the law if you don`t like it.

Two inches over a double-yellow is still over. If two -inches is O.K, then why not a foot? etc

Though I suspect the quota element that RJS mentions has something to do with it.

As heard on the radio the other day, a load of people were fined for parking down a back street in london on bank holiday monday. When confronting the warden, he just said "the council has made it clear that this road cannot be parked on during weekdays, including today. Take it up with them". The ticket machines clearly stated that sundays and public holidays were free parking. But, because the council had changed their minds and not decided to tell anyone (but the wardens) about the new change, they all got fined.

Still think its fair?
My flatmate was clamped outside her own flat because her permit was on her dashboard, and not her windscreen. A whole day of waiting for a removal guy and a non-refundable £80 fine is what she got.... and why? because your right, this warden needed to fill a quota and took his rulebook to the extreme. She had a permit, but it was not stuck to the windscreen, it was sitting 2 inches from the windscreen perfectly in view on the dashboard.

3 months later, still no refund from the council. They are c***s.

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Instaed of moaning about them you should thank them because otherwise there would be choas on the streets with cars parked everywhere causing an obstruction

And guess what !!!

We would then have a thread on this forum dedicated to moaning about inconsiderate drivers parking everywhere :p

This item was edited on Wednesday, 14th April 2004, 14:10

I`m reminded of a news story a few years back, when a guy parked his car and went away for a few hours. While he was gone, the council had his car lifted (incidentally damaging it) painted double yellow underneath it, put it back down and ticketed it and clamped it.

Some days it`s not worth waking up...

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My uncle is a warden and i can assure you hes never heard of this quota that you allege he must get.He gives very few tickets out apart from the usual arrogant i am above the law types and the constant re offenders.He goes into shops to find who owns the car and asks if they will move it, everyone is treated in a polite and common sense way.Its only when people become ar**holes that he will treat them as such.Apparently woman are the worst for it as they have a habit of becomming screaming harpies for just being asked to move their vehicle rather than just saying sorry i will move it.
As for this parking over lines this unfortunately is the law but as some bays aren`t big enough for the vehicles its impossible to get parked in them.Again he wouldn`t ticket someone for something like that uless they where weay out of the box and causing an obstruction.
Next time your stuck at a set of lights that are on the blink with a warden having to direct traffic,or some organised event where roads are shut and diversions in use just imagine the gridlocked traffic you would have to sit in cos you won`t find enough traffic police to do the job.They will be all sat at the side of the road somewhere with their speed cameras.Directing traffic is too trivial a job for them.
Can`t comment for the private/council appointed wardens though as they are ruled by business.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 14th April 2004, 14:48