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No Parking Signs Are Hard Apparently

Carjosse

Carjosse

Sit Nomine Digna
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Location
Montreal, QC
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Liberal
I live near a fire station and constantly, every single day the fire trucks leaving with their sirens going have to blast their equivalently loud horn to get people to move their cars who decided to park across the street so they can get out. I do not understand why so many people park there, constantly. There are like 5 large signs that say no parking, with a picture of a fire truck, and large red crosses painted on the ground. Even more mind boggling I sometimes see people park in front of the garage doors to the fire station that seem to be really surprised when they are asked to move.

Why are people so bad at parking?
 
G
Carjosse said:
I live near a fire station and constantly, every single day the fire trucks leaving with their sirens going have to blast their equivalently loud horn to get people to move their cars who decided to park across the street so they can get out. I do not understand why so many people park there, constantly. There are like 5 large signs that say no parking, with a picture of a fire truck, and large red crosses painted on the ground. Even more mind boggling I sometimes see people park in front of the garage doors to the fire station that seem to be really surprised when they are asked to move.

Why are people so bad at parking?
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Not sure I am following; when I park my car, I usually am somewhere else. How does honking get people to move parked cars?
 
Rexedgar said:
G

Not sure I am following; when I park my car, I usually am somewhere else. How does honking get people to move parked cars?
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It is street parking so it usually makes people come out of the restaurant or shop nearby and move it. Usually works but sometimes they have to do a 10 point turn to get out if they don't.
 
Carjosse said:
It is street parking so it usually makes people come out of the restaurant or shop nearby and move it.
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It has been demonstrated in large urban areas, in the US, where the fire department will knockout the glass in illegally parked vehicles and run the hose through the vehicle in the case of fire and a vehicle parked in a hydrant zone.

View attachment 67252598
 
Carjosse said:
It is street parking so it usually makes people come out of the restaurant or shop nearby and move it. Usually works but sometimes they have to do a 10 point turn to get out if they don't.
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Slap some $500 tickets on their windshields or put a cattle mover thing on the front of the firetruck. Actually both would work just fine.
 
Rexedgar said:
It has been demonstrated in large urban areas, in the US, where the fire department will knockout the glass in illegally parked vehicles and run the hose through the vehicle in the case of fire and a vehicle parked in a hydrant zone.

View attachment 67252598
Click to expand...

I wish they would just put some bars on the front of the trucks and just push cars out of the way. I am certain a lot of people have lost paint.
 
Jetboogieman said:
People are dumb.

That's it.

That's all I got.
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It is literally all the time I think we need to rethink licensing if so many think this is okay. I just saw someone try to park in the no parking zone WHILE the fire truck was trying to pull out.
 
Carjosse said:
I live near a fire station and constantly, every single day the fire trucks leaving with their sirens going have to blast their equivalently loud horn to get people to move their cars who decided to park across the street so they can get out. I do not understand why so many people park there, constantly. There are like 5 large signs that say no parking, with a picture of a fire truck, and large red crosses painted on the ground. Even more mind boggling I sometimes see people park in front of the garage doors to the fire station that seem to be really surprised when they are asked to move.

Why are people so bad at parking?
Click to expand...

In the LA area, it's a combo of awful traffic and lax enforcement. That, and they don't really have drivers ed classes the way they do back east.

People end up realizing there are rarely consequences because police are few and far between, and the traffic conditions lead to frustration and scofflaw-ism. Driving alone in the car pool lane is a point of pride for some people, as a form of protest of how badly the roads are managed.

I can't get through a commute without see at least one person driving full tilt in the breakdown lane, or swerving around lanes frantically trying to get ahead, accomplishing nothing except creating a dangerous situation for everyone around them.

And it wears on you. After several years you end up feeling like a fool for driving safely. It's actually dangerous to drive defensively in this environment. And the time you spend on the roads makes you start looking to cut corners. Other people become obstacles. No doubt in a few more years I'll be just another LA jerk on the road.
 
WillyPete said:
In the LA area, it's a combo of awful traffic and lax enforcement. That, and they don't really have drivers ed classes the way they do back east.

People end up realizing there are rarely consequences because police are few and far between, and the traffic conditions lead to frustration and scofflaw-ism. Driving alone in the car pool lane is a point of pride for some people, as a form of protest of how badly the roads are managed.

I can't get through a commute without see at least one person driving full tilt in the breakdown lane, or swerving around lanes frantically trying to get ahead, accomplishing nothing except creating a dangerous situation for everyone around them.

And it wears on you. After several years you end up feeling like a fool for driving safely. It's actually dangerous to drive defensively in this environment. And the time you spend on the roads makes you start looking to cut corners. Other people become obstacles. No doubt in a few more years I'll be just another LA jerk on the road.
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Well you live in LA I feel like you brought that on yourself, LA is an amazing example of poor urban planning creating a car based hell.
 
SkyFox76 said:
Slap some $500 tickets on their windshields or put a cattle mover thing on the front of the firetruck. Actually both would work just fine.
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The worst wouldn't care, around LA. Either they have money like that, or they just don't pay. California isn't very good at enforcing the law, in general, and traffic crimes aren't a priority.

What would work out here is to inconvenience them, or mess up the car.

Maybe impound the car in place. Not necessarily towed but not permitted to move the car for a period of hours as punishment (they'd have to get it out of the way of the firetrucks first, in our OP example) or maybe a great big sticker on their windshield that says "Unsafe Driver" to embarrass them might work for some.

There's a group in Russia, where driving conditions are apparently so bad people frequently drive and park on the sidewalks, called Stop a Douchebag that does the sticker thing. They set up in a area where this is a problem, and just stand in the way, and sticker the ones that refuse to get back on the road. They get some really crazy drivers, with death threats, and the everything.

They post it all on YouTube, and it's quite entertaining.
 
Carjosse said:
It is literally all the time I think we need to rethink licensing if so many think this is okay. I just saw someone try to park in the no parking zone WHILE the fire truck was trying to pull out.
Click to expand...
What your city needs, is better parking enforcement.
 
Carjosse said:
I live near a fire station and constantly, every single day the fire trucks leaving with their sirens going have to blast their equivalently loud horn to get people to move their cars who decided to park across the street so they can get out. I do not understand why so many people park there, constantly. There are like 5 large signs that say no parking, with a picture of a fire truck, and large red crosses painted on the ground. Even more mind boggling I sometimes see people park in front of the garage doors to the fire station that seem to be really surprised when they are asked to move.

Why are people so bad at parking?
Click to expand...

Maybe if the fire trucks just give those cars a little tap people will pay attention. That or simply have the police impound the cars and fine the hell out if the owners.
 
Carjosse said:
I live near a fire station and constantly, every single day the fire trucks leaving with their sirens going have to blast their equivalently loud horn to get people to move their cars who decided to park across the street so they can get out. I do not understand why so many people park there, constantly. There are like 5 large signs that say no parking, with a picture of a fire truck, and large red crosses painted on the ground. Even more mind boggling I sometimes see people park in front of the garage doors to the fire station that seem to be really surprised when they are asked to move.

Why are people so bad at parking?
Click to expand...

People try to get away with parking illegally since the consequence is usually low and there’s not enough parking.
 
Chomsky said:
What your city needs, is better parking enforcement.
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What his city needs is a total ban on anyone who considers themselves an “urban planner” and the very concept of “urban planning” because without dumb zoning policies private operators will build more parking garages in more convienent locations and illegal parking will disappear
 
EMNofSeattle said:
What his city needs is a total ban on anyone who considers themselves an “urban planner” and the very concept of “urban planning” because without dumb zoning policies private operators will build more parking garages in more convienent locations and illegal parking will disappear
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I doubt that would make a difference, I live right downtown, people want close by street parking. Parking lots have been disappearing from downtown recently, which is not a bad thing, forces people to consider public transit more, there are multiple metro stops nearby. Condos are just much more profitable for the property owners.
 
Ram them out of the way. Problem solved. They also could contract with a towing company to tow them off at a big free to recover them.

I've watched people running lights in front of ambulances and fire trucks forcing them to hit their brakes at least a dozen times.
 
My favorite cousin is an engineer at our local fire department, which means he is responsible for driving and operating the truck. He said he never truly realized how stupid and oblivious people can be until he started that job. I can believe it.
 
Carjosse said:
I doubt that would make a difference, I live right downtown, people want close by street parking. Parking lots have been disappearing from downtown recently, which is not a bad thing, forces people to consider public transit more, there are multiple metro stops nearby. Condos are just much more profitable for the property owners.
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If there was a true shortage of parking rates would increase until supply normalized, public transit could also be privatized. Santiago Chile all of the transit and parking are maintained by private operators, and oddly enough the transit is convenient and parking is pretty abundant compared to North American cities
 
EMNofSeattle said:
If there was a true shortage of parking rates would increase until supply normalized, public transit could also be privatized. Santiago Chile all of the transit and parking are maintained by private operators, and oddly enough the transit is convenient and parking is pretty abundant compared to North American cities
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Or the owners of these lots could sell their property for millions to condo developers which seems to be option they go for. Why run a parking lot or garage when you can do that? Privatization is not an answer to everything, especially public transit.
 
Carjosse said:
Or the owners of these lots could sell their property for millions to condo developers which seems to be option they go for. Privatization is not an answer to everything, especially public transit.
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Yes it is.

In fact privatiZed transit works very well, in Mexico City, in Santiago, in Puerto Montt these are just the major cities I’ve visited, oh yeah Valparaíso too. These cities have networks of private operators providing frequent low cost service to nearly the entire city at all hours of the day. The difference is, when these networks are private the city can’t use them to reward political allies in transit unions and construction contractors with kickbacks, so you get good cheap service.

High end condos are being built because urban planners have created a distorted market.

You can only build in certain areas, units must have minimum sizes, absurd insurance requirements, etc. Privatization is absolutely a solution.

However most condos have parking attached to the project so those people can park in their buildings garage. Many of these buildings have fee parking or parking for guests of their residents too
 
Carjosse said:
I live near a fire station and constantly, every single day the fire trucks leaving with their sirens going have to blast their equivalently loud horn to get people to move their cars who decided to park across the street so they can get out. I do not understand why so many people park there, constantly. There are like 5 large signs that say no parking, with a picture of a fire truck, and large red crosses painted on the ground. Even more mind boggling I sometimes see people park in front of the garage doors to the fire station that seem to be really surprised when they are asked to move.

Why are people so bad at parking?
Click to expand...

Because of the lax enforcement. Signs do not make folks obey them - the consequences of having one's vehicle impounded, a large fine assessed and/or one's driving privelege suspended/revoked might help.
 
joko104 said:
Ram them out of the way. Problem solved. They also could contract with a towing company to tow them off at a big free to recover them.

I've watched people running lights in front of ambulances and fire trucks forcing them to hit their brakes at least a dozen times.
Click to expand...
So now you encourage the destruction of public property.
 
SMTA said:
So now you encourage the destruction of public property.
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They are parked illegally and blocking emergency vehicles, they would only bring this on themselves.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Because of the lax enforcement. Signs do not make folks obey them - the consequences of having one's vehicle impounded, a large fine assessed and/or one's driving privelege suspended/revoked might help.
Click to expand...

Unless there is a parking enforcement officer standing there 24/7 I don't know how it would help. Admittedly I bet they could post someone there 24/7 and make quite a bit of money.
 
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