13 March 2012

And they just think they can park anywhere! Images of Canberra

| mp2615
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parking

An image I took last week of some scofflaw tradesman in Civic, flagrantly parking illegally.

What’s really maddening is the motorcycle which was booked this morning, parked on the paving in the background of this image.

They would have been OK on the grass I presume.

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wildturkeycanoe said :

Bramina said :

This has often annoyed me. I’ve seen lots of tradies park on grass and walk to the work site with nothing but a lunch box.

Once I saw a painter who was working inside a cafe. He had parked his ute out the front and blocked the a huge part of the footpath with bunting. It was a rainy day and his barrier was forcing people to walk out into the rain. What a tool.

Forcing people to walk in the rain?? So do the eaves continue on beyond this particular building across the pedestrian crossing and onward to wherever you might want to go or do they stop short of the building footprint like they normally do and force everyone to don an umbrella? Let’s just call the architects, building owners and ACTPLA tools as well for not catering to the needs of those who aren’t comfortable with getting a little wet.
While we are bantering the “tool”word around, how about the road worker’s who force us to go into the right hand land when they fix potholes. Let us lay blame for inaccessibility to an ATM at the Armaguard folks while they are re-filling the machine, or ACTEW when our power goes out whilst they rescue the fried possum from a transformer.
People have jobs to do in order to survive and to maintain our city. The fact that these activities may interfere with your normal life is nothing compared to the chaos that would ensue if they didn’t do them at all. Get over it!

But it was completely unnecessary to block off the footpath. He wasn’t really using it for anything – apart form leaving a few tins of paint and his esky outside the door.

He could have quite happily parked on the footpath and let people walk under the eves, but he had to cordon the area off for no apparent reason.

Cordoning off a covered footpath on a rainy day for no reason makes him a tool in my books.

The argument about tradies doing short jobs on sites and moving on, having to carry heavy tools etc is probably fair – at least as far as it is true. The problem is that even within your strict criteria there are a visible section of the tradie population who flaunt the rules.

If what you say about hard done by tradies were true, we would see no illegally parked vehicles before about 10am (as before the office dwellers get in there would be plenty of legal parking). There would be no illegally parked vehicles as big sites where everyone is working a standard business day all on the same site (which, I might add makes you no different to the office dwellers).

A part of me though supports the subversive anti government anarchist action of these naughty boys though. Anyone who can deprive the government of some arbitrarily set revenue is OK by me. If only they could drive a little better.

dph said :

It’s ok, they’re tradies, they can do what they want. If you’re a tradie, you don’t have to abide by road rules, common courtesy or turning up on time. It’s a law.

Nailed it.

Just to round this out. Yes, building owners can apply for exemptions. Not the case in this instance. Yes there is fitout going on, and the contractors are not allowed to park in the building. That might be a bit rough for them. These guys are simply taking the risk. They’ve been told not to park on the grass there.

wildturkeycanoe5:20 am 14 Mar 12

Bramina said :

This has often annoyed me. I’ve seen lots of tradies park on grass and walk to the work site with nothing but a lunch box.

Once I saw a painter who was working inside a cafe. He had parked his ute out the front and blocked the a huge part of the footpath with bunting. It was a rainy day and his barrier was forcing people to walk out into the rain. What a tool.

Forcing people to walk in the rain?? So do the eaves continue on beyond this particular building across the pedestrian crossing and onward to wherever you might want to go or do they stop short of the building footprint like they normally do and force everyone to don an umbrella? Let’s just call the architects, building owners and ACTPLA tools as well for not catering to the needs of those who aren’t comfortable with getting a little wet.
While we are bantering the “tool”word around, how about the road worker’s who force us to go into the right hand land when they fix potholes. Let us lay blame for inaccessibility to an ATM at the Armaguard folks while they are re-filling the machine, or ACTEW when our power goes out whilst they rescue the fried possum from a transformer.
People have jobs to do in order to survive and to maintain our city. The fact that these activities may interfere with your normal life is nothing compared to the chaos that would ensue if they didn’t do them at all. Get over it!

Ha, I forgot the golden rule in Canberra, never criticise “tradies” (or anyone in a ute pretending to be a tradie) as the soft-handed citizens are busy trying to be mates with them.

Those building site workers who park around the building site are carrying diddly-squat onto the site. Apart from their giant lunch eskys. The building site is their workplace, same as the office next door is the workplace for others, who have to use the normal legal parking spots. Yet the building site workers feel entitled to park on the nature strip/median strip/kerb.

And they don’t get pinged for it.

This has often annoyed me. I’ve seen lots of tradies park on grass and walk to the work site with nothing but a lunch box.

Once I saw a painter who was working inside a cafe. He had parked his ute out the front and blocked the a huge part of the footpath with bunting. It was a rainy day and his barrier was forcing people to walk out into the rain. What a tool.

Skidd Marx said :

Another law that apparently doesn’t apply to tradies is talking on the phone whilst driving.

+100

Also, using both lanes at the same time on roundabouts & not leaving enough time to pull into 80km zone’s, so you have to slow down significantly to avoid crashing in to them.

dph said :

It’s ok, they’re tradies, they can do what they want. If you’re a tradie, you don’t have to abide by road rules, common courtesy or turning up on time. It’s a law.

Right on. Between 0600 and 0730 the road rules don’t apply so long as you wear a hi-viz top behind the wheel.

wildturkeycanoe8:12 pm 13 Mar 12

Pork Hunt said :

aidan said :

EvanJames said :

I’m always puzzled by the claim that builders and tradesmen “need” to be able to park where they like, unlike the other workers around them who have to find a legal carpark every day. They’re all at work, why a different rule for builders/tradesmen?

Puzzled?

They obviously can’t take their tools on the bus.

Episodic nature of their work means dedicated parking spots would be a waste.

Sometimes they are at multiple sites in a day. They can’t arrive at 8.00am to nab a parking spot.

Not that hard to realise they have different requirements to the poor put-upon 9-5ers?

+1

+2 and tradies who have to work at a building for say 3 hours, must then go and move their car every 30 minutes. That makes the 3 hour job turn into a 4.5 hour job because as soon as they leave the loading zone another tradie is in there. Another factor to note is that work vehicles seldom fit in undercover parking, so they are limited to VERY few spots near where they have to work. I have yet to see a plumber or electrician drive a Yaris with an 8ft ladder hanging off the roof racks.

aidan said :

EvanJames said :

I’m always puzzled by the claim that builders and tradesmen “need” to be able to park where they like, unlike the other workers around them who have to find a legal carpark every day. They’re all at work, why a different rule for builders/tradesmen?

Puzzled?

They obviously can’t take their tools on the bus.

Episodic nature of their work means dedicated parking spots would be a waste.

Sometimes they are at multiple sites in a day. They can’t arrive at 8.00am to nab a parking spot.

Not that hard to realise they have different requirements to the poor put-upon 9-5ers?

+1

Another law that apparently doesn’t apply to tradies is talking on the phone whilst driving.

PrinceOfAles6:02 pm 13 Mar 12

aidan said :

EvanJames said :

I’m always puzzled by the claim that builders and tradesmen “need” to be able to park where they like, unlike the other workers around them who have to find a legal carpark every day. They’re all at work, why a different rule for builders/tradesmen?

Puzzled?

They obviously can’t take their tools on the bus.

Episodic nature of their work means dedicated parking spots would be a waste.

Sometimes they are at multiple sites in a day. They can’t arrive at 8.00am to nab a parking spot.

Not that hard to realise they have different requirements to the poor put-upon 9-5ers?

I imagine the heaviest thing EvanJames has ever carried to work is a few pens or perhaps a coffee mug.

ACT government gives exemptions sometimes, I know for sure there is a fit out around that side of civic. Otherwise when parking in the city I always use the loading bay. Its hard enough having to carry my tools around from van to site when its parked in the loading zone, I’d hate to think how annoying it would be if I had to park in a normal spot.

EvanJames said :

I’m always puzzled by the claim that builders and tradesmen “need” to be able to park where they like, unlike the other workers around them who have to find a legal carpark every day. They’re all at work, why a different rule for builders/tradesmen?

Puzzled?

They obviously can’t take their tools on the bus.

Episodic nature of their work means dedicated parking spots would be a waste.

Sometimes they are at multiple sites in a day. They can’t arrive at 8.00am to nab a parking spot.

Not that hard to realise they have different requirements to the poor put-upon 9-5ers?

i always understood one should ‘stand close and parallel’, ie, the passenger side should be close and parallel to the kerb or the edge of the roadway (not on the footpath/verge/etc) and so only permitting the driver’s side to be close to its kerb in a one-way street. anything else, parking half on / half off a road, or up on the grass and not inside private property, should attract the ire of parking inspectors. and rightly so!

but perhaps i’ve grown old and the rules have changed?

“And they just know they can park anywhere!”

I fixed that for you.

devils_advocate2:51 pm 13 Mar 12

p1 said :

… unless we expect a sign to be placed next to every single place in the city with a specific list of what you can and can’t do. Sadly though, that is the way things are heading.

I support this purely for comedy value. Also it wouldn’t be the worst use of my “taxpayer dollars” that I’ve heard of.

I’m always puzzled by the claim that builders and tradesmen “need” to be able to park where they like, unlike the other workers around them who have to find a legal carpark every day. They’re all at work, why a different rule for builders/tradesmen?

It reminds me of the stink about truckies parking their trucks at their homes in the suburbs, and neighbours getting upset about them starting their trucks before dawn and waking everyone. When it was proposed that the government open some truck parking yards, the truckies were horrified, saying they’d have to drive their cars to their trucks and home every night.
Um, just like every other worker?

You don’t need to actually BE a tradie to get away with it. you just have to look like one.

I love it when I turn up at the “Loading “Zone at Dickson Woolies with a 7m truck to find the 3 available parking spaces taken up by a Commodore Wagon, an Electrician eating a pie in his van and the ACT government minibus that’s used to shuttle parking inspectors around. No-one there is loading or unloading anything and apparently they couldn’t do whatever it is they are doing in the standard parking spots 10 metres away.

ML-585 said :

Henry82 said :

is that grass on private or public land? for all we know they might have “rented” it for construction of the building.

There is no building under construction in this area (fit out, maybe, but not constuction). The cars parked on the asphalt will have travelled past a “No Entry, Buses Excepted” sign, but there are no signs restricting parking once inside the bus layover area (there used to be – and there should be since all other parking in the region is pay parking). As for the grassed area, there is no sign restricting parking, so unsure whether it is actually illegal.

I’ve seen people parking on a grass area beside a road be booked for parking in a road related area, where there were no signs indicating that it was either legal or not. Which is fair enough in cases like this, unless we expect a sign to be placed next to every single place in the city with a specific list of what you can and can’t do. Sadly though, that is the way things are heading.

Henry82 said :

is that grass on private or public land? for all we know they might have “rented” it for construction of the building.

There is no building under construction in this area (fit out, maybe, but not constuction). The cars parked on the asphalt will have travelled past a “No Entry, Buses Excepted” sign, but there are no signs restricting parking once inside the bus layover area (there used to be – and there should be since all other parking in the region is pay parking). As for the grassed area, there is no sign restricting parking, so unsure whether it is actually illegal.

It’s ok, they’re tradies, they can do what they want. If you’re a tradie, you don’t have to abide by road rules, common courtesy or turning up on time. It’s a law.

I have a feeling there is an exemption in the parking legislation that allows trades people working on construction sites to park on median strip etc. Doesnt look like a construction site from the picture though.

is that grass on private or public land? for all we know they might have “rented” it for construction of the building.

Imagine the bleating if you couldn’t get a tradesman to fix something because they couldn’t get a park.

Worse, imagine the screaming outrage if parking was taken away from ordinary citizens and dedicated to be “tradesmen only” and then hardly used as their parking requirements are short term and unpredictable?

A bit of elasticity around the margins keeps everything ticking along I reckon.

I am yet to understand the way the Parking-ticket-handing-out-dudes decide who to book and who not to book. I am certain if I did this on the grass outside my work I would have a ticket by the end of the day (assuming my car was still there). I could almost understand it if they were actively loading or unload, but this?

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