I enjoy reading Bill Sticker’s blog, and usually I find myself in agreement with him. Whilst being no fan of the role of parking attendant the fact is they do have a difficult job to do and they will all receive I’m sure a fair amount of uncalled for aggravation from the public. A minority of them probably receive called for aggravation but the majority of parking attendants that I’ve experienced have always been polite and professional (although I’ve never experienced them in anger).

I could not let this post of Mr Sticker’s pass without comment because he usually manages to show all sides of an issue, whereas here he generalises somewhat which is unfortunate as it is what he probably correctly accuses others of doing: “The generalisations are so sweeping they could put Hoover, Electrolux and Dyson out of business.”

He attempts to justify the moral legitimacy of parking restrictions by referring to the residents:

“…as it is mostly the residents of a given area who actually ask for things like pay and display meters, limited waiting restrictions, bus stops and proper taxi ranks.”

This may be true as far as it goes, but he fails to address three issues, firstly do all the residents ask for these things or maybe just some of them. Even if it is a majority of the residents, should they have the right to impose say parking meters on the minority who are opposed? Secondly even if all the residents asked for parking meters in the year 2000, but now it’s 2006 what procedures are in place to ensure that the parking meters still have the support of the residents, what if some of the residents want to withdraw their support? Thirdly, if the residents want something and the council want it then there is no problem, but if the council officials don’t want it then you’ve got no chance. Recently I attended a public meeting to do with traffic issues, a resident suggested re-opening a road which some years ago had been closed off; the council official (not the elected representative) made it quite clear that there was no way they’d even look at it. They had no interest in pursuing that option and the residents could like it or lump it. To get changes to something like parking rules is virtually impossible unless they’re changes to council want or you have plenty of time and money to fight the council (and remember at the same time you’re having to pay them to fight you).

“Yet we are part of the defence mechanism of a particular locale;” this may true in certain circumstances, but in others it’s just a load of rubbish, what if a resident cannot find a designated parking place what can they do? They have no choice but to park say on yellow lines, they’ll still get a ticket, but it will be the parking attendant who isn’t welcome in the locale.

“… so should we not worry about the thoughtless individual who can’t read a simple thing like a parking restriction…” Sometimes this will be true but fails to address the issue that there aren’t always sufficient parking places for everyone, and then what is say a resident to do? They can’t go elsewhere and the ticket won’t be cancelled, but they aren’t a thoughtless, selfish individual and they don’t deserve the ticket or the enforcement mechanism. Yes you have a job to do, yes you will deal with people who deserve parking tickets, but accept the fact that you will also give tickets to people who have no choice, who do not deserve them and cannot get out of them; it is part of what you do and it cannot be morally justified. I’m not blaming you or saying that I’m somehow better than you after all I’d probably do it too, but that still wouldn’t make it right.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

# posted by Vote Franco (fdm) @ Monday, June 26, 2006