MSE News: Motorists paying £8 billion a year to park

Dave_C_2

A._Badger wrote: »

Here we go- the inevitable saintly cyclist lobby, people who live in a world where
No one buys more than one small bag of shopping
No one goes shopping with children
No one has a demanding work schedule to keep to
No one has arthritis or other disabling, painful conditions
No one gets rained on
No one gets snowed on
No one minds playing 'dodge the bus driver'
No one gets old

And the inevitable anti -cyclist rant
My post read "An awful lot of car journeys are under 2 miles which is normally easily done on a bike."
Note the use of italics on the word "normally".

I avoided pointing out the obvious exceptions, of course use the car when cycling is impractical. All I was doing was pointing out a cheap alternative to car parking.

Also for every bike used there is one less car on the road and one less parking space being used, so cyclists actually make it easier for car owners!

Dave

A._Badger

Dave_C wrote: »

I avoided pointing out the obvious exceptions, of course use the car when cycling is impractical. All I was doing was pointing out a cheap alternative to car parking.

Dave

Of course. After all, no one has the wt to work that out for themselves. They need to be reminded - at every possible opportunity - by an evangelist from the church of Lycra.

lkate

I have to park on a local street and walk to work in the morning from there.
I just don't earn enough to justify paying £4.50 a day to park in a car park with CCTV that doesn't work. Or a car park that doesn't get cleared of snow and ice in winter. So what am I really paying for?

Pincher

Thirty years ago, I used to cycle to the supermarket, with a rucsack on my back, and I could take 15kg no problem. The problem is car and van drivers who don't care. After two near misses, one a deadly one (on the way to work) and the other one a potential smashed left leg (300 meters from my house), I'm in my car when I go shopping now.

What we need is Car Clubs WITH PARKING in places where people want to be. At the moment, car club parking bay locations are all over the place, and you can't drive from one location and park at another.

What I want is allocated charging point and parking reserved for car club cars, like the Blue bikes in London. You only clock off when you plug the car in to make sure the battery is topped up. The cars need internal and external cameras to monitor damage and accidents.

mikey72

lkate wrote: »

I have to park on a local street and walk to work in the morning from there.
I just don't earn enough to justify paying £4.50 a day to park in a car park with CCTV that doesn't work. Or a car park that doesn't get cleared of snow and ice in winter. So what am I really paying for?

Absolutely nothing. You've a free space you're happy with.

Billy-no-Money

A._Badger wrote: »

Of course. After all, no one has the wt to work that out for themselves. They need to be reminded - at every possible opportunity - by an evangelist from the church of Lycra.

I hope you don't seriously think anybody wears lycra to ride two miles?

It's not preaching, it's just pointing out an alternative to moaning about the price of parking. It's not going to get any cheaper, and fuel's going to keep on rising in price, so I prefer to use my (wife's) car or my motorbike for appropriate journeys and use the pushbike whenever I can. I don't wear lycra, I'm not an environmentalist, in fact you might be surprised to find most people on bikes are normal people with lives and stuff.

hobbit555

Pay on exit parking is the way forward.

The majority of the parking system is set up to catch people who over stay. If you over stay you get a parking charge notice, (fine) which them makes you bitter and less likely to use carpark again. If you could pay on exit, this would not happen. Also if you are not worrying about when your ticket is going to end then you are likely to spend more in town.
Council parking areas and for that matter all towns should have free areas for say 10-20 minutes after that you pay. Possibly even bring back long and short stay parking. with rates to match.
Yo can see why out of town shopping centres are doing so well when you can park and shop all day for free, these are the new high streets. after the traditional town centres have died due to excessive rates and parking fees. I wonder how long it will be before a council takes over an out of town shopping centre following a bankruptcy or similar and then shortly after the parking charges will appear?
I think it is time that money raised within councils is plowed back into that made the money in the first place. Ie Parking charges into parking facilities, Local harbour back into the local harbour.

Wanton

I'm sure I recently read an article in the local paper that explained the problem with parking in town centres. Apparently business revenues go to central government whereas the parking revenues go to local government, thus local government need to charge for parking but aren't too worried about empty shops. Of course there is the chance that I dreamt all this.

mikey72

hobbit555 wrote: »

.........I think it is time that money raised within councils is plowed back into that made the money in the first place. Ie Parking charges into parking facilities, Local harbour back into the local harbour.

refuse collection
street lighting
leisure centre
libraries
drain cleaning
pavements

To name but a few things I'd miss if the facilites had to be self supporting.
Either that or it would have to go on my council tax.
So I have no problems at all charging tourists to park in the town.