Money boxes! Fines for stopping in yellow boxes

lucy_lcm

Hi - I'm getting really frustrated with the London yellow boxes on the road (aka Money Boxes!). In particular the one outside the fire station from Wandsworth to West Hill.

Each time the fine is £130 and the way the traffic lights are set up it's impossible not to get stuck behind a car and therefore trapped within the box.

There a quite a few people online saying that you should appeal but I'm not sure on what grounds, the likelihood of it working, or even if it's worth the time and effort. Particularly as they increase the fine after a time period.

Has anyone been caught out by this? Have you appealed?

It would be good to get your advice. In an ideal world, this money making scheme by the local council needs to be stopped!

harveybobbles

174

Box junctions. These have criss-cross yellow lines painted on the road. You MUST NOT enter the box until your exit road or lane is clear. However, you may enter the box and wait when you want to turn right, and are only stopped from doing so by oncoming traffic, or by other vehicles waiting to turn right

So you just wait until it's clear.

harveybobbles

Also: Is this the box in question: http://goo.gl/maps/S1w7L

If so, I don't see how you can get stuck here?

Browntoa

Interesting tyre marks on the road on google maps

And looks easy to avoid the yellow box

harveybobbles

Browntoa wrote: »

Interesting tyre marks on the road on google maps

And looks easy to avoid the yellow box

Tyre marks are off a HGV doing a u turn - explained here @0.37

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adlZlZiWntM

DKLS

Great news, I wish they would install yellow box cameras around these parts as plenty of motorists seem clueless of their meaning, causing delays for other motorists.

londonTiger

harveybobbles wrote: »

Also: Is this the box in question: http://goo.gl/maps/S1w7L

If so, I don't see how you can get stuck here?

you'll have to be a complete moron to get stuck in that box. That can't be it. Did you link correctly?

Tilt

lucy_lcm wrote: »

Hi - I'm getting really frustrated with the London yellow boxes on the road (aka Money Boxes!). In particular the one outside the fire station from Wandsworth to West Hill.

Each time the fine is £130 and the way the traffic lights are set up it's impossible not to get stuck behind a car and therefore trapped within the box.

There a quite a few people online saying that you should appeal but I'm not sure on what grounds, the likelihood of it working, or even if it's worth the time and effort. Particularly as they increase the fine after a time period.

Has anyone been caught out by this? Have you appealed?

It would be good to get your advice. In an ideal world, this money making scheme by the local council needs to be stopped!

Unless the car in front is towing you, how is it impossible?

Tilt

harveybobbles wrote: »

Also: Is this the box in question: http://goo.gl/maps/S1w7L

If so, I don't see how you can get stuck here?

There is no yellow box outside the fire station in that link... it just has "keep clear" painted on the road?

GingerBob_3

lucy_lcm wrote: »

Hi - I'm getting really frustrated with the London yellow boxes on the road (aka Money Boxes!). In particular the one outside the fire station from Wandsworth to West Hill.

Each time the fine is £130 and the way the traffic lights are set up it's impossible not to get stuck behind a car and therefore trapped within the box.

There a quite a few people online saying that you should appeal but I'm not sure on what grounds, the likelihood of it working, or even if it's worth the time and effort. Particularly as they increase the fine after a time period.

Has anyone been caught out by this? Have you appealed?

It would be good to get your advice. In an ideal world, this money making scheme by the local council needs to be stopped!

I can understand what you're talking about. Near my home there's a box junction where, at certain times of day, and when approaching from one particular direction, you simply cannot avoid getting stuck on the hatched lines. If you just waited until your exit was clear - even for a single car length - you wouldn't move at all and would cause a substantial tailback very quickly. Thankfully this box junction isn't monitored by spy cameras, but if it was, the council would make a fortune.

If you've been caught out by this scam - and that's precisely what it sounds like - then appeal against the fine and lodge a subject access request with the council to force them to let you see the spy camera video. Then ask them to explain how you could not get trapped, under the circumstances.

As for posting your concerns on here, unfortunately this board is a honey pot for the cleverarse brigade, as you can see. Maybe a specialist motoring board might be better.

londonTiger

Waiting for the exit to be clear is BS harped on by people who never used a box junction in Central London during busy hours. You just have to take your chances and look forward at the flow of traffic and estimate whether by the time you get to the other side whether there will be any space for you.

Most of the time if you literally stop and wait for clear space on the other side what will happen is that the idiot on the lanes beside you will change lanes in the box junction and take your spot. Technically if someone changes lanes on a box junction and prevents you from clearing the box junction they will get fined and not you.

It can depend on circumstance. There are times when people aren't in a rush and drive a bity more civilised and you can stop and wait for clear space. Other times if cars have been stuck in traffic and crawling forward at rush hour rates people just do anything to get by and that includes blidly entering a box junction and hoping the exit will be clear. If the driver on the lane beside happens to be stationary before the box the driver will change lanes if the exit of that lane happens to be clear.

The problem is the vast majority of box junction are not monitored at all. I reckon if the box junction is broken and faded and not maintained at all it probably means the penalties are not enforced. There are a few in my area where school run commuters just stop in the box and do not clear - past experience probably tells them there is no CCTV enforcement on it.