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United Kingdom

Cornwall, England — Even In The U.K., Sometimes, Ticketing Commonsense Prevails 

We've been reporting how merciless the parking wardens (previously known as meter maids) are in the United Kingdom. Even they, however, will back off a ticketing situation if the circumstances are so egregious that only the craziest government functionary would deny a dismissal. Here's such an example. A woman was riding in an elevator that got stock between floors. The poor woman couldn't get out for 18 hours. When she finally did, she found a 60 pound ($112) parking ticket waiting on her car. She protested the fine. The police relented.

London — Free Speech Comes At A Price

There are laws in most countries today against physically assaulting a ticket giver. This is totally appropriate. When it comes to just arguing with one of these curb taxers, however, the penalties are less well defined — though on occasion they can be steep. Consider the case of the guy in London who got a ticket for being illegally parked for just three minutes while he ran an errand. Coming back to his car while the ticket was still being written, he first politely asked the ticket writer to give him a break. No response. Then, according to news reports, he became more abusive and accused the ticketer of being a crazed Nazi. This led to the a second ticket being written up on the same car in the same place for having tires without sufficient treads. Which led to angrier words from the ticket recipient. Which led to additional tickets as the confrontation continued. Was arguing in this way a very stupid thing to do? Sure, and it's not something that we support. But if a person who gives out tickets to people who are just three minutes overdue is surprised when the ticket recipient blows his top, and responds by doling out additional undeserved zingers, maybe he shouldn't be giving out tickets.

Hendon (in Greater London) — Ticketing Teamwork

In parts of London these days, parking legally is no longer a guarantee against getting a parking ticket. If the legal situation changes, which it sometimes does very quickly and with no advance notice, you'll get one anyway. Take the recent case of a man in Hendon who parked his car in a place where no tickets had ever been issued. He went off to do chores for a couple of hours, only to find a ticket on his windshield when he returned. The reason? Some municipal flunkie had painted a yellow line that ran up to the front of his car while he was away, and the parking warden (as meter maids are now known in the old country), who just happened to be right behind the man with the paint brush, was able to issue a ticket. Guess we can call that ticketing teamwork.  

Blackpool, England — No Leg Up

A man living in this English city had his leg amputated eight years ago. This gave him the right to have a disabled parking permit on his car. When the permit expired he went to get it renewed. He was in the government office to get this done, and because an official there needed his old permit to issue a new one, he asked a nurse to go outside and get the old one from his parked car. She did. When the man returned to his car with the new permit, it had a ticket under its wiper because he was parked in a disabled space during the brief period when it had no visible permit to do so. On appeal, the ticket was upheld. The moral of this true story? There is no moral. It's a totally immoral tale. 

London — In The Matter Of Subsoil And Surface Rights 

A couple of days ago we reported on a retired couple in an English city who were fined for parking in their own driveway because the front of their vehicle was sitting a bit over some adjacent public grass. Silly as this seems, disdain for private property rights in England compared to the right of a local government to issue parking tickets was even more apparent in a recent case involving a doctor and his scooter. He parked this scooter on property he clearly owned, with no overlap to adjacent public land, but was nonetheless the unhappy recipient of a number of parking tickets for doing so. Being of an indignant disposition, and having enough money to back it up, he spent more than the equivalent of $20,000 to contest this idiocy, taking the case all the way to the House of Lords. Where, amazingly, he lost his case. Why? because this august body held that while he owned exclusive subsoil ownership to the property, the City of London owned the surface rights and could therefore ticket on them. Shades of Toledo, Ohio on steroids!

Northern Ireland — A Slow Burn 

A kind of parking ticket madness seems to reign everywhere in the United Kingdom these days. It's hard to pick up a newspaper there without coming across some new manifestation of this stick-it-to-motorists-no-matter-what behavior. One recent example: Some firemen, parking their personal cars near their fire station, vehicles clearly marked as belonging to firemen on duty, came back from a blaze to find they had all received parking tickets. The firemen appealed. The fines were upheld anyway. Maybe the firemen should have stayed behind to protect their own property rather than risking their lives to save other people's.

U.K. — Please Don't Ticket Or Boot That Disabled Woman's Car

London — Bike And Switch

U.K. — Goodbye To Meter Maids?

U.K. — A School Room Lesson

U.K. — Their Word Is Law

Northern Ireland — Always Nice To Ask First

On really small islands there may not always be enough nearby places where hotel patrons can park their vehicles. So hotel owners may have to purchase properties adjacent to their own to build a parking lot for their guests. On a little island off the coast of Northern Ireland, however, a hotel owner had a different notion. He waited until the guy who owned a house on land where a parking lot might go to be out of the country, then bulldozed the guy's house and built the lot. Strangely, the home owner was not amused when he returned from abroad. and neither was a court which awarded damages. The fact that a septic tank had also been placed where the bulldozed house once stood didn't help the hotel owner's case. 

Leicester — The Importance of Keeping off the Grass

Toledo, Ohio in the United States has become notorious in parking ticket circles because the city gives tickets to people parked in their own driveways, if the driveway happens to be surfaced with gravel rather than asphalt. Well, Toledo may now have been topped in terms of foolishness by Leicester in the U.K. An elderly couple there got a 70 pound (roughly $150) ticket recently in their own driveway just because a small part of their parked car was partly parked on the tarmac that separates it from a grassy area. There was no safety issue here. No taking up space needed by another vehicle. Just the most technical of technical violations that allowed a swiftly acting ticket-giver to bring in some extra revenue for a local government by screwing an old couple that couldn't afford the fine. Nice. 

U.K. — A Real Shocker

A television station in the U.K. aired a show titled "Confessions of a Parking Warden." It featured allegations that ticket givers in Westminster (part of London) had a target—i.e. that these purveyors of misery were being pressured to dole out more misery in the form of more pricey parking tickets. In response, the chief local executive of Westminister assured the public that greater vigilance in this sphere would guarantee a culture emphasizing inappropriate ticket giving would not be tolerated because...well, because parking regulations and enforcement should not viewed by the public as primarily a revenue enhancing mechanism. Right on. You tell 'em, guy. Now someone please pass the glue. I need another sniff. 

U.K. — A Real Health Care Reform

With all the talk about health care reform in this country, we seem to have completely overlooked a critical issue in this realm — parking costs on hospital lots. And as is true in many other areas involving health care, the British are ahead of us here, too. There are now proposals afoot to abolish all parking fees for in-patients throughout the United Kingdom (as is already done in Wales and Scotland), and reduce the costs of parking for patient visitors as well. If you think this is a good idea in this country, you might contact your congressman (though it's probably best to wait until after the holidays).

U.K. — What Goes Around Sometimes Comes Around

Yes, Virginia, as the old saying goes, the law is indeed an ass. There are nonetheless times when it actually seems to help those who have been abused by parking authorities get some of their own back — at least in the U.K. where many local governments (called councils in the old country) long added a surcharge to tickets paid with credit cards. This has now been declared illegal. Council officials across the U.K., however, long knew this surcharge was illegal and allowed it to continue anyway. And since they knew it was illegal and allowed it to continue anyway, they might be personally liable for damages. If this works out as it well might, these officials could thus end up being out-of-pocket considerably more than the price of a parking ticket. 

U.K. — God Versus The Ticketing Mammon

England has many problems with its Muslim minority, and now these problems have even migrated to the world of parking. Working Muslims often attend their Friday prayers on their lunch hour. Fitting in the praying before they are due back at the shop or office means that they often must park near a mosque, where parking is frequently limited. For a time local authorities made allowances for this minor and short-lived infringement of parking regulations. In the name of 'fair treatment for all,' however, they are now ticketing these worshippers copiously. Let us hope this does not push a community already feeling abused to respond with excessive umbrage. 

Woolcombe — A One-Time Feeble Shot At Fairness

Here at pakinghorrors.com we generally view fairness as a much over-rated virtue, and presenting both sides of the parking enforcement issue as a distraction. But this being the holiday season we thought we'd give it a try. So...In the tourist community of Woolcombe in the U.K, because there's no one enforcing parking regulations on town streets, traffic is snarled and early visitors hogging the few available spots keep later ones from enjoying the place and shopping at its local stores. And in the market town of Nkurankan in Ghana, because the local constabulary doesn't enforce minimal parking regulations on the market's peddlers, even prospective customers often can't get to the stalls. This reportage exhausts our yearly efforts to see both sides of the parking issue.

U.K. — The Quick Change Cash Machine

We'll probably never run out of goofy and/or horrifying ticketing tales from the U.K. They proliferate faster than we can write about them. Here's yet another one to ponder. If you live in a large American city you know that there are times when you can park in certain spots legally and times you can't — legal becomes illegal and vice-versa at certain times. This can be hard enough to track. In parts of the U.K., however, parking bays (their term for parking spaces) can change from legal to illegal and back again up to five times a day. A few words of advice: If you absolutely have to visit this eternally damp and dour nation, we suggest you not only remember to drive on the left side of the road, but carry a stop watch so as not to get caught up in one of their national ticketing rip-offs. 

London — Where Not To Park

Just as there were speed traps in many small Southern towns in the United States where passing motorists were the primary source of local government income, there are now towns in this country where ticketing is so agressive it's become its own major source of revenue. And the same is true in England. According to that country's Taxpayers' Alliance, the average cost per resident in all English councils (the English term for local jurisdictions) is 6.14 pounds sterling. But in two English councils, Kensington and Chelsea, annual ticketing fines per resident average 85 pounds. Both these councils are in Greater London. Both are very high-end communities. Thus, presumably, it's folks with money who are getting stiffed so royally. Still...

Scotland — What Would Your Mother Say?

OK. Maybe people shouldn't stop their cars and park in places where parking isn't permitted. But even in a country where ticketing has been given over to private companies that get bonuses the more they bring in, a country like Scotland, there has to be limits. Breast feeding support groups around Scotland are mad a hell about a ticket that was given to a woman who pulled over to breast feed a crying baby. And because half of the tickets issued in that country are contested, the traffic warden (as they are called there) who was issuing the ticket took photos of the breast feeding mother to prove she was in an off-limits spot. The company employing this ticket slinger has now made a statement saying it would examine the pictures taken by the warden before deciding on whether or not to pursue the fine. What can one say about these people?

U.K. — Parking Ticket Jurisprudence

Our Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." The U.K. has no formal written constitution, but it does have a Human Rights Act passed in 1998 that requires that punishment be proportionate to the offense. Now, a really, really ticked off guy in the U.K. is seeking to apply the limitations of this Act when it comes to the towing charges of 150 pounds (about $200) for parking his car a few minutes over a posted limit.  Might he win? Given the money generated by this form of behavior, that's far from certain. But it's worth noting that 20 years ago the Scottish High Court actually outlawed booting on private property. So we'll follow this latest challenge to parking-related predation and see how it plays out.

U.K. — Return Of The Darleks

One of the best loved intergalactic species in the long-running English TV  series "Dr. Who" was the Darleks. These comical bad guys resembled fire plugs with toilet plungers attached, and always turned out to be almost totally harmless. A whole generation of Englishmen and women still get a laugh remembering the Darlek's pet phrase, "resistance is futile." These days many real life examples of futile resistance in England involve ticketing. Consider the cameras that monitor whether a driver has purchased a ticket at certain parking bays. If you pull into one, realize you don't actually want to be there, and immediately pull out again, you get a ticket anyway. Cameras there spot and report you. Once in you gotta pay, use the space of not. And resistance really is futile. 

England — Getting It Out Of The Courts

There are, of course, judges in this country that take the side of ticket givers when ticket recipients come before them to appeal. Most judges here, though, tend to turn a skeptical eye toward ticketing in towns where the practice is universally recognized as overly aggressive. The same skepticism is on view in England, where better national records are available about ticket appeal judgments. There, 63 percent of such appeals are adjudged in motorists' favor. Which, of course, is why local governments in our own country have been so diligent about decriminalizing parking offenses in recent years. Had they not done so, if people could complain in a court rather than to a representative of the ticket-givers, curb taxes would not have risen nearly as quickly as they have.

London — Going The Extra Mile To Issue A Ticket

As part of our ongoing campaign aimed at showing that no matter how nutty ticketing is in this country, it's nuttier in England, we offer this unbelievable but true tale. A truck driver in London managed to escape uninjured when his vehicle slipped into a deep hole caused by a burst water main. While standing and staring down at the stranded truck a parking attendant came along, looked over the lip of chasm to get the truck's license number, and wrote a ticket. When the driver pointed out the idiocy of doing so the attendant didn't argue. She merely noted: "You can appeal."

Manchester — A Rare Display Of Ticketing Common Sense

In England you can protest a parking ticket before an impartial judge, not some employee of the ticket-giving entity. Not surprisingly, in consequence, a hefty share of tickets that are challenged are thrown out. This led to a change in the way ticketing in done in the city of Manchester. It fired the private company that had been charged with giving out the most possible tickets, and hired another company that was instead rewarded when the number of successful ticket appeals decreased. The result? Fewer tickets to motorists and less clamping (booting), but more net income for the city because not as many tickets that should never have been given in the first place were not given. It was a rare triumph in the ticketing realm for common sense and common decency without forfeiting needed local government revenues.

England — And You Thought Their Soccer Fans Were Crazy

Clamping, the term used in England for booting a car, has become an incredibly abused practice on private property in that country. How abused? Some examples offered by England's Automobile Association include a woman whose three-year old was held hostage by a clamper until the woman came up with the money to remove the clamp. Another instance when a hearse with a body inside was clamped for being in the wrong place for too long a time. And the case of a young woman stranded after midnight with no money to get home after her own vehicle got the clamp. Things haven't gotten quite this bad on these shores yet. Not yet. 

England — Softees Need Not Apply

When England decriminalized its parking laws and turned enforcement over to local governments intent on using parking violations to balance their budgets, it was important for these governments that they make sure their new enforcers (called "wardens in England) weren't soft — i.e. that they wouldn't let big bucks escape because of some sad motorist tales. So a 98-page booklet was prepared for these new ticket slingers, one that told them how to treat excuses that might be offered by people about to be ticketed. Among the guidelines in this booklet: “Generally pregnancy is not considered a disability and should not normally lead to the cancellation of a fine." Not surprisingly, ticketing revenue in England has soared greatly in recent years — up 700 percent since 1997. 

England — The Dog Ate My Homework

Since even plausible excuses rarely keep a parking warden in England from issuing a ticket, some people have taken to trying more exotic ones in hopes that the sheer panache of the effort will win the day. Among the more daring efforts in this regard cited in a recent report: One motorist said he had to park illegally in order to get his pet python to a vet before the beast expired; and a lady claimed her pet parrot pushed her parking permit off her car's windshield. Both good efforts, but neither get the ticket revoked.

U.K. — Renting Out Private Parking Spaces

You might have a valuable asset you don't know about — a parking space in your driveway, or even in your personal space in an apartment building's parking area. If it's near the downtown, walking distance of a train station or air terminal, or not far from a facility where it's very hard to park on occasion (a stadium, for example), you might be able to rent your private space to others for some evenings, monthly or even yearly. In England this is a thriving sideline these days, with specialists in the field doing much of the matchmaking between those needing a parking space and those having one. Worth considering? Maybe. But only by taking care that the person you rent to is reliable, and can be trusted both to pay and to not be engaged in any activity that causes problems for the renter.

U.K. — An Awesomely Awful Case History

Britain is everyone's best example of parking ticket predation taken to its awesome and awful limits. Since 2001, when ticketing was taken out of the hands of police who knew they had better ways to spend their time, and given to local governments that hired private firms to do their ticketing dirty work, the number of parking tickets issued in the country has soared from 794,851 in 2000 to 3,832,322 in 2008. Britain's average parking fine these days ranges between 40 and 120 pounds — about $50 to $150. So here's the operative British parking ticket equation: local gov't need + private ticket-giver greed = a drivers misery creed. 

U.K. — A Merchants' Idea Whose Time Has Come

U.K. — Do-It-Yourself Parking Ticketing

Things could be worse when it comes to parking tickets. At least you don't live in the U.K. There, according to a study by the AA, their AAA equivalent, one in 10 motorists have gotten at least one parking ticket in the last year, with ticketing reaching "endemic" levels, to use their term. And something that has made this possible is that anyone can issue tickets there simply by getting a kit on the Internet with the items needed to do so. After getting this gig, one can proceed to issue tickets on commission. This exquisitely awful approach hasn't come to our own country yet. But as cities and towns here sink more and more in the fiscal hole...

Manchester — Bus Stopper

In chronicling ticketing craziness, it's hard not to come back again and again to England. Just when you think you've come upon the oddest of the odd ticketing behavior in this country, you run across a story that tops it. Take the case of the Manchester ticket slinger who apparently got tired just giving out violations to cars and gave one to a city bus that had stopped to pick up passengers in a space where no stopping signs were posted. The ticket got deleted, of course, and the ticket giver went back for added instruction of her duties. But the very fact that this could happen at all tells you where this country has landed when it comes to ticketing outrages.

London — When Terrorists Are Safer Than Motorists

The cameras on so many streets in London these days have not kept backpack wearing terrorists from doing their dirty deeds. But they certainly are coming in handy for dispensing additional parking tickets. If the hidden minions of the city who monitor these cameras spot a parking violation, they can now read the plate number and issue a ticket. No meter maid required. The ticket is then sent to the offending driver by mail. You can protest one of these tickets, London being a law-based community. But since you can't possibly remember where you were parked on a given day weeks earlier at a certain time, and whether you violated a parking ordinance there and then, you will lose. Our parkinghorrors.com comment on this policy: It's a sad state of affairs, indeed, when technology meant to scare off terrorists is actually more effective against ordinary motorists. 

Bristol — Small Potatoes For Little People

It's important not to break the law in England — provided, of course, you can also circumvent it when necessary. Take the legal prohibition against giving out cash bonuses to parking wardens (the Mother Country's term for meter maids). In Bristol, England they want to encourage them to work a bit harder at milking the local motoring public. So wardens who give out an especially large number receive afternoons off, free food treats, and gift pens. It's actually kind of pathetic when you think about it. But then, they are just ticket slingers after all. 

U.K. — Labour's Bum Parking Promise

You know a political party is in deep, deep trouble when one of its campaign promises is to cut parking fees and fines. That's what the British Labour Party, which came in third in a recent pre-election poll behind both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, is promising to do with respect to parking charges for in-patients and their visitors in English hospitals. Of course, since many of the car parks involved in such a promise have been leased to private firms with whom the government's health system has contracts, keeping this promise could be tricky. But what the heck. Labour is going down big time next election anyway. Too bad they didn't eliminate this particular parking evil while they really did have the power to act. 

U.K. — A Bloody Dumb Ticket Slinger Tale

It's hard not to report on parking ticket madness in the U.K. because so many local governments have private ticket givers doing their parking dirty work, and these ticket slingers have an unseemly habit of behaving disgracefully on a great many occasions. For example, there's the case of the National Blood Donor service vehicle that had been parking in he same spot for four years while people inside were contributing the life saving fluid. Then one day a parking attendant ticketed the vehicle. As the English would say, "bloody dumb."

Chichester — The Bottomless World Of Ticket Giving

No good deed ever goes unpunished. That's true, alas, in most walks of life. And when the punishment is a possible parking ticket, you know punishment is certain. Take the case of the Chichester, England taxi driver who dropped off a 93-year woman one evening at her church. The poor lady was having trouble walking when they arrived — not an unusual thing for a person of that age. So this driver helped her to the church door, which is pretty much what any decent person would have done. Then along came a no-nonsense English ticket slinger while the driver was away doing his good deed, and she wrote him for ticket for stopping in a no parking zone. When the driver came back to his vehicle and complained, he was informed the ticket would stand and the fault was the old lady's. "She should have had a wheelchair to get around and not needed your help," was the explanation. 

Scotland — Clampers Running Wild

In the U.K., the guys who apply the old Denver boot are known as "clampers." Long a realm of private enforcers with aggressive dispositions, new rules now allow these clampers greater license in performing their unwanted service. Unseemly tales about their activities abound. But one that caught our eye involved a woman in Scotland driving her car who stopped for a moment to light a cigarette and heard noise behind her. Still at the wheel, her motor still running, her rear wheel was clamped. It cost her 300 pounds (about $430) to have the boot removed.

England — Too Good To Be True

Earlier this year a court in England awarded a man the equivalent of $30,000 for the emotional distress he suffered because of receiving parking tickets. Since no one since these tickets started to be issued in England in the 1920s has not experienced emotional distress upon receiving some, people there and in our own country were following this suit closely. And hopefully. Alas, a higher court threw out this award. The man had to pay his ticket fines and a local government didn't have to make him emotional whole with money. Close, but no cigar.

England — The Dreaded Black And Yellow

In Ireland during The Troubles they spoke of "the dreaded Black and Tan"—the Royal Irish Constabulary Reserve Force that did the British government's dirty work against those fighting for an independent Ireland. These days, in parts of England, they speak of the dreaded Black and Yellow, the colors of parking tickets issued by private contractors that local governments hire to do their ticketing dirty work. Among the complaints regularly directed at these take-no-prisoner ticketeers: they ticket when you put your paid parking receipt upside down in your front window, when you put a disabled parker badge upside down, and when you're a few inches over the line separating parking bays. The Black and Tan reign of terror lasted in Ireland just a few years. The Black and Yellow terror is likely to be with the English a lot longer. 

U.K. — New Wrapping, Same Nasty Product

We noted in a previous post how New York City is trying to raise the morale of its ticket slingers with a new uniform and new protections from outraged motorists. Well, similar morale raising is going on in other places as well — including other countries. Take the U.K., for example. Here meter maids were renamed parking attendants a few years back and have now been renamed again — "civil enforcement officers." Are you impressed? How about their new uniforms. A yellow vest that glows in the dark, a baseball cap, and a bomber jacket. Chi-chi, no? Now if only the little darlings weren't so utterly predatory...

Bath — Death, Taxes And Parking Tickets

Word reached the family that the old man was about to die. His grown children rushed to his bedside in a hospital in Bath, England. They all came by car, and because the old man lived in a project near the hospital, they parked in the project's private lot. The man died that afternoon. When his children returned to their cars, they all had tickets that added up to 240 pounds, about $350. The tickets were protested but stood, and ended up being aid. Legal? Sure. But in circumstances like these, it was a tacky outcome even by prevailing ticketing standards. 

U.K. — The Next Truly Crazy Parking Idea

It's hard to know exactly how much overly aggressive ticketing has cost local businesses in the United States over the years. Suffice to say it's plenty. But in England the Parking Lords may have come up with an idea that makes our own gaggle of cub taxers seem nice. Here's the new nuttiness: charge companies a monthly fee for the off-street parking spaces they provide their employees, a proposal that would bring 3.4 billion pounds (about $7 billion dollars) into government coffers. And if this doesn't destroy the bottom lines of a fair number of companies, it's only because they pass the cost on to their employees. Clearly, the mother country still has much to teach us when it comes to parking idiocy.

U.K. — Ticketing Unfairness Taken To Great Heights

You think parking tickets in your town are given out unfairly? Well, maybe some numbers from other places in this country and abroad suggest how valid such a suspicion might be. Two years ago some local official in Westminster, England made the dangerously honest public admission that parking tickets there were being issued in an "unfair" manner in order to generate revenue. This led to a campaign by local drivers to challenge their fines, And of the 159,000 tickets issued in Westminster in 2007,  67,000 were cancelled. Similar challenges in the City of London saw a quarter of tickets cancelled. And in this country, when people took their tickets to court in Baltimore in 2008, judges threw out ("tossed" in parking lingo) 95 percent of them. Makes one think, doesn't it, that parking tickets in a lot of places might just be an out-and-out municipal scam.

Gloucestershire — Idiotic Behavior Report

A lady in Gloucestershire, England parks her can in a public garage. She wants to put money in the pay station there, but the only machine available is covered with an 'out-of-service' cloth. She wanders around until she finally finds a human attendant who she offers to pay her parking fee, only to discover it's too late because a ticket has already been given her vehicle. A five-pound ticket. Going out of town for a few weeks, the lady neglects to pay this fine, which is then raised to a hundred pounds. This makes her angry. So she takes the case to court and wins. But the town council, for reasons best appreciated by the bureaucratic mind, appeals the case to a higher court. All told, what with one thing another, the council spends five thousand pounds trying to collect on a ticket that was originally issued for five pounds. Still, the council loses again. A case of bad money after good? Or maybe just a case of greed compounded by stupidity.     

Yorkshire — Horse Abuse

Forgive us. Maybe we shouldn't have so many ticket tales about England on this site. But the place literally reeks of parking madness and we can't help ourselves. Consider this story about a chap in Yorkshire who owned a horse named Charlie Boy. There's a meter near this gentleman's home, and when he took his horse out on the way to do who-knows-what, he made the mistake of leaving the horse tied to this meter while he went back into his house for a few minutes. When he returned, there was a ticket appended to Charlie Boy's bridle. Hey. You want to abuse humans to raise so revenue, O.K. But give our animals a break. 

Essex — The Brits Top Us Again

Every time we do something that works to the advantage of ticket slingers in this country, they seem to outdo us in the U.K. In New York, for example, a new law makes it a felony to even push a ticket giver, while its just a misdemeanor if said ticket slinger whacks you hard but doesn't produce serious bodily harm. So how do they outdo this kind of unfairness in Essex, England? There, the folks who dispense tickets carry small hidden microphones that record every conversation they have at work. And if someone merely uses a nasty bit of language to address these curb tax generators, it cost the offender 80 pounds (about $105) and maybe a place on a police blotter. Will this innovation be coming to a city like your own soon? Heck, why not? I mean, what possible reason could any law-abiding person have to get angry with a meter maid? 

U.K. — Parking Tickets Destroy British Constitutional Order

Britain has no written constitution. It had one when Ollie Cromwell and his gang of perpetually unhappy Puritans ruled the country as a Republic for a few years. But then the royalists regained power and the country has been sliding ever since. So then, what, if anything, does this have to do with parking tickets? Well, though it doesn't have a written constitution, Britain does has what's usually termed an "unwritten constitution" that consists of a few laws that are organic, politically speaking, and are thus never supposed to be abridged. One such is the Bill of Rights Act of 1689, which among other things, says "That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void." Or to put this another way, they can't take away your moola without hauling your ashes through the courts first. This, however, is exactly what the 1991 Road Traffic Act does when it lets local governments (or councils in English English) do—issue tickets with no court recourse. Will a now swollen but gradually devolving England-cum-United Kingdom abide by its basic law, or will it allow a flagrant violation of this tenet to supersede it merely in order to continue bilking the motoring public? Hmmm. Is there a hound dog in Georgia? Is grits groceries? The answer to all three of these questions, alas, is yes. 

U.K. — Brit Ticketing Leads Nut Pack

Having liberated ourselves from a British colonial tyranny a mere couple of hundred years back, it's naturally difficult to acknowledge that the British outdo America in almost anything. But when it comes to parking tickets that may well be the case. Cases in point: a few years back some poor chap across the pond crashed his scooter on a street that happened to be metered. While being carted away to the hospital, he was ticketed. And then there was that notorious rabbit business. Here. a pet storeowner was moving a cart on which sat a rabbit hutch. He made the mistake of leaving one wheel of this cart on a yellow line separating legal parking spaces and got ticket in consequence. Perhaps Britannia no longer rules the waves. When it comes to parking ticket nuttiness, however, it still has a pretty good claim.

U.K. — Parking Horrors Across The Pond

A certain masochistic pride may lead some Americans to boast that we're the most abused people on earth when it comes to parking tickets. Not so (well, probably not so). For the real meanest ticketing crowd many observers of this dour realm look across the pond to the United Kingdom. Here, an estimated 1 billion pounds a year (about 1.5 billion dollars) was collected by local governments (called councils over there) in parking fines. Since the U.K. population of 61 million is only about one-fifth that of the U.S., a comparable level of parking fines in this country would come in at $7.5 billion a year. What turned the British parking system into its present predatory horror, and replaced friendly low kinetic bobby ticket dispensers with the present mercenary gaggle, was the 1991 Road Traffic Act that gave local councils the right to keep a chunk of the ticket revenue they generate. Many of these councils responded by setting quotas for their not-so-lovely Ritas. The moral of this tale: Never give a local government anywhere on the planet revenue incentives when it comes to parking tickets.   

U.K. — That Weren't No Yellow Submarine

Another tidbit from the old mother country. This time a more pleasant parking ticket tale. In a number of English cities specially equipped cars with periscope devices were used to spot vehicles parked near expired meters, whose owners were later notified by mail that they were fined. These mobile curb tax dispensers were about as popular as their WW II German U-boat predecessors, and were only used in areas where feelings against human ticket givers ran so high that a technology fix was considered necessary. But in a rare triumph for driver-parkers, all tickets produced by these periscoped ticket trawlers were forgiven because they were unable to make provision for the very few excuses that a human ticket giver might accept for passing up a chance to ticket. A rare victory for humankind in the ongoing curb tax war.  

U.K. — Saved From Death — But Not A ticket

We've reported in the past about the no-holds-bared ticket givers in England. Here's another example of their work ethic. A women was driving with her young son and elderly mother, when a tree fell on her vehicle. No one was hurt, but the car was pretty much destroyed. The police came and moved it to the side of the road lest it cause another accident. When the women came by the next morning to check on it she found a ticket on the windshield. Death avoided, ticket no.

Yorkshire — More Parking Madness From Across The Pond

We like to post parking horror tales from England here from time to time to make our American readers feel slightly less abused — knowing folks in other countries are equally abused. Consider now the elderly Yorkshire man going to his local bank to make a withdrawal. His timing for this transaction was poor, however, inasmuch as while there the bank was robbed by two guys armed with a machete and axe. The robbers left, the police came for statements, and this elderly gentleman went out to his car, where he found a parking ticket under the windshield. Sounds to us like an on-street robbery following the inside job in the bank... 

European Union

Greece — A Two Car Culture

Like many cities around the world and especially in Europe, there are now so many cars on the roads that officials have taken serious steps to limit what cars can come into the these cities' main commercial areas. One method used in this effort involves license plate numbers. Specifically, plates with odd last numbers can come in half the days of the month, plates with even last numbers the other half. Violators are fined heavily. So how are rich Athenians getting around this inconvenience? They have two cars with different plate numbers, and drive the one that lets them into the heart of the city.

Germany — Parking Socialism

Like many fiscally obsessed places in our all-too-modern world, German cities have largely replaced their old parking meters with New Age models that dispense receipts showing the time one has paid for. In most places this modernization works against motorists' interests because they can no longer come upon meters that still have time they can use for free. But in the land that gave us bratwurst and Beethoven, parkers have found a way to help their preyed upon fellows. People who still have time on their own parking receipts affix these bits of paper to the pay station so others can use their remaining time at no cost. Colette Silverwood, this site's inspiration, salutes you! 

Sicily, Italy— Nice Try Anyway

A fellow we heard about recently traveled to Sicily, had a great vacation, but also got a parking ticket while there. It happens. After a period a months, God only knows how, authorities in Italy tracked him down and got in touch with him through their embassy demanding payment. He wanted to pay up, but this proved rather difficult. The embassy wouldn't accept payment. They told him to contact the police headquarters in the town where he had gotten the ticket. He called that station but was told they didn't accept his money either, and he had to send it to a local bank. Getting the transfer codes to this bank was a daunting task but he finally managed it. In the interim, alas, the bank was shut down by the government. Well, he tried. And as long as he never returns to Sicily, he should be able to live out his life normally.

Graz, Austria — Take My Car And Stuff It

So here was this Romanian immigrant living illegally in Austria. He was going to get caught and deported, that was obvious, but he didn't know when it would happen. It did happen just after he parked his car in the center of the city of Graz, and when he was deported, the car just sat there. It couldn't be towed because under Austrian law that's only  allowed when a vehicle is blocking traffic, which this one wasn't. It could get parking tickets, however, lots of them, 20,000 euros worth in fact — about $30,000 at current exchange rates. The car itself is only worth about 5,000 euros, however, which makes it unlikely its owner will ever pay this fine to get it back. Latest news reports say the Austrian authorities are thinking of declaring the site where the car is parked a construction zone, which is the only legal justification they have to tow it and junk it. Viva Romania!

Spain — In The Land Of Creative Parking

The Spanish aren't big on obeying parking laws. And like the French, they are also creative when obeying them at all, especially when it comes to parking their cars in difficult spaces. Angled parking in spaces too small for the vehicle is standard practice. Double and even triple parking while getting the shopping done are long standing traditions, with the cars left in neutral and hand breaks off to allow other drivers to push you elsewhere being usual courtesies. One creative Spanish parking rule that might be worth remembering by foreigners involves paying on site. For some violations, you are expected to get an envelope that's in a pile by the pay station, insert the violation notice along with the requested number of Euros in this envelope, then slip it into a special pay station slot. It's best to put the right amount of Euros into this envelope. The wait for change by mail can be long.

italy — Call In Interpol

Let's say that you have traveled in Italy and gotten parking tickets, but don't actually live in the country and aren't a citizen. Do you have to pay the tickets anyway? Probably not, there being no extradition laws in place yet for the heinous crime of double parking or overstaying a meter. If you're a resident of another EU country, though, the Italian government may contact you through your own embassy seeking payment, and you may get a nasty call or two from the embassy. The real problem comes when you go back to Italy. If you get stopped for a traffic violation there with old tickets on your record, things can get very, very costly indeed.  

Mullingar, Ireland — Weather Boosts Booting

There's a train station in Mullingar, Ireland with just a single one of those fancy new pay stations to be used by all the drivers who park at the station. Sometimes, when rain and frost put this pay station out of commission, parkers have to race to the other side of the facility to get a hand issued parking receipt they can put on their windshields to prevent getting a ticket. Sometimes they don't make it, and get a quick ticket — or even an almost as quick boot. Local authorities promise to fix the problem. A fix, however, that will not involve reducing fines or doing away with booting at the station. 

Paris, France — French Parking Meters From Hell

The parking authorities of Paris are every bit as predatory as their American counterparts. And they now have a new meter marvel that will soon allow them to feed even more efficiently upon local motorists. This parking meter uses magnetic fields to monitor the mass of a parked car, and after giving this vehicle 20 minutes grace, alerts parking officers that it's time to come around and dispense a ticket. Will the cry of "Aux Barricades!" be once again heard in the streets of Paris in the spirit of the La Bastille when these meters are activated? Probably not. Given the way parking collection avarice has evolved around the world in recent years, high tech parking meters would likely be mounted on the barricades to fine the revolting masses.

Switzerland — Swiss Miss

Identical twins attention. Here's a story from Switzerland which hints that always being confused with the other twin might be worth it after all. Two twins there are joint owners of the same car. This car has been given 29 tickets, but they have never been paid because when called upon to do so by local authorities, these twin guys point to each other and claim 'he did it." In parts of our own country they would probably both be penalized. Under Swiss law, though, they just walk. And drive. And park where they want when they want without ever paying a fine

Sweden — Swedes Get It Right — Finally

The country that gave us berserkers and overpriced home furnishings, Sweden, nonetheless has shown a surprising amount of wisdom when it comes to parking tickets — through this wisdom was not fast in coming. After wending its way through the country's courts for four years, its Supreme Court finally declared that a man's driveway is not "open ground" under the law, but a meter-less street. He should therefore have been allowed to park there without getting the ticket that was issued to him. No word yet, however, about when the fine he paid for this ticket will be repaid. We're betting 3-5 years. 

Eastern Europe

Warsaw, Poland — Motorist Falls Prey To Zebra

A guy in Warsaw, Poland parked his car on the corner where he always parked it and went home to bed. When he woke up and returned to the vehicle, there was ticket on the windshield. The reason he was ticketed was because overnight city workers had put up a zebra crossing sign next to his usual parking place (zebra crossings are pedestrian crosswalks with alternative light and dark stripes). The man protested and the city's vice-mayor admitted the ticket should not have been written. But parking officials said the fine would have to be paid anyway. Chalk up another one for the zebra. 

A Ticket-Free Town But...

Is there a major city in the world where parking tickets are not dispensed freely by local authorities or their private sector contractors? Yes, Moscow. But this benediction comes at a price. Though tow trucks (called car evacuators there) do operate in a few parts of town, and getting one's car back from these people is an experience its pays to avoid, in most places there are no meters and no signs restricting where or how to park. Moscovites, unlike drivers in most big cities, thus often favor the angled from the curb rather than parallel with the curb technique of parking, which tends to clog traffic and occasionally impedes it altogether. Yes, parking is free here. Ticket-givers are unknown. But in a city where temperatures can drop to 40 below in winter, getting stuck in a traffic jam because someone's badly parked car has traffic backed up to St. Petersburg, can take the edge off this freebie. 

Canada

Calgary — Another Example Of Ticketing Technology Running Amuck 

Driving a cab is not an easy profession. The hours are long. The pay is modest at best and always uncertain. There are safety considerations, too, both while driving all day and the potentially dangerous characters that might became a fare. To these challenges in the city of Calgary, Canada, must now be added technology-based parking ticketing. The city uses a specially equipped vehicles with cameras to spot violations in its downtown to generate tickets. The cameras take pictures of vehicles stopped in no-parking places. The license plates of these vehicles are also recorded. That's how tickets are issued. The thing about cabs and this system is that cabs have to stop briefly to pick up and discharge fares. In Calgary, this has led to a very large number of tickets issued for doing just that. The cab companies protest, of course, and often win. But honestly... ticketing a cabbie stopped to pick up a fare next to an expired meter or in a loading zone almost makes you wish for a meter maid, a real human being, who on occasion can actually distinguish between a visual snapshot and someone just trying to make a living.

Vancouver — Chump Change

A guy in Vancouver, Canada who owns a lot of properties is known locally as 'Condo King Rennie.' He gets a lot of parking tickets on his Bentley — more than 200 in the last five years, in fact, most near his office. These tickets are each rather pricey, but in a recent newspaper interview Condo King waxed philosophic. He claimed the tickets' cost were less than what he would have to pay for a permanent parking spot in the area and this was just a cost of doing business. Now, don't you wish you had a business that could run up such cost without causing you to blink an eye — or move your Bentley, or God forbid, take public transportation?

Winnipeg — Why Some People Choose To Live In Canada 

Canadian cities can be pretty testy when it comes to snow removal. Winnipeg, for example, hits motorists who park on its streets overnight when a snow storm is expected with a $100 fine — no trivial amount in a town feeling a lot of recession pain. Hundred dollar tickets were thus dispensed earlier this year to 150 unlucky motorists who didn't move their cars off streets in time. But wait. Because while the city issued a no street parking announcement that was broadcast on radio and TV, it didn't post this announcement on its own website, Winnipeg's mayor canceled all these fines. The city is thus forfeiting $15,000 because of its own bureaucratic oversight. Now isn't that something to marvel about! 

Winnipeg — Man-Bites-Cop

Sure, we've all heard the man-bites-dog story. But have you heard the one about the guy who bites a cop who was giving him a parking ticket? It happened awhile back in Winnipeg, Canada. The guy was very upset when he came upon this local ticket slinger. They argued. The argument turned nasty, then violent. The guy was then placed in a police car, and while being driven to the station, bit the cop on the shoulder. No skin was broken, and the ticket was not excused.

Montreal — Perhaps They Doth Protest Too Much

I'll bet you think cities raise the cost of parking ticket fines in order to bring more money into their general funds. We at Parkinghorrors.com certainly do. But officials who just raised expired meter fines from $42 to $52 dollars in Montreal, Canada have another explanation. It's to make people more considerate toward others, said a Montreal official. And according to news reports, he actually managed to say it with a straight face.

Winnipeg — Another Sick Parking Gambit

One sure way to always know ticket revenue will never go down is to put your most stringent enforcement where people have no choice but to come, and often very little choice about getting back to a meter in time to feed it before a ticket gets written — like an area near a hospital, for example. That's been the experience with parking near the huge Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, Canada. A  local parking authority's records show that six of the most "productive" meters in the city are located in this area, bringing in millions of Canadian dollars over the years. Isn't that nice. You're crazy with worry about a loved one's health, and when you finally leave that person's bedside you discover a costly parking ticket on your windshield. The Canadian health care system may be better than our own in many ways, but its parking policies appear to be every bit as rotten.

Latin America

Buenos Aires, Argentina — Ticketing In The Land Of Gauchos

In terms of car-related fines, Buenos Aires, Argentina has moved into the international big leagues. There's four Argentine pesos to the U.S. dollar. In a bid to improve its horrific fiscal situation, the provincial government of BA has boosted its parking fines to between 320 to 960 pesos ($80 to $240). Not wearing a seatbelt there now costs you the equivalent of $80, and same goes for bikers who don't wear their helmets. Drive without insurance and get caught, it costs as much as 1,600 pesos ($400). Refuse to take a breath test and you're hit with the peso equivalent of a $960 fine. The good news about such exorbitant fines is that they can't stiff you if you don't go there.

Mexico — Bribe Stopper

How steeped in corruption is Mexico? One survey has estimated that 200 million bribes are paid to the police there each year, by a national population that numbers about 100 million people. Not surprisingly, a fair percentage of these involve paying off a cop who is about to write up a parking ticket. The mayor of one Mexican town, however, had an idea about how to stop this. He simply abolished parking ticketing in his town. The citizens there are reportedly delighted with this approach because it has eliminated at least one element of the all pervasive "La Mordida," the bite, the Mexico term for bribe. As for lost city revenues? Since the cops and not city were reaping a parking bonanza, there's been no big hit to the city's finances.
 

Asia

Japan — An Unspoken 'Or Else'

Some parking laws in other countries strike us at parkinghorrors.com as strained and even incomprehensible when translated into English. Others come across as rather scary, hinting as they do at unnamed but clearly nasty punishments. Japan's national law on parking fits into the latter category. Under the section of the law headed: "Demand for Payment of Fine for Illegal Parking and Coercive Collection," the following details are given: "If the person who was ordered to pay a fine for illegal parking does not pay it even after the payment is overdue, he/she will be urged to pay with a collection letter. If the person who was urged to pay a fine for illegal parking does not pay it within the specified time, the payment may be collected on a mandatory basis.. Those latter words, "on a mandatory basis," and the words in the law's chapter heading, "Coercive Collection," leave a lot to the imagination. None of it pleasant.

India — Another Step Into World Class Status

Hong Kong — Ancient Chinese Parking Wisdom

In Hong Kong the only legal street parking is where there are meters. Many people nonetheless park every day illegally in unmetered spaces and never get a ticket, while others do it just once or twice and get a hefty fine. To understand why this occurs it is probably best to seek an answer in the "I Ching," that ancient collection of Chinese wisdom. Here is a passage from this great work that seems to apply: "Everything proceeds of its own accord and this can all too easily tempt us to relax and let things take their course without troubling over details. Such indifference is the root of all evil." Thus, when in Hong Kong,when parking, don't push your luck, advises the I Ching. 

Nagano, Japan — Blind Injustice

They don't just give tickets to cars in Japan. They also give tickets to people caught riding certain types of bicycles, specifically, two-seaters — except in the Japanese City of Nagano, where it's still legal to ride such bikes in public. Not every likes this law, however. It's biggest challenge to date comes from the Japanese Blind Cyclist Association. We'll report further on this subject as new information becomes available.   

Japan — The Long (Though Slow) Arm Of The Law

It took awhile but the Japanese police finally apprehended one of that country's top scofflaws. He had been driving without a license for 17 years, and in that period had also racked up a fairly large number of unpaid parking tickets — 150 in all, with fines and late fees exceeding 2 million yen. Cornered at last, the perp agreed to pay the fines he owed and also not to drive anymore until he received a license. How would this same individual have fared had he run up the same totals in this country? We're thinking a Bernie Madoff-like stretch in the big house.

Malaysia — Three Cheers For Malaysia

We've previously reported that in the UK a motorist is challenging local parking fines under a national law that says, in essence, a punishment must fit the crime — and in the case of parking tickets the punishment (fines) are clearly excessive. That challenge is still pending in the British courts. A similar case was recently adjudicated in Malaysia, however, and this one has already been settled in favor of motorists. That country's highest court decided that local government parking summons and some other local court summons (public burning, not having a dog license, etc.) violated that country's Federal Constitution. Will there ever be a successful challenge to ticket fines in this country under the "cruel and unusual punishment" provision of our own Constitution. Don't bet on it any time soon.  

Beijing, China — Making Small Talk

What's the major worry of most people in Beijing, China's capital city? Wars around the world? Global warming? Recession? Nah. According to a government survey it's traffic problems. With more than 300,000 cars being added to the city's streets each year, this fast growing metropolis simply can't keep up with what is often laughingly referred to as "progress." And of course, when there are more cars in a city not built for cars, parking is right up there among the biggest traffic-related hassles. Thus, a travel tip. If you plan to visit Beijing in the near future, don't try to make yourself popular by talking current events. Tell them about the parking horrors you've experienced in this country and be prepared for a sympathetic reception by virtually everyone you meet.   

Shanghai, China — Tower Towed

More cars in China mean more parking tickets which tends to lead to more towing. Not every Chinese driver, however, takes this latter development quietly. There's a great video we ran across on the Internet showing a woman in Shanghai having a heated argument with a tow truck operator who already has her vehicle hooked up to his tow truck. The man is clearly not about to cut loose the car and turns to get back in his vehicle. But the woman is quicker. She hops in her own car and drives away with the tow truck in tow and its driver racing to catch up (he doesn't). Clearly, Tiananmen Square notwithstanding, the spirit of liberation is still alive and well in China.    

Shanghai, China — Fight Tickets From Home

The first Internet court in China will soon be operating, It's the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, and instead of the old face-to-face litigation that is so 2000 B.C. to 2000 A.D., it features keyboard-to-keyboard interaction that in the slightly skewed English wording on the website describing the court, "...enables litigants to enjoy the convenient judicial services without leaving the comfort of staring at their computer screens." Though this court is not yet programmed to handle parking offenses, this has been suggested and may one day be on tap. Wouldn't that be great! Debating the merits of the ticket you received with the person who gave it, both of you communicating electronically. Oh brave new world that has such parking tickets in it...  

Punjab, Pakistan — Don't Overlook The Bright Side

Bombs have been going off in Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan. The economy is a wreck. Religious strafe is on view everywhere. But at least there's some good news on the local parking front. The Chief Minister of Punjab not so long ago abolished the parking fee for visitors to the providence's recreational parks. Parking fees for hospital visitors in Lahore have also been done abolished. With regard to the latter, a recent posting on this site noted that one of the places in Canada where the most parking tickets have been given out in recent years was adjacent to one of that country's a major hospitals. Clearly, civilization plays out differently in different parts of the world.

Tokyo, Japan — Travel Tip

Japanese cities are very crowded and the parking is very hard except in your own purchased parking space, which you must have before you can even buy a car there. Throw in trucks that have to stop on the street to make deliveries and the traffic congestion can make midtown Manhattan at high noon look like the open road. To help ease this congestion, strict new traffic regulations were passed in 2006 and the ticketing system was privatized. Have the number of tickets issued skyrocketed since then? You betcha (as they say in Alaska). And the dispensers of these unwanted tickets are not Beatles-era Ritas, but grouchy old guys in ugly uniforms, working hard for bonuses, and riding bikes with seats that seem specially designed to make them even grouchier. Travel tip. When in Tokyo, never even consider renting a car. 

Tokyo, Japan — Rudy The Ticketed Reindeer

In Tokyo drivers must sign a form when they receive a ticket. In Tokyo virtually everyone also has a cell phone with a built-in camera. So it was instructive to see broadcast on a Japanese web site a picture of a person dressed up as Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer signing for his ticket, which in this instance cost the equivalent of 200 US dollars. Yes, the Japanese have taken Christmas traditions of many kinds to heart. But it seems they' may have missed something when it comes to the spirit of the holiday.  

Australia & New Zealand  

Sydney — Handicap Abuse

Some people overcome considerable handicaps and manage to get a driver's license. A man in Australia, who lost an arm in an accident, is one such person. The loss of a limb, alas, didn't cut him any slack at the Sydney Airport. He stopped briefly in a space where it was legal to do so for a short time in order to unload some luggage for a passenger. Because he only has one arm, however, he couldn't unload the luggage as quickly as a two-armed person usually does. And this defect earned him a pricey ticket. The lesson of this tale seems to be that if you're not lucky enough to avoid having a physical shortcoming that slows you down a bit, prepare to pay the parking piper.

Perth, Australia — Anguish

For decades on certain streets in downtown Perth, Australia, avoiding parking tickets provided the area's workers much of their daily exercise. There was one-hour legal parking in the area, but it wasn't all that well enforced. So after a couple of hours if you raced out of your office and moved your car to another space you rarely got a ticket. Then the new Lord Mayor of the city got the ticket bug — an infection striking local government officials around the globe these days. She increased the number of ticket slingers in the area dramatically and ticketing numbers commenced to soar. Getting one and leaving it on your windshield also became no excuse for not having another issued and placed alongside the first. Local workers now refer to this change as "parking fascism." This variant of fascism, however, unlike the political variant, does not seem likely to be swept away any time soon.

Melbourne, Australia — If Only Looks Were Everything

Last year there was a major scandal involving parking tickets in Melbourne, Australia. A government report not only found that many tickets were improperly issued because of various administration foul ups, but that the city's ticket giving cadre were suffering  "morale problems, absenteeism and complaints of bullying and harassment," due in part to the strain of having to give out at least 30 tickets a day so the city could meet its $15 million annual revenue goals. But Melbourne has now come up with a way to make receiving a parking ticket a more pleasant experience. Tickets now bear the beautifully designed new logo applied to all Melbourne official documents, a design aimed at making the city look more world class. So if you happen to go down under and get a parking ticket, though it may still be improperly issued, at least it looks really, really great.   

Australia — Score One For The Stripper

Australia's original European settlers were a pretty feisty group of convict types. So we weren't very surprised to come across this story on one of its local newspapers. It seems a stripper came out of her club and found a parking enforcement officer putting a ticket on her car. She explained she was in the middle of her act and couldn't get back in time to feed the meter, but the ticket giver said the fine would stand anyway. Her reaction was to give him a quick flashing and stomp off. No discounted club entry fee for this guy. 

Darwin, Australia — Severe Ticketing Madness Down Under

Maybe it’s the long drought. Maybe it’s all those poisoned toads everywhere you look. Whatever the cause, something very odd seems to be happening in the Australian psyche. An elderly woman in Darwin, Australia recently tied her dog to a fence besides a parking bay and went off to shop. When she returned, there was a parking ticket taped to the dog's head. It was only a warning ticket so no fine was due. But you see the future here. When auto-ticketing revenue falls off, they'll be going after overdue pets.  

Australia — Parking Outranks Retail in Aussie Shopping Center

Forget kangaroos. Australia's real claim to fame these days is the size of its parking fees — and not just on city streets. To park in one of Brisbane, Australia's urban shopping centers for the day, for example, costs 43 Australian dollars (about 37 U.S. dollars), which led one merchant to ask whether this establishment was a mall with parking or a parking lot with shops. Whichever, while the retailers in this place complain of losing business, the center itself has rising profits generated in large part by parking fees. 

New Zealand — All Rights To Parking Tickets Reserved?

It wasn't the first time that some joker somewhere in the world had the bright idea of making facsimiles of parking tickets and putting them on car windshields to promote a commercial venture. But in Auckland in New Zealand there was a twist to this old story. When a bar pulled this trick hoping to attract new customers, local officials threatened to sue for copyright infringement, their idea being that the look of their parking tickets was a valuable commodity protected by copyright laws. In the end the city backed down — perhaps from shame. 

Israel & The Middle East

Baghdad, Iraq — Return To Normal

Is Baghdad again beginning to resemble a normal (or at least a semi-normal) town? One clear symptom that this is happening was on view just a few days ago. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, was touring the city when he encountered a local merchant. What's your biggest problem now, the admiral asked. "Parking," the merchant replied. Having reached this advanced state of normalcy, maybe Americans can all go home. 

Cairo, Egypt — If Only Cars Hadn't Replaced The Camels

An old episode of "Seinfield" featured George getting what he thought would be a cushy job moving parked cars around a Manhattan street to accommodate local parking regulations. This kind of work may or may not actually be a commonplace in Manhattan, but it most certainly is in Cairo, Egypt, where neighborhood car parkers, called menadiyeen, earn their living keeping automotive order in one of the most traffic congested cities in the world. Now technology is threatening their positions, however. The city is installing parking meters to help control its traffic flow (and of course generate ticketing revenue). Will the menadiyeen just stand  aside and see their livelihoods destroyed? We'll have to wait and see. But if the next major upheaval in the Middle East results from parking meters rather than land disputes between Arabs and Israelis, don't be surprised. 

Jerusalem, Israel — Heavenly Protesters

Getting God mixed into a dispute over a parking issue seems extreme, even to those of us at parkinghorrors.com. But in the Middle East such things are not only possible but inevitable. A case in point is a recent incident in Jerusalem. There, members of an ultra-orthodox group were so upset that a private parking lot was allowed to stay open on their Sabbath, they fought with the police trying to shut it down. One protester was even reported to have shouted at a policeman: "You will burn in the fires of hell." God lost this one anyway. The lot stayed open. We'll have to wait to learn if the cop suffered eternal damnation. 

Tel Aviv, Israel — No More Nice Guy

You think your own community is tough when it comes to collecting parking fines? Just be thankful you don't live in Tel Aviv. There they hire private collectors to go after people with unpaid tickets, collectors who come by after dark in person to collect. And if you don't fork over the fine then, they put a lien on your property. Happily, there haven't yet been reports of these collectors going after a family's first born. But with an offense as grievous as an unpaid parking ticket, that may just be over the horizon.