A true superhero

Subject: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 06:45 AM

Not folklore yet but my tip for the future Robin Hood:)

Ckick here for details.

Not heard any songs yet. Not seen a song challenge for a while...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 08:49 AM

I like the attitude, but I look forward with pleasure to the time all traffic in big cities grinds to a complete halt, and they bury the cars where they stand.

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 04:36 PM

LOL, DtG, thanks! I hope Graham Norton features him, sometime; he'd be perfect for that show!

Well, on principle, me too, Kevin, but it's still funny.:-)

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: LadyJean
Date: 17 Sep 03 - 11:35 PM

In the states, it's called a Denver boot. They are entirely TOO plentiful in my neighborhood, and I have TWICE been ticketed for parking without a permit when I had one.

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 08:55 AM

As somebody who regualarly gets his renting parking place squatted by other motorists I would like to use the angle grinder on this prats balls.

Anybody who is too bloody tight fisted to pay for the space to store their vehicle shouldn't have one in the first place.

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: kendall
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 09:03 AM

Cute, but I avoid such problems by feeding the meter, or if I get a ticket, by paying it. DUH!

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 09:34 AM

and this dude thinks he won't be CAUGHT?...and prosecuted?

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 09:41 AM

If it were only as simple as Guest has put it! There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in London who would LOVE to rent a space. truth of the matter is there is no space to rent! What this guy is pointing out, if nothing else, is the ridiculaous situation of people having to pay their road tax and the congestion charge only to find that they have nowhere to park:-( Sorry about people pinching your space, it annoys me as well, but surely we can come up with a better solution than the draconian methods imposed by some authorities. Time share? Park and Ride? I am not sure what is best but something must be better than what we have!

Feeding the meter is illegal in parts of the UK, Kendall. Once you have had your alloted 2 hours you are supposed to move on and if not you face the same penalties as if you had not paid!

Paying a ticket is not a problem for most people either. Usualy between £20 and £40. It is the fees to remove the illegaly placed device, that are more than the ticket that ranckles most folk. It is also the fact that most of these are placed by parking authorities who are payed by the number of people they clamp.

Gone are the days when a policeman will ask you to move if you are causing an obstruction or illegaly parked. Huge lorries and vans delivering all manner of goods on busy roads during peak times are ignored while the private motorist parked innocuously in a quiet road is issued with a fine! It has simply become a matter of number crunching and cashing in on the easy targets.

Come the revolution brothers...

(We will all walk!)

Cheers

Dave the Gnome

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 09:45 AM

Missed Bill's post. He wants to get caught. He is openly publicising his activities. What will the prosecution case be? He is damaging an illegaly administered device? What about the counter suits for trespass against the vehicles that are clamped and illegaly detained?

Legal nightmare. Ceratinly one that no self respecting parking authority would want to get embroiled in!

:D

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 10:51 AM

Cars don't belong in cities, except for people with disabilities. It'd never occur to me to take a car with me when I go into London, and if I lived there I certainly wouldn't have one.

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: treewind
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 11:04 AM

When I live in London I paid £86 a year for the privilege of being able to park in the street outside my house. It didn't guarantee anything - the space being taken if I arrived home at the wrong time of day and have to go round the block to find somewhere.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 11:27 AM

While I agree in principle Kevin I must say that we do ned a good alternative. Let me explain my predicament as an example.

I drive a lot for my Job and use the car extensively to visit clients all over the UK. I would LOVE to have a break from it when I am in the office. However...

I live around 5 miles, as the crow flies, from the office. Mrs G (Elaine) works within 1.5 of a mile from me and does not drive. Let us take our individual journeys on public transport.

1. We both leave home at 7:30. Walk .5 of a mile to the bus stop. Catch the bus for the 2.5 mile trip to Salford. Buy a day ticket each at a total cost of £5.

2. Disembark at Salford Crescent. 8:00. Walk .5 mile to the train station to catch train. 2 mile trip to Deansgate Station total return cost. £3.00. Arrive Salford Crescent 8:20.

3. Elaines walks the remaining mile. Gets to work around 8:45. I walk to the Metrolink station to get the tram. Cost of return tram ticket. £1.40. I disembark from the tram at Trafford bar. Walk the 1/2 mile to work. Arrive before 9.

4. Homeward bound sees a similar journey. We both arrive home, knackered, at around 18:30 and nearly £10 poorer.

THERE ARE NO ALTERNATIVES. Believe me. We have tried. I could cycle. Elaine couldn't. We could get the bus to Manchester and walk 1.5 and 2.5 miles respectively. In the dark? Through some of the roughest areas of Manchester? You are kidding!

I am working on getting Elaine on the pillion of the Honda 500 but she is a bit reluctant...;-)

Anyhow. Same journey. Car.

Leave home. 8:30. Drop Elaine off 8:45. In work before 9. Leave work 17:00. Pick Elaine up 17:10. Home before 17:30. Cost - Petrol £1.50 at the most? Other costs - None, the company expenses pay for everything else!

Where is the contest? So, before we begin to talk of car free cities which, in principle, would be wonderfull let us address some of the problems eh?

Sorry to go on but this issue realy gets me going! (Could you tell?)

Cheers

:D

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Nerd
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 12:54 PM

Didn't someone mention on another thread that Dave Bulmer or Neal Sharpley were now clamping cars? At the time I saw that posted, not being English, I didn't understand how individuals could be doing this? Are parking authorities privatised in the UK? Or do you need to be a public official to clamp?

Come to think of it, I don't know how clamping (or "booting"; in Philadelphia we call it "the boot" but not "the Denver boot") works here in the US, either, though I do know that towing services are privatized, so you are paying a private company to get your car back. Is that how it works in the UK too?

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 02:10 PM

I'm mainly thinking about London, because that's the city I know best, and more especially what they now call the Inner City, which I when I was a Londoner was what I would mean when I talked about "London".

Out round the edge different considerations might apply.

(But surely you have a travelcard in the Manchester area to cover buses and trains and all, instead of all those separate tickets?)

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 04:15 PM

Not a good deal, Kevin! £5 for buses, £3.00 for trains plus £1.40 for the tram equals £9.40. 2 x all day tickets @ £6.50 equals £13.00! Not economic I'm afraid but thanks for the thought anyway. Even if it was better value there is still the fact that it would take 3 hours on public transport and less than 1 in the car.

Like I said. We need a REAL alternative before anyone can get on their soapbox about cars!

Yes, Nerd. Clamping and towing is privatised in most places in the UK. Parking restriction enforcement is under control of the local authority and not the law enforcement agencies as from, I think, April 2000. That is when the rot set in I'm afraid.

Angle Grinder Man is still a hero in my books as he is attempting to show these, at best inept and at worst corrupt, parking authities up for what they are - Legalised protection rackets! Take the monetary incentive away from them to penalise the easy prey. Do not pay them on tickets but by how well the traffic flows and then let us see how things change.

(Off the soap box again:-) )

:D

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: kendall
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 10:17 PM

I keep forgetting there are cities a bit bigger than Portland Maine!
Here, the only ones who can apply a "boot" are police officers, and the only time they apply the boot is when someone is a blatent scofflaw. You must have a stack of unpaid parking tickets for them to bother. Street parking is a problem in some areas, but we have many 5 story parking garages where you can park all day for a very reasonable fee.
Revolution, eh? we can show you how it's done!
You start by gathering up a few old bags and throw them into the harbor...

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: open mike
Date: 18 Sep 03 - 10:27 PM

what's a wheel boot? the ol=nly booe i ever get is getting booted from mud chat...

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: Raedwulf
Date: 19 Sep 03 - 01:41 PM

Dave has missed the most obvious & annoying part of the clampers activities - they often clamp vehicles that are legally parked. Given that most people will pay a parking ticket rather than contest it & risk a larger fine; what do you think happens when a clamp is on? Most clampers ramp up fees on a day-by-day basis (never mind if you get towed away & impounded, when the costs rise even more). It's a racket based on the ingrained British reluctance to complain & make a fuss; & on the percentages i.e. would you rather pay the smaller fine or risk complaining successfully against copping a larger fine (& maybe not getting your car back for ages)?

There are a lot of selfish bastards who park illegally. There are also a lot of law-abiding motorists who find themselves on the wrong end of an illegally issued P/T or clamp. I've never been clamped, but I have successfully contested P/Ts in the past & I'm contesting one at the moment!

Anglegrinder Man will get prosecuted when someone makes a complaint. And he'll lose! The charge will be Criminal Damage, & since he'll have damaged someone else's property, I doubt he'll win. The difficulty will only lie in proving it woz 'im wot dunnit. It won't matter whether the clamp was illegally applied. In the meanwhile, good luck to him!

Subject: RE: Folklore: A true superhero
From: open mike
Date: 19 Sep 03 - 04:33 PM

the only clampers around here are these:
E Clampus Vitus (clampers for short)(or ECV)
http://www.clamper.com/
http://www.ecvgazette.com/
http://www.ecvnet.com/bosco/
http://www.clampers.net/
http://www.notfrisco.com/colmatales/norton/nortpic1.html

they claim to work for the benefit of widows and orphans.
they erect historical monuments and restore historical
buildings.