Illegal Parking in Disabled Bays: A Means of Offender Targeting
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Briefly, they found that cars parked in disabled bays were TEN TIMES more likely to be of immediate interest to the police (ie. stolen, warrants etc.), the RK was ten times more likely to have a criminal record, it was ten times more likely to be illegal in some way (eg. defective equipment, expired tax/mot) and ONE IN FIVE of illegally parked vehicles had previously been used in crime compared to none of the legally parked ones.
I would love to reduce the birth rate but how? Do you propose I stand over copulating couples and pull faces to put them off, or put contraceptive in the water supply?
Stuffed ( snipped-for-privacy@theworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Cretin.
The difference between two rows of Tesco's car park - to a severe agrophobic - is akin to the difference between an unaided climb of K2 or Everest to a paraplegic.
That has to be it. My blood pressure really goes up when I see (most of the) people in supermarkets blindly shoving trolleys around, leaving them in the middle of aisles and not looking when they come to a 'junction'. I'd love to believe they don't drive that way...
Oh, and let me add my own 2p-worth here; Indicators. They're the flashing lights on your car. That's right, the ones that flash when the alarm goes off, triggered by a mouse farting 2 miles away. Did you know they have another purpose? They can tell people when you're thinking about turning - very useful since not ever driver has MS Telepathy installed. I could go on and mention people who in almost stationary traffic can't be bothered to let others out of side-roads, but then this'd just turn into a major whinge session. ;-/
People are pack animals. You park in the lonely wilds of the car park, a day or two's trek to the supermarket door, and invariably a smelly old Volvo 145 will have parked next to your pristine car, with 3 baby seats and a Great Dane in the back[1] - so you know that they're going to be harried trying to strap small bodies in and worrying about denting your car is the last thing on their minds...
I nearly always have 2 door cars, and if I'm at all worried (generally, Tesco seems to have spaces designed by drawing a line around a VW Polo for example) then I park directly across two, well away from the busy part of the car park. Not just to avoid dents, it also makes getting out of the car easier and lessens the chances of me denting another person's car.
Ultimately, though, cars will get little dents. Chill out a little. I'd be upset if my Beetle gets dented, but it's inevitable, and it's black so it'll show up.
Richard [1] I hope, frequently, that the people who get door dents are the same inconsiderate morons who park in the Parent & Child spots, which have the nice /wide/ spaces so that people can strap their little darlings in properly and ensure the baby on board sticker is ideally placed for when they reverse over the old person who now has to walk further to their disabled spot ;). I don't necessarily think that the babyseat brigade need spaces near the entrance, but anything which keeps them away from my nice, remote space is A Good Thing.
Which reminds me. What are those 'Baby on board' stickers supposed to do, exactly? Is it just me, or are they utterly, pointless, yet mildly irritating at the same time?
Unless you live on a road like ours where if everyone parks fully on the road, it would be impossible for an ablulance or fire tender to get through
- 1930's residential roads weren't designed with parking of large numbers of vehicles in mind. As it happens any blind person using the edge of the road as a marker would be walking along the grass verge though and bounce off the trees - so our parking there is not such a problem!
Yes, I would like to know if the 'Baby on board' plate has any official status in traffic regulations, e.g. do they expect right of way etc.
The subject has been discussed before, some mentioned that it could be useful in case of a serious accident, the sticker might alert the rescue services to look for small people in the car when retrieving passengers from the wreck. However, you would expect rescue services to be trained anyway, and the 'Baby on board' sign might not be the first thing to look for and it could easily be dislodged.
So the only reasonable explanation is that the 'Baby on board' is just a 'Show off' sign, although how that exactly works escapes me.
Fear my rampant heterosexuality and unrestrained fecundity while I shove it in the face of civilised society?
Doesn't sound as good though.
Idea from PJML...
Apart from blatantly flaunting their rampant heterosexuality and unrestrained fecundity in the face of civilised society, I always view these kind of signs as indicating that the driver will in all likelihood be paying more attention to the screaming brat(s) on board than to the process of driving - and as a result the vehicle's progress will probably be erattic.
There's no way in hell I'm putting a BOB sign in my bloody car!
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