Dave
TFF member
Posts: 13,081
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Post by Dave on Jan 6, 2011 20:48:57 GMT
It was not that long ago here on the TFF, we had a very good debate about the rights and wrongs of flashing your headlights to warn oncoming motorists there was a speed trap ahead. The news today has been full of the story of the man who got caught doing just that and has been fined over £400.
Some will see such an action as just being a good fellow citizen, others will know it’s legally wrong, but feel it’s morally right to do it.
This thread is to try and discover how many situations or acts that we know are legally wrong to carry out, but we might do so anyway because we feel they are morally right.
I’ll start off with one to get the thread started.
So you drive into a car park and plan to park there for a good while and so by a ticket that will allow you to park your car there for eight hours. But you return to your car after only five hours and just as you get beside your car, another pulls into the empty space beside you.
As the driver gets out you inform them the ticket you are holding in your hand, still has three hours left on it and they happily take it off you and display it in their car. This is against the law and you could bet prosecuted should you get caught doing it. I’m sure its something we all have done, giving our not fully used up ticket to someone else, or talking a ticket off someone and displaying in our car.
Now the way I look at it is this, I paid for a space in the car park for eight hours and it should not matter if I only had my own car in it for five hours and I then let someone else use the space I paid to be used for another three hours. No it won’t be the same space I grant you, but why should it be wrong for me to give my three remaining hours I paid for as a gift to someone else.
So what are your views on this and what other examples can you come up with.
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Post by lambethgull on Jan 6, 2011 21:21:48 GMT
I remember the previous debate, Dave. I still maintain that it can be dangerous to flash lights to oncoming vehicles, as it's an ambiguous signal that has the potential to confuse as well as warn, but I think this man's fine was excessive. It would have made more sense if they had fined him the amount the person he was seen flashing his lights to would have paid had he been caught!  I can't argue with the car parking ticket thing. It's an absurd 'rule' that would be interesting to see challenged. |
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Dave
TFF member
Posts: 13,081
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Post by Dave on Jan 6, 2011 21:33:30 GMT
Just for the record Lambie, I stopped doing it and have so have a great number of other people by the looks of it as I hardly ever get flashed at these days.
The last time I took a ticket off anyone was not that long ago and it was when Carol and I went and did our Haldon Forrest walk.
I'm finding I'm wasting so much money at the moment in hospital car parks. I'm there two or three times a week right now for Carols treatment or the latest consultation. The thing is when you get to where you need to be, you learn most times the surgery is running anything up to an hour and a half late.
Its to far to keep running back to the car park to buy another ticket and so I keep paying for three hours at a time to play safe. I do think all car parks you should pay on leaving and that way you do only end up paying for the time you did actually park.
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Post by stefano on Jan 6, 2011 21:47:54 GMT
What a morally bankrupt society we have become if a fine forum known as the TFF is openly promoting law breaking! |
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Post by loyalgull on Jan 6, 2011 21:55:52 GMT
an absurd and repulsively big fine for flashing ones lights,but no surprise to me when robbers,muggers and persistant shop lifters are getting paltrey fines quite often the fine less than the goods they are taking or physical harm they are doing.The carpark ticket issue has been around for many years and all tickets state not transferable,but was never enforced,but now its money money money,and another way of stripping people of ugly amounts of cash.We are heading for rocky waters within this country,people are struggling as it is,but the state money making machine rolls on,thinking of ways to fleece us,the one motoring offence i really do dislike is the blue badge holders,i see countless people using these badges with nobody else getting out of the vehicle but the driver or anyone else in them running to shops,that is one area that needs sorting out,this should not be abused but seems to be regularly
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Dave
TFF member
Posts: 13,081
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Post by Dave on Jan 6, 2011 22:33:34 GMT
There are many people who do genuinely need to have a blue badge to use on their cars, but as with any sort of system,its open to abuse and that often happens.
I got really angry with an NCP warden in Paignton about three years ago. Back then on most of the right hand side of Hyde Road, blue badge holders would park and I guess we are talking about up to 20 cars one behind the other.
Its been changed now and that side is only for unloading as it should have been anyway, as drivers needing to do deliveries in towns, need places they can park for a short time.
The blue badge holders could park there for three hours, I should say before I go on I think that is far too long, as surely the idea was for them to park outside the shop they needed to go in?
I was waiting to meet someone and noticed a van driver slowing down looking for somewhere to stop to make a quick delivery. He could not see anywhere where he could stop and went around the block again.
When he came around the next time, the last car on the end of all the other blue badge holders moved off. Now that car could have been parked there for up to three hours and its important to remember that fact.
The van driver then parked in the same spot that car at been parked, the driver went to the back of his van and got out a parcel and started jogging down the road to what ever shop he had to deliver it too.
The driver had not noticed an NCP warden was half hiding at the bottom of the Crossway Shopping Centre, but I had. As soon as the driver had shut the rear doors on the van, that warden looked at his watch.
As soon as his watch got to three or maybe four minutes he was writing out a ticket for the van. I asked him why he was doing that as the driver was only making a delivery. " No activity at the back of the van for four minutes " he replied.
Yes maybe I said but this was as close as he could park to where he had to make the delivery and you saw him get a parcel out of the back of the van and know thats what he is doing.
I then asked how come he was causing a traffic obstruction that warranted getting a ticket parked in a place a car was parked for up to three hours seconds before.
He stuck the ticket on the van and made haste away from the scene and the driver was not best pleased when he returned to his van. Just a working man going about his work and on the rates he was getting paid, was worse off actually working that day.
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Dave
TFF member
Posts: 13,081
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Post by Dave on Jan 6, 2011 22:40:30 GMT
PS loyalgull Its about time the wardens in Crediton stopped cars parking in the loading bay outside the bakers in the main street, I often have to call in Adams to pick up power tools and find cars parked in a bay that is there for just van drivers etc to use. |
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Post by loyalgull on Jan 6, 2011 23:02:04 GMT
we have red hot parking wardens in crediton,they do get tickets,the bald headed warden is a son of a gun,he shoots tickets from the bloody hip,he was removed from crediton for a while for being over zealous in giving tickets out.Surprised he isnt catching them parking there,but maybe he does,and fresh prey moves in everyday
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Dave
TFF member
Posts: 13,081
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Post by Dave on Jan 6, 2011 23:03:49 GMT
What a morally bankrupt society we have become if a fine forum known as the TFF is openly promoting law breaking! Not me guv as I'm squeaky clean and unknown to the police, well unless they happen to be TFF members This was discussed on the radio today and I do think its an interesting subject matter. I'm not saying anyone should break the law as such. It does not have to be a legal law passed by government, it could be the law of say an establishment. Foe example, the rules in Paigntons multiplex cinema states you are not allowed to take and eat your own food and drinks etc inside the cinema, but have you seen the prices they charge for the snacks and drinks they want to sell you? But how many take their own sweets, snacks and drinks into the cinema because they feel they are getting ripped of by the high prices the cinema wants to charge them. |
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Post by stefano on Jan 7, 2011 8:21:37 GMT
What a morally bankrupt society we have become if a fine forum known as the TFF is openly promoting law breaking! Not me guv as I'm squeaky clean and unknown to the police, well unless they happen to be TFF members This was discussed on the radio today and I do think its an interesting subject matter. I'm not saying anyone should break the law as such. It does not have to be a law passed by government, it could be the law of say an establishment. For example, the rules in Paigntons multiplex cinema states you are not allowed to take and eat your own food and drinks etc inside the cinema, but have you seen the prices they charge for the snacks and drinks they want to sell you? But how many take their own sweets, snacks and drinks into the cinema because they feel they are getting ripped of by the high prices the cinema wants to charge them? ;D I am sure you spotted I was joking Dave!! On a serious note however many authorities / bodies / companies pass on the losses they make by evasion to everybody that does pay by factoring it in to the charge. A common but risky example is when a youngster buys his first car but his father obtains the insurance with the youngster as named driver thus obtaining a substantial reduction. A big saving can be made on the premium as younger drivers, being in a high risk group, have to pay enormous premiums. It sounds a good idea if nothing happens but insurance companies frequently refuse to pay out after investigating an accident claim. On another note your example Dave of people taking food and drink into the cinema is exactly why I don't go! To sit watching a new film surrounded by sounds of slurping, crackling, groaning, farting, and crunching is hardly the way to spend a relaxing evening!! Why the hell can't people eat before they go out or go to a restaurant / takeaway after the film?!!! |
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Post by aussie on Jan 8, 2011 9:49:04 GMT
I was working in Envy, opposite the old Hogshead and at the bottom of Abbey road behind my van was a tradesmans vans all sign written up on double yellows, the geezer was working and had a blue badge in the window! How the feckin` `ell does someone who is fit enough to run a business and work get a blue badge for their bleedin` transit van?
Also if you did happen to flash your lights to warn others of impending doom and did get pulled for it surely you could say you hit a bump in the road which made it appear that you flashed your lights, it would surely then be down to the officer to prove otherwise.
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Post by stefano on Jan 8, 2011 9:52:37 GMT
Also if you did happen to flash your lights to warn others of impending doom and did get pulled for it surely you could say you hit a bump in the road which made it appear that you flashed your lights, it would surely then be down to the officer to prove otherwise. We don't want that Aussie. Would mean a main road being closed for ages while the Old Bill went about their work with spirit levels! |
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Post by aussie on Jan 8, 2011 10:12:59 GMT
You could also say that you just ran over an animal but saw it scramble away and off the road, they wouldn`t prove that. Did you know we call rabbits boobooms because that the noise the car makes when you run one over? ;D
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