Dialogue: Uniform loathing an unfair load for parking wardens

Before you next contemplate shouting abuse at a parking warden, think of what the world would be like without them, writes ANN MARIE JOHNSON*.

"Get a real job." Every parking warden would like a dollar for every time he or she has heard that line or a variation on the theme. It comes from those who have just got a ticket, or people merely driving or walking past. Sometimes it's just muttered under the breath. Other times it's screamed at full volume, often with the odd expletive.

Do the loud ones know how silly they look? It gets to be a case of water off a duck's back eventually. But just who do they think they are? Why do they think they have a right to call parking wardens anything that comes to mind?

Fortunately, most people do not spit at, hit, push, point a gun at or pull a knife on a warden. Nice people far outnumber the nasty ones. But unfortunately most wardens have been threatened with some form of physical violence and a few have had threats with sexual overtones.

So just who are the ones with no morals or feelings? The wardens doing their job or the people handing out the abuse?

How would you feel if someone in your family chose to become a warden? Would it upset you to think that anyone felt he or she could call a family member every nasty name in the English language, and some others? If you answer honestly, you would have to say "yes".

Take, for example, the well-dressed man in his late 60s who reminded me of my father. That was until he realised that I was not going to take back the ticket I had issued him.

He then informed me of the state of my parents' marriage at the times of my conception and birth. I walked away as he stormed off, only to swear at me again in another street 10 minutes later.

When I asked him how he would feel if his wife or daughter were spoken to like that, he replied that I was probably used to it, that my old man probably spoke to me like that all the time.

I was amazed to think this person thought that it was all right to cast aspersions on me and my family when he did not know me and would not even recognise me out of uniform.

Therein lies one of the problems. Wardens are not seen as people but as a uniform. How else could people justify behaving towards them so badly?

My husband does not like parking wardens. He respects what they do, though, now that he understands the role they play while performing their job. But you would not have got a good word from him about wardens before I became one.

Not that he has ever had a ticket; it was just his preconceived ideas. But no, we are not on a percentage. No, we do not hide around corners. Yes, we do make mistakes. We are human, contrary to popular belief.

While back on the road for a short time recently, I issued a ticket to a motorist for not paying for his pay-and-display parking. I was a bit slow punching the buttons because I was out of practice and the driver returned before I had finished. He proceeded to tell me quite forcefully that he had just gone to get some change and had only been away a couple of minutes.

I showed him the time that I had chalked his tyre. He replied that I was supposed to give him time to get change and that I could not have given him enough.

When I told him that he had been given more than 10 minutes, he got in a huff but waited for his ticket. You would think that he would then have paid and gone to do whatever business had brought him there. But no, he started his car and drove away. So much for intending to pay.

Imagine a city without parking wardens. You could park where you liked for as long as you needed and pay nothing. Bliss. The trouble is you would have to get up very early because the first ones to get to the parking spaces outside their workplace would stay all day.

Buses would have to stop on the road because the bus stops would be full of parked cars. And shoppers would go elsewhere because the city workers who brought in their cars would hog the meter spaces.

There would also be less work done on footpaths and roads because there would be no money from parking charges or fines. And there would be no wardens to complain to when a car was parked across your driveway.

There would be a positive, though - a saving in the salary for all the parking wardens. So next time you see parking wardens doing their job and feel the urge to vent your spleen, it would be nice if you stopped and thought.

Wardens don't expect thanks for the job they do, even though it is often expressed to them by understanding people. They would just like some appreciation of the difficult and sometimes dangerous role they perform.

* Ann Marie Johnson is a former Auckland parking warden.