KEY POINTS:
We reported today a case where a motorist discovered that if you back into an angled parking space, you could find yourself $40 out of pocket.
We asked for your experiences and views on parking restrictions.
This forum debate has now closed. Here is a selection of your views on the topic.
Sharon
The law makes sense. What is intended is that when you back into an angled park you are holding up traffic in both directions. When you line up to get in, and then when leaving doing a virtual u-turn holding up traffic in both directions. Also when you see someone do this, there is an element of "don't move or he may hit me" versus when backing into a parallel park, you know what the driver is going to do. Ever seen anyone travel round a roundabout the wrong way? It is a road safety law, not a people safety law.
Crunchie
Once again we have an example of bureaucracy living up to its reputation! What difference does it really make if you are in a parking space frontwards or backwards? Is this really a $40 offence when no- one was harmed?. Central & local government would do well to not sweat the small stuff and get on with the important things like roading, transport, policing, utilities etc. Oh that is right, they do not do that too well either so I guess they have to concentrate on the easy stuff so they can tick something of their list!
Bruce Ingram
Good old Mt parking wardens. I parked outside the Post Shop one day and walked in past the parking warden with Registration renewal papers in hand. 3 minutes later I came out to find him writing the ticket as the registration had expired the previous day - and yes he did think I was going to pay but gave a ticket 'as a reminder' and I only had to drive all the way into Council offices in Tauranga to explain and show the new registration wasting the best part of half a day. There went any brownie points.
Cleve Brown
I was fined for having a vehicle parked (outside the Post Office) without a valid registration while I was inside the Post Office paying for my new registration. I have sent the evidence that ticket and purchase of new rego were at the same time. I am yet to know if I will be let off...
Nikki
I have been ticketed in a council carpark by a parking warden for having an expired rego and for an expired warrant (2 days expired?!) I was always under the impression that this was a police issue, and not a local council one. Am I wrong? Are the council now the controlling power for car licensing too? Or should they not be able to ticket me for that? And as for the angled parking thing, good grief. I am going to ticket all council vehicles left parked in my driveway whilst the staff mow the park lawns next door. $100.00 per 15 minutes should do it.
Angel Parker
If you cant reverse in due to safety reasons, then how do they justify the huge risk that thousands of Kiwis take everyday reversing out of the carpark? The sooner Sue Bradford takes an interest in this issue the better, not to mention how much safer we all will be!
Helen
I am a Kiwi living in Sydney and in some instances here, you can be fined for not parking rear to kerb! Many of the street parking in Australia is angled to promote reversing into the park. It makes for a quicker safer exit from the parking space. Having experienced both systems I feel that the rear to kerb situation works better. For the situation pictured, (due to the angle of the parking space) the only safe way to use it is the forward in.
Cherie
A friend of mine has just been fined $200 for not having her registration sticker showing properly. She was parked at a public swimming pool, and, it seems, the traffic wardens were on the warpath. My friend (or her toddler) had mistakenly placed the sticker into its holder back-to-front and it seems that is a crime of the highest significance. The fact that the car is legally registered seems to be totally irrelevant. They are even going to provide her with a digital photograph of her front windscreen to prove what a danger to society she is. This revenue-generating stuff is pathetic!
T
All I can say to the parking wardens in Tauranga, is "get a life". I was not aware of this law and my husband always reverses into parks - angle or otherwise, because it is far easier to get out into the traffic.
Alan Wilkinson
There is nothing worse than a fool with a rule, and this government has created armies of them. It is potentially just as dangerous to back out of an angle park as to back into one - it all depends on the circumstances. But a government fool with a rule doesnt take any account of circumstances.
Barry Hobbs
Sounds like another stupid law. Whats the difference backing into an angle park against backing into a parallel park? Also backing out of an angle park has to be more dangerous than driving out of one, surely.
But then I suppose $40 is $40 to the powers that be!
Frank Averes
Clearly this whole matter can be sorted out by the installation of appropriate signage adjacent to each car park. Perhaps painting "one-way only" signs in the road within each park, and installing post-mounted signs at the head of each park would suffice?
Barbs
I had to check the date to make sure it wasnt April 1st when I read this. More rot and rubbish to spend our tax/rate money on enforcing to extract more revenue to focus on yet more madness!
Ian
Amazing. We are Kiwis who live in Barbados - and it is the norm to back into parking spaces here. It drives us crazy because it takes people so long to line it up, but at least i's not illegal here to drive in frontways (though some places require you to drive in backwards). Must be the different hemisphere!
Matt
This is ridiculous. Most parking spaces on the angle are for 30mins MAX - go find something to do.
Alan
But you also block the road when backing out into fast moving traffic! Why not make the angle face away from the direction of traffic, this would make it easy to back into,even easier than backing into a parallel space, and safer to drive out of.
John
Of course it should be illegal! What next. These criminals have to be stopped. Backing into a park is the precursor for the downfall of civilisation as we know it. Was there a problem? Did his van block the footpath? Was he hurting anyone? No there is a law against it and thats that. Morons from the parking warden all the way up.Fair enough give him a ticket if parking backwards caused a problem, but a ticket just for the sake of giving a ticket? Pathetic. NZ is rapidly turning into a nation of sheep, follow the leader, do as you are told, a law to cover everything. And whatever you do dont think or do anything for yourself, there is probably a law against it. Law should be there to guide us, for the good of society. Instead we are being expected to be subservient to the law irrespective of whether it makes sense or not. One last serve to the Team Leader Parking "You can only park in the direction of travel." well Mr Tissingh did didn't he.
S.Mossman
Mmmm.....Must be the season for it, Bureaucracy gone completely mad again! What with the governments foray into parenting and anti smacking to local government and LTAs lack of commonsense and total inflexibility regarding angled parking. What shall they all do if we turn into a nation of bed wetters?
Graham
Just across the ditch (in Queensland) it is the reverse, You must reverse in . although the angle may be different..
Andrew
This is the first time I am aware of this law. Surely there should be signs and warning to "inform" road users rather than just slap them with a ticket. I guess these are the serious criminals that are ruining New Zealand, how dare they commit such serious offences. We need more meter maids to attend to this serious crime wave looming over the country. Yeah, right.
Tai Richard
Ridiculous is all I have to say! What a stupid rule! There are pros and cons whether one reverses or drives into angled parking!
Danny Hack
Tauranga parking would have to be the only people I know that would do something like this. I was given a parking ticket for unloading my truck in a loading zone and my front bumper was just out of the zone it cost me $60.
Nick
Since when was this illegal? This isnt in the road code! How can you be fined for something completely unknown.
Sue
This was news to me. I have done this in the past because if a 4WD or SUV park next to you and block your vision, you have to reverse nearly half a car length to see when reversing. It is much safer to have reversed in to the space. Also, if you have motor or battery trouble and the majority of cars are automatic now, it is easier to get under the bonnet. What is the difference to a car reversing out of a parking space and across the other side of the road doing a 3 point turn?
Lisa Larsen
Apparently it is ok for a stationary speed camera vehicle to park parallel in an angle park! I know this as I got a speeding ticket for apparently going past a school at 57kph. However, all the available street parking is angled! There is also a speed change sign 225 metres from the school from 50kph to 70kph. You are not allowed to increase speed past 50 until you are past this speed change sign. I am sure the speed camera vehicle was parked illegally and just in front of this speed change sign. So even though I was well past the school I still had to pay this fine which I think is disgusting. Seems the police and people working on behalf of the police are able to break the law but no-one else is!
Kevin
The act states: (1)If the road controlling authority has indicated that vehicles may be parked only at an angle to the direction of the road-way, a driver must not stand or park a vehicle (other than a cycle) otherwise than in accordance with the direction indicated.The driver did in fact park at the angle indicated (i.e. not at an angle other than the painted directions). Furthermore, the act makes no mention of it being illegal to reverse into a park. It would appear that the driver has complied with the law (as statute) and the Territorial Authority has misinterpreted the law as stated.
Ian D
Rules like this are supposedly made for the general safety of the public, but there are always instances where they cause more of a problem than they solve. The case outlined is one of these. It would be far more dangerous and disruptive on a busy road to unload carpet into the traffic than to back into a diagonal space. Most drivers would not attempt to back into a diagonal space unless they have a legitimate reason, there is no point. And while it may be disruptive to traffic on a busy road it certainly is not in an off-road parking area. We are a greatly over-regulated country and the public has no idea about many of the regulations that are in force, they are simply not published in any way that most people have access to. This is a case in point. In many instances I feel we are treated like idiots who have no ability to make judgements of our own. Parking wardens performance is judged by the number of tickets they write and the revenue they produce so they are unlikely to use their common sense and discretion in a case like this. I know this is true in Auckland and presume it is the same in Tauranga. Life is difficult enough without all the traps that are set to catch us when we unwittingly transgress. This law and many others should be changed to allow the use of commonsense as to whether they should be applied or not, particularly in instances where their application could cause more trouble than it would solve.
Robert Hill
This is fantastic! I am currently arguing with Byron Bay City Council in Australia because I did not reverse into an angled carpark!! In Australia, it is illegal to drive straight into an angled carpark. Being a tourist over there, I didnt know this. I was also not aware that it is illegal to back into an angled park in NZ. The councils either need to provide sufficient signage to warn people, or accept that people don't know all of the rules. As for the old "you can only park in the direction of travel" that is such a dangerous rule. If you spot a carpark on the opposite side of the road, you need to do a U-turn to park there and then another U-turn if you want to leave in the direction you were originally travelling. Thats not only dangerous but also holds up traffic. In the UK you are allowed to park in whichever direction you want. Asking the council to have a view of what is reasonable will not get you anywhere - they are run by rules not reason.
Philip Palmer
This is outrageous, a real blood-boiler. In advanced, civilised countries, backing into a parking space is the usual practice. It makes it possible to use a shorter parking space and it is easier to get close to the kerb when parking parallel. There is no reason why angled parking should be any different, and the safety of passengers, rather than the convenience of NZs notoriously discourteous drivers, should be the prime concern. Still, what do you expect from Tauranga?
Karen Davies/OConnell
I think this fine is ludicrous. If it is illegal to reverse park in an angled park, then a warning would have been sufficient to alert the driver to this law. I have been driving for many, many years and had no idea this is illegal. Maybe the Mount is down on council funds and will find anyway to prop them up. Totally unfair!
Kieran Cornelius
Our councils should look at a system like that in Queensland, where the car parks are angled the other way and you can only reverse into them. This provides a safer environment for the individual parking and the surrounding traffic, as their visibility when moving in and out of the park is greatly improved. Furthermore, they are backing into a car park, rather than out into the flowing traffic - and anyone who has tried to back out of an angled car park with a van or urban assault vehicle parked next to them will know how difficult it can be to see what is coming.
John Wolk
I was surprised to read of this. I am a disabled driver and would do something similar in some situations as I get my wheelchair and myself out of the car on the passengers side and sometimes think it easier to park in such ways so that I cannot be blocked and can get out and back in my car without too hassle.
Craig C
I dont think it should be illegal to reverse into an angle park so long as: you dont inconvenience traffic during the maneuver and not on a one-way street (that is just common sense). "The other problem we sometimes have is when people park with their back wheels against the footpath, particularly with vans," Mr Nally said. How the hell is that different from the nose of a car? The majority of drivers deliberately park with their front wheels against the curb to get as far forward as possible, particularly in Wellington so as not to have their parked vehicle "taken out" by a stray bus etc. "They have the back door open and people's heads are in a bit of danger. You can only park in the direction of travel." Parking the correct way means the back door of vans opens onto the street where it posses a risk to traffic and puts the tradesperson in the same danger. Pedestrians arent stupid, they can see and avoid a van door etc and they have more than enough time to react and do so.
