Parking

[drplokta]

So, the 20 minute free on-street parking in Canterbury that I use occasionally is about to become 30 minute parking. Which will actually be handy, since I park there while getting my hair cut, and 20 minutes is touch-and-go. But what happens now if I'm there for 30 minutes and 5 seconds -- can I claim over-zealous enforcement, and should there be

Comments

[eleyan]

as if by magic - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31759767

[drplokta]

Yes, that's the story I was linking to. It's not leeway if you know you have it; it's just legislating to prohibit the signs telling you how long you have to park from telling you the truth.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I was also baffled by that. In exactly the same way.

[drplokta]

Clock synchronization between you and the warden can never be an issue. Synchronization between the warden and the ticket machine might be an issue, I guess, but it will still be an issue, as you could still appeal and say you'd only used 9 minutes 55 seconds of the legally required 10 minute leeway, and the warden's watch must have been 10 seconds out of sync with the ticket machine.

[drplokta]

Indeed, but the proposed new approach is no fuzzier than the current approach -- it's just moved the sharp borderline. I fail to see how you can in fact legislate for fuzziness, without giving too much leeway for individual discretion which would almost certainly end up being exercised in racist, sexist, classist and ageist ways.

[swisstone]

What might be the result is that enforcement will become rather more zealous, which I suspect is not what people were hoping for. As an analogy, in the OU we have word limits on essays. In recent years we've introduced a '10% over rule'. Now, I might have qualms about penalising someone for turning in 2001 words. I have no qualms at all for penalising someone who turns in 2201 words - they've had their leeway. So, transfer that to parking, and yes, you've got an extra 10 minutes, but you'd better be out at the end of that 10 minutes or face the consequences.

[drplokta]

If the limit is an exact limit, then I too would have qualms about penalising someone for turning in 1,999 or 2,001 words on a 2,000 word essay. But if it's only an upper bound, then I'd have no qualms at all about penalising someone turning in 2,001 words on a 1-to-2,000 word essay, as they already have plenty of leeway. And the 10% "leeway" is just as pointless as it is for parking, since it just means that it's now a 1-to-2,200 word essay.

[bohemiancoast]

And if the council has the tiniest ounce of sense, your 20 minute parking will become 10 minute parking with 10 minutes' grace.