Traffic warden photographed parking on double yellow lines

Workers in an industrial estate were left shocked after a traffic warden parked on double yellow lines before proceeding to check the parking of others. 

 

A passer by photographed the car after seeing a warden in uniform, with ticketing machine, get out and lock his car to begin his rounds.

The photographer joked: “We were wondering whether his was going to be the first ticket he issued or the last.”

He continued: “We could not believe it when he pulled up, got out of his car and walked off, presumably to do his rounds, bold as brass. The county council put double yellow lines all over the industrial estate because of the parking problems, yet it seems that doesn’t apply to traffic wardens. I guess that if you are the warden there is no one who is going to ticket you. We were just so struck by the irony. He was parked there for around three-quarters of an hour and then left. I don’t know whether he gave it up as a bad job or had a very lucrative trip. Either way he should have some questions to answer.”

The photo of the car was sent to Nottinghamshire County Council, to which Mr Gary Wood, of the highways team replied:

“Although we haven’t had a direct complaint made to the council, we have been made aware of a Civil Enforcement Officer parking on double yellow lines on Wednesday afternoon (of last week) along Brunel Drive, so will be following this up and carefully looking into the circumstances.

“While most Civil Enforce-ment Officer work is carried out on foot, occasionally a car is necessary so they are exempt from most parking restrictions while carrying out their duties.

“This includes double yellow lines, as alternative parking is not always practicably possible.”

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Six Worst Traffic Jams Known To Mankind

We came across this article by shmee150 via thesupercarkids.com

I know we all like to think that we have sat in the worst traffic jam EVER! but get a load of these and start considering yourself lucky!

Lyon-Paris, France - February 1980

Bad weather, as well as masses of winter travelers returning to Paris created a traffic jam that became 109 miles long. Imagine that.

 

Bethel, New York - August 1969

This jam lasted three days, and was caused by over 500,000 people going to Max Yasgur’s famous farm for the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. The traffic stretched back for over 20 miles and performers had to be flown via helicopter.

 

Sao Paulo, Brazil - June 2009

On June 10 2009 It was reported that there were more than 182 miles of traffic jams over 522 miles of road.

 

Kyoto, Japan - August 1990

In Japan, on August 12, 1990 more than 15,000 cars crawled along for greater than 84 miles on a highway between Hyogo and Shiga prefectures, caused by a mix of holiday revelers heading home and residents evacuating the city due to a typhoon warning

East/West Germany - April 1990

After the Berlin Wall, dividing the East and West of Germany had fallen, the holidays at Easter saw a large number of Germans desperate to reconnect with friends and family members located in the former East or West sides. April 12, 1990 saw a ridiculous 18 million cars on a roadway that usually averages half a million vehicles in a day.

Interstate 45, Texas - September 2005

The traffic jam that Interstate 45 saw was 100 miles long and congestion reportedly lasted 48 hours. It was caused by Houston residents evacuating due to Hurricane Rita approaching. The large number of people, thought to be 2.5 million meant that many motorists were left stranded for as long as 24 hours on the 300-mile route from Galveston to Dallas. The mass evacuation as clogged up as it was, is said to have probably saved the lives of many. 

£15bn plan to turn Britain's busiest A-roads into mini motorways

As part of a £15billion overhaul of the nation’s highways motorists will get new ‘mini-motorways’ 

On busy A-roads roundabouts and traffic lights will be stripped out – to cut delays and transform them into ‘mile-a-minute expressways’.

Details, included in a strategy by the Highways Agency presented to Parliament, also include new slip roads to make the roads flow and banning slow moving vehicles such as tractors and bicycles.

There are up to 18 A-roads that are likely to be transformed in the first tranche with seven more to follow. The strategy document says: ‘Our ambition for the next 25 years is to revolutionise our roads.

’Our busiest A-Roads will become expressways, providing improved standards of performance, with technology to manage traffic and mile-a-minute speeds.

‘Users of motorways know they can expect a broadly consistent standard from the whole of their road, and that this ensures they have a safe, free-moving journey.’

But it notes: ‘The same is not true of A-roads, where piecemeal upgrades have often resulted in inconsistency and substandard stretches of the road that are often less safe and a regular cause of congestion.

‘By 2040, we want to have transformed the most important of these routes into expressways: A-roads that can be relied upon to be as well-designed as motorways and which are able to offer the same standard of journey to users.’

These will be ‘largely or entirely dual carriageway roads’ that are ‘safe, well-built and resilient to delay.

They will be built so that ‘traffic on the main road can pass over or under roundabouts without stopping’.

The strategy document seen by the Daily Mail says: ‘An expressway will be able to provide a high-quality journey to its users.

‘Most expressways should be able to offer mile a minute journeys throughout the day, particularly outside of urban areas.’

The Highways Agency has presented the Road Investment Strategy to Parliament ahead of it being transformed on April 1 into the new private sector roads operator called Highways England.

WHERE THE CHANGES WILL HAPPEN

 

The first group of nine expressways is expected to include the A303 and A30 from the junction with the M3 in Hampshire to Exeter.

The A1 north of Newcastle, which motorists have long campaigned to be made into a motorway, is another, as is the A14 from Huntingdon to Cambridgeshire.

These will also link with up to 400 miles of ‘smart motorways’ where hard shoulders are used at peak times to reduce jams.

A dual carriageway is planned for ‘the entire A303 from the M3 to the M5 at Taunton’, as well as building a tunnel as the road passes Stonehenge.

There will also be a new bypass on the A27 at Arundel together with improvements at Worthing and Lancing in West Sussex.

Also featuring will be construction of the Mottram Moor link road together with overtaking and safety improvements and duelling the A61 to improve Trans-Pennine connectivity.

A range of duelling and junction improvement schemes on the A47/A12 corridor supporting growth at Peterborough, Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft is also planned.

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Now motorists face £20 fine if they leave their engine idling!

Twenty Pounds

Motorists face £20 fines if they leave their engines idling in what has been branded ‘another stealth tax’ on drivers.

A hit squad of ‘traffic marshals’ will target stationary cars as part of the crackdown aimed at cutting pollution to meet strict European environmental targets.

Motoring organisations accused Westminster council of ‘picking on car owners’ when the real problem is emissions coming from large vehicles.

There will be 85 traffic marshals at any one time scouring its streets when it introduces the scheme on May 1.

Islington Council, in North London, which introduced a similar clampdown last August, has 24 such marshals prowling roads and known hotspots with powers to hand out the £20 on-the-spot fines.

The fines, which rise to £40 if not paid within 28 days, are intended to be a ‘last resort’ if drivers refuse to turn off their vehicles.

Motorists outside school gates, on shopping runs or waiting to pick people up at stations are likely to be hit by the ‘draconian’ clampdown, which is aimed at those who leave their engines idling after pulling over rather than motorists stuck in traffic or at red lights.

Other councils around the country are also likely to start enforcing the ‘stationary idling offence’, which was quietly introduced by the Government in 2002.

Several councils, including Corby in Northamptonshire, Torfaen in Wales and Havering and Wandsworth in London already warn motorists that they face a £20 fine if they leave car engines idling when stationary.

Havering Council also warns parents dropping off children at school not to leave engines running because youngsters with asthma are particularly at risk from car pollutants – and urges people to contact the council if they know areas where cars are regularly left idling.

West Sussex County Council have introduced signs urging motorist to turn off their engines in Shoreham-by-Sea. 

The crackdown comes despite most modern cars being fitted with stop-start technology whereby the engine automatically cuts when it is stationary for a few moments.

The move angered motoring groups, who said it would do little to help cut pollution but would enrage already hard-pressed car owners and was simply a way of extracting more cash from drivers.

An AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: ‘The real test will be how heavily they enforce this. If you get people nabbing motorists first thing on winter mornings as they are trying to clear frozen windscreens so they can drive safely to work then it really will be worrying.’

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, told the BBC: ‘One of the real problems is cars stuck in traffic; research has shown pollution is up by 30 per cent in areas of heavy traffic. Do something to help get the traffic moving.’

The fines enforce Rule 123 of the Highway Code, which says: ‘If the vehicle is stationary and likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should switch off the engine to reduce emissions and oil pollution.’

Westminster councillor Heather Acton said: ‘We want to raise motorist awareness of the impact engine idling can have on the environment, with air and noise pollution affecting overall health, as well as it being an unnecessary use of fuel.’