Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Is this Haringey's most confusing parking sign?
Here's my entry in Haringey's most confusing parking sign competition.
This unlovely piece of street furniture is on Oakfield Road. I find it hard to interpret its meaning while sitting down at leisure trying to decipher it.
Remember this is aimed at motorists, driving vehicles and who have just a few seconds to work it out.
This is the most complex sign in Haringey because all motorists wishing to park are expected to have at least some knowledge about football games (presumably "Match" doesn't refer to Bryant and May. Perhaps "Event" has some relationship to soccer as well).
In order to make the entrapment complete, the council have provided a flip-down board which randomly changes the meaning of the sign.
Can anyone come up with a better/worse example than this?
Tags for Forum Posts: English, PCN, Plain, confusion, entrapment, motorist, parking, penalty, signs
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by james walsh on
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Madeline* Thanks for putting it into context. Very valid points.
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Permalink Reply by Isabelle on
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Agree with you Madeline, inconsistency rules.
And people might think that it's a poor excuse to not visit a friend because of the uncertainty of where to park, but it is a put off for me too when my friends don't know whether or not I'll be able to park – so are the alternatives of asking them to run down the road and check the flap sign, or trying to look it up online (still haven't found where to look, I'm no football fan and it's all too unfamiliar).
As for shopping in Finsbury Park, I've just given up and go elsewhere, unless I happen to know that it's not football season.
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Permalink Reply by Madeline on
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If you want 'entrapment' you should come and see a pay and display bay that's just around the corner from me. It's only a short bay outside the school. I'm not sure but I think most drivers are not really looking at the signs, firstly they're looking for a space. When they see one that's when they look around and if they spot a pay machine it's an obvious sign that it's in a P&D bay. So they park up and then check the times, prices etc. This particular bay is correctly signed so off to the machine to get a ticket. The machine and the sign state that parking can to be paid for up until 5.30pm. Fine. But what most people don't realise is that the parking restrictions here are up to 6.30pm. This bay can only be paid for until 5.30pm meaning that after that, for one hour, you can't use a P&D ticket to park. It gives the false impression that after 5.30pm parking is free, which it is not. You've (the driver) already looked at the relevant sign to allow you to park so didn't bother to look any further than that. The amount of drivers I see who get caught out by that.
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This is bad... Even more so as drivers are legally made offenders, while they're really victims (of the very system they subsidise). And does the local authority ever take the blame? oh no, it's no one's job to make sure that regulations are useful, fair and clear.
The amount of time I spent staring at signs, trying to solve the equation of adding and/or substracting the various terms, looking around to see if there are any more... then driving off because, after all, I wasn't quite sure of it all...
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Don't get me started on the subject of motorcycle parking! Particularly as we take up a sixth of the space of cars, and have almost zero parking provision in some Boroughs. Islington are the worst. FYI there is a great motorcycle parking website appropriately called www.motorcycleparking.com who have all the rules of every Borough listed along with a parking bay search facility. Where would we be without Tinterweb.
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Yes, I know of that site. I use it when I know I'm going out of borough.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Thanks for the link Antoinette.
Agree about motorcycle parking. Big inconsistencies.
Haringey Parking "Services" [sick] [sic] will admit through gritted, nay clenched, teeth, that motorcycles can park without needing a Permit in Residents Parking Zones. They don't spell this out anywhere clearly and unambiguously and you just know they resent those motorcycle freeloaders.
You don't need to cross a bridge or a mountain range to go to Islington, much less need a visa or passport. I assumed that, in respect of something as fundamental as motorbikes, the neighbouring local governments would have similar rules. I parked my bike in a resident's zone not far from the Emirates Stadium as it happened and avoiding getting a ticket by the narrowest of margins.
I'd like to see more motorcycle parking bays and stands to lock bicycles to.
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In Westminster you have to pay to park a M/B and there's talk that Camden are considering it too. So, first you have to find your bay, then phone (number displayed on the sign) and pay by card. No phone? You've got a problem. No card? You've got a problem. There are no machines you can use to pay with cash.
Oh, and there are dedicated M/B bays in Haringey. A couple of years ago I was talking to someone from parking services and he told me that there were none here. I told him that I knew of one near Turnpike lane but that it was always full with shop wheelie bins. I also jokingly complained that a short parking bay by the clock tower in Crouch End that I used to use, near the Lloyds bank, that had just been converted to taxis only, was nearly always empty and as it was taxi only I now had to park in Weston Park Rd. Not very long after that the bay at Turnpike lane officially became a wheelie bin bay but in return a new 'motorcycles only' bay was put in place in Weston Park right by the junction with Tottenham lane (opposite the clock tower)
So they do listen sometimes.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Clive, I have nothing against fair and justified criticism of any part of Haringey Council. (Tremulously, I even include The Dear Maximum Leader.)
On behalf of residents I spend a vast amount of my time pointing out the Council's errors of omission, mission, submission, commission and Commissions. Always adding suggestions about how the Council might improve, of course.
But when Parking Service staff spoke to you about parking your motorbike did you really observe their "… gritted, nay clenched teeth"? (I experimented by clenching my teeth in a phonecall and people can't understand a word.)
You tell us the staff "resent those motorcycle freeloaders". The evidence you give is the "fact" that: "they don't spell this out [....] anywhere clearly and unambiguously" that motorcycles can park without needing a permit in Residents' Parking Zones.
So can I please suggest you go to Haringey's website and search for "motorcycle parking". Scroll down the first page you get and you'll find nine links - including this one which says:
"Motorcycle and moped parking
In controlled parking zones, motorcycles and mopeds may park free of charge in residential, shared use and pay and display bays.
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P.S. I liked your rhetorical: "nay". Very Hancockian. Are they still repeating the old shows on Radio 4 Extra?
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OK Alan I'll accept that the clause you mention is clear, but it was not the last time I looked and I assume that this is a relatively recent update to a website. Unfortunately this exception doesn't apply to a neighbouring Borough. (Boroughs?)
Although I would be amongst the last people to advocate yet more signage, especially in relation to parking, I would point out that I don't think there are any notices to this effect in the street. I'm not asking for such notices, but I think it shows that the amount of rules (and flipping exceptions) have now become large.
I have it on fairly good authority that TfL would just love to tax motorcycles in the central London congestion charging zone, but due to a technical reason (MBs have no front-facing number plates for the cameras) they miss out. I would be surprised if LBH Parking Services did not take a similar view (and the technical reason, being no windscreen wiper under which to put a PCN).
["Nay": this is the most poetical I can come up with. I apologise for the lack of a subStantive literary reference).
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Perhaps, Clive, they amended the website in response to your inquiry? Helpful suggestions for improvement are sometimes listened to. In fourteen years as a councillor I must've made thousands. And at least a few dozen were acted on.
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P.S. Hancock's Half Hour as a substantive literary reference?
I think Tony Hancock would have loved that.
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Hancock's Half Hour? No Alan my tastes are not so high-brow as yours. I was thinking of Frankie Howerd ("thrice nay").
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