Fantastic.... link it here.... and believe me it's worth it just to see a photo.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3112670.stm or full article below!! Decked out in satin tights, fightin' for your rights it's ANGLE-GRINDER MAN!! heh-heh!!
we don't have clamps as much here in the states-- only the larger cities have them, and only if needed. I think they should be illegal. If a car is in a dangerous place, tow it, they can pay a hefty fee and be inconvenienced. if it's not in a dangerous place, but it's illegally parked, ticket the hell out of them. I'm talking $50 tickets, for repeat offenders. Des Moines isn't the greatest place for comparison, but our parking tickets were until very recently so low that it was cheaper to get a ticket every day than to pay for parking ramps. Plus, no walking to the parking ramps. (Here in Des Moines, we don't understand public transportation. It doesn't exist to us.) $5 for a parking violation is fine if you're a little over the white line, or you're a bit too far from the curb, or you're in a loading zone. But for someone that parks in front of a hydrant every day, to save themselves a walk to work, fines should double each time on a point system (meaning, after a certain time, your points would decrease and you'd get some slack). pnw
this reminds me of the people I sometimes see downtown who go around putting change in expired meters... the metermaids really hate that...
In central London, we get "SLAUGHTERED" by meters, and the cost of parking, in general... It usually costs me around £40 per DAY just to park in the city - parking meters cost £5 per hour, and if you "thread" your meter (put coins in after the allotted time) you STILL get a parking ticket, so you have to constantly move your car every 2 hours - unless of course, you find an NCP or MasterPark Car Park - who still cost you your first-born... And, after ALL of that, you STILL get hit with a £5 per DAY car congestion charge - as soon as you drive through the city boundaries, one of the THOUSANDS of cameras citywide - placed at strategic locations - read your number plate and log you down, waiting for payment to be made before 10pm (or else it's an £80 fine - £40 if you pay it early...). And then there's the clampers - what a bunch of... ***(this bit is SERIOUSLY censored. I dunno - think Mr. Burgis, here...)**** When they're not clamping you, they're using your credit card details you used to remove the clamp that scratched your paintwork to buy TV's, and pay for holidays. One mob even hired a CAR for £900, and drove it to Scotland on my credit card. WHAT?!? (At least the bank reversed the charges - but the police were crap. I looked into the crime myself, and then presented the cops with the info - telling them if they went to the hire car company, they could pull the CCTV footage to ID these ********s, and then get the licence plate of the car to get an APB put out on the car... Their reply was: "We don't work like that...". "Well - how DO you work, then? Or, in fact, do you work at ALL?" I don't think they appreciated my attitude, because nothing further was done - but I digress...) Ahh - it's a driver's paradise in this country. We need this guy. I saw him on TV last night - he reminds me of SuperDave. Grind away, dude!
Nasty.... the Police are incredible sometimes aren't they... You need either a Citroen DS or BX because they have self levelling suspension that can be manually lowered to protect the tops of the wheels, and thus they can't fit clamps to any of the wheels. They can't damage any aspect of your car either, otherwise you can sue. I remember when I worked in Soho Square, some guy's Subaru was was clamped, he was obviously so miffed, because the next thing a couple of his mates turned up with a big tool box and removed the front wheel and part of the suspension from behind... we wre watching in amazement from the Toucan, the next day, just the clamp was sitting where his car had been....
-Gents How safe is it for me to asssume that these 'Clamps' are essentially the same thing as the Denver Boot we have here in Chicago?
Yeah, pretty much the same, although here, they are bright yellow, and cover the entire wheel. They don't tow cars here, you certainly couldn't do that in London because of standstill traffic throughout the day but also alot of people would presume their car had been stolen and all hell would break loose. Driving in London is next to pointless, you can't get anywhere quickly, and when you do, if you can actually find a parking place it'll empty your life savings.... And it's all Ken Livingstons fault, the guy doesn't have a clue!!