[Spitfire]

On the Bangalore Traffic Police Facebook Page one of the users asked the below question:

1. If there is no "No Parking" sign, does that mean that it's okay to park there?
2. Or is everywhere a no parking zone unless there is a parking board?

Bangalore Traffic Police Answered:

1. No.
2. Yes.

Now that raises a lot of questions especially when I had some comments on this thread against my line of thought. And the above vindicates my stand.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...who-right.html

I think Bangalore Traffic Police is perfectly correct above. And is the right thing to do in a progressive society.

I have observed the same in a lot of other countries.

We in India are still backward in our thought process and still think in a very selfish way.

I would like to see the forums comments on this.

[ghodlur]

I agree with the Bangalaore traffic police but given the scarcity of the parking spaces even the no parking spaces are presently being occupied by every form of vehicle - whether the board is there or not.

I feel the present no parking space can be converted into parking zones for specific time periods.

[Added_flavor]

The unfortunate fact is that the first thing we look for while parking a vehicle is if there is a "No Parking" board present in the vicinity. Very few of us look for a "Parking (Odd or even Dates)" board! Again as you said it comes down to "Indian way of thinking".

When we see people park next to a "No Parking" board in our Country, it is obvious that if there is no "No Parking" sign, it means that it's okay to park there!

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I think Bangalore Traffic Police is perfectly correct above. And is the right thing to do in a progressive society.

As much as I like rules to be laid out explicitly and enforced/followed rigorously, the problem is : in case of there being no "No Parking" board, when parking is legal and when it is not depends mostly on the cops' whims.

On one day, you'll find a cop asking you to park your car at a particular place; and on some day, the same guy will challan you for parking.

If the BTP says I can park only where the Parking board is present and no where else (even if there is no "No Parking" board), I will happily comply as long as there is uniformity in this rule. The onus then lies on the BTP to ensure they clearly demarcate parking slots. And avoid the pay-park nexus.

I almost never park unless I see a parking board but I want to be assured that the BTP will take the initiative of having clear parking slots and not throw the "no No Parking board even then pay fine for parking" rule in my face.

[honeybee]

I think this rule, just like the No Free Left being discussed elsewhere, is a matter of choice by the respective RTO / Traffic authorities. In Mumbai you could park a vehicle in an area as long as it is not specifically marked as No Parking or is not classified as No Parking as per the MV rules (e.g. 10 meters near any turns, at bus stops etc).

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I think Bangalore Traffic Police is perfectly correct above. And is the right thing to do in a progressive society.

No, I absolutely disagree with that. Progressive societies provide proper facilities/alternatives before banning a certain behavior.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

We in India are still backward in our thought process and still think in a very selfish way.

No, it is not the citizen's thought process that is at fault.

The primary problem with our government rules is that, it only hands out restrictions, but makes no attempt to provide alternatives.

First, provide enough legal parking areas. If you ban parking everywhere, then citizens have no choice but break it. Don't allow any public building to be built without ample parking for both employees and visitors. In case of old buildings, allow road side parking. Any private/public building that has regular visitors must provide parking inside. If they can't, road side parking should be allowed.

Imagine a public building with no parking inside and no parking outside on roads. What are visitors supposed to do? First, give a solution, then make rules.

The BBMP banned plastic covers few months back, without ensuring alternatives like recycled paper covers are available to replace it. What happened? Every shop still uses plastic covers.

BBMP wakes up, plastic carry bag ban from today - 15 March 2011

I am sure there is a rule banning peeing on public roads. But how many well-maintained public toilets are found on our highways?

In future, if they ban breathing in public, how many of us are going to comply? Don't know about you, but I won't.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

Now that raises a lot of questions especially when I had some comments on this thread against my line of thought. And the above vindicates my stand.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...who-right.html

My question in that thread was about whether I was within rules in parking there and the 1st line of your post was in the affirmative. You wrote "To the OP: If you were driving a truck instead of a car you could have still been within the rules by parking there... "

But, you follow this up with "It should be our courtesy that we park the car a few blocks away or a few meter away to preserve others space requirement.Did you have to park there right next to the gate? Could you not find a spot to park which could not have created such a situation anyways." which does not make any sense because in that area there is no road specifically marked for parking nor exists any parking lot. So what difference does it make if I had parked a little away - instead of the Ikon guy, some other person would have taken offence. It would have been merely shifting the problem elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Spitfire

I think Bangalore Traffic Police is perfectly correct above.

Even if we assume they are legally right, to enforce that rule in spirit like it is done in other countries, they also need to follow it up by providing public-parking lots in each locality or have roads with "Parking" marked. I doubt these exist in Blore on par with the number of cars there. It certainly does not exist in Chennai.

To give an example, this car was one of the many locked by the Chennai cops last Saturday on the road near Apollo Hospitals. The NoParking sign is visible in the snap and so deserve to be locked.


But guess what, if he had instead parked on the other side of the same road, it is legal - though there does not exist a "Parking" sign on the other side. So, how is a person new to the neighborhood (eg the Esteem guy being a KA car) to know which side is legal to park on ? Ofcourse the cops won't put that "Parking" board there, because then everyone will park properly and they can't make money - the idea in India is not to make people abide by laws, but to penalise for not abiding.

Assume you are driving to Chennai-Apollo at 9AM where the only legal parking is on the road leading from Greames road and which gets full by 8:30AM itself. The road I mentioned earlier is also parked with vehicles and the nearest public parking lot is under the Pantheon road flyover which is some 5kms away. Will you drive back to the flyover, park underneath and catch an auto to the hospital ? Or drive around and park on one of the streets near the hospital ? Most normal people would do the latter. But if there is a paid parking lot nearby, quite some of these would gladly park there, but hey we only have rules, not the facilities.

No harm in thinking of oneself as the perfect citizen in all respects, but to assume that everyone else out there has the only agenda to violate rules or does not know rules or driving or is selfish or not progressive, is to put it plainly, being too full of oneself.

[srishiva]

I too agree that the rules need to be consistently enforced. Police should try to solve the problems and make sure that they can be followed without impacting the life of people.

Coming to plastics, I think most stores now charge for the bags and they are above 40 microns which is a good thing.

[hrman]

So does this mean that the police can fine vehicles which park at a spot which does not have a "No Parking" sign? If yes, I am keen to know what is the alternative solution being offered by the BTP?

[amitoj]

From
Bangalore City Traffic Police

14. PARKING OF THE VEHICLE
Every driver of a motor vehicle parking on any road shall park in such a way that it does not cause or is not likely to cause danger, obstruction or undue inconvenience to other road users and it the manner or parking is indicated by any sign board or markings on the road side, he shall park his vehicle in such manner.

Now i am slightly confused about what the rule is because of the poor sentence structure and some typo after "... inconvenience to other road users" but i don't see the rule stating that you should park only where there is a Parking sign.

Can someone please pull up the kannada version from the link above and translate?

As for BTP's response, on the FB page, i think they are just playing it safe. If they admit in public that you can park wherever there is no "no parking" sign, there will be chaos in the city!! Ideally the response should have been the rule mentioned above (with clearer language, of course)

EDIT: I GOT IT!
(Sorry about the caps but it was like cracking a puzzle )
It should read:

14. PARKING OF THE VEHICLE
Every driver of a motor vehicle parking on any road shall park in such a way that it does not cause or is not likely to cause danger, obstruction or undue inconvenience to other road users and if the manner or parking is indicated by any sign board or markings on the road side, he shall park his vehicle in such manner.

[mayankjha1806]

Well i do park my car if i don't see a "No Parking" Sign. Drive onto any road in Bangalore and none would have a "Park Here" sign. What am i expected to do search for one which would in all probability be few Kms away (or maybe none at all).

HSR Layout (Or any locality in any city) is a good example, the shopping area is full of cars parked on both sides and there is not a single "Park here" board, what does BLR police want me to do "Drive 5-6 Kms away to don't know where and walk all the way back to shop".

Same is the case with hospitals, do they expect the patients to walk all the way from "God knows where to find Park Here sign" and then walk all the way back. I am inclined to use harsher words but would also like to abide by the Forum rules.

[supremeBaleno]

@amitoj, this was what I saw on the same FB page - clearer version IMO :

Drivers must be careful,not to park their vehicles in a manner which will cause danger,obstruction and inconvenience to other road users. The junction place, turning at intersections,narrow roads are the places where parking prohibited whether board is fixed or not.

[DukeSan27]

Originally Posted by Samurai

No, I absolutely disagree with that. Progressive societies provide proper facilities/alternatives before banning a certain behavior.

No, it is not the citizen's thought process that is at fault.

The primary problem with our government rules is that, it only hands out restrictions, but makes no attempt to provide alternatives.

First, provide enough legal parking areas. If you ban parking everywhere, then citizens have no choice but break it. Don't allow any public building to be built without ample parking for both employees and visitors. In case of old buildings, allow road side parking. Any private/public building that has regular visitors must provide parking inside. If they can't, road side parking should be allowed.

Imagine a public building with no parking inside and no parking outside on roads. What are visitors supposed to do? First, give a solution, then make rules.

Its not that they are not trying, e.g.

1. Jayanagar has a parking place above the bus depot (however in all their wisdom they made all roads around it as no parking, even though have sufficent width for parking, and I face the situation of the depot parking being full and no other alternative but go home or drive around),

2. Newer residential complexes are required to have a percentage (10%?) of total parking space reserved for visitors (ours has).

But in this "progressive society" what is the justification for not following the rule beacuse their is no alternative?

So we say, old houses/complexes which don't have parking should be allowed to have parking on the road. An old place most likely will have narrow road, so allowing parking there may asking for a traffic jam (Malleshwaram area comes to my mind in this case).

Can we park here and there till the govt is able to clean up all the mess?

[markmytravel]

I have had three parking violations in the last few months. Problem, no place to park near-by and searching for parking would mean an hour of time waste.
It's time they make one lane on the roads which ever enough space for parking.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

@amitoj, this was what I saw on the same FB page - clearer version IMO :

Drivers must be careful,not to park their vehicles in a manner which will cause danger,obstruction and inconvenience to other road users. The junction place, turning at intersections,narrow roads are the places where parking prohibited whether board is fixed or not.

Yes this makes sense too. I just now figured what the typo was with the rule on the BTP page. I've edited my post to reflect that. That also makes sense.