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‘Get a real job’!

13 Jul

We have noticing the responses we get when we comment on people’s poor choice of parking. Recently I was taking a photo of this beautiful piece of parking when the owner returned.

He asked me what I was doing and then got quite angry when I pointed out that it was because he was parked across a pavement, a dropped curb and a pedestrian box. He told me to ‘get a real job’ and drove off!

This is a very different from the response from the one normally given by people who are ‘found out’ doing something that they know is wrong and where they half expect to be challenged. The normal response in such situations is to apologise or make some weak excuse.

‘Micro Parks’, ‘Parklets’, ‘NoParks’ and ‘(re)Parking day’

28 Jun

A temporary park created during (Re)Parking Day (photo Tom Hilton)

There seems to be growing interest in the USA in ‘microparks’, ‘parklets and ‘NoParks’ which are small parks created from parking bays and also in places sections of street where no one should park. Authorities are creating these small green space in  San Francisco, New York and Buffalo (NoParks are created opposite fire hydrants in New York where no one should park a car anyway).

In addition to these official and permanent parks ‘(re)Parking Day‘ each September encourages the creation of more and more temporary single-car sizes parks from of conventional parking bays in more and more places. In 2009 700 parks were created in 140 cities around the world in 21 countries.

What all these initiatives have in common though is their challenge to the acres of space in urban centres with is currently allocated for the storage of private vehicles and re-purposing them to healthy green spaces.

“You can’t park on that!”

22 Jun

Oh dear! This car seems to have been parked on a pedestrian who is now is now stuck and in terrible pain! Ok, so of course it is really just a set-up dreamed up by those fine Pedestrian Liberation folk in Woodbridge to draw attention to pavement parking and have some fun at the same time!

As always there is of course a serious message, which is that cars on pavements often force pedestrians onto the road with all the inherent dangers of getting knocked down or whatever.

We like this idea and are now planning some follow up sessions with a broader cast of characters who get into difficulty when trying to negotiate or cluttered pavements – stay tuned for more fun!

On the Verge of destruction

10 Jun

Pavements are not the only area affected by bad parking, grass verges also fall victim and suffer irreversible damage. Drivers may think that they are doing the right thing in not blocking the road but there are few grassy areas left in towns due to roads and paths so they should be looked after.

We sent the Pedestrian Liberation Parking Warden out to investigate an affected area by Ravens-wood primary school. He was not impressed! The entire area had been turned to dust/mud depending on the weather.

He was also very unhappy at dropped kerbs which had been installed to help parents with buggies being used by vehicles to get onto the grass – not the idea.

Most verges are owned by the council who are expected to repair the damage with all of us local ratepayers covering the cost. Strangely it is not currently illegal to park a vehicle on the verge (unless there are parking restrictions on the associated road).

Coalition Forces

20 May

P.L is growing already and have established troops in Woodbridge. We welcome; Ant, Katy and George to Pedestrian Liberation, we look forward to the first report from Woodbridge.

Getting some results at the Waterfront.

20 May

We decided to park our car in the most ridiculous way on the Ipswich Waterfront today to learn more about how people would respond to really bad parking. In order to get the effect we wanted we used our own car, parked if really badly and but one of the  “STUPID PARKING” leaflets under the windscreen wipers front and rear. We then took a seat outside a coffee shop and waited. We wanted to find out:

  • How many people will pass?
  • How many people will walk round the car without noticing anything odd?
  • How many people will show signs of irritation?
  • How many will notice the ‘STUPID PARKING’ sticker
  • How many will stop and talk to us about it.

Our awful parking was totally ignored by about half the people to passed, another 20% noticed something odd and glanced at the leaflet, and the rest were clearly irritated. Two parents with buggies were badly affected and had a great struggle getting by the car and then chatted with us. In order to get a real reaction from the passers by we didn’t immediately confess to the car being ours.

The most amazing reaction to us was when a pedestrian had no reaction at all, those who it seemed to not bother. Does this mean that it happens so much that people have gotten used to it? or do people just not realize that they have the write to act against it.

The free-runners

Whilst filming the car we noticed two guys free-running just a short way away and we thought what a brilliant idea it would be to get them involved, so we invited them over to help and they were more than happy to do so. The videos and pictures below show how we got on.

We came to the conclusion that this spot is used frequently by pedestrians and in the hour we spent filming there it proved to be very successful and we got some great results so this will be definitely be a  place to return to in the future.

Getting started

16 May

It’s clear to me that pavement parking is a big problem that is getting worse, and not just in our home town but all over this country. Parking s destructive and dangerous and its drives many of us mad.

So… we are going to do something about it. Pedestrian Liberation will support local people in their campaigns to reclaim their footpaths and we will also press government to act.

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