Got a strange traffic fine...

fits

I just got a traffic offence in the post, €40 for parking opposite a continuos white line... but the strange thing is, it was in a cul de sac in Mount Merrion... a very wide cul de sac with lots of room. No yellow lines or parking signs in sight...
What the hell is going on? Has anyone ever heard of the gardai enforcing this law in an urban area before? I suspect someone didnt like the look of my car outside their front door or something...

Something similar happened me before, parked up camper van outside a building site in a residential area in Dublin 4 as was visiting a friend nearby, and 3 garda cars pulled up within 5 minutes and interrogated us as to why we were there:(

RosieJoe

Hit Fits,

As far as I know you were done for forcing cars to cross the continuous line, causing them to make a traffic offence. Check if the other side of the road has double yellow lines as this may play a part in it.

fits

I dont think the other side had double yellows pretty sure it doesnt..
This happened in Greygates in Mount Merrion.

prospect

Well,

It is illegal to park opposit a solid white, or double solid white lines.

However, it is highly unusual to get a ticket for it. Most people, probably including alot of Gardai, are not aware of this rule.

RosieJoe

Chances are the continuous lines made you get the fine.

Check the rules of the road as there is a section in there for where you are not permitted to park.

fits

prospect wrote:

Well,

It is illegal to park opposit a solid white, or double solid white lines.

However, it is highly unusual to get a ticket for it. Most people, probably including alot of Gardai, are not aware of this rule.

Well it obviously is illegal, or they wouldnt have been able to send me that official looking letter:D

It is highly unusual and I cant help wondering if someone with influence didnt like my car outside their house, as I was causing absolutely no hassle or obstruction..

PaulieC

This happens every morning on the new road that goes past Balally Luas station on the way to the Sandyford industrial estate. There is always a Traffic corps garda there ticketing cars. I was always wondering why they were doing it, but then I copped that they were parked on a section of the road with a continuous white line, which is an offence, regardless of double yellows or not

fits

Fair enough on a busy road, but a quiet residential cul de sac????

RosieJoe

You will get this anywhere now on the 46A bus route. Happens down in Foxrock as well. People park up and get the bus the rest of the way into town. If the residents complain enough the Gardai will eventually have to do something about it.

Down beside Foxrock church, people who parked their cars in the estates used to get their tyres slashed by a slightly demented resident!

fits

ridiculous, they should be encouraging people to take busses ffs! If theres no park and ride services, what is anyone to do?? fly?

RosieJoe

Fine Gael, feck all done, so much more not to do....

QBA, good bus service, no Park and Ride facilities! Priceless

copacetic

They used to always ticket cars for this up in Sandyford industrial estate, used to happen in phases until everyone stopped parking like that. Then stop for a while and start up again when it got bad..

fits

It wouldnt be that difficult to build a park and ride facility at M50/N11 interchange in Loughlinstown (or somewhere similar) and set up shuttle buses every 5 mins to go in the QBC, I'd use it in a shot...

ArphaRima

Unlucky!....
I have to put my hands up and say I was unaware of that rule.

Chances are that a housowner is rather territorial and called in a garda (maybe is a garda) to give the ticket. It seems a rather obscure rule to enforce in a residential area.

Hobbes

Or the house owner had a near miss with someone else on the road and called it in that the car was dangerously parked. Or a gardai lives on the street.

Dades

fits wrote:

This happened in Greygates in Mount Merrion.

I do know there is a w@nker of a warden around Mt. Merrion Avenue. He/she ticketed my missis on the morning her annual resident permit was up.

Must have been a slow morning again.

fits

I think the particular 'offence' they got me on was under the gardai's responsibility, rather than the warden's

Wishbone Ash

It's an offence regardless of whether there are double yellows or not. I agree that it was probably as a result of complaints from residents. Gardaí are generally reluctant to issue tickets unless there has been a complaint.

Road Traffic General Bye Laws 1964


26.—(1) When parking a driver shall ensure that the vehicle—

(a) is not likely to cause inconvenience, to obstruct or endanger other traffic, or to obstruct the view of another driver at or near a road junction, corner or bend or at or near a brow of a hill, or to prevent another driver from seeing a traffic sign ;

(b) will not obstruct or interfere with an entrance to, or an exit from, a fire brigade station or ambulance station ;

(c) will not interfere with the normal flow of traffic ;

(d) will not be wholly or partly on a zebra crossing or within thirty feet of a zebra crossing or pedestrian lights ; provided that the restrictions on parking imposed by this subparagraph shall, in a street where traffic is permitted to travel in either direction, apply only to the side of the street on which traffic approaching the zebra crossing or pedestrian lights is required to travel, and in a oneway street shall apply only to that side of the crossing or lights from which traffic is required to approach the crossing or lights ;

(e) will not be between traffic lights and roadway markings of the type authorised by paragraph (h) of Article 12 of the Road Traffic (Signs) Regulations, 1962, as amended by Article 3 of the Road Traffic (Signs) (Amendment) Regulations, 1964 (S.I. No. 56 of 1964) ;

(f) will not obstruct an entrance for vehicles to premises, save when the occupier of the premises consents ;

(g) will not, if it is not a street service vehicle, be wholly or partly at an appointed stand for street service vehicles ;

(h) will not, in such a way as to interfere with the free movement of pedestrians along a footway, be wholly or partly on the footway or projecting over the footway, or (if it is not a pedal cycle) be wholly or partly on a cycle track ;

(i) will not be on a stretch of roadway which has an authorised continuous white line (or two authorised continuous white lines) along its centre.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1) of this bye-law, a driver may park within thirty feet of pedestrian lights while a passenger is entering or leaving the vehicle, or while the vehicle is being used for loading or unloading or is being attended to at a service station.

(3) This bye-law does not apply to—

(a) a fire engine, ambulance or a vehicle being used by the Garda Síochána in pursuance of its duties,

(b) any vehicle being used for roadwork or building operations, or in connection with telegraph or telephone lines, or removing an obstruction to traffic.

colm_mcm

RosieJoe wrote:

Fine Gael, feck all done, so much more not to do....

QBA, good bus service, no Park and Ride facilities! Priceless

How is this Fine Gael's fault exactly?

ballooba

colm_mcm wrote:

How is this Fine Gael's fault exactly?

Me thinks he meant Fianna Fail.

fits

I am not disputing whether this is an offence or not... I got the notice in the post to prove that it is...

seamus

As others say, this is due to the practice of using housing estates as car parks along the big QBC routes. Rathdown in Terenure suffers horribly from this, but because there's no white line, there's nothing the residents can do.

You were probably just unlucky. It's a wealthy area, so the local residents probably had a quick chat to the TD, who authorised a single solid line and a clampdown for a week or two, which caused people to stop parking there. Then you came along, parked there, and got nabbed.

I agree with the point that they should be encouraging people to use the busses though. Best way to sort that - provide central park-and-rides (waste of time IMO, they fill up too quickly), or provide better bus routes (cheaper and easier).

Jo King

I was leaving my car opposite a continuous white line in a housing estate in Dundrum several years ago and I was warned by a local that people who parked in that spot were ticketed regularly.