Douglas - Pay & Display parking WTF?

rebel.ranter

I spotted these purple/maroon coloured machines on the street in Douglas at the weekend along the road on Douglas East (around where Nakon Thai is) & I thought I was imagining things.
Well the "Pay & Display signs are up, 1 hour limit, I also saw what I thought were parking wardens (they looked like guys in sailor type uniforms) giving out tickets outside Mackaseys.
I have not seen them on other streets yet, does anybody know what the full plan for these are for the village?

http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/web//Cork%2520County%2520Council/Departments/Corporate%2520Affairs/Media%2520Releases?did=135235836

gbee

Too much park n riders I guess. That has been a problem in Douglas for many, many years already.

A trial of this system failed in the city and whilst it was working successfully in Mallow for many years, they have recently brought in changes as well.

Seems like the company selling the collection boxes are selling to various local authorities.

newbee22

It's a joke, people are just going to start parking in the shopping centres now instead of paying for the parking, it's not going to be doing much favours for the businesses in douglas east.

JohnK

Personally I dont see the problem with it as the number of cars parked along the side of the roads makes it a pain in the hole to drive through parts of Douglas.

Owen

Had a funeral to go to in Douglas yesterday and couldn't believe it when I saw it either. Ticket machines are in place also on the small road that has the 2 churches on it. Cork Council hates cars.

Carrigaline's getting it soon too.

rebel.ranter

In my view the city centre shopping experience was severely hit was ruined by the introduction of clamping & the systematic reduction of the number of on street parking spaces available. If it is too inconvenient to park up (get parking ticket, worry about going over time, etc.) then people will move to shopping centres, and not just for parking either, they'll take their shopping elsewhere too.

As for the bad parking in the village, these parkign meters will do nothing to prevent that. This type of parking is usually the "I'll just be a minute" brigade, so they are never parked long enough for a warden to ticket them.

Local businesses will suffer if their customers migrate to the shopping centres just as the city centre lost out to them. Douglas has suddenly become inconvenient.

Spindle

It is just another method for pulling in revenue.

Owen

This'll have a knock on effect on the free car parking in the Tesco/Douglas Court centres. They'll have to adopt a more stringent policy now. FFS!

beer enigma

Is it pay n display up to a certain time ? I'm presuming its a 6pm cut off - anyone know ?

run_Forrest_run

As already said, the car parks for Douglas Village and Douglas Court shopping centres will become even more congested now. In addition the housing estates such as Douglas Lawn will become a blackspot now if that busy road along Nakon Thai is going to be patrolled.

I see it's 80cent per hour, I wonder how long with it take before that becomes €1 then €1.50 and finally €1.80 :rolleyes:

Douglas has become a massive car park though, some people just abandoning their cars/SUVs with scant regard for others or local businesses.

curly from cork

As far as I can gather and Im open to correction , the village traders welcome this pay and display as it will free up spaces outside their shops for customers. At the moment the same car sits outside their shop day in , day out . The owner having hopped on the bus to town. I will be more inclined to use the dry cleaner, optician etc as I know there will be a good chance of getting a space for a few mins or using the pay and stay for longer than a quick drop off / collection.
Carrigaline have deferred the move for a few months but the main st. there is as bad . Cars stay all day which puts you off doing a few jobs with the local shops.

quote from Cork CC website


Pay Parking in Douglas Village
Pay and Display parking in Douglas Village commenced on 1st May 2012 and has operated very successfully since it's introduction. There are now ample parking spaces on Churchyard Lane and on Carrigaline road, subject to a 3 hour limit, available for a fee of 80 cent per hour, which will give people an opportunity to do business in Douglas in comfort.

Long stay parking is also available in the Lion House car park and in the new Woollen Mills Car Park for a fee of €3 per day. Resident's parking permits can be obtained by residents who need to park in the parking control areas during business hours. Wardens are patrolling the streets to ensure compliance with the Parking Bye-Laws and are paying particular attention to parking on footpaths and parking on double yellow lines. The public can now avail of parking spaces on street and in the public car parks, if they wish to do business in Douglas.

The_Banker

In the past I would drop down to Douglas in the car to buy something in the shops. I wont do that now unfortunately.

run_Forrest_run

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

......

I see it's 80cent per hour, I wonder how long with it take before that becomes €1 then €1.50 and finally €1.80 :rolleyes:

.....

I would say ten to fifteen years
As mentioned, the traders welcome this, the shopping centres may well need to be more tuned into who is parking in their facility. On street parking is at a premium in the area and was being abused.

JohnK

RoverJames wrote: »

As mentioned, the traders welcome this

My father heard the exact same thing from one of the local businesses today who are now thrilled that their customers can actually get parking near the business.

gbee

JohnK wrote: »

who are now thrilled that their customers can actually get parking near the business.

I await your report next week of ACTUAL factual customers who came flooding back to park outside their doors.

AND BUY Stuff from THEM.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel, next week, if I don't hear your report, I take it NO ONE has taken the opportunity to pay to buy.

kub

The same civil service type thinking in action regarding the new car park at the back of the woollen mills as has been with the car parks in the train stations in East Cork.

What a joke, they think people are going to drive in here park up and then walk all the way back to the village to get the bus to town. Then return in the evening, walk all the way back to the car and face the prospect of turning right out of the woollen mills.....not an easy task.

mik_da_man

I think they might.
The lights at the wollen mills are in operation now so a right turn ain't too bad.

I personally think the pay parking is good and will help businesses in Douglas main street. and will stop idiots abandoning their cars along the side streets.

I for one will be more inclined to use the shops on main street cause I know theres a better chance of a parking spot outside.
I aint going to be paying for it, just pop in and out.

The next thing we will may see ( and I hope it doesnt happen) is pay parking in the shopping centres.

Owen

curly from cork wrote: »

As far as I can gather and Im open to correction , the village traders welcome this pay and display as it will free up spaces outside their shops for customers

JohnK wrote: »

My father heard the exact same thing from one of the local businesses today who are now thrilled that their customers can actually get parking near the business.

I doubt after 6 months anyone will be saying the same. Rebel Ranter put it correctly, Douglas is now inconvenient, people who pop out for 5 minutes for something won't chose Douglas now.

What's worse is that generally when these schemes are thought up, very little common sense or practicality is put into the deployment. In such a small catchment area you're going to have one traffic warden being able to cover all ground in a very short space of time - leading to a sort of Nazi-ism regime. People like Mik above will be complaining within weeks of getting tickets for popping out to get milk.

It's starting to come full circle in the city now, they realise that aggressive parking controls are putting people off shopping and they've removed clamping. If they'd reintroduce more on street parking and bring down the price of a parking ticket the city could start to benefit again. I worked in town for years, it was always busy, and people would always scramble around Oliver Plunkett St/Grand Parade/South Mall for a handy spot to do an hours shopping. The only time people go to town now is for a few hours shopping, if it's a quick shop, it's into the car, and off to Wilton/Blackpool/Douglas and if you're up early enough to miss the traffic, Mahon. Douglas has just totally removed itself from that equation.

The hilarity of it all is that the Council members who dreamed up this farce are probably congratulating themselves. Remember, these are the same morons who put 17 sets of traffic lights from one end of Ballincollig to the other and brought the village to a standstill, and the same ones who got rid of the roundabout on Skehard road, put in traffic lights (Never repaired the road surface where the roundabout was in the years it's been missing either) and have now decided at a cost of 200k to the tax payer that a roundabout is needed again.

uberalles

gbee wrote: »

I await your report next week of ACTUAL factual customers who came flooding back to park outside their doors.

AND BUY Stuff from THEM.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel, next week, if I don't hear your report, I take it NO ONE has taken the opportunity to pay to buy.

Hey batman can you go into shops without Robbin ?

JohnK

gbee wrote: »

I await your report next week of ACTUAL factual customers who came flooding back to park outside their doors.

AND BUY Stuff from THEM.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel, next week, if I don't hear your report, I take it NO ONE has taken the opportunity to pay to buy.

I've no need to wait a week, my father heard it from a business owner who has already stated that their customers can now get parking outside the premises and have had that feedback from their customers. So thats the business owner who is happy and they have heard from their own customers that they are also happy.

gbee

uberalles wrote: »

Hey batman can you go into shops without Robbin ?

Actually, for years already, I send Robin to do the shopping while I drive around, we've often been mistaken for bank robbers as I pull up with tyres screaming as Robin leaves the ATM with the cash for the expedition.

hoodwinked

As a customer who lives in douglas with a family who live in douglas, we were all together yesterday and it came up,


none of us will pay for parking, we'll use the centres while they are free but if they too start charging we'll go to mahon point or wilton. if you are paying for parking you might as well head to town and have a wider variety of shops! from talking with their neighbours/friends they had the same sentiments,


on that note i'd be interested in noting how business on the barry's/ rugby club side of douglas are doing with the pay parking, that road to the roundabout always had cars parking there (never as i can recollect obstructing traffic) and its been empty these past few days,

(also noted the parking space near the garda station, are they pay parking?)

rebel.ranter

The pay parking will also have additional knock-on effects for those a little bit further out too. People will start looking for Parking in Marybourough Eatate, The
Paddocks & all areas within that sort of range. This will lead to bad/dangerous parking as people try to save a few quid. A neighbour of mine likes to park opposite the Garda station in Douglas as "it's handy", wait till more start doing that, that spot can handle a few cars but people have no brains & they will stretch the boundaries until "the authorities" set them.
Take a drive by the car park at Farran Woods, they have put a charge of €4 to park in Farran Woods. The result? The narrow country road around the entrance to the car park is littered with cars every day now & the car park is empty. The approach roads to the general area are lethal as people are abandoning cars & there's an abnormal number of pedestrians in the area now. Genius thinking there!

mik_da_man

Very good point, I was up that way a few weeks back and I thought there must have been hundreds in Farran, only to see the car park empty!

The roads a are narrow enough without people abandoning cars everywhere.

EyeSight

i have never found it hard to find a space in douglas before. i'd rather park for free and walk 2 mins to a shop rather than pay for a space just outside.
now i dont want to run the risk of not paying and popping into a shop for 5 mins. what if i wanted to go to the chipper? the line usually has you waiting a bit so you'd have to pay

mahon has become a lot more attractive

curly from cork

I wonder would free parking for 1 hour not have had the desired effect.. emptying the spaces of all day parkers and still allowing time for shoppers to do a few jobs.

That seems a very decent idea.

TheChizler

Just in response to those saying they'd go to Mahon Point to avoid the pay parking, assuming you'd be coming through Douglas anyway, it's an extra 10 km on your trip. With petrol at ROUGHLY 17 c/km you'd be paying more than twice the 80 c on-street parking charge. Sure it might be worth it for the variety, but it doesn't make economic sense.

Realistically the amount of on street parking in Douglas that wasn't used by staff or all day parkers was absolutely minimal. The proportion of folks shopping in Douglas that the charged parking will inconvenience is similarly minimal.

Anyone shopping in Tesco can pop out to the Douglas shops as required as they always have done.

Faith

TheChizler wrote: »

Just in response to those saying they'd go to Mahon Point to avoid the pay parking, assuming you'd be coming through Douglas anyway, it's an extra 10 km on your trip. With petrol at ROUGHLY 17 c/km you'd be paying more than twice the 80 c on-street parking charge. Sure it might be worth it for the variety, but it doesn't make economic sense.

Exactly.

I'd far rather pay 80c to park outside the door, than have to park miles away for free. I'd also rather pay the 80c for parking, then waste the extra petrol driving to Wilton or wherever.

gbee

Faith wrote: »

I'd far rather pay 80c to park outside the door, .

Grand, maybe extend your generosity to bringing a few neighbours with you too.

deRanged

I reckon the convenience would be well worth the 80 cent.

mik_da_man

But the issue is that people link the outgoing of money to an event.

eg - pay 80 cent now - that costs money now
Drive to mahon - Shur the car is has plenty of petrol, I'll head there instead. its not costing me extra NOW

It's the same kind of mentality that causes people to drive WELL out of their way to "save" 50 cent on a fill of petrol.

Chad_Fantastics

I'm thinking the big mistake is including saturday as a pay for day, village had very few cars around, maybe they'd all gone to the shopping centres car parks or maybe they headed to town/Mahon but the place looked dead.

A free hour would give a give a business benefit and a spot turnover benefit but we'll never see it happen. The mum in law says that the community center is ruined for parking now, cooks can't even get a place to park to do the wheels, I see the private campers stalking the lands soon...

Owen

deRanged wrote: »

I reckon the convenience would be well worth the 80 cent.

Faith wrote: »

Exactly.

It's the principle of the thing for me. I still - despite paying outlandish fuel prices and motor tax - enjoy driving my car (On the worst condition roads I remember in Cork in a long time). It's expensive enough without this being tagged on.

I refuse to acknowledge that this is 'clever' or 'smart' thinking on the part of the council. It's another f*cking tax I don't need to pay dreamt up by some idiotic public servant trying to justify their exhorbitant wage packet and existance.

It's 80c now. Next year, 1.20, then 1.50. Anyone else remember how quickly parking discs shot up in price over the space of 2 years in the City? I do!

Owen

Owen wrote: »

.........

It's 80c now. Next year, 1.20, then 1.50. Anyone else remember how quickly parking discs shot up in price over the space of 2 years in the City? I do!

There are plenty of two hour parking zones in the city in fairness, whenever I drive in I park along by the college of comm, €2 for two hours, it's quite reasonably really.

The douglas rates are expensive in comparison to that but €0.80/hour isn't out of the way, presuming it will be €1.20/hour next year or the year after is jumping the gun a tad I reckon. Time will tell and all that.

Owen

That's assuming you stay the 2 hours. Most don't. Anytime I use a parking disc, it's never for the full two hours, most times I don't even use the hour.

I'm suprised by how easy people are accepting yet another cost on to our every day lives.

Owen

Owen wrote: »

............

I'm suprised by how easy people are accepting yet another cost on to our every day lives.

I see it as preferable to having the majority of on street parking in the area occupied for long periods by staff or all day parkers
I know someone who worked in Boylesports for a good few years, they open at 10am I think, when she got to Douglas most of the on street parking spaces were taken every day, even the ones beyond the cemetery, total and utter abuse of free public parking, she herself would park for close to 12 hours during the summer months or on Fridays when they remained open 'till 9.30pm.

Owen

I don't think you can classify it as 'abuse' when it's free and unregulated.

I guess both sides aren't going to agree in this situation, but we're rapidly approaching a county where it'll be impossible to park conveniently without paying for it, and in time after increases - paying handsomly.

EyeSight

Owen wrote: »

I don't think you can classify it as 'abuse' when it's free and unregulated.

I guess both sides aren't going to agree in this situation, but we're rapidly approaching a county where it'll be impossible to park conveniently without paying for it, and in time after increases - paying handsomly.

true. there is a major habbit in this country of: if there is a problem, tax it or add a level of bureaucracy(usually needing a tax to pay for it)
we never take innovative steps

mikeym

What a joke :mad:


Last Saturday I parked my car outside the indian restraunt paid for 1 hours parking.

But I want to park more than one hour because I was in Barrys pub watching the Liverpool game and had to go back to the damn machine and put in another 80 cent. Why cant it let you park for 2 hours :mad:

The whole system is screwed up!!!

Nonoperational

Personally I'd prefer to pay 80cent and get a park rather than have free parking taken up by people who park there all day.