| Topic: | In defence of Phil Taylor (I know, I know....) | |
| Posted by: | Gerald Cabb | |
| Date/Time: | 17/04/10 13:18:00 |
| I think some of the problem is the appallingly Big Brotherish use of CCTV by the Livingstone-inspired pro-bus, anti-car attitude of the previous Labour council. People (including me) therefore have been left with the strong memory that stopping even for a moment gets you a ticket, with no judgement or discretion. But in actual fact this applied/applies only to the bus stop (though I still disagree with the use of the CCTV). This was combined, when it first started, with the station forecourt itself being closed for security reasons (after 7/7?), which meant it wasn't possible to stop anywhere on that road EXCEPT at the bus stop, for many months. Therefore many people got caught by the CCTV. The upshot is that we're all now terrified of pausing to drop off or pick up, anywhere that has yellow markings on it, even where it's OK to do so, and even where there's no CCTV. I thought Phil Taylor's first post was actually quite helpful in this context - it's reminded me/made clearer that stopping on the yellow lines for 30 seconds inside the forecourt (which is now open) is *not* the same thing as a 5 sec pause on the bus stop which was enough to get you caught by the CCTV, but which was the only place you could try to stop in the days that the security barriers were up. I think most of us (me included) have been getting these two scenarios mixed up when we froth at the mouth about how picking up is impossible without an instant ticket. |