Parking " Hogs " !

Car owners in Australia are right in the sights of the tax collectors.  Before registration they need to buy that ever more expensive Green Slip insurance policy to cover the damage their vehicle may do to other people and when they drive they encounter toll roads and tunnels.   The fuel for their car is heavily taxed and under the guise of safety various entrapment devices take a steady toll on their wallets.

Sydney is Australia's biggest city and it seems to have a love/hate relationship with the car.  Each year the morning and afternoon peak becomes just a little slower and apartment living increases as more people try and cram into the city.   Finding a parking space is tightly policed - and parking fees are becoming another headache for car owners.

Our famous Australian lifestyle is something that we treasure - and the car plays a big part in our adventures.  Caravans have become mobile luxury homes and an ever increasing number of people are taking to the water with trailer borne watercraft - and that is creating a new problem.  Where to park these " joy toys " when they are not in use ?

We now have a compounding problem in suburbia.  Not only are the number of cars per family increasing as the ratio of land sizes decrease and more families live in apartment blocks with limited under building parking, some of these cars need to remain kerbside overnight.  In recent times, lack of onsite parking space has seen caravans, boats on trailers and that old favourite from yesteryear - the family trailer used to take rubbish to the tip - permanently kerb parked.

This is not a problem in areas covered by metered parking or where timed parking is policed by council rangers, but it is fast developing as a point of friction in the outer suburbs where what is called "free parking " is the rule.  In many instances, owners choose to park boats and caravans without thought for neighbours and these block both views and parking space for neighbours own cars - and cause a lot of animosity to develop.

The law is less than helpful.  The present legislation allows for cars, caravans, boats and any sort of trailer to be impounded if it is umoved for ninety days, but of course all the owner has to do is move it as little as one metre to stay within the law.   Proving that an offence has been committed would be a near impossible task for council rangers - and so this law is unpoliced.

There are calls for a law amendment to decrease the time factor to seven days, but that ignores the question of what owners can do to comply with the law.   Most marinas have facilities for storing trailer borne boats, but at great expense and off street parking for caravans would become an entirely new industry.   There is also a big difference between parking something that may be used at very infrequent intervals, and the parking of cars which come and go on a daily basis.

In some parts of the world, registering a vehicle requires the owner to first provide evidence that he or she has secured legal off street parking.  Perhaps such a requirement could be required for the renewal of registration for boats and trailers, but that would certainly come at the risk of decimating both the caravan and boating industries.

We certainly face a growing problem.  Our streets are communal land and if we allow residents to "  hog  " available kerb space for their own use we set a precedent that leads to anarchy.  It seems certain that living space will continue to condense as the "vertical village " replaces individual homes.
The only certainty is that a law change will encourage entrepreneurs to provide the facilities to take care of such little used play equipment until it is needed - at a cost !