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oO _ < or 4 we a YELLOW P- GES Perilous parkin ATLON | voce Gece | " “ 176 PEMBERTON AVE. N.VAN, 985-7455 (rigisis .

IT’S a dirty job but somebody has to do it. Enforce parking bylaws, that is.

A pet peeve for many readers would seem to be the parking enforcement officers that motor about in their duel-controlled Suzukis smearing chalk on the tires of parked cars, apparently with nothing bet- ter to do. Others are miffed about the ticket they found in their window after park- ing “for less than a minute” in a “no parking zone.”

A few others have voiced a more legitimate concern, noting that the high motor vehicle collision rates in areas such as Third Street and Mahon Avenue in Norih Vancouver can be attributed not to speed, as photo-radar salesmen would have us believe, but to low visibility due to cars and trucks parked too close to said intersection.

{ recently spoke with Barbara Hamilton, the Parking Enforcement Supervisor for the City of North Vancouver, and ran a series of questions by her in an effort to get the skinny on Parking Enforcement Officers (which is their only job, so dense is the North Van population).

As for the high collision rate at intersections being attributed to improperly parked cars, Hamilton says, “We are diligent in enforce- ment of all infractions as we come across them near any intersection.” After a few drive-bys of such intersec- tions I did notice the absence of illegatly parked vehicles.

She also states that safe-

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ty isa Parking Enforcement Officers first priority, but then went on to note that the most frequently written tickets are for vehicles over- parked Cover a time dimin and “contrary to sign (includes bus zones}.”

This statement does lend some credence to the “chaik happy” peeve expressed by some readers but it should be noted that illegal parking causes confusion and con- gestion in the streets, which leads to crashes often enough. Besides, which part of NO parking or NO stop- ping is unclear?

Curiously, Hamilton also stated that no area is ignored nor patrolled Jess frequently yet Enforcement Officer #4 told me that he often turns a blind eye to cars parked illegally on the gravel near Semisch Avenuc and Third Street in North Van because street parking is unavailable in that area.

Furthermore, | personally parked my non-registered- with-the-city vehicle for a full year on 18th Street, a two-hour zone, before find- ing a single ticket. Another unregistered fellow I know has parked on that same street for five years.

“The city is a fairly con- cenirated commercial use corridor, Hamilton offered. “The business districts are our main voacern with fre-

quent residential patrols.”

And. in all fairness, there are onty six Parking Enforcement Officers waployed fer the entire city, so some illegally parked cars are bound to slip through the net (not near a Starbucks, noted one reader),

And, befieve itor mot, said enforcement officers dre vecasionally thanked in ain otherwise thankless job: Hamilton noted that busi- ness owners are very pleased to see overparked

and illegally parked curs Uicketed because those curs keep customers away. Good point, that.

Without parking bylaws and their enforcement our streets would be a zoo. and they're none too tame as if is.

So grin and bear it folks, and remember my favorite Sesame Street song: “A parking enforcement officer is a person ia your neigh- borhood, in your neightor- hood...”

Be safe.

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