Here too.
Hospitals are the worst. What moron thought that pay and dismay is suitable for a Hospital car park? As an outpatient how the f*ck you do know how long you are going to be kept waiting?
Last time I visited my local hospital I had to take my son to casualty for a suspected broken toe. I did not have enough money so had to leave him on his own to have a long conversation with the bloody car park attendant to avoid fines/clamping/towing away. It's a disgrace IMHO.
Think you need to look beyond the obvious. Think how many work at or visit a hospital each day. To provide free unlimited parking would be impossible at most. And it would likely be difficult to provide free parking for 'emergencies' as that could be a minor cut to some and a heart attack to others. Of course it might be more easy if you built new hospitals on out of town sites - like shopping malls - but what is more important, them being close to those needing them or free parking?
They have to, if they didn't the surrounding streets would be full and the hospital empty.
The alternative is resident only parking.
That does not seem to be the case near us. The hospital car park is charged for and the surrounding streets are free. Both are usually full during visiting hours.
Of course I've looked "beyond the obvious" as you so rudely put it. Nowhere was I proposing providing "unlimited free parking". A bit of common sense should prevail. Providing free parking for emergencies would be sensible and there are many ways to achieve this.
casualty
disgrace
The workers have staff carparks with barriers and card access.
Visitors would be better catered for with a pay on exit system.
Considering the huge areas that hospitals cater for these days out of town would be better IMHO. It takes about 40 mins to get to the outskirts of Carlisle from here and then another 30 to 60 mins depending on time of day to cross the city to get to the hospital...
Pay on exit would be more logical...but not perhaps as profitable, as people would pay for what they actually use, and 'going over' fines due to long treatment times would be less common!
My latest appointment letter advises me to allow 30 minutes for parking. The car park is far too small at two of the nearest hospitals and all they have is a laughable 'parking team, happy to help' who say 'nothing we can do, guv' and then slap tickets on any car they can.
They did that in Edinburgh - built a new hospital on the outskirts of the city. Didn't stop them from imposing swingeing parking fees, or covering the surrounding roads in every direction with double yellow lines.
-- Halmyre
Exactly the same in Ashford, Kent. Car park laughably small, and inadequate bus service too.
And just occasionally car parks like the new Sainsbury 'flagship' High Wycombe store. Fully equipped with car detectors so you get directed to empty bays. A smart card system - get card on entry and either present at the till for free parking or pay on foot.
But the real benefit is that a few days after opening (what? a couple of months ago) the barrier/payment system broke down and so far hasn't worked since. Free parking without any hassle! Hooray.
(Bound to be fixed by next time I go.)
The hospital should use a barriered car park where you take your ticket with you and pay on the way out for the number of hours you have spent parking.
Adam
Still not fixed today.
But what a fine store! Light and airy, with everything well presented. Truly a 21st century supermarket.
In many ways yes. But for the noise from the various 'get ready to push your trolley off the conveyor' and other automatic announcements. Overlapping and echoing. Deafening big bongs in the lift. A truly hideous auditory environment.[1]
But the chillers are quieter than in most of the others supermarkets.
[1] OK - paid up grumpy git but I do have near permanent tinnitus and find myself extra sensitive to noise.
I think all the canterbury ones are per min now (albeit with a min charge)
They couldn't get the night charge right though. 1.50 after 7pm for all night - but if you have a ticket that expires after 7pm you don't need to pay the night charge.
Most cost effective to arrive at 18:15 and put minimum charge in (70p). At
1.5p per min the machine gives you a ticket that expires at 19:01 and saves you 80p :-) (yes, I'm sad enough to have done this plenty of times :))Rumour has that the group tendering for the machines hadn't been informed what complicated charging model the PHB had decided on. Machines can't implement the model that was decided :)
Darren
Last time I was in Canterbury I ended up phoning the council to work out how to work the b***y machine. And then explained it to the 3 people who had overheard, and couldn't do it either.
The one next to Canterbury West if you want to wander down and have a go.
Andy
I don't really believe the machines can't implement it, they aren't mechanical, they are firmware based:
if >= then =
Simples.
What isn't simples is the costs and negociations for a change to the firmware, the rewriting of that firmware and the roll out of that to the installed machines...
That's true, but it is also true of just about any supermarket with the Travolators.
Also true. Very strange for Wycombe!
Perhaps the kids *are* noisy but the noise just evaporates into all that space?
Same here. My hearing is very acute, too, which means I pick up
*every* sound.
But I don't remember the Travolator in High Wycombe town centre Tesco making any announcements. Nor another one anywhere that is quite as bad.
That's what they've got at West Middlesex Hospital and it is the only sensible option - as the OP said, pay and display supposes you know how long you'll be there at the outset.
I know some politicians have angled for votes by promising free hospital parking but unless there's a huge surplus of spaces, then free = little chance of finding a space. I can't now remember what West Mid charges, but the last few times I went there, there were always spaces to be had.
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