An urban cautionary tale

This is an urban cautionary tale. It involves a friend of a mine and it is a true story.

My friend lives in a quiet suburban, slightly out of the way, residential street. Some of the residences in the street have off street parking but the majority do not and as many of those residences have multiple cars attached to them there is strong demand for parking in the street. A boy's high school is located at one end of the street. Many of the older boys drive and park in my friend's street during school hours placing further pressure on the limited supply of street parking spaces.

My friend owns one car and initially had no off street parking but about ten years ago she obtained council approval and converted her small front yard into off street parking. But she rarely used the off street space preferring to park across her own driveway ostensibly reasoning that her driveway otherwise had to remain clear and was not available to anyone else. My suspicion is that she found her off street car space too tight to use.

This arrangement continued for several years without problem apart from several neighbours regularly complaining that she did not use her own off street car space, a complaint she dismissed on the grounds above.

In the meantime more and more school boys started taking up street parking during school hours, many with large SUVs. Now this didn't affect my friend except for when she had visitors who could find no nearby parking spaces. So my friend complained to the school principal about the boys' parking. She complained regularly but the situation did not change.

My friend then started a campaign to the council for a two hour parking limit to be applied to the street during weekday business hours with local residents exempted by way of specially issued permits. This, my friend reasoned, would end the practice of the school students using the street for parking. Some neighbours supported the campaign but many did not. I assume that those who were against the campaign did not want to have to pay for permission to park in their own street, an understandable point of view. I suspect some were also concerned that they had more cars requiring street parking than the number of permits that would be allocated.

The arguments, pro and con, continued for a couple of years until a few months ago the council agreed to my friend's application and a two hour time limit was placed on this quiet, out of the way, street. Residents, without any off street parking, could apply for one exemption permit.

So what happened? The street signs were installed, the residents' permits issued and the school boys had to find somewhere else to park. My friend continued to park across her own driveway.

My friend was happy. For a while. But then something she hadn't anticipated happened. Council rangers started to patrol the street. They fined my friend for parking across her driveway. This had never occurred previously in all the years she had parked this way. My friend complained to council but they quoted the relevant sub-regulation back to her. Council would fine her if she continued to park across her own driveway. My friend decided to apply for a permit and here comes the rub. Under council rules my friend is not entitled to a permit because she has off street parking available.

My friend, who still will not use her off street car space, now parks several streets away from her own home during weekdays.

As that apocryphal Chinese adage goes, be careful what you wish for because it may come true.