Tight Parking In Japan From June

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: No quarter for illegal parking from June
When the revised Road Traffic Law takes effect in June, drivers will face hefty on-the-spot fines even if they illegally park for just a fraction of the time that until now had been overlooked. Under the revisions, private-sector companies will be commissioned to crack down on parking violations, thus freeing up police to concentrate on more serious matters. Watchdog "traffic wardens" from these companies will be equipped with digital cameras to take pictures of vehicles that are illegally parked. The photographic evidence will immediately be sent to police and a sticker placed on the vehicle informing the driver that a fine is being levied, according to officials. Violators will face fines as soon as they walk away from the vehicle, regardless of the time it was parked. Currently, police officers mark tires with chalk when they spot illegally parked vehicles. They allow a certain leeway before issuing a ticket. That will no longer happen... There were about 1.6 million parking violations nationwide in 2005. Under the new system, the NPA expects the number to double... Trucking companies are scrambling to devise ways around the system. Yamato Transport Co., for example, is introducing a new system for collecting and delivering packages, under which drivers do not need to park...more...

[Taro Toporific]

Asahi: No quarter for illegal parking from June

Aliens with big blue bubble butts are exempted, nah, nah, na-nah, nah.

[emperor]

Seriously, how the fuck do you park cars in those spaces??
(or is it just for motorbikes?)

[Ketou]

That's a classic. Imagine if your space was the furthest in.

[puargs]

Now the ticket system will be the exact same as America? Boo-hoo. I've gotten tickets before for parking less than 30 seconds in the wrong spot WITH a passenger still in the car. American cops are ten times as dick as most keisatsu I've seen.

[GomiGirl]

Soon you may get a ticket for not moving on the green lights fast enough.

[puargs]

That's flippin crazy.

[homesweethome]

Those stickers are ok

But what you really need is something that says: 'I'm on safety patrol'



Guranteed no problemo!

[Mulboyne]

Soon to be unemployed.

[Grumblebum]

I know where this spot is - it's behind a shopping arcade in Asagaya, Tokyo.
There's a lane on the other side of the wall on the left, which connects to a larger street. Gave me a laugh the first time I saw it too.
They probably thought initially that cars could get in and out via the lane, but obviously it didn't work out (that area has the same problem with bicycle parking that most areas around train stations in Tokyo do..)

[Sarutaro]

The wife managed to get targeted on the first day of the anti-parking offensive, while stopping for a brief moment around Marunouchi. Anyone else got caught? How much is the fine?

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Parking crackdown off to rocky start
A new crackdown on illegal parking carried out by private-sector parking wardens got into gear Thursday, but not without early hiccups. In some cases, new portable ticketing devices wouldn't work. In others, violators returned to their cars and drove off before parking wardens could figure out how to make the machines print tickets...more...

[Mike Oxlong]

Looks like meter-maids aren't the only ones doing the police department's work for them...

KASHIHARA, Nara -- A man accused of seriously injuring a 14-year-old boy in a hit-and-run accident was arrested Thursday, after the boy's mother spent weeks tracking down his vehicle, police said.
via MDN

[Greji]

Asahi: Parking crackdown off to rocky start

"....
A total of 1,578 parking wardens around the country employed by 74 contractors started their new jobs in designated districts in busy urban areas and at tourist spots...."

I think we need a posting of where the designated districts are so we will know where not to park!

[FG Lurker]

I don't know about the rest of Japan, but in Osaka this is going to be very interesting indeed...

Osakans are famous for going nearly postal on cops they catch ticketing their cars. About the only thing that stops some people from physically attacking the cop is the fact that they are....a cop.

I foresee broken digicams and ticketing machines.......

[Greji]

I foresee broken digicams and ticketing machines.......

Hey, it's Osaka!!!! You forgot digicams and ticketing machines pertruding from various body orifices!

[FG Lurker]

Hey, it's Osaka!!!! You forgot digicams and ticketing machines pertruding from various body orifices!

If they're still protruding then the job isn't finished yet!

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Man busted for biting parking inspector

OKAYAMA -- A man who bit a parking inspector who warned him against illegally parking his car has been arrested for obstructing a public officer from performing his official duties, police said. Masashi Wakita, 55, a resident of Okayama who claims to be a notary public, is the second person to be arrested for attacking parking inspectors under the revised Road Traffic Law. Wakita bit an arm of a parking inspector who was cracking down on illegal parking on a street in Okayama, investigators said. "I became furious after the inspector warned me against parking illegally," he was quoted as telling investigators.

[Captain Japan]

As far as I can tell the whole crackdown has died. A friend of mine said that in Roppongi the crackdown is still in place and very strict. But I can't find one strip of road in Tokyo where people aren't parking illegally.

I ride up 246 and Gaienhigashi Dori to the get to the office. 246 is a joke, especially in the evening. Sometimes the cars illegally park two-deep. Absolutely nobody cares.

Gaienhigashi Dori has the usual strings of gravel trucks blocking one lane of traffic in the mornings. Taxi drivers still sleep in their cars with the engine on.

I think this should be chalked up to another honne/tatemae.

Any Tokyo drivers notice a difference?

[omae mona]

Any Tokyo drivers notice a difference?

Absolutely. The drastic improvement in travel times I experienced in June drifted back to sub-walking speed by mid-July. Two- or three-lane roads are back to one (or less) usable lane in each direction. The 5-minute stopping restriction has reverted to "park as long as your battery can keep those hazard lights blinking".

[Taro Toporific]

[floatl][/floatl]

<--WARNING People with big blue round butts!

.... Roppongi the crackdown is still in place and very strict.
...Any Tokyo drivers notice a difference?

The "crackdown" was just a sales windfall for companies making handicapped stickers to suppliment the official dashplates issued by the police. There has been a HUGE increase (about 300%) in the gimp stickers since the change in the parking rules.

Roppongi and Shinjuku do have deputized private tow trucks out but not enough to keep up with volume illegally parked cars.

[Captain Japan]

As it is now 246 is just plain dangerous. I think people slowly realized that the cops couldn't nail everyone so they went back to parking illegally as before. But now that they have realized how hopeless the cops are at their strongest it is now a blatant free-for-all.

[Taro Toporific]

....[J-drivers] have realized how hopeless the cops are at their strongest it is now a blatant free-for-all.

Parking tickets still cost 60,000yen and up plus 3-out-15(?) points off your J-driver's license. I would never risk it if I didn't have my handicapped permit. However, bad habits die hard...

old FG thread, 09-19-2003 ....The panel's proposal included a recommendation that car owners be fined, rather than charged with criminal responsibility.
Under the existing system, police cannot issue a fine for a parking violation unless they identify the driver who committed the violation. If a suspected driver denies the allegation, police cannot force her or him to pay the fine. In addition, about 20 percent of drivers who receive parking tickets do not pay them.

[amdg]

I don't know about the rest of Japan, but the boys in green are all over the place in the streets around where I live in Shinsaibashi, Osaka. Perhaps FG Lurker can verify it, but ever since the law came into effect I've seen them almost every day booking illegal parkers.

[Captain Japan]

Parking tickets still cost 60,000yen and up plus 3-out-15(?) points off your J-driver's license. I would never risk it if I didn't have my handicapped permit. However, bad habits die hard...

That just says to me there is a ton of potential revenue going to waste - even if only 80% of the people pay. (On any given evening 70% of the curb space of 246 between Gaienmae and the university are occupied by illegally parked vehicles.) Obviously there is funds for additional attendants. So why'd it the crackdown end?

[FG Lurker]

I don't know about the rest of Japan, but the boys in green are all over the place in the streets around where I live in Shinsaibashi, Osaka. Perhaps FG Lurker can verify it, but ever since the law came into effect I've seen them almost every day booking illegal parkers.

Yep, those guys in green are out and about all the time. It's a PITA when you want to park for a minute and run into a shop, but overall it has very much improved the flow of traffic on Osaka streets. Illegal parking is way down and double-parking is mostly gone.

Now if only they could do something about the hordes of taxis and all the idiots who can't change lanes or merge then driving would be bliss!

[dimwit]

Meanwhile out in the countryside we are building roads and discouraging bicycle usage.

[FG Lurker]

Meanwhile out in the countryside we are building roads and discouraging bicycle usage.

It's not so different here... They charge monthly for parking at the station and regularly drag away bikes parked on the road. They don't run enough trains so the carraiges are jammed.

So, I can bike to the station, pay for parking (or deal with getting my bike removed) and then take the train to work with 43,732 other people in the same carriage...or I can hop in the car and drive door-to-door. Mmm...tough choice.

[Mulboyne]

...They charge monthly for parking at the station and regularly drag away bikes parked on the road...

Osaka people seem pretty hardcore about ignoring no parking signs:

[dimwit]

Osaka people seem pretty hardcore about ignoring no parking signs:

Mulboyne you just don't understand the sign. It means no parking OUTSIDE the chains.