Yahoo Lifestyle Van's 'spectacularly selfish' parking on suburban street sparks debate - but is it illegal?
Locals are raging about the unorthodox parking decision, but has the van driver done anything wrong?
A van driver has been slammed after parking across a speed hump many pedestrians use as a crossing on a suburban Australian road. The late night manoeuvre has sparked debate online, but was he actually illegally parked?
In a photo shared online, the large vehicle can be seen parked over the top of a raised section of a road — with white markings along it — in Wentworth Point, in the Sydney's west.
Local man John Den Haan snapped the picture along Bayswater Drive this week. “I thought it was spectacularly selfish,” he told Yahoo News Australia.
“Because even though the whole area is a shared zone, this is the only place where the elderly and differently abled can cross without having to mount the curb.”
While Den Haan conceded that he wasn’t sure if the move was “allowed or not”, he said it could be a real problem for others.
“For me it was a minor inconvenience, [but] for those with a walker or a wheelchair, of whom we do have a few in our community, this is a huge barrier,” he explained.
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Post sparks confusion
After taking to Facebook to share his outrage over the driver’s parking, Den Haan ignited confusion over what the markings on the road actually meant.
“Isn’t that a pedestrian crossing?” one person asked.
“No it’s just a speed hump that people chose to cross at,” replied another.
“It is a crossing, just not a ‘pedestrian crossing’ where vehicles have to give way first, otherwise there wouldn’t be concrete pavement at the approaches on the verge and a gap in the middle of the road where the median islands are,” added someone else.
Another said they’d heard about some “near misses” due to the confusion, with people assuming it was a “zebra crossing” and not looking as they made their way across the road.
While others argued over whether the park was legal.
What do the rules say?
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for the City of Parramatta confirmed that the "pedestrian crossing" was in fact a speed hump, also known as a traffic calming device.
And motorists were absolutely not allowed to park there.
"The vehicle in question is illegally parked due to not being in a marked parking space which is an offence subject to a $129 fine,” the spokesperson said.
Motorists left scratching their heads
It’s far from the first time drivers have been confused over parking rules.
Late last year, a woman in Sydney’s inner west copped a hefty $305 fine for breaking a little-known parking rule, because it turns out that it’s illegal to park within three metres of any double dividing lines.
While it was a lack of lines that left drivers confused in Maroubra, in Sydney’s south, and one person with a fine. Despite there being no signs saying parking wasn’t allowed, Randwick City Council confirmed that the empty space in the car park was meant for reversing in and out of car spaces, which is why there were no lines marking parking bays here.
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