While I am impressed with the alacrity with which wardens give parking tickets, their zeal is often misplaced.
... there should be a law that enables buses (and possibly cars) to take photos of such violators...- Dev Ray, Sliema
For instance I was parked on the Mall, Floriana at 10.30 a.m. on June 19 on a perfectly legal spot marked for 150 minutes’ parking. I had left a disc marking my time of arrival but the disc is from Switzerland since I have not been able to purchase one here as two garages were out of stock. I am here with a car driven from abroad.
The Swiss disc indicated the limit of time as 90 minutes after my arrival.
Imagine my surprise when I found a parking ticket on my windshield given by warden no 603 at 10.44 a.m. i.e. within 15 minutes of my arrival. It states that no indication had been left as to authorisation of parking nor any disc indicating my time of arrival.
Obviously, I had initially intended to go to the police station but considered it useless since the police would have to weigh my word against that of the warden.
The question came into my mind as to why the warden would give me a ticket – either he/she thought it useful to give a false ticket to a foreign-registered car or had a quota of tickets to distribute or had problems with his/her sight.
The situation is doubly galling when I see cars double parked or even triple parked on busy roads bringing all traffic to a halt. Again as an example, I was on a bus going up Manuel Dimech Street in Sliema when the bus could not proceed further since a double-parked vehicle was blocking the road.
It took 15 minutes of chaos before the driver came and removed the car. I do not see any warden or police giving tickets for these violations which cause traffic jams in many parts of the island. Is it because they do not want to confront violaters in person but are quite content to give illegal tickets to cars left in a parking slot?
The last observation I shall make is that there should be a law which enables buses (and possibly cars) to take photos of such violaters to be able to bring them to the attention of police. But, perhaps, many others have already dwelt on the subject.