'Can someone explain?': Woman baffled by $120 fine for parking act
The driver was stunned after copping a fine over the simple manoeuvre, and is now warning others.
A Byron Bay resident is warning other drivers after she was stung with a $120 fine for reversing into a car space.
Parking at the popular Main Beach car park in the CBD, the woman was among several people to miss the sign instructing cars to park nose-in only.
“Can someone please explain to me why it’s now illegal to reverse into a park?” she wrote on Facebook. “Here we are paying to park and getting fined for it $120. Just awesome!”
Included in her post was a photo of a parking officer in the car park, appearing to approach the windscreen of one vehicle. She also took a photo of the parking sign where it states it’s a four-hour parking zone and says in smaller print at the bottom: “Front in at all times.”
“Has anyone else had this happen? Can the SMALL print perhaps be put at the TOP!? Please share to warn others," the woman wrote.
Her warning was met with mixed reaction from locals, with many blaming the driver for not reading the sign properly.
“Read the sign, pay the fine, suck it up,” one wrote.
Others blasted the rule, accusing council of revenue raising.
“Most stupid moronic rule that only Australia has, to line the pockets of the council. Bloody wankers,” someone said.
“Nose to kerb is a ridiculous way to park, it’s so dangerous for pedestrians, cyclists and the traffic you have to blind reverse to get back out,” another added.
But while the controversial rule may seem strange to some, others claimed there was a specific reason behind the decision.
"They changed it years ago because of exhaust fumes onto the pavement and into shops,” one person wrote.
“Plus exhaust fumes used to blow right into the faces of babies in strollers and toddlers walking with their parents,” another Facebook user added.
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Nose-in parking introduced in Byron Bay 12 years ago
Byron Bay Council used to enforce reverse parking only in the CBD, but spent $50,000 changing the signage in early 2010 to implement nose-in parking.
The changes divided opinion from local businesses, with some calling the changes “stupid”.
“There will be prangs everywhere,” one told the Daily Telegraph at the time.
Others, however, agreed with the changes as other shires in the region were already enforcing nose-in parking. David Anderson, who worked at the Byron Corner Store at the time the changes were made, said there were two reasons why nose-in parking is better.
“One is that in the summer when cars are parked with their rear-to-the-kerb and they have their air conditioning on, the fumes float straight into our store,” he said.
“And secondly we are a tourist town, yet when the Queenslanders and Victorians come here and park the wrong way around, they get a ticket. This is not good and it spoils their holidays.”
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Byron Shire Council for comment.
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