Resident explodes as furious notes found plastered on cars: 'I don't give a toss'
A 'parking vigilante' has tagged cars with aggressive notes, accusing them of a dodgy deed at the expense of local residents.
A frustrated Aussie has exposed drivers who allegedly take up free on-street parking while they catch an Uber to the airport to dodge exorbitant private car park fees, illustrating a simmering issue in our nation's cities.
The unknown parking vigilante taped several aggressive letters to car windows calling out the behaviour, with urban planning expert Dr David Mepham telling Yahoo News Australia the lack of parking in many residential streets has made Aussies "aggressively territorial about 'their' parking spaces".
“I’m a selfish f**k,” the angry note found on multiple cars in Nundah, a suburb about 10 minutes north of Brisbane Airport, began. “I park my car in front of other people’s houses and then catch an Uber to the airport.
“I don’t give a toss that the people who live here now have to park further from their homes – I saved a few bucks on parking and I don’t care about other people.” It went on to brand the motorists “self-centred” and poor parkers.
The confronting note follows two recent incidents where residents in Melbourne and Sydney went to great lengths to reserve parking spots in front of their homes by illegally putting out orange traffic cones, while others dobbed them in.
Mepham, author of Rethinking Parking: Planning and Urban Design Perspective, told Yahoo News that “People tend to become very emotional about parking".
“We often do feel entitled to 'cheap, easy' parking, and are conveniently blind to the consequences of our own behaviour. People can become selfish, silly and aggressive about entitlement. It’s bullying, there’s no two ways about it.”
He said the number and size of cars on our roads had increased substantially as the population has grown, which in Brisbane has exploded from around 500,000 in the 1970s to almost 2.3 million today. At the same time the amount of urban space has been reduced.
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No 'magic solution' to parking issues without regulations
According to data analysed by Ray White Corporate, Brisbane CBD now has the highest casual parking rate in Australian capital cities with a full day costing a whopping $79.83, compared to Sydney ($77.67) and Melbourne ($67.49).
Mepham said there was “no magic solution” to prevent people from taking up free spaces in residential streets for days or weeks at a time unless councils took action.
“If that street/area is attracting long term 'park and hide' then residents may need to raise it with Council – ask for a parking study to confirm parking issues and propose regulation of parking in that area," he told Yahoo News.
“However, once you have regulation, that needs to be enforced which costs money. Then you can count the minutes until residents start complaining about the regulations.”
Other alternatives were introducing residential parking permits, however there was always “more demand than supply” which could exacerbate the situation as residents often felt even more entitled to a spot if they were paying for one.
Angry note sparks mixed debate on social media
Photos of the notes on the cars in Nundah were posted on social media, attracting a lively debate with some slamming the author's “aggressive behaviour” and another asking: "entitled much?"
“Try living within 200 metres from a train station,” one said, while another added, “Fancy thinking you own the street in front of your house. Unless there are local residents with permit only signs or they park across a driveway, it’s a first come first park situation.”
However, others pointed out the issue caused real problems for residents.
“We’ve had two cars parked in our street for over a month,” a woman wrote. “I checked the registrations and they are both self-rental cars. Sooo annoying but what can we do… nothing, I guess till someone rents them out.”
Another said his car was recently tagged with a card saying he'd parked like “an a**hole” after leaving his car in his driveway for 10 minutes as the “gate remote wasn't working”.
No rules against extended parking in a unrestricted public streets
A Brisbane City Council spokesperson said it had received one complaint this year about extended parking in the two suburban streets mentioned in the post.
“This one complaint was received in January 2024 and was about a car parked on a yellow line for an extended period of time,” they said.
It is not illegal to park in a residential streets without restrictions unless the car was disobeying other road rules, the spokesperson added.
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