By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A LOCAL businessman has called for police officers to take a firmer stance against the "abuse" of loading zones in the downtown area, claiming that doing business in the area has now become a "nightmare" because officers are "only doing half the job."
Bruce Raine, owner of The Linen Shop on Bay Street, was upset at how business owners, such as himself, have been "screwed" out of their own loading zones, charging that "there's no point of having loading zones and the police can't protect it."
He said because police officers "just don't want to go through the trouble of giving a ticket to somebody," motorists see fit to "just park in them and stay there all day."
Adding insult to injury, Mr Raine said, was how his wife was fined $100 for obstructing traffic on Charlotte Street, but was forced to do so because she was unable to access the store's loading zone.
Mr Raine said he paid the fine, but still wants "to see the police force doing their job and making sure that people use the loading zone to load or unload goods and not to park there for the whole day."
"It's enormously frustrating and difficult," he told The Tribune. "Downtown is a very tightknit place. One building is mashed right up on the other building, and so the only way you have to get goods into or out of your shop is through the front door. Now if you can't get to the sidewalk, then what are you going to do? How are you going to get your goods into the shop?
"And this is why you have so many loading zones. But when people abuse the loading zone, then the shop owners, they get screwed. And if the police don't do their job, then you've just got chaos."
He added: "I've called Central Station, but nobody wants to take possession of it.
"Nobody wants to own the problem. The police don't want to own the problem. They don't want to have to go through the trouble to investigate why a car is there from 8 o'clock in the morning until 5 or 6 o'clock at night.
"You've got to have a timeline on how long you can be in a loading zone. You can only load or unload for a few minutes. But if you're there for more than half an hour, the same car is there for more than half an hour, call the tow truck and have the thing towed away. That'll stop it real quick, but they won't do it. I don't know why they won't do it."
Using the experience with his wife to highlight his concerns, Mr Raine claimed that his previous attempts at complaining about the matter to police have fallen on deaf ears. Regarding his wife's situation, Mr Raine said that when his wife explained the matter to the police officer involved, the response given to her was one of a dismissive nature.
"And she's a full-fledged police officer," Mr Raine said. "And she's saying, 'well I can't stop them from going in the loading zone, but I can stop you stopping on the street.' It ain't right.
"So, I went down and paid the fine, $100, but I want to see the police force doing their job and making sure that people use the loading zone to load or unload goods and not to park there for the whole day."
He added: "The whole parking thing downtown is a nightmare. The loading zone must have regulations…you couldn't paint the thing out yellow and say it's a loading zone if it was intended for public parking. So, I assume there's some sort of legal recourse the police would have to force someone to move or to have the car towed away.
"I can tell you one thing, if on Wednesday when the House (of Assembly) sits and people park on Parliament Street, they'll have that towed away in a minute, because that's a high-profile deal. You're parking in a member of Parliament's spot. But when they park in front of my shop and the girl is working right next door, 'too bad, can't do nothing about it.'
"If the police would call the wrecker, and the wreckers were handy and would take the cars away, that would fix the problem immediately."
The Tribune contacted senior RBPF officials yesterday for response to the claims. However, they said Mr Raine's complaints, as well as any other complaints of a similar nature, should be lodged at the Central Police Station.
Comments
TalRussell 7 years, 4 months ago
Comrades! Shouldn't we first investigate to see if just maybe a firmer stance against the abuse of declaring parking spaces as loading zones- might be necessary?
alfalfa 7 years, 4 months ago
Bruce, why don't you call the wrecker yourself. I've done it many times and it worked fine for me.
John 7 years, 4 months ago
Bay Street is now already aggressively hostile towards Bahamians and motorists and now this man is trying to pour fuel on the fire. It is past intimidating to drive down Bay street, early especially Sunday mornings and see so many police standing with their ticket books ready to give them(tickets) out. Not only does it discourage one from going down Bay Street but even more from stopping to shop. Maybe the downtown merchants need to come together and find a solution and only involve the police if it becomes absolutely necessary. Parking is going to be a major point of contention for the revival of Bay Street. One solution may be to convert a group of delapidated buildings into a high rise parking lot. or maybe two.
morethanconcerned 7 years, 4 months ago
What about the abuse of the handicapped parking spaces by persons who are not handicapped or traveling with a person that's handicapped???
truetruebahamian 7 years, 4 months ago
Taxis will park on the loading zone and handicapped access ramps at my places of business and get abusive... calling us paper bahamians and refusing to move until we walk up with a police officer. But if you park in a taxi space and you will hear about your nasty abusive no manners self. Just as bad are those able bodied persons who have no qualms about parking in handicapped designated parking areas and pretend as though they don't notice you when you bring it to their attention.
alfalfa 7 years, 4 months ago
As I said before, call the tow truck yourself. Be ready to defend yourself because right is not right for all the people yet. Some still break the law with impunity, and no consequence, while others are made to pay the piper.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 4 months ago
There should be NO vehicular traffic on Bay Street ......... It should be a pedestrian zone
jackbnimble 7 years, 4 months ago
To my knowledge you can only park in a loading zone for up to 20 minutes. Unless it's a private home only the police are authorized to have cars towed. I work downtown and I've seen the police have cars towed from loading zones on Frederick and George Streets. Bay Steeet should be no exception.
John 7 years, 4 months ago
The thing about this is the store owners and their employees and other people who work downtown hogg up all the parking spaces anyway. So persons wanting to go downtown to patronize businesses, including his, cannot find anywhere to park. How about putting some 30 minutes or even 60 mins max parking meters along Bay Street for 50 cents and $1.00 respectively. That way if someone want to dash into John Bull to buy some jewelry or go to the Linen Shop can do so with less hassle. Do this and every store on Bay Street will see a 10-20% increase in sales over the next few months.
jackbnimble 7 years, 4 months ago
Actually more than 60% of the spots are marked for taxis. The few that are left are taken by merchants and people working downtown who are there from as early as 5 a.m. to get parking. It's a nightmare.
baldbeardedbahamian 7 years, 4 months ago
GET RID OF ALL BUT EIGHT OF THE TAXI PARKING SPACES AND TURN THEM INTO 30 MINUTE PARKING. MIGHT SOLVE THE PROBLEM A LITTLE BIT.
sealice 7 years, 4 months ago
They could keep a tow truck at the Mall at Marathon just to tow fluckers that feel they gat rites to park were dey want wen dey want an how dey want......disrespectful cornholes along with all the arsholes that feel it's their right to run redlights and laugh at people they almost kill.
licks2 7 years, 4 months ago
They need to start providing parking for their staff away from the main Bay street. . .then there would be parking for others who come to shop. . .there would be no need to park in their loading zones!!
jackbnimble 7 years, 4 months ago
The Chinese obviously plan to take advantage. They built that huge parking stadium by the Hilton which I understand is costing a minimum of $100 a month to use. I'm sure they will make their money back hand over fist within the first 10 years.
DaGoobs 7 years, 4 months ago
This is either laziness on the police officer's part or sheer ignorance of the law and not acceptable in either case. Under the road traffic regulations made under the Road Traffic Act, the Controller of Road Traffic is responsible for designating bus stops, no parking areas, loading zones and the like. The police are then responsible along with road traffic inspectors (the people in the blue on dark blue uniforms) for enforcing the Act and its multitude of regulations. If buses started parking in the taxi spaces or no parking zones, the police are not going to say "That's not my responsibility, go see Road Traffic". As one respondent noted, when you drive down Bay Street the police are on every corner with their summonses waiting to book you for expired inspection and other driving infractions. So it's okay to book us for an expired vehicle inspection regarding a vehicle that the police don't register or inspect but they can't enforce the law regarding loading zones. The Commissioner of Police needs to jump on this immediately and get his people in line. They can't selectively enforce the road traffic laws. And the police should understand that it's their job to resolve issues like these not tell a civilian "This is a Central Police Station matter, call them". They should take the matter up with the Commissioner, resolve it and advise the public as to what was done, why and what will happen going forward. I agree that taxi cabs have too many of the parking spots on Bay Street and no one has ever explained why. Regarding the handicapped parking spaces, unlike Florida and other places there is no law penalising people for parking in such spaces without the requisite decal. If you watched the Parking Wars show on TV, you see where the penalty is $300 for parking in such spaces. Also, there is no information available as to where one would go in order to apply for the handicapped decal.
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