Parking over fire hydrants

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blackjack17

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#2969275 16-Sep-2022 18:04

neb:
Handsomedan:

I would assume by the logic of Bus Lane infringements being heavily policed and Hydrant infringements not, that it has a lot to do with what brings in more revenue.

Also with bus lanes it's fully automated - ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching - while with hydrant parking they have to send someone out to deal with it.

Parking in a bus lane will disrupt 100s if not 1000s of people at that particular time.

Parking on a fire hydrant will result in the fire department having to tow your car to access the hydrant, an unlikely event but might happen.

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SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2969280 16-Sep-2022 18:20

blackjack17:

Parking on a fire hydrant will result in the fire department having to tow your car to access the hydrant, an unlikely event but might happen.

It's not unusual for government to make irrational decisions to reduce the potential effect of very unlikely events. Restricted access to fire hydrants poses a real risk to life and property. Someone driving down a 24/7 bus lane in the middle of the night when there is no other traffic on the road doesn't inconvenience anyone in the slightest.

decibel

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#2969286 16-Sep-2022 18:38

I always thought the law said that stopping on a hydrant was OK as long as someone stayed in the car who was capable of moving it when required - seems the law has changed.

blackjack17

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#2969287 16-Sep-2022 18:40

SirHumphreyAppleby:

blackjack17:

Parking on a fire hydrant will result in the fire department having to tow your car to access the hydrant, an unlikely event but might happen.

It's not unusual for government to make irrational decisions to reduce the potential effect of very unlikely events. Restricted access to fire hydrants poses a real risk to life and property. Someone driving down a 24/7 bus lane in the middle of the night when there is no other traffic on the road doesn't inconvenience anyone in the slightest.

We aren't talking about driving it's the parking that is the issue.

that being said, if driving in a 24/7 bus lane isn't enforced then why wouldn't everyone, then what is the point in the bus lane?

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RunningMan

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#2969302 16-Sep-2022 19:26

HelloThere: I guess not parking related but I was on the understanding that you could park on a fire hydrant as long as someone who could legally move the vehicle remained with it so it could be moved if needed?

You're correct. The legislation was linked to earlier in the thread.

Parking near fire hydrants
(1) A driver or person in charge of a vehicle must not stop, stand, or park the vehicle—
(a) within 500 mm of a fire hydrant; or
(b)if the fire hydrant is situated below the surface of the road, within 500 mm of the centre of the cover of the hydrant.
(2)A driver or person in charge of a vehicle must not stop, stand, or park the vehicle between the nearer edge of the roadway and any portion of a marking on the roadway indicating the presence of a fire hydrant, the centre of which marking is not more than 6 m from a fire hydrant situated outside the roadway.
(3)However, a driver is not in breach of subclause (1) or subclause (2) if the driver proves that he or she remained in the vehicle or left in charge of the vehicle a person licensed and capable of moving it if necessary.

Scott3

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#2969303 16-Sep-2022 19:26

blackjack17:

Parking in a bus lane will disrupt 100s if not 1000s of people at that particular time.

Parking on a fire hydrant will result in the fire department having to tow your car to access the hydrant, an unlikely event but might happen.

Amusingly enforcement of parking in a bus lane is not automated (and the fine is fairly low at $60 I think). - And unless you also cross an enforcement zone of the bus lane to park, you aren't also going to get a driving in bus lane fine.

It is driving in a bus lane that is automated and cops a $150 fine.

Quite amusing. The government really need to stop hard-coding fine values into legislation, and instead write "Teir 17 fine", which lines to a table published annually, which gives the value of each fine (increased each year to cover inflation etc.)

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Kyanar

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#2969314 16-Sep-2022 20:03

Scott3:

Quite amusing. The government really need to stop hard-coding fine values into legislation, and instead write "Teir 17 fine", which lines to a table published annually, which gives the value of each fine (increased each year to cover inflation etc.)

The Australian model is to denote fines in terms of "Penalty Units", and then revising the value of a PU annually. For example in Queensland, a PU is $143, and the fine for not wearing a seatbelt is 8 penalty units (and 4 demerits) - making it $1,144, increasing each year with inflation.

richms

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#2969322 16-Sep-2022 20:48

Plenty of people park in the T3/bus lane on Onewa road outside the booze shop and dairy every evening and make the buses have to pull into the other lane when they finally get a gap. Nothing ever seems to be done to enforce that.

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msukiwi

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#2969325 16-Sep-2022 21:14

Here there is a hydrant I can see from my kitchen window. Over a period of 3 years I saw over 500 vehicles left on it! Even if 100's of metres of legal parking was available!

Wardens came for only 10% of the ones I reported!

I have it in writing from FENZ that they have no policy regarding vehicles on hydrants., and that it is unlikely that they would:

- Use the Appliance (BRT = Big Red Truck) to push a vehicle out of the way as it risks damage to the BRT!

- Use personnel to push a vehicle out of the way as it risks injury to the personnel!

A simple solution is to make it and leaving a vehicle on yellow lines a towable offence, and engage a towing company to police it.

Behaviour would change overnight!

I had to fight for 5 years to get the hydrant circle repainted (They only routinely paint the lid and triangle here in Christchurch)

The CCC "Traffic Engineer" said it wouldn't make any difference! He was right!

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2969361 17-Sep-2022 06:36

So, in summary, laws exist, but the designated authorities aren't interested in enforcing them because they don't align with their flawed ideology, or it's 'too hard'.

blackjack17

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#2969365 17-Sep-2022 07:39

SirHumphreyAppleby:

So, in summary, laws exist, but the designated authorities aren't interested in enforcing them because they don't align with their flawed ideology, or it's 'too hard'.

Yes but that goes for a range of laws that seem to be less and less enforced.

I see a good quarter of drivers on their phone, parking on yellow lines, parking on the footpath, parking on the grass, speeding, noisy exhausts, loud speakers.

Police and council just don't seem interested in enforcing any laws that aren't captured by a camera.

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Kyanar

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#2969412 17-Sep-2022 11:01

blackjack17:

Yes but that goes for a range of laws that seem to be less and less enforced.

I see a good quarter of drivers on their phone, parking on yellow lines, parking on the footpath, parking on the grass, speeding, noisy exhausts, loud speakers.

Police and council just don't seem interested in enforcing any laws that aren't captured by a camera.

Good news, they have cameras for that now!

kiwiharry

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#2969434 17-Sep-2022 13:25

Then you get councils who do this.

If you can't laugh at yourself then you probably shouldn't laugh at others.

msukiwi

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#2969435 17-Sep-2022 13:30

kiwiharry:Then you get councils who do this.

Probably have a camera or sensor to see when someone parks there to instantly issue a ticket!

Ge0rge

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#2969454 17-Sep-2022 16:08

As always, a detailed and informative post by @Scott3. I'd just make a couple of quick (nit-pick) corrections:

If fire hydrant is on the footpath, and there is a row of parked car's alongside the cerb, the fire truck will stop in the live lane, with it's intake lined up with the hydrant. Intake / suction hoses aren't huge (64mm nominal?), so can be poked between parked car's.

Guess the typical length of a suction hose less than 6m, so any fire hydrants more than 6m from the marking are intended to be accessed from off the roadway.

Suction hose isn't used to connect to a hydrant - it's designed for vacuum, not pressure. Suction hose is generally 3m in length, and normally there are four lengths carried on an appliance, at a nominal 150mm diameter. It's used for draughting from open water (pools, rivers etc) and can't be connected to a hydrant due to the differing couplings (thread on suction, QD on domestic hose).

In residential areas, hydrants are (supposed to be) no more than 150m apart. Most appliances carry at least four 30m long, 70mm diameter, feeders that are used to supply water from a hydrant to the appliance (that's one half of the red spaghetti that one would see at a call, not to be confused with the deliveries which are what takes the wet stuff to the hot stuff from the appliance).

An appliance will generally be parked as close to the scene as safely possible, taking into account numerous factors including wind direction, water run-off, access for other emergency services etc, with the crew noting the location of hydrants as they arrive. There is enough water on board to begin firefighting as soon as a crew has put their BA on, the hydrant position and connection comes second. But, it sucks to be the newbie on the appliance when you are parked 75m between two hydrants...

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