Tripe+Drisheen: A Q&A with @BadParkingCork
The niche Twitter account documents the endless examples of bad and thoughtless parking throughout Cork.
Bad parking in Cork existed long before @BadParkingCork, the Twitter account. If you’re not already familiar with it, it’s a rolling documentation of the endless transgressions by drivers on to footpaths, bicycles lanes, bus lanes, wheel chair parking spaces, loading bays, plazas, and double yellow lines all over the city and county. Accounts like Bad Parking Cork are, to use an overused word, interesting. Their existence points to all manner of questions, hence this Q&A with the pleasant administrator of Bad Parking Cork, whose bio on Twitter suggests “unfollowing or muting, it gets repetitive”. (The account owner asked to remain anonymous to avoid getting abuse in real life).
Hopefully what follows will enlighten you a bit more as to the why, the what, the hows etc. about the motivation for running this niche hyper-local account.
Also interesting to note: in 2019, 70% of fines administered by Cork City Council traffic wardens were for overstaying on legal parking places or not having a parking disk according to Green Party Councillor Oliver Moran in The Echo. The city took in €1.54m from a total of 42,694 parking tickets issued that year.
“Just one percent were for parking in a bus lane and less than that again were for parking in a cycle lane while only three percent were for parking on a footpath. Those are the offences that are the real problem for people,” @oliver_moran told the paper.
This points to something that many drivers in Cork city already know: you have a very slim chance of being fined for parking in a cycle lane or on a footpath. So, why not?
To wit, Bad Parking Cork:
T+D: Why and when did you start Bad Parking Cork?
@BPC: It has been a longtime pet peeve of mine seeing people park their cars on footpaths; the straw that broke the camel's back was walking down Morrison's Island and a woman with a zimmer frame struggling to get around the car parked up on the footpath. I also had a bit of free time the same Saturday before meeting friends and decided to snap a few offenders, this was approximately April 2019.
T+D: Where did the inspiration/motivation come from?
There's a well known account called @YPLAC (You Park Like a C*nt) my version is a hyper local not-as-popular version of that :)I did consider briefly calling the account "You Park Like a Langer".
T+D: What effect, if any, does your awareness campaign have?
Very little other than to annoy people I reckon. I saw lately the RSA (Road Safety Authority) have decided to tackle footpath parking on conjunction with the Gardaí. That being said, the Gardaí are some of the biggest offenders between parking in cycle lanes and on footpaths so I'm not sure how that campaign is going to go, you live in hope though!
T+D: Your posts are very brief: a pic, and a little info about where the offending parking took place. But has there ever been an occasion where you've really wanted to comment?
Oh absolutely, some of the posts on the account are shockingly inconsiderate, particularly the ones across the tactile paving on say Washington Street or the City Council vans parked in cycle lanes (hello Mulgrave Road!). I figure the less I say the less trouble I can get into!
T+D: Do you think Cork is worse than other cities and towns in Ireland when it comes to bad parking?
It's probably not as bad as Galway, but certainly it's bad when compared with Dublin from what I've seen. If it's not green spaces, it's pedestrian plazas, pedestrianised areas, footpaths, pedestrian crossings, cycle lanes, you name it. Nothing is sacred as far as the bad parkers of Cork are concerned
T+D: Have you ever been contacted by a car owner who was featured? What do they say? Do they apologise?
I've been contacted to take posts down, there's usually an excuse given... "where else was I supposed to park?", "I've been given a dispensation to park on the cycle lane outside my premises", "I was only parked there two minutes". I've heard them all at this stage!
There's never an apology, not that I'd expect one to be honest.
T+D: Cork city, as well as towns across the county, are (slowly) realising that the car is not king, and people want to walk and cycle and enjoy urban spaces. But it seems like enforcement of these initiatives is lacking and it's making a lot of people angry. Do you think that's a fair assessment? What would you do if you were the “Parking Tsar” for Cork?
Yeah, car is king in Cork, the city council's own logo on their eCars is "We-Care", that said there are some signs of change, albeit very slow. You're spot on in terms of enforcement, even the reimagined city centre isn't working. People driving up Oliver Plunkett Street, Caroline Street during pedestrianised hours, likewise Emmett Place, Paul Street, all these initiatives are wasted without enforcement.
If I was Parking Tsar for Cork I would introduce towing of illegally parked cars, enforcement of parking in loading pays to help delivery drivers (I have massive sympathy for a delivery driver with people parking in delivery bays all day long, or non commercial drivers parking there). I'd remove on street parking and push the use of the multi-storey car parks, imagine all that space available on the streets for other uses!! I'd also introduce crushing of vehicles for the particularly bad parked cars!
Tell us about yourself: are you a good parallel parker?
I'm just a normal middle-aged man who loves Cork, loves a good craft beer, the odd cigar and is obsessed with pizza and bread. I'm a terrible parallel parker which is why I'll avoid it like the plague, I'll park in the multi story car parks all the time and i'll always find a (legal) parking spot as far away from where I need to go, much to the annoyance of my partner
T+D: When you started the Twitter thread, did you spend a lot of time looking for transgressors, or were people quick to follow and volunteer photos?
I spent very little time to be honest, that one Saturday afternoon and I really didn't try that hard. Once I posted the first few pictures on the site and I got a few retweets and the content poured into my DMs and my email account. It turns out there's a lot more people out there that have the same level of annoyance with inconsiderate parking as I do.
From your posts, is there any places or streets in Cork that really stand out, that drivers really don't give a shit and park anywhere and everywhere?
Where do I start!!!! Cornmarket Street, George's Quay, the Grand Parade plaza, the Western Road outside UCC. The South Main Street contraflow cycle lane is particularly bad mind you and also dangerous given that anyone parked there is forcing those on bikes into oncoming traffic, it's never ending. I think it's particularly annoying seeing the City Council's own vehicles parked on the footpaths, cycle lanes etc.
T+D: Is it your dream that one day there's no more bad parking and your account simply becomes an archive of a time of bad parking in Cork? Also, what about some merch - like a Bad Parking Cork calendar or beer mat:)?
I'd love it if there wasn't any more bad parking! But, let's be honest that ain't happening anytime soon. I think I'll be posting for a long time to come given the regular occurrences of it happening. I've been thinking about some merch alright, maybe some stickers, or even a sweet looking tote bag!
And finally:
Just a thanks to all the contributors, I do very little these days and the vast, vast majority of the content comes from the twitter account's followers as the posts normally say. And thanks for taking the time to ask the questions!
You can contact Bad Parking Cork on Twitter or by email at badparkingcork@gmail.com
