Trippier than Towing

By KizzieFK Last edited 193 months ago
Trippier than Towing
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Yesterday, we saw a strange sight in Soho: Cars are being lifted straight out of their parking spots onto trucks and being hauled away. Even more surprisingly, we heard reports of it happening again today, on Regent Street.

Well, we can expect to see many more cars being carried by cranes, as it turns out that TfL have yet another congestion-reducing trick up their sleeves. Yesterday they announced that 21 new high-tech removal vehicles will be scouring London's red route network to help clear illegally parked, abandoned or broken cars. They're hoping to improve traffic flow for cars and buses.

The new trucks not only have cranes, but they also have sat nav systems and automatic number plate recognition software. And they're conveniently linked up with parking attendants, who can call in these new hulkers at will to take cars to any of nine impound lots around London.

Apparently this new car-clearing effort has been going on since November, but TfL have stepped up the program and will be pluck-and-towing throughout more areas of the city in the next few months. Should make for some interesting out-the-office-window watching.

We can only imagine how costly the ticket would be for this sort of violation plus towing plus impounding. It makes us glad we stick to public transport.

Image courtesy of florriebassingbourn's Flickrstream

Last Updated 29 February 2008