r/mildlyinfuriating • u/derek4reals1 • 1d ago

Overdone The parking job wasn't the part

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12.4k Upvotes

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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 1d ago

A tow truck should immediately be called as soon as a problem is noticed and the driver should pay steep fines for blocking trams in this manner. Get the car out of there as soon as possible.

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u/OR_Miata 1d ago

I live near this route that’s usually what happens. Except the tow truck usually takes longer to get there than it takes the driver to leave.

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u/SmoothOperator89 1d ago

Pay the tow company a premium to get there in 5 minutes and charge the driver the extra cost to get their vehicle back from the impound lot.

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u/ShamScience 1d ago

No no no! We have morons around here who drive tow trucks, and they do race each other to get to a site first, and cause a whole lot more crashes along the way. One this week took a corner next to me far too sharply and nearly took my arm with him.

So I think maybe a different solution to this problem, please.

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u/becuzz04 1d ago

Battering rams mounted on the train.

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u/regoapps 5-0 Radio Police Scanner 1d ago

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u/idwthis God forbid one states how they feel or what they think. 1d ago

Ooh yeah, Carpiercer.

Who's gonna be Wilford, though? Can we get Sean Bean back?

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u/TRUEequalsFALSE 1d ago

It's been at least 10 years since I saw that episode. Please tell me they slowed the clip down at some point and ran it to The Blue Danube...

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u/wildo83 1d ago

This….

Put a cowcatcher on the front like the old Steam engines…. Just roll those bitches over…

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u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 1d ago

Tram drivers armed with crowbars and sidearms

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u/tranimal00 1d ago

My dad drives a tram. That’s his wet dream lol

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u/Onebraintwoheads 1d ago

Is it as mindnumbing as it looks? It's gotta be stressful trying to stay vigilant, but at the same time doing the same route has to dull the wits, yeah?

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u/tranimal00 1d ago

The homeless are pretty aggressive where my dad works. Plus stupid stuff like this. He had a car take a right at an intersection says no turn on red. He ignored that and the light rail making the turn. Tbones the car and then my dad has to do paperwork drug test all that fun stuff a 60 year old wants to do lol

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u/MadPopette 1d ago

Does your dad work in Portland, OR? Because we've made like three car vs light rail accidents in the last month!

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u/GreyPon3 1d ago

Tram trunk monkey! 🤣

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u/Sysilith 1d ago

You mean like train buffers?

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u/rohmish 23h ago

i approve

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u/ZamBam818 22h ago

Agreed.

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u/NacchoTheThird 17h ago

As meme-y as it sounds, it's an elegant solution I wouldn't be opposed to. It's not like the train is veering off its tracks to hit the improperly parked car. It might be an issue come winter time but city parking ordinances for tighter fitting areas could be an easy solution.

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u/NiobiumThorn 1d ago

Avoiding competition and focusing on maximizing effective work would be key here. That means ending the privatized tow truck companies and centralizing it within the state.

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u/NateDawg91 1d ago

Thank you. Tow drivers cab be the worst. Operate heavy vehicles without usually having to get a cdl. Kinda like rv owners who tow 40k lbs down the rd and have no obligation to be better drivers.

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u/-Cthaeh 1d ago

Well accidents are no problem, there should be a tow truck nearby

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u/PraiseTalos66012 1d ago

I've seen tow trucks flying down the burm of the road or down the center turning lane like they are an emergency vehicle trying to be first to the wreck, dangerous AF.

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u/y2julio 1d ago

Have a company of tow trucks follow a tram, that way they can instantly tow any car blocking a tram. Do it enough times and people will think twice.

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u/sonicbeast623 1d ago

I'm surprised there's not a tow truck fallowing the tram.

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u/juwisan 1d ago

No need. The company charges as soon as they are called. It costs them money to get there and that’s typically already something between 120 and 200 bucks. Driver should get the bill for that whether he shows in time or not.

But I would actually appreciate if they got a hefty fine on top as well and lose their license for like 3 months. Some models of tram in my city can hold upwards of 300 people. So being a dick like this may block 300 people from getting where they want or need to be, worst case it ends up costing them money, e.g. when they miss a train or show up to work too late due to such behavior.

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u/a-goateemagician 1d ago

Crude solution, but they make jacks on wheels that can lift up the tires of cars— it takes like 5 people to move a dead Tesla X a few hundred feet, I doubt it would take much… but it would be incredibly annoying for drivers, or you’d need extra people on the train to make sure it doesn’t like get hijacked or something

On second thought this may be a bad idea but I’ll still post this to see if there’s any discussion that comes out of it if

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u/sparrow_42 15h ago

Back in the day the US congress hadda tell Domino’s their “delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free” policy had to go because it was causing accidents and deaths. There are already enough reasons people decide to drive too fast.

Maybe a similar thing that would be useful would be to pay tow companies to station a truck nearby, or even just provide a dedicated “service trucks only” spot or two on the tram line. Tow companies already want their truck to be located in busy areas, so everybody wins.

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u/charleswj 14h ago

Congress did not tell them that, nor did they "hadda"

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u/HB24 1d ago

Is that Portland?

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u/quineloe 18h ago

a cancelled call can still be billed with €90 euros here if the police bothered to respond to begin with.

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u/TheW83 1d ago

I vote for manually moving it with the tram.

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u/used_octopus 1d ago

That's a very polite way of saying 'ram the fucking car out the fucking way, and then ram the driver up nos ass with a spiked bat. "

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u/jrdiver 1d ago

That particular train doesn't look set up for that kind of work... Needs a bit more protection on this sheet metal... more like the big cargo train engines

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u/Hot-Win2571 Mildly Flair 1d ago

Yes, the train was underdesigned for ensuring the speedy completion of its rounds. Train should be designed, and authorized, to push aside obstacles.

I'm willing for it to be necessary for the train driver to check that the car is unoccupied before pushing it aside.

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u/structural_nole2015 1d ago

My wife was stuck on the light rail a couple weeks ago because of this situation. The operator came on board and said there's a delay on the tracks. The a few minutes later, he said a tow truck is on it's way. Then a few minutes later, she said she saw a guy sprinting down the sidewalk to get in the car.

Crazy cause the line wasn't even on its regular track. It usually goes through a transit tunnel, but because of construction, they detoured the trains up through an old route that still had the tracks in the roadway.

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u/gtbeam3r 1d ago

To be fair, if that's not a typically uses track, I could see how someone could get lax about it. Still dumb AF to park on rails!

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u/44problems 1d ago

Pittsburgh?

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u/Koolaid04 1d ago

I'm thinking of all the people that were possibly late for work/medical appointments. Work won't care that you're late because one dude was oblivious to his surroundings.

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u/Isotheis 1d ago

I'm pretty sure that if it happens in Brussels, it's policy to just scratch/push the cars. Just gotta wait for greenlight from the dispatcher.

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u/UniversalAdaptor 20h ago

Then the owner should be drawn and quartered in a public square, to make an example of them

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u/pumpkin_seed_oil 1d ago

I am much more in favor of eliminating parking spaces next to tram lines or altogether in streets where trams go through

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u/quineloe 18h ago

Tram drivers don't have the authority to call tow truck drivers in most countries.

Police refuse to call tow trucks in this scenario in most countries.

in fact, most police would refuse to respond to this in the first place.

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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 17h ago

Not sure if most coutries have bylaw officers, but this seems right up their alley. Their entire job is basically handing out things like parking tickets and enforcing local ordinances. The transit service in my city also has their own "special constibles" which have almost the same powers as police but focus exclusively on transit related issues.

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u/Brilliant-Towel4044 17h ago

Yeah this would be a problem for about 30 seconds in Montreal before a tow truck would appear out of a crack in the sidewalk to happily tow this jerk away 😆

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u/PMvE_NL 9h ago

Fuck that put a big steel wedge on the tram