I think that Kevin and Tony probably don’t even think about this, they lived their entire live that way. They don’t know any better.
Here in Germany, if you want to move a sofa, you have three options:
Rent a transporter (no one here has a truck), park it illegally in front of the house while onloading the sofa, transport the sofa, park the car again illegally while unloading it. If the police catches you or a neighbor files a complain, you may have to pay a fee.
File a form so that someone puts up traffic signs for that day that no one except you may park in front of the two houses. Costs around 90 € and takes 3 weeks. Rent car, proceed as usual. Someone will see that you park in a “no parking” zone and does not know that you requested that zone, so he will file a report. Therefore, later, fill some more forms to battle that claim.
Do 1) at night where no one sees you or cares.
(This is of course highly exaggerated. Parking is not such a problem in every city.)
TBH: In most cases you simply park in plain daylight somewhere near your flat, chuck the sofa in the transporter and drive away. There is no risk of some parking officer catching you and even if, the fines are low.
That’s interesting. I always thought Europe was more relaxed about things like that. In Japan, at least, you’re generally allowed to stop temporarily while loading or unloading furniture, so this surprised me.
That’s true. Japanese residential streets really are that narrow, if not narrower. You could argue that’s why parking enforcement is necessary, but if the police ticketed every car that stopped briefly to load or unload furniture, nothing would get done. Long-term parking is another matter, but a temporary stop like that usually isn’t something people worry about getting fined for in Japan.
I think that Kevin and Tony probably don’t even think about this, they lived their entire live that way. They don’t know any better.
Here in Germany, if you want to move a sofa, you have three options:
Rent a transporter (no one here has a truck), park it illegally in front of the house while onloading the sofa, transport the sofa, park the car again illegally while unloading it. If the police catches you or a neighbor files a complain, you may have to pay a fee.
File a form so that someone puts up traffic signs for that day that no one except you may park in front of the two houses. Costs around 90 € and takes 3 weeks. Rent car, proceed as usual. Someone will see that you park in a “no parking” zone and does not know that you requested that zone, so he will file a report. Therefore, later, fill some more forms to battle that claim.
Do 1) at night where no one sees you or cares.
(This is of course highly exaggerated. Parking is not such a problem in every city.)
TBH: In most cases you simply park in plain daylight somewhere near your flat, chuck the sofa in the transporter and drive away. There is no risk of some parking officer catching you and even if, the fines are low.
That’s interesting. I always thought Europe was more relaxed about things like that. In Japan, at least, you’re generally allowed to stop temporarily while loading or unloading furniture, so this surprised me.
Yes, no-parking areas allow temporary un/loading. Some mainly foot traffic streets may restrict it to early morning hours.
That’s probably because japanese residental streets are often very narrow. At least that’s how it is in the animes.
That’s true. Japanese residential streets really are that narrow, if not narrower. You could argue that’s why parking enforcement is necessary, but if the police ticketed every car that stopped briefly to load or unload furniture, nothing would get done. Long-term parking is another matter, but a temporary stop like that usually isn’t something people worry about getting fined for in Japan.