Living in Ballarat provides us with a blend of country and city living.
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It has the café’s, entertainment and atmosphere of a happening town (look no further than Winterlude) and it also provides you with the opportunity to zone out and enjoy the peace and quiet of one of its beautiful lakes, lush parks and gardens.
Sometimes being a blended (city/country) regional city creates problems for those living here.
Driving is one example. It is such a mix of high and low traffic areas, at one end of a street you can experience Melbourne city peak traffic and at the other not a single car is to be found.
Then there is the parking situation. It is an expectation for many visitors to Ballarat that, due to it being in the country, there will be plenty of on street parking available.
Unfortunately this expectation is not in line with reality. As we know, most of the city parking is metered, once again something that took a little getting used to. However, it is reflective of the sheer size of our town and like all cities good parking spots have a cost associated with them.
The parking situation is obviously frustrating many Ballaratians and sadly this has led to many adopting an online trend that is being repeated here.
Ballarat Bad Parking is a Facebook site that encourages its followers (of which there are over 5000) to post pictures of cars that have parked badly. Scanning through the submitted pictures, sure some are funny and some leave you shaking your head.
However, the majority are just small indiscretions. The small parking irregularities include a car with a tyre on the line or just over, a car with its backside sticking out a bit or that photo of a car just casually parked whilst you run into the fish and chip shop.
Obviously the photos are taken out of frustration due to a perceived lack of courtesy from the driver and the purpose is to make the drivers feel embarrassed. In most cases (not all) the numberplates are covered but you could still identify your or a loved one’s car, luckily I couldn’t find my car.
It begs the question - why do most of the photos look like they are taken by the driver of a car that is obviously still driving. Using a camera on a phone whilst driving does not tick the safe driving or courteous box either.
That aside, this type of site generally doesn’t sit well with me and here is why; because it’s not what I have experienced in Ballarat in my 18 months here. Most people are accommodating, courteous and helpful.
In my experience many people park within the lines, but those who may just creep over might just be busy city people or laid back country visitors who we rely on to make us what we are. The city’s vibrancy relies on the busy people and the country feel relies on the visitors and also our polite, courteous and proud residents.
We all need to stop being so quick to pull out our cameras when we see a small parking irregularity, instead we should stop and think about what makes our regional city what it is and maybe just maybe let a small parking irregularity go unpublished.
