Traffic warden alerts by text message are back
It’s back and better than ever. We’ve revived our text message alert system for traffic wardens on Stonecot Hill which was discontinued a few months ago when Twitter stopped sending text messages to mobile phones.
Now the Twitter text message service is back on for O2 and Vodaphone customers and we’ve revamped the alert system to make it much faster and more reliable than before.
The new system also monitors Transport for London’s CCTV camera at the junction of Stonecot Hill and Hill Top which also issues parking tickets (though bizarrely TfL claims to have no idea how many).
If you’re already a Twitter member, just follow @stonecotparking and enable text message alerts for that account. If you’re not, here’s how you get going:
1. Join Twitter
Go to the signup page and create yourself an account.
2. Connect your mobile phone to your Twitter account
Now you’re signed up and logged in, go to the Devices page in your account settings and let Twitter know your phone number. You can leave the “device updates” setting Off as you’ll just be enabling text messages coming from a single account (@stonecotparking).
3. Follow @stonecotparking
Go to @stonecotparking’s page and click the big Follow button at the top. You should see a green tick and the word “Following”.
4. Turn on device updates for @stonecotparking
Click the circular mobile phone icon next to where it says “Following”. It should turn green, meaning you’ll get text message alerts whenever there’s a new update from @stonecotparking.
That’s it. While we can’t guarantee this system to be 100% reliable, when there are wardens about or the CCTV camera is working you’ll probably get a text message to let you know.
Interesting. Any chance you could send those wardens our way? we are overrun with illegally/dangerously parked cars, but the parking wardens are too lazy to do anything about it
Mark 20 October 2009 4:39 PM
I’m with you when it comes to dangerously parked cars. However, the street environment here is about as hostile to pedestrians by design as it’s possible to be, including legalised pavement parking and numerous desire line obstructions.
There are a couple of wardens possessed with rare common sense but most seem happy to hand out tickets for the fun of it, including a very aggressive group of CCTV operators. The CCTV camera isn’t even signed that it’s anything to do with TfL or issues tickets.
Two years ago 2000 local people signed a petition asking TfL to review the parking/loading bay arrangements here to better balance the interests of everyone. They declined on the grounds of insufficient funding to run a consultation but have happily been enforcing the regulations and raking in revenue ever since.
When TfL make sensible parking arrangements here in consultation with local people I’ll be the first to support them enforcing them against anyone parking unreasonably.
Adrian Short 20 October 2009 4:51 PM