History Main / TrafficWardens

* Music/TheBeatles: "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid" - written because they heard the phrase in America and thought it sounded far more romantic than 'traffic warden'.

* This is Judy's first posting as a police officer in ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}.'' Being a rabbit, she uses her naturally sharp hearing to ticket vehicles within seconds of their meter expiring.

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/{{Zootopia}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/julie_meter_maid_6.png]]]]

* This is Judy's first posting as a police officer in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}.'' Being a rabbit, she uses her naturally sharp hearing to ticket vehicles within seconds of their meter expiring.

* ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople'' story ''The Doomsday Men'' featured a traffic warden as a RunningGag. In his first appearance, he tries to put a parking ticket on a van belonging to a friend of the [=TPs=], only for the van to teleport away before he has a chance. He later gets fired after trying to prove to his boss that there ''is'' a disappearing van, and in his final appearance, he [[DrivenToSuicide jumps in a river]].

* One sidequest in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsToZero'' has the main characters (who are cops) checking parking registrations and ticketing illegally parked vehicles.

** Gaston's (who interprets No Parking Allowed signs as parking spots no one ever occupies) longtime foe [[MeddlesomePatrolman Longtarin]], who lives only to give parking tickets. Their rivalry sometimes reaches [[EscalatingWar escalating prank war]] proportions.
** A one-panel gag shows Gaston having crashed his car into a parking meter... and putting a coin in it anyway.
** One strip has Gaston deploy a robot with a buzzsaw that starts cutting down the meter. When Longtarin confiscates it, Gaston retaliates with a dog-shaped robot that pees on the meter. Ulcered by its sheer tastelessness, Longtarin turns his back on it, so he doesn't see the dog is little more than a four-legged reservoir of concentrated acid.

** Longtarin has a CatchPhrase: "[[CantYouReadTheSign Is that a traffic sign or a giant lollipop?]]". Naturally, Gaston [[InstantlyProvenWrong uses it against him.]]

--> '''Police Chief:''' How ''high up'' does a No Parking zone go? Are you feeling well, officer Longtarin?
** As seen above, Longtarin once set up a parking meter on a No Parking sign, hitting Gaston with two tickets at once.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* This is Judy's first posting as a police officer in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}.'' Being a rabbit, she uses her naturally sharp hearing to ticket vehicles within seconds of their meter expiring.
[[/folder]]

* One sketch on ''Series/TheBennyHillShow'' featured a war between the traffic wardens and the street sweepers. Hill's character was a sweeper who was winning the war for his side when he noticed that one of the wardens was a pretty girl, so he negotiated a truce.

* ''Radio/{{That Mitchell and Webb Sound}}'' had a series of sketches called "Old Lady Job Justification Hearings," in which people have to explain what they do and "how it ''helps''" before a panel of kind but firm old ladies. These include a snotty futures trader, a snotty PR guy, and [[SelfDeprecation the two comedians themselves]], who are all gradually brought to realize that their careers are a waste of time. [[SubvertedTrope However]], the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O33hDb8kIDA one]] about a traffic warden has him start off as depressed because everyone's so down on traffic wardens, until the old ladies' questions give him a chance to explain that the rules he enforces are necessary and known to all drivers and that parking tickets provide a lot of revenue to the city. They declare his job a good one and [[IWasToldThereWouldBeCake reward him with cake]].

[[folder:StandUpComedy]]
* AcceptableTargets for Creator/JasperCarrott (and many other stand-up comics). "Some people, you give them a peaked cap and they start ''[[GodwinsLaw building camps]]!''"
[[/folder]]

[[caption-width-right:350:"Your [[{{Pun}} park]] is worse than your plight."]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/{{Zootopia}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/julie_meter_maid.png]]]]

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700&page=27

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/GastonLagaffe https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c95b3bbaf78705a409ba988700b67782.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"You could have put some money inside it[[note]]a No Parking sign with a parking meter, designed with Gaston's parking tendencies in mind[[/note]], you ingrate!"\\
"THIS IS ILLEGAL!"\\
"It's more special than illegal..."]]

Traffic wardens are civilian staff employed by the police to enforce parking laws. Their handiwork can be seen if you ever park in a prohibited area or let your meter run out for just one... damn... second! The name "traffic warden" is most common in the United Kingdom. In America, the typical disparaging term is "meter maid" (used for either gender), though their official name in their municipality might be something like "parking enforcement officer."

A European job, being civilian staff employed by the police to enforce parking laws. Their handiwork can be seen if you ever park on a double yellow line in a British city.

Having acquired a reputation for [[ObstructiveBureaucrat petty-mindedness and inflexibility]] (ticketing people attending a funeral, for example), traffic wardens have become AcceptableProfessionalTargets in the United Kingdom and France. The North American versions are known as meter maids (even though most are male) and are just as disliked.

This sentiment has not been helped by the fact that the job is now outsourced to private companies. "[[UrbanLegends Horror stories]]" (some of which were actually true) such as vehicles involved in traffic accidents and ambulances picking up critically injured patients being ticketed are commonplace. Other stories include the disabled and elderly people's cars having photographs deliberately taken from angles that won't show the Disabled Pass, or enforcement teams blocking people in and preventing them leaving before their parking permit expires, and there have even been a couple incidents where traffic wardens have ticketed cars that were illegally parked because the driver ''died'' behind the wheel, without taking any action (or possibly not even noticing) that the car had a dead man in it. This happens because the private contractors now work on commission, when in earlier times traffic wardens were employed by the local police force and had no ''financial'' incentive to be LawfulStupid.

* The film ''Film/MurderParty'' stars Chris Hawley, a lonely fellow for whom insults and swearing is pretty much a routine which he accepts with a resigned passiveness. Until the titular party that will change everything that is...

* One of the few sympathetic portrayals of traffic wardens was in the JulianSymons novel ''[[SherlockHolmes A Three Pipe Problem]]''. Needing eyes on the streets, the hero Sheridan Hayes recruits the local traffic wardens: they know the streets, are out every day, and [[BenathNotice no-one pays them any attention]].

* One of the few sympathetic portrayals of traffic wardens was in the JulianSymons novel ''[[SherlockHolmes A Three Pipe Problem]]''. Needing eyes on the streets, the hero Sheridan Hayes recruits the local traffic wardens: they know the streets, are out every day, and no-one pays them any attention.

--> Police Chief:''' How ''high up'' does a No Parking zone go? Are you feeling well, officer Longtarin?

[[caption-width-right:350:"You could have put some money inside it[[note]]a No Parking sign with a parkmeter, designed with Gaston's parking tendencies in mind[[/note]], you ingrate!"\\

* ComicBook/GastonLagaffe's longtime foe [[MeddlesomePatrolman Longtarin]], who lives only to give parking tickets. Their rivalry sometimes reaches [[EscalatingWar escalating prank war]] proportions.

* The film ''Film/MurderParty'' stars Chris Hawley a lonely fellow for whom insults and swearing is pretty much a routine which he accepts with a resigned passiveness. Until the titular party that will change everything that is...

This sentiment has not been helped by the fact that the job is now outsourced to private companies. "[[UrbanLegends Horror stories]]" (some of which were actually true) such as vehicles involved in traffic accidents and ambulances picking up critically injured patients being ticketed are commonplace. Other stories include the disabled and elderly people's cars having photographs deliberately taken from angles that won't show the Disabled Pass, or enforcement teams blocking people in and preventing them leaving before their parking permit expires. This happens because the private contractors now work on commission, when in earlier times traffic wardens were employed by the local police force and had no ''financial'' incentive to be LawfulStupid.

* This is Judy's first posting as a police officer in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}.'' Being a rabbit, she uses her naturally sharp hearing to ticket vehicles within seconds of their meter expiring.

* This is Judy's first posting as a police officer in ''Film/{{Zootopia}}.'' Being a rabbit, she uses her naturally sharp hearing to ticket vehicles within seconds of their meter expiring.

* ''Series/LondonsBurning: A traffic warden is unwise enough to wheel-clamp a vehicle driven by three tough-guy types, who don't take it very well and leave him chained to some nearby railings with three of his own clamps, as well as clamping ''his'' van and throwing the keys down a nearby drain for good measure. Neither the men of Blue Watch nor the police officer who initially responded bother to hide their amusement.

* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "Camille", Lister tries to break Kryten's programming and teach him to lie. Succeeding, Kryten describes a banana as a "small, off-duty Czechoslovakian traffic warden", which was changed to Tasmanian in the Czech dub, perhaps because that country does not have them.

* Parodied in ''TheChasersWarOnEverything'', where Julian Morrow, as the "Citizen's Infringement Officer" went around giving tickets for things such as stupid baby names instead.

* ''{{That Mitchell and Webb Sound}}'' had a series of sketches called "Old Lady Job Justification Hearings," in which people have to explain what they do and "how it ''helps''" before a panel of kind but firm old ladies. These include a snotty futures trader, a snotty PR guy, and [[SelfDeprecation the two comedians themselves]], who are all gradually brought to realize that their careers are a waste of time. [[SubvertedTrope However]], the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O33hDb8kIDA one]] about a traffic warden has him start off as depressed because everyone's so down on traffic wardens, until the old ladies' questions give him a chance to explain that the rules he enforces are necessary and known to all drivers and that parking tickets provide a lot of revenue to the city. They declare his job a good one and [[IWasToldThereWouldBeCake reward him with cake]].

Having acquired a reputation for [[ObstructiveBureaucrat petty-mindedness and inflexibility]] (ticketing people attending a funeral, for example), traffic wardens have become AcceptableProfessionalTargets in the United Kingdom and France. The North American versions are known as meter maids (even though most are male).