The actions do not even last 30 seconds: the activist, who wants to remain anonymous, unrolls the tape, fixes it to the ground with his foot and then sticks it on the wrongly parked car. Then he takes a photo for the short message service Twitter, and he’s gone. The attached adhesive tape should make the overparked floor marking visible.
“I dealt with spatial planning and urban planning. There is this dominance of the car in the cityscape. And then at night I had the idea to make this visible, not only for the drivers themselves, but also for the passers-by, ”the activist told Vienna today. He currently has more than 2,000 followers on his Twitter account “Tape on Cars that Cross a Line”.
“I didn’t ask permission beforehand”
The almost 40-year-old has been using the tape in Vienna for three months. In his job he works in advertising. So far, no driver has caught him. “It is also clear, of course, that it is activism. I didn’t ask permission beforehand. I do this as a disruptive action, but – this is very important – as a peaceful one. I deliberately use a painter’s masking tape because, for example, it doesn’t leave any residue on the vehicles, ”says the activist.
“There is no case law yet”
Above all, cars that stick out on the sidewalk or block part of the cycle path are taped by the activist, who is sticking in Vienna. “Raising a mark on the floor is in and of itself impermissible when parking a vehicle. But sometimes the markings are so tight that not every small violation is objected to by the police, ”said ÖAMTC chief lawyer Martin Hoffer.
Adhesive tape against parking offenders
A Viennese activist pasted wrongly parked cars with painter’s masking tape and then posted the pictures on the Internet. In this way, he wants to create awareness of how public space is distributed, he says.
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The fact that private individuals are now park owners is not a solution for Hoffer. “There is still no practical experience or jurisprudence, but I would say that it is an encroachment that is clear and thus also represents an act of property disturbance. This means that the affected vehicle owner can take action against the person who attaches the tapes with an injunction and can also use it to assert claims for damages, ”said Hoffer.
The activist is threatened not so much with a punishment, but with a civil law injunction, which is associated with “court fees of a few hundred euros,” said Hoffer. It was clear to him that he was moving in a “gray area”, said the activist – and he wanted to continue to stick in the future.
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