The Frumplingtons

This sign at Lincoln hospital is a good example of bad grammar. I’ll ignore the randomly capitalized letters and concentrate instead on the main problem.

The ‘Improperly Parked Vehicles will be Wheel Clamped’ part at the end is clear enough. The use of ‘or’, however, suggests that the sentence has at least two subjects, and this is where things start to go wrong, because ‘Failure to Display a Valid Parking Ticket / Permit’ might qualify as a subject for the ‘will be Wheel Clamped’ bit — except for the fact that it makes no sense.

I mean, how can you put a wheel clamp on ‘Failure’? I’d love to see that!

Maybe the writer should have split the sentence in two, using active rather than passive voice to give the first part more emphasis. Something like this:

All vehicles MUST display a valid parking ticket or permit. Improperly parked vehicles will be clamped.

But whatever you think of the sign’s wording, if your car does get clamped, don’t try arguing that you didn’t understand the parking instructions. After all, you can’t really miss the white ‘No Parking’ on the red background at the top, can you? If you can’t see that, perhaps you really shouldn’t be driving at all!