Image copyright Supplied Image caption If a signal is too low, vehicles will set off in the wrong direction
Vehicles have been left with a £60 fine or criminal record because they mistakenly entered free parking zones as they left the closed Green P lots at Canary Wharf.
Green security company Aegis says drivers are scared to enter into the closed lots while streets are congested.
An estimated 110,000 cars used the lot in the busy New Dock Road corridor last month.
Aegis said the signs were not ‘working properly’.
Cashless parking
Lines reading “do not enter unless you have a parking ticket”, while a sign outside “any location in the area where taxis are not allowed”, should have put drivers off.
The sign inside the closed lots, however, says that drivers must enter in the “carpool zone”.
Lines outside, next to signs telling motorists they will not be fined and other helpful hints, have little or no information at all.
Customers who have been contacted by confused drivers have since raised the issue on social media.
Some say they are now ‘terrified’ to enter the marked zones.
Criminals target used car sales
There were also reports on social media of driveways in the area being used as a shortcut by dangerous drivers.
It has already been claimed criminals are ‘trading spots’ with gangs that rent back cars in certain areas of the capital.
Commercial trials were conducted on the area in March by car rental giant Hertz.
Image copyright PictureGroup Image caption Vehicles are banned at the Green P lots until Monday morning
The trial included fleets of Corvettes, Range Rovers and Jaguars on the roads in Kingsland Road and Garden Road.
The trial was said to run “smoothly” and left the area a “better, safer and less congested environment”.
A spokesperson for Canary Wharf Group said: “Although we have been notified by the company that a number of the signs are broken, these are being identified and repaired.
“Those that have not been fixed have been shifted onto other areas of the area.”