Parking on a pavement

Doobrah

Hi all,

I just wanted to know if anyone could definitively tell me whether or not it is illegal to park on a pavement? Parking is very bad where I work and the other day I parked on an extremely wide pavement, the area of which looked like waste ground next to the actual predestrian area. You could have fit another car alongside mine and still not have obstructed anyone. There were also double yellow lines on the roadside, but not where I was parked, and no signs prohibiting parking where I did. I'll pay the fine I've been given, I don't mind if I'm wrong, but I just wanted to know if it is illegal? The Highway Code says you shouldn't park, not that you mustn't, and the council is saying that double yellow lines are enforcable up to the side of the boundary on which they are painted, even if you're not physically on them. Is this correct? I can't find any information to say yes or no. As I say, I'll pay if I'm in the wrong, but I feel there's some ambiguity here, and I'd like the council to at least erect signs saying you can't park if I am, so that other motorists don't get caught out. Thanks for any help.

espresso

Lot of people do park illegally on pavements but if you get a ticket then there is no ambiguity, so pay up. Usually half price if paid within 14 days etc.

welshgasman

I once parked on a piece of waste ground at the side of the road which had double yellow lines on it, when I visited my mother in hospital a few years back.

I got a ticket, and when I queried it I was told that the lines apply right up to the fence. I was parked between the fence and the double yellow lines.

So I suppose they have applied the same logic to your parking as well.?

Doobrah

Yeah, they must have. I just couldn't find anything about it online. Thanks for your help. I'll pay the fine and warn the other people I've seen parking there.

sebdangerfield

Depends on what the ticket's for? If it's for parking on double yellow lines, contravention of a traffic order as it's normaly worded by councils but it differs localy then there's no getting out. The yellow lines also act as the sign so there doesn't need to be any further warning.

Many councils and local Police forces no longer issue tickets for parking on yellow lines as the powers have been recinded and given to local contractors to take up in the form of parking wardens. Therfore, many councils and Police who used to give tickets for parking on yellow lines now give tickets for obstruction in the wrong circumstances i.e on yellow lines when in fact your wern't obstructing anything so it's worth checking out.

DaveF327

Was the offence committed within Greater London? If so, it IS an offence to park partially or wholly on the pavement. Click here to see section 15 of the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1974. The relevant current highway code extract is here in rule 244

Elsewhere, it is an offence to drive over (but curiously enough, not to park on) a pavement, except to gain lawful access to a property, or in the case of an emergency. This is why the Highway Code says you shouldn't do this, but remember that "the failure on the part of a person to observe a provision of the Highway Code shall not of itself render that person liable to criminal proceedings of any kind but any such failure may in any proceedings (whether civil or criminal, and including proceedings for an offence under the Traffic Acts, ...) be relied upon by any party to the proceedings as tending to establish or negative any liability which is in question in those proceedings". [Road Traffic Act, section 38(7)]

As for waiting restrictions denoted by yellow lines, these apply to the carriageway, pavement and verge. See page 2 of this highway code chapter.

Hope this helps

vikingaero

If you are allowed to park on the pavement then there are normally white bay lines painted on the pavement or signs allowing you to park on the pavement.

I took my dad to the doctors surgery yesterday. The surgery is on a main road with a pavement about 4 feet wide outside. When I got to the door there was a queue - 2 ladies with buggies and an elderly lady in a motorised scooter. They couldn't get into the door of the surgery because another patient had parked on the pavement outside the surgery door leaving a gap of about 1 1/2 feet. The driver was having her consultation with the doctor so they had to wait until she had finished! Even worse the surgery is located next to the zig zag lines of a pelican crossing!

welshgasman

I took that to be parking where the double yellows are on the left of the car as you look down the road on the side of travel, NOT when you park, so that the yellow lines are to the right of the car and you are effectively off the road.?

I was on a piece of wasteground, cut out between some hedges, not on any road.

sebdangerfield wrote: »

Depends on what the ticket's for? If it's for parking on double yellow lines, contravention of a traffic order as it's normaly worded by councils but it differs localy then there's no getting out. The yellow lines also act as the sign so there doesn't need to be any further warning.

Many councils and local Police forces no longer issue tickets for parking on yellow lines as the powers have been recinded and given to local contractors to take up in the form of parking wardens. Therfore, many councils and Police who used to give tickets for parking on yellow lines now give tickets for obstruction in the wrong circumstances i.e on yellow lines when in fact your wern't obstructing anything so it's worth checking out.

Money_Grabber13579

The pavement is for walking on, no matter how wide. It is not for driving on, unless you have to cross it to get into your house. So in essence, if it didn't have a dropped curb, then you're not allowed to be there.

sebdangerfield

I took that to be parking where the double yellows are on the left of the car as you look down the road on the side of travel, NOT when you park, so that the yellow lines are to the right of the car and you are effectively off the road.?

No, unfortunately. The law considers "the road" as building line to building line so anywhere there are yellow lines would be illegal even if you were considerately parked and wern't obtructing anyone. It's often without any common sense at all!

It's worse now because of what I mentioned in my post before that many councils have de-criminalised parking offences so Police can't issue tickets. As a result, the offence of obstruction is often used instead even when the criteria for the offence hasn't been met. For example, you may well be parked on double yellows but not obstructing the highway in any way. It's always worth checking.

moonrakerz

Actually you missed a trick:

A lot of people believe that when parking on the pavement or double yellow lines (or both), if you put your hazard flashers on, this makes your car invisible to traffic wardens ! You can still see it, but apparently they can't.
:rolleyes: