Parking on the pavement - SELFISH motorists!

before_hollywood

surfcat wrote:

If you come across a car on the pavement and can still just about squeeze your buggy past, make sure you give the wing mirror a good whack on the way!

charming.
what about people in a situation like mine who had NO ALTERNATIVE.
where was i supposed to go? do tell oh wise self appointed traffic cop

before_hollywood

parkside_stroller wrote:

The bottom line for anyone parking in a street they don't live in is that they can park legally where they like as assuming they have paid their road tax. Can understand people getting frustrated if it adds to parking difficulties in their street but there are a lot of people who also seem to think they own the public road space in front of their house when they don't. I used to live in a street where I was often inconvenienced by residents of the narrow lane round the corner parking in my street - but hey, the few extra metres I had to walk to park my car helped reduce my waistline a little.

But if its a rant that needed on this board then I have to VENT it on the BLAGGARDS who park on the pavement, my complete sympathy goes out to people with pushchairs or with toddlers walking. These selfish drivers are putting children at risk of death or serious injury by forcing them to walk onto the road to share it with drivers some of them using their mobile and/or while driving too fast. Sometimes its possible to squeeze the buggy past the car on the pavement but there's usually no chance when its a double buggy - some selfish people like me have 2 small children who need to be on the pavement.

we have one of those self appointed 'noone parks outside my house unless i want them to' people on our street, theres a name for people like that, but its not the kind of thing you can post here.

my street is actually quiet down this end, so people with pushchairs and children can't really moan, they are far more at risk from a high speed football than a high speed car, and whats wrong with teaching them the green cross code on a quiet side street where they can stop, look and listen for as long as they want, without having to worry about buses and trucks doing 40 on the main road?

anyone care to see things from this side?

Gingham_Ribbon

Try getting up and down kerbs in a wheel chair when you can't get past the cars on the pavement and you can't get between the cars to go out into the road, which in itself is dangerous because drivers can't see you because you're lower down.

It's a complete nightmare on wheelie bin day too.

(I don't use a wheel chair but my dad used one for years and to be honest he was mostly housebound, partly because of this kind of thing, as well as a driver who actually knocked him out of his chair when he was crossing the road. No surprise, the guy was speeding and my dad was trying to get up a kerb.)

Altarf

before_hollywood wrote:

for the record- last time i did park over the road with 2 wheels on the pavement, it was because there was gas main work being done at the bottom of our driveway so i couldn't park blocking our driveway (which is what i usually do)

before_hollywood wrote:

charming.
what about people in a situation like mine who had NO ALTERNATIVE.
where was i supposed to go?

So you were forced to park illegally because you couldn't park immediately outside your house. Was every other legal parking space in the UK full that day?

before_hollywood

Altarf wrote:

So you were forced to park illegally because you couldn't park immediately outside your house. Was every other legal parking space in the UK full that day?

Someone obviously armed with the facts ^ wasn't this thread originally about people blocking main roads and parking their cars fully on pavements of main roads (a and b roads and the like????

i live on a quiet street, and for the record i was quite a way down it, not 'right outside' as you so elequantly put it.
i was trying not to be a nuisance to others, but whatever i did was going to cause some kind of (probably very minor) inconvenience to someone.
i decided that fair enough, i need to park legally, and by rights as there are no restrictions on the street, as long as i am not blocking driveways/ causing an obstruction/ blocking visibility of one of the side streets, i can park pretty much where i like.
i chose to put two wheels, NOT MY WHOLE CAR (i feel i have to make that distinction) on the road, because it would be inevitable someone would park parallel to me on the opposite side of the road, I WAS TRYING NOT TO BLOCK THE ROAD!!!!!
people double park their cars on my street all the time in school term, right up to the edge of the corner, making accessability to my street an absolute nightmare- do we get yellow lines? no, do we get an inch of consideration? not a chance, but we have to grin and bear it.

well Altarf, what was my alternative?
park in my usual spot so the gas contractors couldn't do the gas main work? park fully on the road and make life difficult for the bin men when they arrive?
my street is quiet, we get the odd oap and a dog and the odd car (and of course the bin men once a week).
i'm not doing any harm and yet people still leap on me like i am!!!! :mad:
whatever i do, someone is going to turn around and tell me its the wrong thing, i don't care, i follow my own judgement. :rolleyes:

for the benefit of the forum, my car is back in its usual place, with all 4 wheels on the tarmac of the ROAD!!!
not that anyone will notice, its so quiet down here :rolleyes:

Altarf

before_hollywood wrote:

well Altarf, what was my alternative?

Simple, although you won't like it-

PARK WHERE IT IS LEGAL

You comment on other peoples lack of consideration when it comes to parking, and then you do the same? You seem to think that because you have been inconvenienced by not being able to park outside your house that it is acceptable to inconvenience others. Well it isn't.

As I said before, I am sure that every legal parking space in the UK was not full that day, you just didn't want to use one of them and chose to park illegally on the pavement instead.

Gingham_Ribbon

Not that I want to be drawn into this too much but I wanted to point out the following. The traffic rules are there with good reason and in the main are there to protect all of us. Not parking on the pavement is obviously to prevent pedestrian accidents, including wheelchair and buggy users.

Parking on the pavement is dangerous for 2 reasons: if you prevent people from using the pavement, or if you do not take care when mounting it. Drivers with their own driveway mount the pavement regularly to get to their garages or drives so saying cars should NEVER be on the pavement doesn't make sense.

That said, if a road is particularly narrow and cars are parked on both sides, it seems to me that if a car can park with 2 wheels on the kerb and still leave room for a double buggy to easily pass then this doesn't cause an obstruction on the pavement and I don't think it is a problem. It is preferable to preventing road access to an ambulance or fire engine. However, if you cannot leave that amount of room on the pavement, I think it is best to park even a few streets away and walk back if you are able to do so. (ie are not disabled.)

trisontana

We have a stupid situation here in Newark. At the beginning of the year the police withdraw the traffic wardens and the local council are not going to replace them for at least another year. This means that motorists are free to park where they like. This includes single and double yellow lines and on the pavement. It will be highly unlikely they will ever be prosecuted. There has been instances where coaches and fire engines haven't been able to negotiate a tight corner because some fool has parked there. Several times I have had to walk into the road because of cars and vans parked on the pavement.

To add insult to injury, if you stay just a few minutes over the allotted time in a car-park you get a £40 fine. Park your car all day on a yellow line and nothing happens. Crazy!

Zippy123

you could be prosecuted for criminal damage even if it is removable

before_hollywood

Altarf wrote:

Simple, although you won't like it-

PARK WHERE IT IS LEGAL

You comment on other peoples lack of consideration when it comes to parking, and then you do the same? You seem to think that because you have been inconvenienced by not being able to park outside your house that it is acceptable to inconvenience others. Well it isn't.

As I said before, I am sure that every legal parking space in the UK was not full that day, you just didn't want to use one of them and chose to park illegally on the pavement instead.

there are no designated parking spaces where i live because it is a HOUSING ESTATE, we can't even get the council to paint in a few double yellow lines to stop people blocking the side streets when they pick their kids up from school.

well, ok- looks like i'm being dragged into the ring again.
can i please make the distinction that 99% of the time, the only person i inconvenience with my parking is myself because i only block my house's driveway.
i am inconveniencing myself so i don't inconvenience others.
If i was to park on another street i would first of all inconvenience someone else by stopping them from parking outside their house, and when i arrive home from work at about 11pm (sometimes even later), i have to take whats left.
how do i know they are (or someone they are visited by is) not disabled? maybe by me parking outside their house, i have caused an inconvenience.

i don't want to get dragged into arguments with owners of other houses, i just want to live my life and be left alone thank you very much, i chose to take up this particular parking space for a couple of nights over a period of 1 week, it was literally just overnight, as soon as i could i would move it outside my house out of the way of the gas main work (where i couldn't park previously), so, i was trying to be considerate.
i don't see why i get leapt upon (other than that i dare to defend myself), am i sticking my entire car on the pavement- all 14' by 5'6 of it? no, barely even one side of tyres.
if you want to vent at someone, why not vent at someone who parks entirely on the pavement.
and for the record, i don't/ wouldn't park like that in the town centre because there are DESIGNATED ON STREET PARKING AREAS, and this means that people can park on the street and not block the road for other road users.