How do you cope with a tandem driveway?

jackieblack

My neighbour got around this problem by converting their front lawn to a gravelled parking area, so neither vehicle needs to park on the end part of the driveway and both the vehicle parked on the gravel and the vehicle parked at the side of the house are able to exit across this part of the drive when necessary.

EmmyLou30

We had one on our last house and it generally worked as the other half came home after me and left before me. If not, we'd shuffle them about. What you don't do is buy a house like this and then think it's ok to park your car in the street in front of other peoples houses (legally ok, morally not so much if you have a perfectly good drive) just because you're too lazy to do the car shuffle. Our neighbours did this....1 car on a 3 car drive....2 in the street somewhere. All it led to after a while of this behaviour was other people not using their tandem driveways and leaving 1 car in front their own house to stop them so now the whole street was cluttered with cars even though everyone had enough driveway space for 2-3 cars. So the whole street suffered due to one lazy family. So yeah, don't be that guy! 

When we moved to our 'forever' house a side by side drive was top of the list and non negotiable mind you ;-) We'd had 5 years of doing the car shuffle and it did get tiresome. But if all the houses you like have it then it might be a compromise you need to make. 

silvercar

I'm old enough to remember a scene from the series 'Butterflies' where the kids both reversed their cars at speed to allow Dad to take his car out before speedily returning their cars to their spots. Can't find it on youtube unfortunately.

bouicca21

I’m with the 2 identical cars scenario - if indeed 2 cars are really necessary.  Thinking here of Mrs Neighbour who commutes by car to work.  It’s a whole mile.  I’d walk or use a bike.

pimento

Chandler85 said:

If the idea of moving a car fills you with dread, sell both your cars but two identical ones then you can just use whichever car is at the back without feeling you have the wrong car...

This is brilliant!

Mickey666

UnderOffer said:

Had this type of driveway for 10 years and it never caused us any issues. My husband left for work before me and arrived home after me so his vehicle was always parked on end and ready to leave first. For the odd occasion I needed to leave first I’d remind him and try to park in the correct order, we were able to bump up on kerb and temporarily park outside the house on road but would always then move the car into drive as soon as the other person home. If you’ve got good organisation skills it will work fine. 

We lived in a house like this for six years, actually a garage and space in front for a single car.  Wasn't a problem for us.  Wife's car was kept in the garage and I always left for work before her so no problems in the morning and she arrived home from work before me so so problems in the evening.  Othertimes we just used whatever car was convenient as we were both insured for both cars.

Really, it won't be a problem.  I'd far rather that sort of arrangement than live in a street with no off-road parking and being a lottery where to park when I get home!

daivid

Had a 'tandem drive' (never knew that was the term until I read this thread) for 8 years although for about half of those years I was cycling or using public transport to get everywhere. Our drive was long enough to fit 4 cars so good for when we had visitors. Our drive had a neighbours drive on either side. The way everyone tended to park we could usually drive the second car around using the neighbours drive (and they could do similar). We were also lucky to be at the quiet end of an estate so moving a car out into the street to swap around was no difficulty. The biggest frustration was neighbour's guests parking on top of the dropped curb access to the street while they popped in 'briefly'. The access was shared by five houses, one of which couldn't see the need to move their car up for guests or ask them to park on the street, on the plus side finding the person who needed to move didn't take long.

 

Currently have a 'side by side' drive which is much better IMO. Would pick a tandem over no drive, though I would not want one which went straight on to a busy road or congested street.

seven-day-weekend

We have a drive like this.  I will state first of all that after living for most of our lives (we're both early 70s and moved into this bungalow in our mid-60s), without any sort of drive, any off-street parking was preferable to none.

When we got a second car, we made a space for it by taking up some of the front lawn, laying paviours and widening the entrance, so that the second car is parked at a 45-degree angle to the first.  If you park the first car far enough forward, then the second can be got in and out with no problem.

If we hadn't been able to do that, then we would have put up with the mild inconvenience of parking them one behind the other.

lincroft1710

This is simple, just tell your wife you need to economise and she needs the exercise and to lose some weight, so you'll sell her car and buy her a mountain bike.




I'll get my coat!!

Slinky

We live in a 1960s house that has a tandem garage. It's hard to imagine that anybody would have ever used it to park 2 cars in. It's too narrow to get modern cars in so is a very long storage space now.