I can’t decide if my idea is brilliant and original or dangerous and irresponsible. Help me decide:

I live on a residential road with a 30mph speed limit but that doesn’t stop people driving at crazy speeds. The council measured traffic in one 24hr period with a range of speeds between 33 and 69mph. Their solution of installing a flashing “Please Slow Down” sign has had no effect.

Out of courtesy (and fear for their wing mirrors) people only park on one side of my road allowing a stream of traffic to flow freely in both directions. I’m thinking this is part of the problem.

My brother in law has an old Luton he doesn’t use. If I were to park it on the other side of the road – in effect creating a short single-track road – this would force people to slow to navigate around it.

Now the Luton would be taxed, insured and there are no yellow lines or other parking restrictions. Would the police or council be bothered by this ‘obstruction’?

Apart from creating a traffic jam outside my house twice a day any other downsides people can think of?

Trial it! Downsides would be smashed mirrors and scraped cars and van where the pinch is.

It’s an approach I’ve seen adopted in many locations (intentionally or otherwise) and definitely seems to work. Watch out for sightlines from driveways etc.

Are there any houses on the other side of the road? They might not like to look at the side of a luton van all day, every day.

Apart from creating a traffic jam outside my house twice a day any other downsides people can think of?

Emergency services needing access.

Similar problem here

30 limit but people regularly drive thru at 50

Everyone parks on one side of the street

I parked on the other side one time to create a chicane and several neighbours went berserk – apparently it was tried before and just resulted in more parked cars being hit 🙁

There’s a guy who does this on one of the busiest roads in and out of my town with a shitty old Galaxy.

Singlehandedly causes at least 5 minutes, but more like 15 minutes extra journey time for thousands of people every morning. It annoys the other residents too as they cannot get off their driveways as people are queued across them.

People have threatened him face to face, purposely hit the car with a transit truck thingy, deflated the tyres, keyed it, tried to drag it out of the way, parked other things in ‘his space’ to annoy him amongst other things.

So many people moaned about it on the local facebook community page, talking about it is now an instant permaban. Police have been involved due to threats made on there over it as well. 🙄

Do they do community speed watch schemes near you?
Hammer local traffic unit via Twitter until they do something targeted along there?

I leave the landy on the verge which slows down te Fanny’s that think a single track farm road with blind bends and rises with kids walking home from school is a suitable place for 70-80 mph when the normal road is closed.

The residents are in favour and that’s key.

Other wise yer just gonna come across as a dick.

There’s a guy who does this on one of the busiest roads in and out of my town with a shitty old Galaxy

😀 willibikky? Seen that…

Get a high-vis jacket and stand at the side of the road with a cordless hairdryer.

You can allegedly,n but I don’t know how, get hold of a real speed camera and use it, you cannot give a ticket (but the people who clocked me as I went by on the mountain bike and shouted 17) said that they recorded speeds and registrations and it was something like the driver could be sent a letter on 1st ‘offence’and visited by a real plod on second ‘offence’

A few councils have done this and I’ve had some success using my own car that rarely moves on the road outside my house. Its a residential road with only a few properties but used as a rat run for fat parents of fat kids as there is a path through to a nearby school.
The speed they go around the corner drops significantly when its in place.

That’s just a fancy way of reporting someone driving badly, you can do that without the camera.

Could you build a DIY speed trap?

Steel cable attached to a large servo motor, stretched across the road.

20 yards away, a Raspberry Pi with an opto-detector.

Cars go through the opto-detector, and the RPi drops the cable quarter of a second later.

Cars that are going too fast reach the cable before it’s been dropped, and have the top of their vehicle ripped off.

Most of the parts should be readily available from most hardware stores. You could code it all in Python very easily.

I think it’s legal….

My law is a bit out of date but I think you’d probably be committing an offence of wilful obstruction.

I do however sympathise as we have a speeding problem in our village with the 20mph sign universally ignored and the speed bumps inaffective to anything above Fiat 500 size.

Once we’ve had a death though they said they’ll do something about it……..

Rich.

It’s offence to cause an obstruction without good reason.

rwamartin – Member
My law is a bit out of date but I think you’d probably be committing an offence of wilful obstruction…

Surely he is simply trying to prevent a crime? 🙂

Only if it was completely blocking the road, Shirley? I understood his intention was simply to make it so that vehicles couldn’t drive down the road at excessive speed as they’d have to slow down to pass the vehicle. That’s not obstruction, that’s just a vehicle parked on the road.

(in a similar way I laughed at the HGV driver who threatened to call the police as I was obstructing him by standing on the pavement – yes there is more to that story, but it’s not very interesting).

If the van has any sign writing the local council may tow it away as its deemed to be a mobile advert, especially if it hasnt moved for a while.

Beware of parking on a hill, someone may release the hand brake, its happened in other areas.

Probably someone will report it as an obstruction and it will get towed away.Obstructing the highway is a law that is usually enforced.

As I said, my law is a bit rusty so I’m happy to stand corrected. However, my interpretation of it would be that if it was deliberately parked there with the intention of obstructing the free flow of traffic and someone was actually obstructed by it’s presence then it would be an offence of wilful obstruction.

If however, it was parked without intent to impede the flow of traffic, ie just poor parking, and someone was actually obstructed then it would be an unnecessary obstruction.

I might have to dust down my copy of butterworths police law later to check!

Rich.

A vehicle causing an obstruction is one which has been parked and left unattended in such a way that it is considered to be a hazard to other road or footway users. For example, a vehicle may have been parked on a bend on the carriageway or at a junction, creating a safety hazard to other users; it may have been parked across a footway blocking free passage to pedestrians, particularly those using mobility scooters or with push chairs; or a vehicle may have been parked in front of a driveway blocking access to private or public property.

https://www.herts.police.uk/advice/illegal_parking.aspx

Would a Luton size van cause any danger to pedestrians crossing the road by hiding them from drivers and obstructing the ped’s view of traffic?

They’re fairily big so yes and it could be seen as a hazard to vehicles if it’s parked in such a way to narrow the road.

The road in question is dead straight with no blind bends, no dropped curbs and no side roads for quite a distance.

The van would just be parked, legally, in a location that cars have not parked previously.

For what its worth about half a mile further on there are cars on both sides of the road simply because of the number of houses. They were just parking their cars – slowing down the passing traffic is a secondary benefit.

Hmm, but if there’s no bend, it’s not at a junction, it’s not parked across a footway or in front of a driveway (all of which appear to be reasonable assumptions based on the OP), then how does any of that apply Drac? Simply parking a vehicle on the highway such that drivers have to switch their brains on to get round it isn’t causing an obstruction – otherwise thousands of people would be prosecuted every day.

Simply parking a vehicle on the highway such that drivers have to switch their brains on to get round it isn’t causing an obstruction – otherwise thousands of people would be prosecuted every day.

Its down to the council highways team and or the police if its causing an obstruction, their opinion and their ability to do something about it

Section 37 of The Highways Act 1980 states that it is an offence for a person, without lawful authority or excuse in any way wilfully to obstruct the free passage along the highway of whatever type.

Wilfully in this context means that the particular obstruction was occasioned by some deliberate act which was freely carried out by the accused.

Without typing out the whole of the section from the book and all the examples it would indicate to me that parking a van deliberately which then causes someone to be obstructed could be considered to be a wilful obstruction and thus an offence. Obviously being charged with that offence and being convicted are two different things and it would be for a) the police to decide to take action and b) for a court to convict based on the evidence.

Sadly I think there is more chance of you being stuck on for the obstruction than there is for any action being taken against the speeding motorists.

Rich.

You (and many others) appear to be ignoring the last part of that statement – free passage is not obstructed by having to deviate from a straight line. Obstruction is when it is not possible to safely travel along a highway (whether the roadway or footpath), which is the case for all of the examples given in Drac’s quote, but not for what the OP is proposing.

Neither is it the police’s opinion which determines whether you’ve committed an offence.

Sorry aracer but I have to disagree with your definition of obstruction. There is nothing in the definition of obstruction that I can find which implies it has anything to do with whether travel along a highway can be done safely or not.

In the stated case (Hirst & Agu v CC West Yorks Police 1986) it was held that:

“Any stopping or slowing of traffic on the highway (more than a trivial hold-up) is an obstruction (traffic could be vehicular, animal or pedestrian in this context).

So any vehicle stopped on the highway, including parked cars, are causing an obstruction unless they are doing so for something like red lights.

However, for an offence to be committed it is necessary to show that the obstruction was wilful or deliberately done rather than accidental.

Also, for it to be an offence, the obstruction has to be done without lawful excuse. Lawful excuse may be by way of express permission, such as the directions from a traffic police. However, any lawful activity carried out in a reasonable manner may amount to lawful excuse. I would suggest that day to day parking is a lawful activity which gives implied permission but deliberately parking a van to slow traffic down would not be covered by that definition.

Neither is it the police’s opinion which determines whether you’ve committed an offence.

Yes, you’re right in that it is for the court to decide whether an offence has been committed. What I was trying to say (badly) was that it would be the police’s opinion on attending the perceived obstruction as to whether they felt there was sufficient evidence for them to instigate a prosecution.

Probably the best test is to let the OP park his van and let’s see what happens. I’ll prosecute, you defend and I’ll see you in court! 😉

I thought you could park anywhere you please as long as you parked legally?

BTW I have seen this type of approach make drivers even less careful 😐

Sounds fair.

I would suggest that day to day parking is a lawful activity which gives implied permission but deliberately parking a van to slow traffic down would not be covered by that definition.

Prove the intention beyond reasonable doubt.

Well yes proving it is the key but the law still exists. Just like any other offence committed it needs be proven, like for instance the OP accusing people of speeding.

Prove the intention beyond reasonable dou

Is had thought a copy of this thread should do the trick

While I’d love to be part of a Singletrack test case, it does seem to be absurd that I can be readily done for parking on the road outside my house yet neither the police nor council seem remotely bothered about tackling those who fly down my road at dangerously high speeds.

Although going by one of the loose definitions of obstruction above, its a crime that anyone that parks on a public highway is potentially guilty of. It’s going to be a busy day in court!

You asked for downsides one of them is the risk of that. It may be limited and yes less serious than someone driving way over the limit. However you having s random van outside your house that is causing traffic to queue may start complaints.

Once the lazy parents have negotiated my car parked on the street and gotten within a what they consider a manageable distance they will either parking on the road themselves or for extra irony on the pavement blocking the people who still know how to walk.

So their unlikely to have much of a case against me.

What you really need is a panel van with some small opening back windows, and some hi-viz chevrons stuck on.

khani – Member
willibikky? Seen that.

Yep! Love that you got that from my description of “a shitty galaxy blocking a busy road” 😆

Go to Merthyr Car Auctions, they always have an ambulance or twenty to flog on. Find the Cheapest runner, remove the lettering to leave the lights and chevrons and park that on your street. That should make people slow down until they realise what it is, At this point move it to a different spot and facing a different way. Added bonus is you have a bike van for weekend use 😀