Pavement parkers

Is it me, or is this behaviour just becoming completely normal? Has it always been so, or has it really gottten worse over the past several years. There doesn’t seem be even a semblence of shame now in completely blocking off the pavement with an oversized vehicle. Where I live normally, if you park illegally, you get a fine pretty quickly that can run into the hundreds of euros. My sister is a wheelchair user, so this really gets on my nerves that people are so inconsiderate and that this type of behaviour seems largely acceptable. Is there anything you can actually do which is worth the effort to report this behaviour?

It’s got worse.

There was a consultation from the DfT in 2020 about a ban, since when… crickets.

Definitely got worse and that will continue unless and until local authorities and police start using their powers.

Yep, definitely worse – had words with van driver blocking pavement this morning while filling one of those parcel depot things.

Didn’t seem to understand why I didn’t want to walk my pushchair into the road to avoid him being inconvenienced, tosser.

Seems normalised to me now. Par for the course around here. Doesn’t even seem to bother people when they get repeatedly fined for it.

People used to regularly park directly outside my house on the pavement. It has double yellows and parking on said pavement obstructs the view from a junction making it dangerous to manoeuvre out of it.

In the last 12 years I’ve done the following with great success.

Accidentally dropped something out of a bedroom window on to a car.

Made myself comfortable on someone’s bonnet/windshield with a brew.

Destroyed the paintwork on a car trying to get my bike (and a pram) in the front door.

Honestly thought I’d killed a man by sneaking up on him in the dead of night then jumping up and banging on his window. He was parked outside inches from the front door watching something on a tablet at an extremely high volume. I like to think he still has nightmares about the crazy bald man to this day.

All of the above were top fun for me. Witnessed by the vehicle owners and resulted in them not parking there again. One of them, whose car I damaged, even went to the trouble of demolishing their front garden and turning it in to a driveway. They live about six doors down and never make eye contact with me 😂

All of these people, bar night time man, were asked politely not to park there by Mrs F before I got involved. Absolute selfish ****. Don’t mind people parking for a bit but these **** treated it like their own private parking space.

Where my parents live in England it’s very common. Where I live in Scotland, not really seen at all. Similar housing developments too, i.e. same width of road and type of houses, plus not a through road. We have all sorts going past parked cars without issue, even regular fire engines (for a reason we are yet to work out).

I can understand people doing it if roads are narrow and, spaces and driveways are few. Where my parents’ are has none of those and it’s almost comical in places to see how people park. Not sure what they are expecting to go by. Plus if they were parked fully on the road cars would have to slow down, so less chance of an accident?

Used to be really bad around here but a combination of new parking zones, more double yellows and some more enforcement has stopped it

Two local residential roads you used to have to walk on the road as the pavements were full of a cars.  Quite fun when a line of cars are behind you as you slowly saunter down the road. Myself and another chap also had stickers made up and any pavement parkers we saw got one.  maybe helped a little.  Ive taken a few wing mirros off as well trying to walk past pavement parked cars  Such a shame

We are supposed to be getting a total ban on pavement parking.  I am not sure if it is in place yet but locally all parking is controlled now.  No free parking within miles of me

about time too

“Ive taken a few wing mirros off as well trying to walk past pavement parked car”

Same here…

Surely for cash-strapped councils, just boost the fines up 300% and start collecting.

As I said I am not sure if the law is in place yet in Scotland but in England outside of London there is no prohibition on pavement parking

So even if there are double yellows, if you park completely on the pavement, you’re techinically not breaking the law?

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<p style=”text-align: left;”>Dog shit on the inside of the door handles is an old favourite of mine.</p>
When the local rugby club used to have 6 teams of juniors playing on Sunday mornings the parents taking their kids to get exercise would park on the pavement on the fast road running by so their kids didn’t have to walk an extra couple of hundred yards from parking around the corner.

The Road had no yellow lines so they could park there fully on it but they didn’t want to obstruct traffic. **** the pedestrians with pushchairs or dogs on leads though.

I’d wait until the junior matches had started and then called the police. For 5 consecutive weeks.

I got a lot of threats from parents, but eventually the club made part of their land into overflow parking.

Rugby ****.

Make wing mirrors cheaper.

Ban electric /heated/built in indicators on wing mirrors.

Have you seen the cost of a fancy wing mirror these days?

I am being sarcastic, before I get burned to death!

So even if there are double yellows, if you park completely on the pavement, you’re techinically not breaking the law?

No the double yellows still count I think.  I got done years ago parking a motorbike like that ( not blocking a pavement but off the road where the road had double yellows

So even if there are double yellows, if you park completely on the pavement, you’re techinically not breaking the law?

Still not legal iirc. (Ignoring driving on the pavement) the lines count regardless of what side of them you park.

I used to park the work van two wheels on the pavement outside my house (just like everyone else in the street) as the chap over the road seems to just stop his car and get out regardless of the distance to the kerb. If I parked on the road fully he’d pretty much block the path on his side.

I removed our gates so I could fit the work van on the driveway. I’ve been rewarded by being blocked in. Rather than just block one side, ie the non dropped kerb side, which actually is fair enough. They block both sides slightly so no cars can get off the driveway.

Out for a lunchtime run on one occasion about 25 years ago in Wolverhampton, the posh bit at Wergs (yes, Wton does have some posh bits) I ran right right up the bonnet, over the roof, and jumped down off the boot of a nobber’s car fully blocking the pavement. He’d pulled off the road, completely ignored the 20ft of grass verge and parked wholly on the path. Bravely, I disappeared sharpish straight afterwards. So no, there’s nothing new about it, but by Christ it winds me right up these days.

Road where I live is quite narrow and any van or SUV needs to park partly on the pavement if other vehicles want to drive up it. I can’t understand why anyone who lives where I do needs an SUV. I pity the bin collectors trying to get their bin lorry up the road without damaging half the cars. And don’t get me started on the selfish b*ggers who park right on the corners so its extremely difficult for even smallish hatchbacks to turn into the road.

Used to be really bad around here but a combination of new parking zones, more double yellows and some more enforcement has stopped it

The tram is blocked daily on Leith Walk by pavement parking. Pavement parking is rife in Edinburgh. And the law has still not come into effect to prevent it.

So even if there are double yellows, if you park completely on the pavement, you’re techinically not breaking the law?

No, they include the pavement.

R4 article a while back, in Surrey it’s legal.  Wtf!

In my street we all have drives and once all had garages, and loads of space on the road, but some still like parking on the grass verges. Really odd

Dog shit on the inside of the door handles is an old favourite of mine.

That’s the first warning then you move on to fox shit.

My house is on a two lane service road. I can park an older larger Vivaro fully on the road outside my house against the kerb and the bin vehicle can get past with no problem. Some of the local wankpanzer drivers and Amazon delivery types insist on parking partly on the footway. I suspect that I may need to call our council parking wardens to get some invoices issued (there is a dedicated pavement parking team here in Ipswich who like to work in the late evening to avoid the excuse of “I was just waiting”).

Once I explained nicely to the younger neighbours about wheelchairs and pushchairs needing the full width of the footway they no longer obstruct it. I have been known to force a pushchair past a vehicle in the past to avoid going into the carriageway.

I suspect that I may need to call our council parking wardens to get some invoices issued. An an order of YPLAC stickers for personal use.

Pavement parking really winds me up and yes it is getting a lot worse thanks to cars being so much wider. That law that bans it nationwide can’t come soon enough although it’ll cause absolute chaos in bits of Cardiff and most of the Valleys as we have lots of narrow terraced streets with no front gardens to make into driveways.

I think it’s also exacerbated by the housing crisis – the age that young adults move out of home was creeping up even before COVID. So you often have 3 or 4 bed houses now with mum, dad + 2 kids all with cars + often a work van / vehicle. You only need a few such houses and a couple of HMOs on a street and it ends up like chaos.

It’s a minor issue around my way with the only offenders fitting the above – modest house with every adult having a car plus a works van all strewn about.

We have always parked on pavement ever since I have lived where I live for 25 years.  It makes sense to do so as the road is narrow and nobody really knows why the pavement is there.  The whole road is 700 metres and has a bit of pavement that is around 50 metres so if you are walking down the road (which I do, a lot) you are walking in the road apart from that 50 metres where you could walk on the pavement.

God this winds me up. I’m now past the pram phase of my life now thankfully.

All it does is make those who would otherwise be able to walk more likely to get in their car. Any street in Bristol with Victorian terraces is pretty much impossible to walk down unless in the middle of the road.
It also wrecks the tarmac or flagstones of the pavement from the weight of having a car constantly parked on it.
I hope to be car free one day, but I’ll still have to live with everyone else’s.

The tram is blocked daily on Leith Walk by pavement parking.

Is it?  I have never seen it and there are wardens on leith walk constantly.  I have seen them park on the pavement there to avoid blocking the trams thus blocking the cycleway.  I don’t go up and down it every day but have a few times recently

The local area forum where my Mum lives is full of bleating about the bad parking of Lime bikes – it’s pretty much guaranteed that the same few throbbers will post pictures every day with much wailing of “wHaT ab0uT teh d1sAblEd?!!” and “wHaT ab0uT teh bLinD?!!”

There’s a local Twitter feed focusing on bad driving and parking (and it’s not short of examples!) but all of that gets brushed aside with “where else are the poor hard working drivers supposed to go?!” and “well they’re just dropping the kids off at school, it’s only 5 minutes!” and much blaming of the council for not providing unlimited free parking.

The car-blindness is very strong. Pavement parking is acceptable because deliveries are very important and something something the economy and well I *need* a 17ft 4×4 for the 0.2 mile school run, how is it my fault that the roads aren’t wide enough and I have to park on the pavement?

THERES A LIME BIKE STICKING OUT! THE DANGER! THE HORROR! INCONSIDERATE BLOODY CYCLISTS!

It makes sense to do so as the road is narrow and nobody really knows why the pavement is there.

NO it does not make sense.  If the road is too narrow to park safely without being on the pavement its too narrow to park on full stop.  Pavements are for people

Yup, winds me up too. It seems to be the learned behaviour now: even if the street is quiet, empty, and more than wide enough, put at least two wheels on the pavement, because that’s what it’s for right?

Owner of twins and side by side double buggy here – boils my…..

I think it’s more just an increase of universal lazy / selfish behavior, this is just one example, I try to be considerate as I can to others and give the benefit of the doubt but hitting early 40’s I’m slowly turning into a bitter bitter old man, especially post Brexit.

Our local town center has this weird semi-pavement parking where you’re allowed to park on pavements on the main drag before 11am after 3pm, you’d literally think some idiots were trying to part IN Greg’s, oh sorry love this qashqai won’t fit through the doors, I’ll have to park so close you can only just manage to open the passenger door instead

NO it does not make sense.  If the road is too narrow to park safely without being on the pavement its too narrow to park on full stop.  Pavements are for people

Whatever.  When you have to walk in the road for 95% of the time the pavement seems a bit pointless doesn’t it.

My comment was just to state there are use cases where it is valid but I agree it is a different problem in places with ‘proper’ pavements.  I knew it would get misconstrued but I still posted it anyway – I just don’t care 🙂

Had to have a word with of all things: An ambulance crew. Who were not only pavement parked across my driveway – at 10pm on a Sunday night but had the [ clackety knackered diesel] running. After 20mins or so, I went down to have a chat. They were “on a break” they told me – which seemed true enough, they were shoving chocolate into their mouths…Could they do it somewhere other than just below my bedroom perhaps? To which they huffed and puffed and eventually moved off.

Manchester has some pretty active parking enforcement, and they’re always around where I live but between digging up the road to relay the tarmac, digging up the road to install bike lanes, and digging up the road/pavement to install broadband, there’s not much parking to be had anywhere right noow

tbf to the Welsh government they were looking to ban it and held consultations for the past few years, looks like they’ve gone on hold due to the implementation of the 20mph speed limit in urban areas, which as a cyclist and father of young cyclists I’m all for, so hoping pavement parking stays on the list and can generate some income off idiots at some stage.

Local councils took parking enforcement on from the police many years ago and do little about it

There are offences that police can enforce, e.g. wilful obstruction of the highway (pavement is a highway), driving on the footpath, etc

You can contribute to the Walkpanzer Watch twitter account (it isn’t “walk” BTW but I can’t use the correct name)

kerley – I have not misconstrued anything.  Pavements are for people not cars.

It’s not illegal to park on the pavements outside of London so I guess its just another case of ‘suck it up losers’

It has become much worse during the past few years where I live. Part of it is the massive increase in cars on the road, streets that were empty 20 years ago are now full of parked cars 24/7. I think that has also brought us to a tipping point, where very few people walk anywhere and experience it from the perspective of somebody outside of a vehicle. Enforcement seems pretty much non existent and the right to park pretty much anywhere you like seems to be assumed now.

I’d quite like to contribute to a solution, so would be interested to know what movements are around this. There must be a collective body fighting the cause?

As I said I am not sure if the law is in place yet in Scotland but in England outside of London there is no prohibition on pavement parking

Technically you can’t drive onto the pavement without breaking the law. It’s also breaking the law if it causes an obstruction, or if (as noted already) there are double yellow lines. All of these are widely ignored.

Butcher – police and parking wardens tend to be reactive on this not proactive – so to make a difference you need to make complaints about it and keep the pressure on so there is enforcement

The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 bans pavement parking, double parking and parking at dropped kerbs, and gives local authorities the relevant powers to enforce these new provisions. The Scottish government are still consulting on enforcement.

Ta Phil

I knew the law had been passed and knew it was delayed in implementation due to covid but not sure what the state of play was currently