Pavement parkers

It’s inevitable due to the vehicles people own and how shite they are at driving/parking them.

We live on a narrow road of terraced houses with (obviously) no off road parking. You’ve no option but to park partly on the pavement on one side of the road or you’d block the road. That’s just how it is. Everyone’s considerate though and there’s always room for pushchairs etc

There’s a couple recently moved in who, despite having no kids, no dogs, both work from home and do no outdoor activities, own a Range Rover and an Audi Q5.

Watching either of them trying to reverse park their respective unnecessarily massive behemoths is comedy gold. You’d think they were trying to reverse a fully laden artic into a particularly narrow loading bay

So they’ve given up trying and now ‘park’ their multiple wankpanzers 3/4 on the pavement and 1/4 on the double yellow lines at the top of the road. This not only completely blocks the pavement but also totally obscures the view for anyone trying to pull out of the T junction

I’ve never ever seen a traffic warden near ours and you get the distinct feeling that trying to have a polite word would be a complete waste of everybody’s time

There was a good Facebook feel from someone who’d not only got a fully deserved YPLAC sticker but also googly eyes stuck to the headlights of his blacked out Audi.

Any responsible citizen would check the tyres of a car obstructing the pavement are correctly inflated, mind you…

For those that know the Pentland hills outside Edinburgh.

Right at the start of lockdown, I came out of Flotterstone with the pushchair (admittedly a mountain buggy, so not small) To find 6 cars parked on the pavement with the offside wheels in the gutter and nearside against the hedge forcing all pavement users onto the A702 going up hill into oncoming traffic at 60mph.

The police did come round and enforce and yellow lines appeared shortly after.

My mum in her last few years was relegated to a wheelchair. She had stickers made up that had either “You have my pavement space, perhaps you want my disability?” and “You have my disabled parking space, perhaps you want my disability?” made up.
They seemed evily sticky to remove too…
I was amazed she was only ever verbally abused, not punched, but around the Wirral where they lived she could go through a sheet of them in one trip to the shops or beach front.

**Disclaimer ** I don’t drive because of medical reasons

Around my way, our housing estate is plagued by the problem alluded to by Tomd up there ^^^. Nearly every house has multiple cars in the driveway or outside their houses. Our neighbours either side of us have 4 cars outside their house and heaven forbid the suggestion that they might park in one of the carparks within a 2-3 minute walk from their house.

My Outlaws recently moved into a bungalow around the corner from us so we can help them out better. On Sunday, I took my very frail father-in-law out for a spin in his new wheelchair. It’s got a dropdown extra set of wheels with leccy assist. Yep, it’s an e-chair, please don’t judge me. I was forced to wheel him into the middle of the road so many times because of cars parked on the pavement that by the end of the walk he was half-jokingly suggesting that we take along a good set of keys so he can mark up the cars as we go past them next time.

Sheer, selfish ignorance. But that seems to be a very common trait nowadays, or possibly I’m becoming increasing intolerant of people as I grow older. Hmm…

I’ve long considered this the solution to council finances. Just get a small army of wardens (or subcontract to G4S, they already have most of the right attributes in their staff) to go around and ticket every car parked illegally. Don’t need to have the discount for early payment as it can’t be argued that it’s an accident like overstaying in a car park.

Blocking a junction? ✅
Wheels on pavement? ✅
In disabled space without badge? ✅
Double-yellows? ✅

In fact, with some fairly minor changes to the law you could get stupid people with cars to pay for everything in society. Dodgy number plate spacing? The smoked tint to stop cameras reading them? Huge 3D letters so the cyclist you drove over can’t read the plate? Window tints? Popping exhausts? Untaxed? No MOT? Uninsured?

Flick on the average speed cameras on the M1 and the rest of us could live in the lap of luxury for the rest of our lives while white van man single-handedly finances the country.

Yep, it’s an e-chair, please don’t judge me.

LOLz

You’ve no option but to park partly on the pavement on one side of the road or you’d block the road. That’s just how it is.

If you cannot park safely without parking on the pavement then you cannot park safely full stop.  park elsewhere.  Its not OK to block pavements so you don’t block the road

I’m not surprised though, increase in vehicle registrations tells the story

1993- 25million (all types)

2003 – 31million

2013 – 35 million

2023 – 40million

A 60% increase in 4 decades.

+1. There is no “right” to dump your car on a public road just because you feel like it. Every so often one of the dicks blocking our road get sideswiped by farm vehicles and I’ve seen one get towed. “Oh but the AirBnB owner told us it was ok to park here.”

It drives me up the wall too. I recently had an experience where I was walking to the train station and a woman in a big Merc drove fully onto the pavement and headed towards me, forcing me onto a grass verge. I confronted her on it and she ‘reasoned’ that it was a busy road and she didn’t want to block it. She didn’t understand my argument that, by parking on the pavement, it would force pedestrians onto that busy road, stating that ‘not many people walk down here’. Apart from me of course, the pedestrian she drove at. Then there was another occasion where a school mum parked fully on the pavement outside the school, right next to a Pelican crossing (I assume this was some bizarre attempt at circumventing the rules about not stopping on zigzags). I could go on and on but those two experiences are the ones that have lived with me.

If you cannot park safely without parking on the pavement then you cannot park safely full stop

While I agree with the sentiment, the HWC disagrees with you. (Rule 244)

You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.

Pushchairs and wheelchairs should be equipped with spring-out Ben Hur style blades on their wheels to dole out instant justice to the school-run wankpanzers.

Am I missing something here?  That does not say ” park on the pavement to avoid blocking the road”

I’m not really bothered unless the whole footway is blocked, then it’s not on. More one-way streets would help out though.

I had an argument with a van driver who didn’t get why I was bothered that my kids of probably about 5 & 7 at the time had to ride into the road to get round his van. He said “you shouldn’t be riding on the **** pavement anyway”, I wasn’t but my young kids were and they’re perfectly entitled to.

The bin lorry wouldn’t get round our street if people parked fully on the road though. Most have quite big drive though, so it’s not a major problem.

No, if the HWC doesn’t want you to do something – you MUST not, if it’s advisory it – SHOULD not.

The highway code doesn’t want you to park on the pavement, it also recognises that sometimes there’s no choice, or that its the lesser of evils.

Ah – I get your point.  Just because its not forbidden does not means its right and there is always a choice.

quite so

40 million cars. How depressing!

Good point about going car ‘free’ will never really be ‘free’ from cars.

I’m not optimistic the UK will ever overcome its addiction to them.

Should have moved to Denmark before Brexit :/

Am I missing something here?

The word should. It means you can do it under certain circumstances. Take for example the new laws regarding giving way to Peds at junctions, you should give way but if say another car is right up your arse then it might not be safe to do so

Problem solved in Kent.

They just paint parking spaces on the pavement.

“should not” simply means its not illegal but still against the highway code.  Its not giving permission and its does not say you can do it under  certain circumstances.

It’s illegal to ride your bike on the pavement. Is it not illegal to park on the pavement as you would have to drive on the pavement to park your vehicle there?

No it’s fine they are proper spaces painted by the council

Isn’t it due to local authority cuts?

Local authorities have statutory expenses, specifically for child and adult social care. This has gone up over the years, whilst their incomes have remained static, so they’ve had to cut other services, including parking enforcement?

It’s illegal to ride your bike on the pavement.

Yes and no. Many areas of pavement have marked cycle lanes on them (shared space) and it’s allowed if you’re under a certain age (10??) and in many cases it’s recognised as being the lesser issue in terms of riding on a busy/dangerous main road vs riding (carefully) on the pavement next to it. Plus the risks are generally very low and the enforcement generally near zero so it ranks very low down the scale of what it’s worth enforcing.

Is it not illegal to park on the pavement as you would have to drive on the pavement to park your vehicle there?

No, that’s the problem. The law says it’s illegal to drive on the pavement so, when the law was written, no-one thought to say it’s illegal to park there because, in order to park there, you’d already have had to do an illegal thing and everyone knows that motorists are saints and never do anything illegal. So to be caught, you have to be observed driving on the pavement by a uniformed police officer. If said uniformed officer walks along 2 minutes after you’ve got out of your car and nipped to the shops, they can’t do anything because they did not see the car being driven on the pavement. It could have levitated there. There is no proof who actually drove it there.
It’s absolutely bonkers. Also, there aren’t any uniformed police officers just wandering around any more.

Yeah it’s got worse, the number of cars on the road by 2020 according to this was 32.7 mil and has been a year on year increase (https://www.statista.com/statistics/299972/average-age-of-cars-on-the-road-in-the-united-kingdom/)

Couple this with newer builds with smaller houses with smaller driveways, kids often staying at home longer (https://www.aviva.com/newsroom/news-releases/2017/05/uk-number-of-children-aged-25-34-living-with-parents-grows-37-in-10-years-17767/), and if you take 3 kids between the ages 18-25 and 2 parents that could be 5 cars to 1 household with space for only 2 cars. And when buying a home most young first time buyers it appears is a young couple pooling financial resources together to buy a 2 up 2 down house with a driveway that only has space for 1 car so the other is always parked on the street.
This is my way of understanding this issue at least anyway, lot of correlative evidence and depending where you live and your own experiences everything I’ve said could be completely irrelevent.

However I don’t really see an issue with it as long as they aren’t blocking the entire path to allow wheelchairs and pushchairs to get past, but if the road isn’t big enough to leave enough pavement space without blocking the road up posing an issue to emergency services that’s where for me it does become an issue

The highway code doesn’t want you to park on the pavement, it also recognises that sometimes there’s no choice, or that its the lesser of evils.

weird logical leap equating “should not” with “crack on” 🤔

Rule 145
You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency.

Since you’re a stickler for the wording of the HWC, how do you intend to pavement park when driving onto the pavement is not allowed? Picking the car up & putting it there? 😂

The word should. It means you can do it under certain circumstances.

no. This is an urban myth which seems to be perpetuated on here and other places. The wording is “should not”. The meaning is “should not”. It’s not rocket science 😂. The differentiation is that it isn’t a criminal offence, not that it’s ok to do it if you feel like it!

Definitely an increase in selfishness/lack of consideration in general, not limited to pavement parking.

We had a double-width buggy when kids were younger – one of those offroad-style ‘Out N About’ ones which I should now refer to as ‘Matt’. Walk to nursery every day without fail meant venturing onto the road because of arsy pavement parking. I didn’t ever deliberately damage any car if I tried to squeeze past, not to my knowledge at least…

Total lack of enforcement locally here. One that winds me up is the double-cab pickup that parks all four wheels on the pavement, directly opposite the bookies, despite there being a lined parking area on the other side of the road. Pure laziness.

kramer Not moaning about kent council, they have no money and may even go bankrupt

It’s illegal to ride your bike on the pavement. Is it not illegal to park on the pavement as you would have to drive on the pavement to park your vehicle there?

IIRC it’s down to where you’re going. e.g. you can drive (or ride) on the pavement to cross it to get to your driveway, or I guess by extension to park legally. But you can’t drive/ride along the pavement.

There was a case a few years back of a motorcyclist getting done for walking his bike across the pavement and through his front door. I think it was eventually overturned?

If you cannot park safely without parking on the pavement then you cannot park safely full stop. park elsewhere. Its not OK to block pavements so you don’t block the road

TJ – you’ve been to my house. I live in a terraced street completely surrounded by loads and loads of terraced streets, park somewhere else? Where exactly? In some magic invisible local car park in the sky?

As residents ourselves we don’t ‘block’ the pavements. Everyone knows how it works (apart from our new 4×4 driving neighbours). On one side of the road you have to bump your wheels up onto the kerb, still leaving plenty of pavement, or the road is blocked

Stop being so obtuse and self-righteous! 😛

Yes it’s got really bad since covid.
Our small town often has a ‘parking enforcement’ car parked on a double width pavement. Ironically a local facebook page went beserk.

Last week while I was out walking, a school run mum drove up onto the corner of a road, on the wrong side and just left her massive range rover there, it completely blocked the whole corner pavement. We momentarily stared at each other, but I wasn’t brave enough to say something. Collecting little Gideon and Felicity from school is far more important than anything ever written in the highway code.

Oh and don’t get me started by the number of people parked on pavements with their engines idling – aarrgghh.

Ref made earlier to modern housing estates and the issue there. Ours is a case in point, estate is about 20 years old, all detached 3-6 bed properties in a good area. When built many of us bought a house and moved in 20 years ago with either young kids or starting families.

Currently many of the original owners remain and our kids are now in late teens/early 20’s. The bikes and scooters have been replaced in many instances by cars.

All houses have space on short driveways for 2 cars and some folk have converted lawn to monobloc, and in some cases dropped the kerb, which works well for cars.  The road has pavements each side and the road itself is standard width, so a car parked beside the kerb will allow getting past ok, just, for bin trucks etc, but is perceived as a nuisance for those that seem to not wish to reverse park up their drive, and then find reversing out obstructed by cars on the other side.

There are no public car parks within walking distance, and no free ones at all

So many of us with a third car opt to park on street, and putting 2 wheels partly on pavement seems the least obstructive way, there is space for pushchair or wheelchair to get by on the pavement and the car is a bit less of an obstruction to other road users. Why have 3 cars ? Everyone will have their own circumstances, for us 3 of us drive to work, often varied site locations, and carrying work kit, such that public transport isn’t an option.

Observation is that it works ok, people are largely reasonable and conflict very rare. We do have the odd person who takes the piss a bit, one guy who had a lot more cars than drivers, but in general it works. Needs people to be thoughtful though, thinking about which bit of road will be less impactful for those going in and out of driveways and also putting larger vehicles on drive and smaller ones on road/pavement.

There’s a red tarmac section, with solid white lines on a pavement near us that cars use for parking.  That let’s them keep the parking lane next to it, marked with a dotted white line free for us cyclists who can’t now use the cycle lane.

Proper enforcement of the existing rules* would help but that would need an increase in the value of fines and willingness to enforce, niether of which is likely under the current do what you want government. Councils are desperate to raise the fines to the level of private enforcement (which have been static since 2015) whilst the government wants to drop parking charges to the level of council fines which are niether a good deterant or pay for enforcement.
* blocking a pavement, yellow line infringements, parking within 10 of a junction, zig zags etc. etc.

I’ve never ever seen a traffic warden near ours and you get the distinct feeling that trying to have a polite word would be a complete waste of everybody’s time

Have you tried reporting it to the council. Live in a cul de sac with daytime parking restrictions and had a problem for a while with people using it during those hours and basically just abandoning the cars randomly (at least one case I reckon there was a case to ticket it for parking on both sides at once).
Someone seems to have got bored and reported it at which point some wardens popped by and having seen the easy pickings kept doing so. They were visiting daily for a while but after people got the hint now just turn up occasionally to check.

TJ – you’ve been to my house. I live in a terraced street completely surrounded by loads and loads of terraced streets, park somewhere else? Where exactly? In some magic invisible local car park in the sky?

somewhere where you do not “have to” park on the pavement.  the bit by your house needs double yellows both sides IMO.  On a curve, narrow street on a hill.

So many of us with a third car opt to park on street, and putting 2 wheels partly on pavement seems the least obstructive way,

least obstructive for cars.  Most obstructive for pedestriansd

for example someone with mobility issues may need someone beside them to guide and support them  Can’t do it if the pavement is blocked

there is never any excuse for pavement parking.  Its selfish

weird logical leap equating “should not” with “crack on”

That’s not what it says, it says don’t park on the pavement, but there’s no further legislation to actually prevent it (outside London) so it can only be an advisory. but also…

Rule 242 says “You MUST NOT leave your vehicle or trailer in a dangerous position or where it causes any unnecessary obstruction of the road.”

Again, that’s a MUST not, so don’t do it, and there’s legislation that applies, so you’ll get a FPN. Faced with the decision of following 242, or following 244…Then 244.

Don’t park on the pavement, if you have to then leave enough room for peds especially wheelchairs or prams, if you can’t do that, or folks are having to walk in the road to get around you; then park somewhere else. It’s not particulalry difficult.