What’s on the agenda for tomorrow’s thread OP? The youth of today, why don’t they get a haircut? Why don’t policemen say ‘allo, Allo, Allo, what’s all this then?” anymore?

On tenterhooks here.

I’m in South London and there are streets where it’s signed as allowed and appropriate. Moderately busy roads where housing has no off street parking, so pavement parking keeps traffic flowing as it can go both ways. However it annoys me massively if/when cars park to high and make it hard to pass on the pavement. The road my kids primary school is on is prime example…. Lots of parents trying to safely squeeze kids past the cars is hard enough, when one has a younger sibling in a pram and said pram doesn’t fit past a car it’s dangerous. I wish I had the ****s to try much harder to push my son’s pram through the tight gaps before going out in the road to get past.

Apart from the folks who’ve got a drive too short for their monster motor so its back end covers the whole pavement.

Someone did that near my house recently (it was a second car trying to fit on the drive rather unsuccessfully). I found that their wipers were a good place to hang a freshly-filled dog poo bag from.

I was walking down a local road recently, on the road as there were cars parked fully on the path on each side. One of the cars pulled out, the driver looked annoyed that I was blocking the road…

I’ve got to put my 40 ft motorhome somewhere you know.

I believe that the appropriate place for that is right in front of your neighbours windows such that they can’t tell if it’s day or night by looking through them.
In any event it’s certainly not on your own drive.

Wild idea, but perhaps park somewhere safer and less selfish then walk back to your house? I know, it’s a pretty out there idea isn’t it? I can understand why you hadn’t managed to think it up for yourself.

All the roads are narrow (rural), none have any pavement apart from a 50 metre section of pavement that the council decided to put on a small section of a narrow road which happens to be outside my house. I could park down the road alongside a hedge (where there is no pavement) but what difference do you think that would make to anyone?
I don’t even walk on the pavement myself when taking dogs for a walk as after having walked a mile or two on the road why bother moving across to a bit of pavement for 50 metres.
A completely different scenario to people parking on pavements in towns clearly but seems to have missed you by.

Be a pity if butterfingers kept dropping No8 screws on the pavement on their way back from B&Q.

Problem with that is they inevitably end up on the road and in my tyre. Again. For the third time in less than 6 months.

So no ta.

All the roads are narrow (rural), none have any pavement apart from a 50 metre section of pavement that the council decided to put on a small section of a narrow road which happens to be outside my house. I could park down the road alongside a hedge (where there is no pavement) but what difference do you think that would make to anyone?

Are you saying there is absolutely nowhere within sensible walking distance of your house to park your car safely?

none have any pavement apart from a 50 metre section of pavement that the council decided to put on a small section of a narrow road

Why did they put the pavement there? Is there a bus stop? History of accidents? Part of a walk to school route? A higher concentration of homes? How have you got to the point where you justifying parking on the only bit of pavement provided?

There was an HMG consultation about banning this outside London. For whatever reason hasn’t been updated in 18 months.

Most of the WalkRide groups seem to be on it, and there is apparently an option of introducing a local byelaw. Would help if councils weren’t banned from camera enforcement mind you.

I park on a road regularly where people park on the pavement (I assume so no one takes their mirror off when passing) however I think they are only encouraging people to squeeze through hence increasing the likliehood of damage. Also on one particular day in lockdown when the street was rammed 2 of the cars (both parked on pavement got scratched, I assumed an irate parent with a buggy)

Police can ticket cars blocking pavements in England

It’s happened in the village up the road from me. Local traffic cops publish activity on their Facebook page and it is shared. The people who got ticketed are pretty stupid as the road is only wide enough for one vehicle whether you are parked on the road or blocking the pavement. Its the same all the way through the village so but the pavement parking is just at one end. TBH Pavement parking is actually more likely to get you scraped if two cars try to pass at the same time

You could use this to improve the affordability of housing. If you made it illegal to park on the pavement and enforced it, the desirability of houses without off street parking would fall and they would become more affordable.

You wouldn’t be able to live there if you needed a car, but then again given the current direction of fuel prices you might want to use a bike more anyway.

This plan isn’t without flaws such as negative equity, repossessions, people complaining “but my car!” and cash rich oligarchs buying up cheap housing stock to rent it back out again.

Probably a case for an exception on certain tight roads with terraces, for example, but as a general rule, I’d like to see restrictions enforced and widened in scope.

The real solution of course is fewer cars*.
.
.
.
*Not mine of course.

Probably because a law to eradicate it would prove unpopular for the party bringing it in.

I report those blocking the pavement to the police, just like you would a video of dangerous driving, not sure what action gets taken but having had a wheelchair using uncle & sister in law & hearing their tales of woe certainly focused the mind. Was also one of the reasons for going down to one car, as son now has his own & means both cars stay on the drive rather than out on the road. Had a car written off at my old house because I parked on the road rather than part on the pavement like everyone else 😬

My 87 yr old father fell a couple of weeks ago trying to get past a pavement parker.  two broken fingers, multiple lacerations, wrecked confidence

there is never an excuse for pavement parking.  Its selfish and dangerous

I feel for the kids now unable to play kerby like we did 50 years ago
Or skieting and old shoe polish tin on the chalked pavement well the girls did

gwaelod

Obviously if I buy something then the rest of society must provide somewhere convenient for me to store it, cos if they don’t I shall store it where I want anyway even if by doing so i deny others their basic rights.

I got such a kicking for similar sentiments on another thread.

Should be allowed to walk up and over the car without fear of legal ramifications

Should be allowed to walk up and over the car without fear of legal ramifications

I was about to say the same. Maybe you could start a TikTok craze.

Definitely agree it’s an issue but finding a solution which is acceptable to most is something of an intractable problem.
Three things that really piss me off:
– parking directly outside my house
– parking such that prams/pushchairs/mobility scooters don’t have enough space to use pavement
– works vehicles parked overnight & at weekends which don’t belong on residential streets.

Should be allowed to walk up and over the car without fear of legal ramifications

Some monumental cockwomble parked their car about an inch from my front door. They came back to find me lounging on the bonnet catching some rays and my bike partially squeezed in to the gap between car and front door.

When we first moved in to the house people would regularly park fully on the pavement right outside our door. Rare occurrence now. I’m assuming tales of the unhinged, angry bald man have spread locally 😀

In the netherlands if you park blocking a cycle lane every other cyclist riding past will scratch your car.  No one does it as a result

We should do the same with pavement parkers  there have been a few cars have damaged or misaligned wing mirrors after I squeezed past.  Shame there wasn’t room to get thru without hitting the mirror

What I don’t understand is why people park half on the pavement and half on the road. This still blocks the road and doesn’t allow 2 cars to pass each other in opposite directions and blocks most of the pavement not allowing prams past.
Leave the car on the road and leave the pavement clear.

It’s a fair point if you own the tarmac outside your house, otherwise surely anyone can park there.

Also if the person in the works van leaves the van at work and drives home in their own vehicle, there’s still a vehicle in that space, and another journey has been taken and more fuel has been spent.

Yes, anyone can park there – I wish they wouldn’t.
Works vehicles belong…at work unless they’re owned by the driver and even then anything bigger than swb transit or similar is unacceptable.
Not far from me some bloke who works for Anglian Water poles up in a variety of vehicles ranging from combi van upto tipper.
Don’t know why his neighbours don’t kick up.

Come to Sheffield, it’s officially a competition here to see who can do the most outrageous piece of parking. There’s even a Twitter account dedicated to it https://twitter.com/parkinginsheff?s=21.

Admittedly not on a pavement but this is one of my recent favourites

*chef's kiss*. Bute St. Crookes. @ParkinginSheff pic.twitter.com/b8KHf4rhio

— Button (@sheffbicycle) February 23, 2022

The neighbour next to me does it as does his daughter. They’ve even started putting cones out in the road on the other side of their car to prevent other cars hitting them. Admittedly mine got hit three times in a year. I ended up parking up the road to avoid the problem but sold it in the end anyway as never drove the bloody thing.

Who Gives a …. f

Who Cares :[

and its a cycle path…lol.

At least they did’nt park on the doubles 😉

I think a lot of people don’t see a problem with parking on the pavement because they never walk anywhere. The last couple of roads I’ve lived on I’d say the vast majority of people rarely, if ever, reached either end of the road under their own steam.

There was something on R4 a while back talking about this. Apparently different councils have different rules on parking on the pavement

redthunder – I believe in that situation they are still considered to be on the double yellows.  IMO one of the issues is that there is not enough parking wardens to enforce parking law

It must be Illegal to park on pavements because it’s illegal to drive on them. Unless you want to claim your car was lowered into place by a helicopter.

Yeah the lazy sods next door to me regularly drive the 900 m to the local shop.

Are you saying there is absolutely nowhere within sensible walking distance of your house to park your car safely?

Yep.

Why did they put the pavement there? Is there a bus stop? History of accidents? Part of a walk to school route? A higher concentration of homes? How have you got to the point where you justifying parking on the only bit of pavement provided?

The pavement was there when I moved in 25 years ago. Everyone parks on it due to narrow road and by parking on pavement there is more road left to drive on than if parking down the road past the pavement which is narrower/bendier – that is how I justify parking on it
A bus stop, hilarious
A walk to school – nearest school is 5 miles away
A higher concentration of homes – the houses are spread out evenly along the road as they have been for 50 years and no new builds are allowed due to conservation area

Try and get your head around the fact that it is the only bit of pavement so if walking down the road most of the time is either walking along the side of the road or on muddy verges. It is the equivalent of one of those stupid bits of cycle lane than are 5 metres long.

“It must be Illegal to park on pavements because it’s illegal to drive on them. Unless you want to claim your car was lowered into place by a helicopter.”

It’s illegal to block the pavement, it’s illegal to drive on the pavement and it’s illegal for any vehicle over 7.5 tons to be parked on the pavement (except for unloading where the pavement is not blocked and the vehicle is not left unattended).

But it’s not illegal to park a car on the pavement (outside London).

Most people where I live park half on the pavements, however they still leave room to pass by. Only time it becomes an issue is when someone parks on the corner of a junction, but that’s rare.

Before anyone pops round with with frozen sausages, we use the drive as we’re a one-car family. But there are many round here with multiple vehicles.