Would this bother anyone or am I just being petty? Neighbours walking past

Exactly. I don't know why the OP doesn't just do this.

Yes, as multiple people have suggested now just park your car an inch away from your house so they can’t walk in front of it, they have to go behind. This works even if it’s just your car there.

As you need both spaces and planting isn’t an option, I’d prob try being a bit pass-agg and have a few phone calls on very boring topics walking up and down the parking bays when you’re neighbours are in.

Otherwise consider those privacy blinds/ more soundproofing, or can you rearrange your downstairs layout a bit so it’s less of a problem?

Definitely try parking extremely close to the house so there's no gap. The car that's gets used least under the window so they have to go around.

Cheaper ( but less fun) would be a proximity alarm on the wall near/ under your window.
You would need one with two remotes and wouldnt be able to leave it on all the time, but enough to quickly deter the 3 families cheeky enough to keep pushing through .

They are around a tenner on amazon.

It should only take 1 planter, hard up against the house at 1 end, to stop this.
As you can park the nose of your car quite tight (just overlapping) this and still get use of your car doors. So the car most often there forms the rest of the fence.

Although they may then start cutting in diagonally accross your second parking space.

You may have to see if one side is more effective than the other.. maybe treat it like that famous tv wildlife show where the squirrels had to do more and more outrageous acrobatics to get to the nuts.

E.g. " Come and have a look at this Michael,. Mrs Smith from number 8 is having another go at the rope bridge. Ooooo shes fluffed it ! She's going to have to start again at the teeter totter.".

I thought that too. If one car is parked right up close not leaving enough room to pass, does that not mean they're going to have to go round it? It may or may not be enough to make people prefer walking by the road instead but it surely moves them away from the window.

That said, I don't think it's particularly surprising that people prefer not to walk on the road. You also need a good privacy option such as blinds OP.

One car is enough to interrupt the flow of movement away from their window.

OP has said that the trellis planters might not leave sufficient room for 2 dars. However you only have to block passage at one point. not at both sides of the parking bay. If some houses have already installed some kind of a system then it can be against the rules. Or the rules arent being enforced. Planters may be the answer. OP can then (if challeneged) simply say they are a decorative feature because the front of her house looks a little bare.

No she isn’t! She has answered this already! Her DH is out at work whilst the neighbours are doing this so only her car is there which isn’t enough to stop them doing it as there’s two spaces! Try reading OP’s posts in future

What about a privacy film on your windows? Or shutter blinds?

We literally step out of our front door onto a pavement and live in between 2 generations of one family who are constantly calling in on one another so I absolutely feel your pain! That said I barely notice it now (been here 10+ years mind you ) and it's only ever one of my neighbours passing by or stopping for a chat or the kids out playing, I actually find it quite comforting now in a weird way although it did annoy me to begin with.

Surprisingly, some people don't use their car to get absolutely everywhere - they could be walking to the bus stop, local shop or school.

I don't see why there is any need for them to walk past at all? Are the people from 20 visiting the people in 14 or 16? If they are parking in their spaces and going into their houses then what?

I agree with the posters saying 'park you car right up so far that they cannot squeeze past...' Why can't you do this @thebakera ???

Also, YANBU to be annoyed, but there is nothing you can do.

Many of us have suggested this but OP is ignoring for some reason.

If you parked your car within a couple of inches of your window, there’d be no room to get through. Could that work?

You have my sympathy. We have a cottage that opens into the street down a little dead end lane with only a pedestrian cut through leading off it. To park we have to tuck the car right in. Despite this leaving enough room to get the bin lorry past and there being no traffic as we are at the bottom, people still squeeze themselves through the tiny gap between the car and the wall. Makes me jump everytime as they’re right up against the window and because the house is lower than the road they can see straight in.

Wish there was some sort of human equivalent to pigeon spikes.

Oh goodness I live opposite a lady on a new estate with a set-up exactly as you describe. It makes me so uncomfortable when I see the kids playing on her drive but I didn’t know whether to say anything as I thought maybe she might have said it was okay and I’d just be sticking my beak in.

I’ve even seen people drive their cars over her drive to get round the corner to where the their houses are rather than take the road properly. She doesn’t have a car so it’s never blocked for them.

some people have zero respect!

Apologies 😜 just read the OP again!

There was, with numerous people posting the link to an Argos planter with trellis😁

So it’s as if they are walking across your front garden, except the developers sacrificed a front garden for off-street parking?

YANBU

If you’re not using the spaces for parking can you use the space for something else? id be going to B&Q or IKEA to buy some big planters and get them ready for summer planting either side of your parking to form a kind of a fence.

But OP doesn’t say that does s/he? They are the two parking spaces allocated to her house. The problem isn’t that other people are using them. That would be a whole new horror.

Or park your car as far up to the house as you can so it would make it difficult for them to walk between the house and the car.

Combine this idea with the planter idea - tall planters up again the top of the house that the car parks right up to. Can have a decorative piece of big rope tied to it to almost act as a bumper.