Would you like a ban on cars parking on pavements?

[StarsBright]

‘MPs call for blanket ban on car parking on pavements.’

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/car-parking-pavement-ban-britain-uk-government-a9096991.html

Having needed to use a wheelchair recently I’d really like to see a change in this behaviour. It makes it difficult to get around when cars park on the pavement without leaving enough of a gap for a wheelchair to get through. It’s also frustrating and dangerous for those with prams, the partially sighted and pedestrians.

I do understand that it’s not an easy issue to solve and some roads are very narrow, however there has already a ban in place in London for decades.

I’d be interested to hear thoughts on this!

Yes. It's one of my pet hates. Especially when other cars on the same street manage to park perfectly safely on the road. Its selfish to pedestrians, especially with wheelchairs/pushchairs.

Yes, it should be banned and I say that as a driver.
Footpaths are for pedestrians not cars and vans.
My son in law is blind. He has enough on with trying to negotiate round street furniture, without vehicles on the pavement too.
Wheelchair users and people with buggies etc must find it difficult too.

No.
There would be nowhere to park.

Round here it would block all the roads, as they are narrow and cars could not pass and therefore it only makes sense on wider roads.
If parking was allowed on only one side of narrow roads there would not be enough parking and so no, I wouldn't be in favour.

Absolutely, one of my pet hates.

I would. Having said that, for example there is a house estate near us, that without parking on the pavement other vehicles wouldn’t get through. The roads are too narrow. The developers who built it didn’t give the properties enough driveway parking spaces either.

Yes. If you have nowhere to park on the road then don't get a car. Cars on pavements block the way for disabled people and young children.

I'd like it banned. I manage to get to where ever I need to without doing it and so do most people. If the road isn't big enough for you to park without using the pavement you need to park somewhere else.

Cars on pavements block the way for disabled people and young children

They don’t here.
People manage to park on pavements sensibly leaving enough room for wheelchair users, pushchairs etc.

It’s alright saying don’t get a car, you must have wonderful public transport near you

What about the thousands of terraced houses, or others without off street parking? Where are they meant to park? Block entire roads so that buses can’t get through?

There are more people that park sensibly on he pavement that don’t.

Personally, no. The street outside my house is too narrow for people not to park partly on the pavement. However we do take care to leave enough pavement space for people to pass by as well.

I had a double buggy at one point and it was awful having to push my babies into the road. I think restricting it to one side of the road would help.

No. Living in a county where towns and cities are too narrow for both cars and pedestrian on both sides of the road I like the common sense approach here. Cars park on one side, pedestrians use other and everyne squeezes down the snickets for house access.

Though that won't stop me leaving cryptic messages for the 4x4 owning resident just up the road - she thinks that as she has lived here and parked on the pavement for 20+ years she has precedence over everyone else! Would be less irritating but she has a garage, large enough to get the bloody thing in, but, as she wrote in a reply to one of my notes, she doesn't feel safe edging out into the road - and no, she didn't get the irony of that! Hypocritical bitch that she is!

No. A ban round here wouldn't work. A more sensible approach would be to prosecute obstructive parking. Part of learning to drive would be allowing space for wheelchairs and prams on pavements.

A more sensible approach would be to prosecute obstructive parking.

Yes

I can think of rda where if people din't half go on the pavement the buses and emergency trucks wouldn't fit. Comon sense is the key and new rds need to larger.

Yes, there is a general ban in London UNLESS there are signs and/or pavement markings that allow you to do so. So, as elsewhere in the country, in narrow roads, particularly where there are roads of Victorian terraces, pavements are blocked for wheelchairs, pushchairs, and those with visual impairments.It seems that the narrowest roads have the narrowest pavements.

The ban doesn't really solve the problem.

It depends on how narrow the road/street is.
I live where most of the roads are narrow and it would be a nightmare if
cars were fully on the road.
Common sense is needed.

If the car blocks a pavement meaning that a wheel chair user of parent with a pushchair has to go in the road then yes.

Near our local station there has been a change of rules to residents only parking where lots of commuters used to park. Now one of the main roads has a long line of cars parked on the pavement every week day making access to pedestrians difficult and people having difficulty in getting out of their drives. It's a bus route too and if there are cars parked both sides it causes chaos particularly when it's busy. Think there will be parking restrictions there too soon as there have been so many local complaints about it.

It depends on the road, on our street (all terraced houses) you have to park half on the pavement, half on the road or you block the road. However the pavement is wide enough that there's still plenty of room for wheelchairs and pushchairs, ironically the only way to solve this would be to make the pavement narrower.

We live in a tiny road amongst lots of other tiny roads, mostly terraced houses built in the 1800s for servants 'at the big house' and without off-road parking.
It's accepted here that people park on the road one side and on the pavement the other.
One pavement is always kept clear, the road has enough space for emergency vehicles to drive down.
Public transport is scarce.
I can't honestly think of a workable alternative.
Another issue I can see looming is that it won't be possible for people to recharge electric cars, as the cables will run across pavements. Don't know how to solve that either.

I do not like it, but I think it is the sort of thing that should be brought in so that the government empowers the Councils to ban parking on pavements. The Councils can then choose which it applies to - I appreciate that would be an admin burden on the Councils, but that can be the only way to take account of road type.

I know some roads that are too thin that is the only way residents can park. I know one road where people park on the pavement, but the pavement is double-width, so even with the parking on the pavement there is still a full width pavement and no obstruction.

The one I hate is the people who fully park on the pavement - we have one near us who parks the whole car in the middle of the pavement so even a single pedestrian struggles to get past without going in the road, let alone anyone else.

Yes, DS is in a wheelchair and we often struggle to get past cars parked on the pavement. While most leave enough space there are always one of two that leave a tiny gap that wheelchairs or buggies would have no chance of getting through.

A blanket ban will solve very little. Not without spending a lot of money that councils don't have on additional parking facilities.

It's so easy to say that if you can't park then don't drive, but there are a lot of little roads near me where people park on pavements (generally considerately) because there's no other place to park for miles around.

There may be ways around simply banning, and I'd like to see these other solutions used first. EG, making streets one way with parking down the sides. You can make two adjacent streets one way in opposite directions to help with traffic flow and parking, etc.

I feel blanket bans of any sort are rarely productive (one exceptioon being the smoking ban).

Before banning cars parked horizontally on pavements they could start with the celfish sunt near me who parks vertically - 1/4 of his car on his driveway (behind another), 1/2 over the pavement and 1/4 sticking out into the t-junction of the road.

Combine that with another 2-3 cars who all park on the road on the junction and there is no way to navigate it without turning from the wrong side of the road, round a blind corner.

I would like it addressed from the direction of funding to make it easier for people to not own a car. Better and cheaper buses and subsidised car share schemes.