Why are people such idiots over parking?!?!

[autumngirl714]

So this is the situation.
I live in a flat in a small building. We used to be able to park directly outside of it but the council deciddd to put double yellow lines there (without any warning!!) which means I now have no where to park my car.
Next to our building is an avenue of about 16 houses, each has a long driveway, some have that and car parking spaces. Not all houses have cars.
I've started parking my car on this avenue, outside a house which never has a car up the drive or outside.
In an ideal world I would park outside my place, but I can't.
I'm a single women in my thirties, I don't want to be walking 10-15 mins down little roads in the evening to get to my car. I feel safer here. I can see my car from my window so if the alarm went off I can see it.

Anyway, the person whose house I've started parking outside put a sign up yesterday (no parking, this is a private driveway). I parked up last night and she came and stood outside her front door. Maybe a coincidence but it felt like an intimidation thing.
The thing is, I park on the pavement. Not her driveway. I've never gone over it and I've never turned up it. I just park on the public driveway.

My mum is a bit of a parking police kind of person and is mortified I parked outside someone's house.... but it's like, what else am I supposed to do?! Anywhere i park will be outside someone's house!
Do people really think that only they are entitled to the public pavement outside their house? Do people think it's actually fair I get rid of my car so they can have an empty pavement?!

Sorry, rant over 🙈

Yes, I think most people would try to move around a bit so it doesn't look like you're targeting that one house.

Targeting?! What?? It’s a bloody road where you’re allowed to park.

I’d ask her if I could rent her drive from her!
Exclusive contract - can you see her drive from your window?
Reserved sign can go on it 😀

It's not targeting. She parking legally on the road for goodness sake.

I think if people are being honest and they live in a suburban quiet residential street with plently of parking they would agree it is very handy having a space outside the house- for popping back with shopping if you're not on for long and are going out again. We have 2 cars and a single drive so it's definitely handy.

I would get really fed up if the same car was outside my house everyday meaning I couldn't have that amenity. Of course I know I don't own the street space, but if it was otherwise quiet with plenty of slots it's totally normal that I would get a bit passed off! I don't understand why people can't relate to this.

Why are people idiots in general full stop.

you've taxed and insured your car and therefore you are parking within the law
If you're parking on the road then you're prima face obstructing a public highway - and you're making it a more dangerous place for road-users and pedestrians. That should be your starting point! Roads - funded by taxpayers - are there to move people around, not to provide car-owners with free parking. If you're making it difficult/dangerous for the residents to access the road from their drives (they need space and visibility) and they complain then you're likely to get a reminder about reg 103 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.

When I drive to work the road on the way is blocked by people parking on yellow lines and even double

I wish a traffic warden would ticket them

How on is it intrusive? It's a public highway.

share the love - dont always parkin the same place. I would also contact the council and complain about the new lines - they may have been a repaint of faded lines but also if they were newly implemented there should have been notices about change of signage etc. They could have been done in error and you could also be able to challenge it if no obstruction is caused by parking there etc

So different cars parked outside bothers you less than the same one? How peculiar

No it's not...it's fine.
If you would find that annoying it's a 'you' issue.

Do you think there's an element of house versus flat going on?

You’re not doing anything wrong, you’re not obstructing her driveway. People are just weird about the space outside their house.

One of my DC is long term unwell and was in hospital (again) before Christmas.
Parking in the car park is £9 per day or £20 a week but spaces are like gold dust.

There’s a long residential road with a row of bushes where the houses finish so you can park alongside the bushes, although I would switch it up and park down the next street too which was the same sort of setup.
Every house has a driveway and bays outside their house.

One evening, I parked by the bushes and began to walk up the road as a resident was going into his house and he shouted at me ‘Oh look, another parasite parker.’
I turned back to speak to him but he saw me and shut the door very quickly.

So I put a note through his door saying how very, very sorry I was for the distress I had caused him and I couldn’t imagine how upset he was that I had dared to leave my car legally parked nowhere near his house or outside anyone else’s house while I was visiting my sick child who had been close to death the week before.

Do they have this in other countries? Or is it a peculiarly English thing do you think?

I wouldn’t waste your time trying to get your head around it. It’s impossible to understand.

You're not parking on or across her private driveway, so her sign doesn't apply to you and you should ignore it, and her, OP.

That's really all there is to it.

Maybe she has a fear with the increase in cars that someone will block her driveway. You're not doing anything wrong, so carry on and ignore.

Our street has a handful of houses without drives. Two of the homeowners think they own the road too, and park in such a way that prevents another car or two from fitting in. If anyone has "their" spaces, they are not happy!

@notprincehamlet i agree, roads are for moving around, not leaving stationary cars. Some of the roads near us are like a slalom with cars parked all over the place including shaded areas on corners.

We are on a residential road with driveways and a narrow road and whilst visitors sometimes park on the road, I would get pissed off if someone round the corner decided to leave their car regularly parked there, from both an aesthetic and access pov. Might be unreasonable since neither of us own the road, but I have deliberately bought somewhere with decent parking, not for someone else to make the road look like a car park.

I recognise saying that from a position of privilege but it’s an honest if not rational answer!

@notprincehamlet

I'm all right Jack.

Such selfish ideas.

Me and my husband had a similar incident in our flat. We immediately knocked on their door, explained the situation and became quite friendly with the neighbours. We moved approx 2years on but made sure to write them a card and give a bottle of wine (we’d also do a Christmas card which had an update that we were moving in NY etc) the couple were lovely and we gave them our numbers for obvious reasons / alarms / damage etc if they had family over we could move they never asked us too but sometimes communication is key!

*we also lived about 3 streets away with no way of hearing / seeing our car so felt they needed our number. Appreciate it’s a public road, we pay our car tax but they were an older couple and once they understood our situation it was much easier