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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

…to consider it bang out of order for people to start mucking about with my car just because they don’t like me parking on their road?

147 replies

jfh · 03/01/2014 16:43

I have to drive to our local station to commute to work (the bus service is truly rubbish). I don’t want pay for the station car park as its half the price of my season ticket again. So I park about 10 mins walk away on a side street. It’s a public highway, with no restrictions. I park on a stretch which runs alongside a fence, so I don’t block anyone’s driveway. I make sure I don’t jam anyone in front or behind me in so they can’t get out. I don’t obstruct the road. Pretty much every house on the road has its own drive. Yet people are taking offence at me and my car – it’s been keyed, and some scrote stuck labels over the glass telling me not to use their road as a station car park.

I’ve now taken to having my iphone at the ready to take a snap of whoever is going to have the balls to actually start having a go to my face, just so I can get plod to pay them a visit on suspicion of criminal damage.

WTF is wrong with some people? (and no, I couldn’t give a sh1t if they did the same in my road…it’s a public highway and no one has the right to park outside their own house)

OP posts:
TobyLerone · 04/01/2014 09:44

Equally you knew there would be a train commute when accepting your job and the cost of car parking at the actual car park that has been built for commuters to use should have been a factor to consider when deciding whether to accept.

This.

JohnnyBarthes · 04/01/2014 09:54

Lots of stations don't have parking at all, or very little of it. Public transport in most of the country is shit.

YANBU.

Clawdius · 04/01/2014 10:35

The op is parking legally. Whether the planners have provided parking at the station or whether she is aware of parking at the station is not the issue. She has located free unrestricted parking. She is free to legally park where she likes.

The op's problem is vandalism. Maybe the cam is a good idea so the vandals can be brought to book for their crimes.

SouthStaffsMadam · 04/01/2014 11:05

It may be legal but it's obviously causing a nuisance. I could understand as a one off but (and I am assuming a bit here) all day, every week day could be a real pain. Having to walk further than you need to to find a safe place to cross because people have dumped their cars up the street is a real bugbear of mine, especially with children in tow.

Pavements in streets arent always wide enough to get a pushchair/mobility scooter around with a car parked half on it, half on the road. If parked totally on the road then this could cause delays and near misses on road depending on the road width and im also assuming that the op is not the only person who parks in this road to avoid paying the parking.

It's obviously a nuisance and the residents have expressed this (although I do not condone the vandalism). Maybe do half the week on the car park and half the week in the street, give them a bit of a break?

PrimalLass · 04/01/2014 11:15

Equally you knew there would be a train commute when accepting your job and the cost of car parking at the actual car park that has been built for commuters to use should have been a factor to consider when deciding whether to accept.

But who in their right mind would pay when it is perfectly legal to park on a public road?

SouthStaffsMadam · 04/01/2014 11:17

Primal Someone who doesnt want their car vandalised. Smile

PrimalLass · 04/01/2014 11:18

Having to walk further than you need to to find a safe place to cross because people have dumped their cars up the street is a real bugbear of mine, especially with children in tow.

Having to pay more than you need to in order to commute to work to pay taxes for those public roads ... that's a bugbear too.

Why are people so intolerant? I live on a steep hill and I get panicked when people park too close to the end of my drive as I can't see to get out, but I'd never be so entitled as to think they should move their car for me.

SouthStaffsMadam · 04/01/2014 11:29

I totally agree primal but it isn't the fault of the residents either.

HowlingTrap · 04/01/2014 11:39

Some one did this to my dh, our hospital has nowhere near adequate parking and on a midwife appointment could not get parked so had to go down another street, no drives blocked, no double yellows etc, I was ready to drop and a good hike to the hospital and came back to a snie note in our windshield.

'there is parking at the hospital ' Angry Angry
i'm afraid the hormones took over, and wrote ' Thankyou,obviously theres loads of free spaces thats why we parked down here, so my husband and me heavily pregnant ,can hike up a large hill and long st, I can see having a car in front of your house for 30 mins is a much bigger inconvinience.' and threatened to contact the police for touching the car.

PrimalLass · 04/01/2014 11:40

But it is the fault of the residents who key cars, who put rude notes on windscreens, who go out and shout at people and who egg/flour windscreens. I had a huge problem with this when I lived in London, when I was the only one entitled to park where I did but got daily abuse over it from people who worked in a small yard behind my flat. Every day one of them would park across my garage door, which was very stupid as I swung it open from the inside.

TobyLerone · 04/01/2014 11:42

But, much as I think the people who park in residential streets because they're too tight to pay for parking are thoughtless at best and entitled arses at worse, if they weren't parked on the street the residents would be instead. So I don't really get your point, SouthStaffs.

TobyLerone · 04/01/2014 11:43

*worst

PrimalLass · 04/01/2014 11:53

Why selfish and entitled? In fact, yes they are 'entitled' to park on a public road that is paid for through taxes.

Station car parks should be free. They are here.

TobyLerone · 04/01/2014 11:56

If you know something you're doing is inconveniencing other people and you go ahead and do it anyway, yes, you are selfish and do seem to have an inflated sense of entitlement.

Sure, it's legal. So are a lot of things which unnecessarily piss other people off.

PrimalLass · 04/01/2014 12:00

But if you 'stake claim' to a piece of public road you have no legal right to 'just because', and expect those who are perfectly entitled to park there to PAY to go elsewhere, how is that less selfish and inconsiderate?

clam · 04/01/2014 12:04

Residents who say they don't want to pay to have to park outside their own homes need to remember that at the moment, they CAN'T park there, because it's full up with shoppers/commuters.

I'd much rather pay an annual fee and be able to rest easy that I could get a space whenever I came home.

clam · 04/01/2014 12:06

Maybe do half the week on the car park and half the week in the street, give them a bit of a break?

If the OP doesn't park there, someone else will, so the residents won't "get a break."

SouthStaffsMadam · 04/01/2014 12:07

toby Not the case in our road. It is clear overnight and then 8am comes and the cars start arriving. By 6.30pm its virtually clear again. The street is clear overnight because people use the driveways in front of houses (just to clarify there are no gardens to park in front of without blocking, if there were it wouldn't be an issue, people part block driveways).

Obviously according to the op she isnt blocking anyone but my point is that although the op feels she is parking appropriately, its causing an annoyance (different people have different levels of tolerance) and there are other options available to the op. Accept that you need to pay to park at the railway car park, choose different streets to park in so its not the same spot every day.

TobyLerone · 04/01/2014 12:08

I don't think anyone has said they have a claim to a piece of road.

I suppose some people don't think that their wish to save a few pounds on car parking is any less important than the needs of residents of a street. Perfectly legal, of course. I'll still judge them as selfish arses.

KareKare · 04/01/2014 12:13

I see no problem in you parking legally on a road where houses have their own drives to avoid parking charges. It's £7 per day at my local station.

My sister lives on a road of cottages where no-one has a drive and parking is really difficult. I could understand those residents frustration if the available spaces were taken by commuters, but I just can't get my head around someone keying a car in any circumstances. It's unbelievable that people think they are entitled to behave in this way because they don't want commuters parking on a public road. Complete lowlifes.

As others have said, if residents don't want commuters to park in their road, they should contact the council to try to make it a permit area.

Or, as the homeowners on roads near the station in my town do, rent out a space on their drive to commuters.

soverylucky · 04/01/2014 12:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sashh · 04/01/2014 12:27

If I were you OP I'd make a not of where there is a house with an empty drive during the week and ask the householder if I could park there for a small sum each week.

CiderBomb · 04/01/2014 12:31

I don't condone criminal damage,however I can understand the residents frustration here. Why can't you just drive all the way to work OP?

Bodypopper · 04/01/2014 12:37

Er she's parking legally so there is no case to answer is there.

We live by a local beauty spot and often have cars parked in our lane. As long as they don't block our drive so what!

You don't own your road!

Dubjackeen · 04/01/2014 12:37

i'm afraid the hormones took over, and wrote ' Thankyou,obviously theres loads of free spaces thats why we parked down here, so my husband and me heavily pregnant ,can hike up a large hill and long st, I can see having a car in front of your house for 30 mins is a much bigger inconvinience.' and threatened to contact the police for touching the car
Genuine question-where did you put the note that you wrote?