Think I was a bit of a twat when I told off someone parking across my drive

[Boysclothes]

I live on the same road is a primary school, about 60 feet from the gate. At drop off/pick up parents park both sides of the road when there isn't really room for this and it can be very tricky driving down my road and the roads that access it, and once I really couldn't manage it, the cars either side just made it too narrow. We've had a few letters from the school along the lines of "sorry, we know it's crap, please let us know the reg numbers of any poor packers and we will highlight it, also we're getting the PCSOs round" so they are proactive with it.

Anyway, I have a big drive entrance with dropped kerb and hockey stick lines which is continuos with my neighbours drive. Today swinging on to my drive from my usual angle I couldn't, as someone was parked sort of half way across my drive entrance. I could still easily get in though by going half across neighbours bit and then into mine.

It riled me a bit so after I parked I got out and saw someone in the offending car. I said "mate, you're parked half way across my drive" he sort of twiddled his fingers at me apologetically. I said "please don't do that again", my tone was arsey. He then said "sorry, just for a few minutes" to which I replied "I don't care how long it's for it's my drive and I don't want it blocked. There's plenty of parking up the road where you don't have to block people in" he nods and smiles so I said "the school have asked to know who is parking badly so please don't do it again" and went indoors. However my tone was very much full of arsiness.

I feel a bit of a prick, I'm someone who doesn't sweat the small stuff generally and feel most of us are just doing our best. And some people live on rubbish dumps in Bangladesh. So get over it. I could, after all, get on my drive and he was just a dad trying to pick up his kids on roads with no parking. WIBU? I'd just run the gauntlet of squeezing between packed cars trying not to knock wingmirrors off and I was pissed off about that really.

I don't do it, BUT there is nothing illegal about parking across a drive if there are no cars parked on it, I think its rude myself but I think yabu as he wasn't even blocking all your drive, and I'm guessing the school has always been there so most people would expect traffic/parking issues at drop off and pick up time. I thinkin would probably have been a bit rude back if you'd kept coming back to shout at me.

I've seen people blocking folk in their drives on the school run, even people in their cars trying to reverse out of their own drives at the time FFS - I always parked correctly, even if we had to walk further. Often it was non-working women in huge 4x4s, running late on the way to their nail appointments, trying to get as close to the school as possible. If it were raining it was worse as they didn't want to ruin their hairstyles

Yanbu he deserved it

If there are dropped curbs you cannot park there. I once had a letter about blocking someone's drive (I'd left the car at the side of the road in heavy snow). It was in front of a house where they had a (looked abandoned) car on their front garden with a fence in the way of the path (not a gate) they phoned the police. They erote to me (car obviously gone by this point). They said I'd been parked across a drive. I explained it didn't look like one. As soon as I said there's no drop curb the police changed their tone. Police had no problem if there was no adopted right of access over the pavement.

If you live near a school can you at all avoid peak times?

Ywnbu.

I'd have been worse. People saying "only a few minutes" really winds me up. It suggests they're not really sorry and they're justifying it to themselves.

A few minutes if you're needing to leave for an appointment is a pain in the arse. If they're a few minutes, then someone else is a few minutes, then someone else.....day after day after day then your drive is blocked loads. Which is what used to happen to me. Its got better since the council eventually agreed to do white lines on the road.

If you live near a school can you at all avoid peak times?

Why should our lives be affected by idiots who park illegally? I can't time to the minute when I will arrive home. And I leave when I need to.

Twunts just have to move. Or, better still, park legally elsewhere.

There's plenty of parking up the road where you don't have to block people in"

Except he hadn't blocked you in because you weren't there. It's still bloody inconsiderate and I think in some areas it constitutes illegal parking but, generally, if they aren't blocking someone on the drive it isn't an offence.

I would still have had a go at them though, or perhaps simply given the a severe Hard Stare depending how much of a foul mood I was in. I don't understand it - the vast majority of parents and their children have perfectly functioning legs and no limitations to their ability to walk to a car.

YANBU. It's twattish.
At my DD2's school, some idiot blocked a driveway, resulting in the resident being unable to leave their house. They needed to catch a train, which they missed.

There is a school by my Mum's house. There are double yellows on the driveway side, so the parents are nose to tail on the other side.
Fine, except there are some bushes that side - so the idiots park in the middle of the road.
Anyone trying to gain access must drive across the pavement on the other side.
The Council have had to re-lay the pavement twice now.

It's always dangerous to assume you'll be "only a few minutes" anywhere. Suppose there had been some crisis with his child which the teacher needed to talk to him about? It sounds as if it's something he does fairly habitually and reckons to be able to charm his way out of if necessary.

I live near a school where there is a free car park 4 minutes' walk away. Do the parents use it? Do they hell.

You were fine. Bad parkers are generally quite shameless. We have a few of them at our school. It's on a residential road, with unrestricted parking, with another entrance onto another road with plenty of parking, and several side roads. Even if you are the last to get there, you will always be able to park within about 200 yards of the gate.

There are a handful of parents who consistently park on the zigzag lines, or across drives, or on the opposite side of the road to everyone else, effectively blocking the road. They've been bollocked about it multiple times, and they stop for a couple of days and then carry on, usually with a sheepish 'oh dear, silly me, what can you do' smile on their face as they get out of the car.

I always want to ask them, in a terribly concerned voice, if they'e considered getting some more driving lessons to focus on their inability to park legally.

He was definitely the twat. Parents parking in our street drives us up the wall. Roll on school holidays. One cheeky cow even told us that because she had children, she could park wherever she wanted - which at that point in time was over a drive, on a speed bump and on a white line for a dropped kerb! You were really polite to that guy - i'd have been a hell of a sight more rude!

I also live on a road with a school in it- the one ds2 attends. Parking is plentiful- we have wide roads and several side roads in which to park. There are also two public car parks approximately five minutes walk away.

However this wasn't good enough for one woman. She chose to park her large car on the corner of my road and the one road we have to cross to get to school. She parked over the dropped kerb which is there to allow people to cross the road, leaving no room for prams to get past. Even those without prams had a struggle to squeeze through.

I and another parent remonstrated with her, pointing out that she was parking illegally AND thoughtlessly. She nodded, apologised weakly- and carried on! As she made to walk her children the remaining one hundred yards to the school, I said she needed to move her car now, as there were several prams trying to cross. She still didn't move it!

I didn't know what else to say after that- just stood there like this with the other parents who were trying to cross.

I think she may have won the prize for bare-faced cheek.

YWNBU, btw. Saying sorry doesn't excuse a person from doing the right thing, imo.

You should have been more arsey.

What makes him so important he can't walk 3 mins down the road? Twat.

YWNBU! Lazy school parking makes me fucking mad. There is a huge car park literally two seconds down the road from my kids school (there are 3 schools on the same street and the car park is next door). Parents still park on the zig zags outside the schools and drive up on the pavement leaving an inch of room for people to get past, all in the race to be closest to the school door. You were quite restrained to be honest. Doesn't matter if he was there for seconds or minutes. Show some bloody consideration for others.

If there are dropped curbs you cannot park there

Not true. Though its totally ignorant behaviour as foo says upthread it is not illegal to park over a dropped kerb if there isn't a car on the drive. You cannot impede a car joining the highway but there is nothing to prevent you stopping one leaving it for their drive.
Weird rule, but there you go.

YWNBU, the school run brings out the worst in some people.

When I suffered from this, on any day when I happened to be at home at drop-off or pick-up time I would stand on my drive and tell all the just-for-a-moment artists that my DW was coming back from the shops or the airport with heavy bags any moment now and they would have to find somewhere else. People will block drives on the school run who would never think of it any other time.

Yanbu. I live with a school a few yards away and often have this problem. Each house has room for two cars on the driveways but most have left by 8 am. Lo and behold parents park up on our drives outside our front doors, get out and walk their child into school stopping afterwards for a natter with other mums. On a good day they will park on the drop down kerb and do the same each morning drop off and afternoon pick up.
One man sat in his car parked up on my drive next to my car and said he was waiting for his wife to come back from walking their child into school.And that he will move when she gets back.
Sometimes I am polite other times I lose my rag. If only they could use their common sense life would be easier.

Yanbu.
I did this by mistake once going to collect DS and didn't realise part if my car was blocking a bit of someone's driveway. The owner of the house came back with her shopping and couldn't get into her driveway. She had a go at me and I was mortified. I genuinely hadn't realised and I felt terrible. The next day I left a note and a box of chocs on her doorstep.

OP, you sound lovely and I think it's testament to what a nice person you are that you felt guilty about this!

I think you had every reason to be narked, and it was totally NOT your fault - but like you said already, getting shirty with people just makes you feel stressed and bad. We all do it occasionally, but that doesn't make it the best reaction possible in the circs. (As a pedestrian I once yelled 'You wanker! Look where you're going!' at a man who nearly reversed his car into me as I crossed a road outside a school. I was scared. Then I saw he had a kid in the back, and I felt so awful. I still feel really guilty about it.)

Taking the longer term view it sounds like an emergency vehicle would not be able to access the road in the times around school starts and ends. That is a serious concern not just to you and fellow residents but also to the parents at the school, sadly accidents outside schools are all to common.
I would write to the council expressing my concerns to see it maybe one side of the road could be made double yellows to combat this.
For the sake of the thread i think YWNBU to confront the driver in regard to his parking and his attitude of 'it's only for a few minutes would, as others have said, wind me up massively, it's so dismissive and lacks any kind of accountability or acceptance that they where in the wrong. I would note the reg of every single car that you see parked over a dropped curb or parked in a way that completely obstructs the road and send a daily report to the school. I wouldn't be giving people second chances as if the school are anything like our school they will be stressing the need to park sensibly and legally all the time, so they have already had there first chance from the school.

In my case the school was built several years after I moved into my house and serves a catchment area where kids have no more than800 metres to walk. Yet the parents cause chaos by insisting on driving and parking inconsiderately.

I live with a school a few yards away and often have this problem. Each house has room for two cars on the driveways but most have left by 8 am. Lo and behold parents park up on our drives outside our front doors, get out and walk their child into school stopping afterwards for a natter with other mums.

Wow, that really is taking the piss. If someone parked up our driveway I'd aim to park my own car behind them and then pretend to be out for a couple of hours.

How awful to park on your driveway.
We have driveway blockers and they have caused council to serve notice of a no access for anyone but residents and a speed bump.
Neither of which i want.
It will just move the issue onto the next streets. Probably be more noisy (and dangerous)
So you can block a driveway if noones on it???
Sounds ridiculous. So we come down our dead end road and there is nowhere else to park and we block the road until the naughty driver gets back.

But mainly where you have a garage you can be blocking people in their driveway as you cant see the car.

More parents need to walk
They need to stop expanding schools.
Put in drop off parking.
Our school has parking - for the teachers ???
Which now is overfull due to expansion.
And all the kids have to walk.
Surely a drop off for the little kids and the teachers walk a bit further.
Not even the school bus/coach can drive to the school, and actually blocks the whole road off, if you come up behind it.