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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that people should park on their drives if they have one?!

169 replies

Singsongsung · 16/08/2015 08:28

Ok. It's a parking AIBU so I'm bracing myself...
I live on a cul-de-sac, they layout of which means that parking is pretty limited. There are several people who regularly park on the road when they have decent drives (easily big enough for 2 or 3 cars). This means that whenever we have visitors they have nowhere to park and end up parking on another road entirely (probably irritating the hell out of the people who live there!).
I don't understand at all why anyone would choose to park on the road and leave their driveway empty?
AIBU? (Dons hard hat and braces herself)...

OP posts:
SylvanianCaliphate · 16/08/2015 20:14

Unlikely for the majority but it could be threat based.
Occasionally DP has been told not to park in the garage/drive because a specific threat of car bombing is around.

We park on the street and have a drive but only because our dog is blind and bumps into the car or gets stuck in front of it.
It's a toss up between parking over our drive or ddog yelping loudly because the car has confounded him.

corgiology · 16/08/2015 20:31

Sort of similar issue but not quite.

One of our neighbours has a van and mpv so not small cars and also has a caravan which is parked on the drive. This means the only two spaces available for visitors are used by this family for their two cars.

The spaces are right outside their house but also clearly on the road.

It bugs the hell out of me because I don't have a huge driveway. It fits maybe 3 cars on but sometimes that isn't enough. I have two cars myself.

Grr!

FryOneFatManic · 16/08/2015 21:01

The house across the road is up for sale, and I'm hoping the newcomers don't have more than a couple of cars.

The current residents have 3 cars and a work van, and while they do mostly park on their drive (they got the dropped kerb extended and put tarmac over the whole front garden), it only holds a max of 3 vehicles, so one is parked on the road a little further up.

On top of this the late teen/early 20s children of the household have numerous friends come to visit, who all seem to drive cars and rarely seem to share vehicles.

Meanwhile, our drive will only hold one car, so mine, being the smaller one, is parked outside our house on the road. We and our NDN both park in this space, it's just enough space for 2 vehicles between the drives for our house, and we're both careful to ensure we park in a way to allow both of us to park there. They also have 2 cars.

Hepzibar · 16/08/2015 21:06

Because some people are selfish fuckers. They park on the street to stop anyone else parking near their property. Selfish fuckers.

amarmai · 16/08/2015 21:17

so this behaviour is ' the selfish fucker syndrome' ?

toobreathless · 16/08/2015 21:19

We live in an old village centre next to a church. We can fit both cars through our back gates and the ONLY time we don't is if we know there will be a wedding or other event on at the church when we block our own gate.

Because we get idiots running late blocking our gate (marked with keep clear signs) we are both on call healthcare professionals/forces who work weekends and can need to leave at very short notice.

We have had to interrupt a wedding and a funeral, after the funeral we said never again so now block our own gate.

Lauren15 · 16/08/2015 21:24

selfish fucker syndrome! I know quite a few people who suffer from that. Sadly there is no known cure.

Indantherene · 16/08/2015 21:47

We live in a street of 1930s houses. Some have converted the whole width of their front garden to drive, each one taking 2 spaces off the road.

There aren't many spaces left in our bit of the road and each of the driveway houses has endless visitors who seem to find it difficult to park in the drive of the house they are visiting. We come home to find their visitors selfishly parked taking up 2 spaces outside our house and next door so we can't Park, and their 3 car drive empty.

One neighbour built their drive to reserve the space outside their house. They never use the drive but see nothing wrong with their visitors parking outside the houses with no driveway.

Lurkedforever1 · 16/08/2015 22:49

Simple solution. If neighbours have gone to the expense of paying for sufficient private parking, but still avail themselves of the free parking, then those moaning could just offer to rent their neighbours driveway. After all if you don't mind your neighbours paying for private spaces to leave the free public spaces vacant for you, then you too shouldn't mind paying for a private space.

BreconBeBuggered · 16/08/2015 23:28

OP, you'd have enjoyed the early hours vision on my street a couple of months back, when selfish-fucker parking blocked a pair of fire engines rushing to a blaze at the end of our cul-de-sac. Okay, it also woke up the decent folk whose cars were parked respectably on their driveways, but it was still oddly satisfying to watch the silly sods running around in their dressing gowns to get their vehicles off the road. I daresay the firefighters had a few harsh words to say, too. Luckily nobody was hurt in the fire, but parking thoughtlessly can have more serious consequences than irritating the neighbours.

Gymbob · 16/08/2015 23:41

not read whole thread. initial post was enough to wind me up to boiling point.

it should be illegal to park on the road if you have a driveway. illegal I say. lazy inconsiderate fuckers.

Gymbob · 16/08/2015 23:56

and thank God I don't live next to suck. you sound like a perfectly reasonable, considerate, polite, and amenable individual. not.

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 10:53

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Superexcited · 17/08/2015 10:58

If it was illegal for people to park on the road when they have driveways I could imagine a lot of people (those who don't want to park in their drives) would just convert their driveways into lovely lawned gardens where parking is no longer an option making the problem even worse.

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 11:02

Oh, cop on. People would have done so already, if that were the case.

Superexcited · 17/08/2015 11:04

Criminalising people adds a new element and I'm sure lots of people would do whatever they need to in order to avoid a criminal record. In any case they pay the same amount of road tax in line with other people and therefore have the same rights to park the road if they so wish.
Yes, it's selfish to ignore your neighbours parking difficulties, but criminalising people for not parking on their driveways is a ridiculous suggestion.

MrsJorahMormont · 17/08/2015 11:19

These threads are depressing because you go through life thinking most people are decent and then you realise that lots of people have to live beside a shower of cunts. And they're not even the ASBO brigade, just selfish arseholes.

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 11:46

criminalising people for not parking on their driveways is a ridiculous suggestion

I agree. But so is the suggestion that criminalising it would entice many driveways owners to put in a nice lawn.

ChazzerChaser · 17/08/2015 12:16

If people converted their driveways into lawns it would free up the space where the access to the drive currently is creating more on street parking.

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 12:17

If people converted their driveways into lawns it would free up the space where the access to the drive currently is creating more on street parking

Ha, excellent point! Selfish fuckers, not putting a lawn in.

ChazzerChaser · 17/08/2015 12:25

So perhaps they could be prosecuted, and choose imprisonment or alternative community service option of turfing their drive?

Lurkedforever1 · 17/08/2015 14:09

Or chazzer the people who cba paying for private spaces could also get their hands in their pockets or convert their gardens?
People seem to be confused. Everyone is entitled to the free street parking. In addition, some people also spend the time and money to ensure additional private parking. Not some people have extra entitlement to free parking because they don't have private.

Superexcited · 17/08/2015 14:35

if it came down to being criminalised for not parking both of our cars on the drive (which we could do at a push but it would be a faff due to the shape of the drive and the size of our vehicles) then I would pay to have half of my drive turfed and whilst I am sorting it out I would probably widen the current drive access as it is a little on the narrow side for my car so it would make life easier if it was a little wider.
So the neighbours would have even less space within which they can park (because my drive access is now wider) but at least my garden would look prettier than it currently does with its expanse of Tarmac.

Imarriedacunt · 17/08/2015 14:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SuckMySquallop · 17/08/2015 17:18

@MaidOfStars - Suppose it takes one to know one right? Wink

One neighbour built their drive to reserve the space outside their house. They never use the drive but see nothing wrong with their visitors parking outside the houses with no driveway.

Parking outside a house with no driveway is NOT illegal. Seriously, there's a lot of people with "possession" issues with the public road(s) outside their homes.

Get the fuck over it - its public space, it doesn't belong to you. If you have issues, go out and park there too and "reserve" that Godforsaken space that you so desperately crave but haven't the fucking balls to address in real life with your actual neighbours.

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