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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:
MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 17:30

This reply has been deleted

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Mamiof3 · 17/08/2015 17:55

I literally don't get it. I have not seen one a clear explanation as to why you would have a clear driveway and not park ANY vehicles on it. Even a one car driveway with one car on it. I mean apart from the blind dog situation but that can't be common surely Grin

Andrewofgg · 17/08/2015 18:02

If the only way I can be sure that the space blocking my drive will stay clear for my guests I will bloody well block it till they arrive, MaidOfStars and Mamiof3 - don't blame me, blame the arsehole NDN who (or whose guest) parks so close that nobody can turn in or get off safely.

PandaMummyofOne · 17/08/2015 18:03

Id love to back onto my drive. The bloody neighbours however park in such a way that makes it impossible to reverse onto the drive. The road and drive thanks to same neighbour putting up a bloody wall that's over our boundary by about three foot is that narrow I wouldn't be able to swing the front end of the car to straighten up.

Mamiof3 · 17/08/2015 18:26

Ok I can understand that, blocking a space in front of your own drive for guests. But what about people like I have down my street who park in the gaps between driveways leaving their drive and the space directly in front of it empty ?

Superexcited · 17/08/2015 18:33

I literally don't get it. I have not seen one a clear explanation as to why you would have a clear driveway and not park ANY vehicles on it.

One reason could be that other neighbours and their visitors park in the road in such a way that it makes it difficult for people to get in and out of their drives - particularly on cul de sacs, and narrow streets.
On busy roads it can be difficult to get out of a driveway so might be easier to park on the road.
The driveway access might be too narrow for some larger cars to get in and out of the drive easily.
People might not park on their drive because delivery drivers assume that a car on the drive means somebody is in so will choose that house first to drop off neighbours parcels (and there could be a number of reasons why people don't want to be disturbed during the day).
People might not park in their drive because they have experienced neighbours who block them in.

Do you need any more reasons?

SuckMySquallop · 17/08/2015 19:19

As I say, technically correct but still an arsehole....

Nice. Shoot the messenger eh? Pity you cant have a discussion without directing abuse my way. Says more about you than me frankly. And there's nothing "technically correct" - it IS correct. The highway is public space and can be used (legally) to park where there are no restrictions et al.

I guess I'm astonished at people who aren't willing to put themselves out a tiny bit in order to make their neighbours' lives a bit easier.

The whining OP could easily solve this first world "disaster" if she bothered to engage with her cul de sac neighbours instead of telling a bunch of randoms on a forum who can do nothing to aid her catastrophic parking plight.

But of course, that might make her technically correct and an arsehole simultaneously.... Hmm

seaweed123 · 17/08/2015 19:26

I think my old neighbours probably got annoyed at me for this. They didn't seem to realise that due to the funny layout (dead end just short of my drive, and a grassy area with a small hill) my drive was directly behind "goal" when their son was out playing.

A football banging off the garage door was annoying, but not as much as a football off the car. Easiest just to park on the road. (Didn't like to complain, he was a nice lad)

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 19:34

The very fact that the OP might have a neighbour like you, Suck, is presumably deterrent enough. Smile

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 19:36

And BTW, being technically correct does not make one 'morally' correct (whatever that means), hence me trying to distinguish.

SuckMySquallop · 17/08/2015 20:00

Distinguish all you like - the fact remains unchanged that the OP's neighbour is not doing anything wrong. Morally or technically.

MaidOfStars · 17/08/2015 20:02

Well, I think this thread demonstrates that the former is not a given.

Superexcited · 17/08/2015 20:31

Well today I came home and couldn't even get onto my drive because a neighbour had his children plus 4 visiting children all playing in the middle of the road and not moving which meant that I had no turning space to be able to park in my drive (without running over said children). So there is another reason why some people with drives might not be parked on them.

ShotgunNotDoingThePans · 17/08/2015 21:53

One small point, which may have been made before (read up to selfish arseholes then it occured to me): if you make your front garden into a driveway, you effectively take away a space on the road. You might be out all day, and no one can use the space in front of your drive which has been taken away from public use. So you're not doing the fellow users of the street much of a favour anyway; even less so if you then don't even bother to use the damn thing.
And they apparently are affecting the water table or something - plus critters lose their habitats.

Original poster
Singsongsung · 17/08/2015 22:59

Suck- "the whining OP"?? Crikey! You are very aggressive on this thread! As I've repeatedly stated, the neighbours have been spoken to more than once by more than one neighbour and in the long term it makes not one jot of difference.

The fact remains that by parking constantly in an area where there is limited parking you are making life harder for someone else. Some will choose to do that anyway as they either won't realise or won't care. However it seems to me (and clearly others on this thread) that that attitude is more than a little selfish.

OP posts:
SuckMySquallop · 18/08/2015 04:36

^

But is their attitude any more selfish than your attitude of entitlement to the road on which they park? I rest my case.

Andrewofgg · 18/08/2015 05:08

ShotGun welcome to the real world in which people own cars and want to park them safely and off-road.

TheHouseOnTheLane · 18/08/2015 05:40

YANBU I'm currently in Oz and everyone parks in their drive. I was looking down the road the other evening and wondering why it looked so pleasant...then I realised...no cars on the road.

Runningupthathill82 · 18/08/2015 06:08

Andrew - if we're talking about the "real world" then I'll just point out that I've been reading this thread, realising that the only people I know with drives are mine and DHs parents. I don't know one single person roughly my age (ie under 40) who has a house big enough for a drive.

Anyway, pointless aside and back to the thread. I don't get why you wouldn't park in a drive if you had one.
But that said, it's only a very minor annoyance and not something I could get worked up about.
On our terraced street there's maybe 100 houses. Most houses have a car but there's not enough room to park them all. So if I'm home later than everyone else, I have to park on a neighbouring street.

Yes, it's a bit annoying if I have to carry shopping and DS for 10 minutes, but it's not something I'd get bothered enough about to start a thread.

Also, this parking outside your house thing? Nobody does that in our neighbourhood, or indeed anywhere I've ever lived, because it's just not an option. I'd love someone to move in and try to enforce that one..would be v amusing indeed.

Anniesaunt · 18/08/2015 08:06

running it really depends where you live. In my street about 3/4 of the houses have a drive for 1 or 2 cars. The houses aren't big or expensive ( under 100k to buy all under 600 pcm to rent). There's also a car park and lock up area, reducing the need for anyone to park on the street. A lot of us are under 40.

I get extremely pissed off when people park blocking the road when they have the option of a drive or car park.

MaidOfStars · 18/08/2015 08:17

Suck

You can park in space A or space B.
OP can only park in space B.

Which is the most efficient way to park two cars?

I don't know why I'm engaging. Having noted another thread where you cheerfully suggest that your own neighbours are 'welcome to go and fuck themselves' when you decide to mow the lawn at 8am, I am just really glad I don't live near you.

Lurkedforever1 · 18/08/2015 08:52

Or op could rent space A, or buy space C.

Gymbob · 18/08/2015 09:09

I noted suck up thread said it was a shame there couldn't be a discussion without directing abuse at him. then goes and calls the op a 'whining op'. pot and kettle spring to mind.

I don't really expect an honest answer but am interested to know sucks gender

yumyumpoppycat · 18/08/2015 09:34

My mum and dad live on a long street (reasonable but not very wide road) with drives for one car and on road parking for another outside most houses. A neighbour has complained to my dad because I park for a couple of hours a couple of times a month max and don't park on the (awkward to park on and then get the dc out of the car) slope leading to my parents drive, partially blocking the footpath in between for pedestrians. I don't block this neighbor's drive or anyone's for that matter (and my main priority is not scraping anyone's car parked next to or opposite this slope by parking on the there) but he still felt the need to talk to my dad about it. Parking isn't even really an issue on that road.

Original poster
Singsongsung · 18/08/2015 09:35

OP has already bought space B. OP pays taxes etc for a right to space A. The neighbours ignore space B for whatever reason and have adopted space A as their own meaning that others paying their taxes no longer have the right to it.

OP posts:
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