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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed at people who park inconsiderately on pavements?

58 replies

lushaliciousbob · 23/09/2015 18:26

This is something that's been getting me annoyed recently. I've no idea if they are parking legally or not, but I've been taking my relatives twins out about 3 times a week recently, to give their mum a break. Side by side twin buggy. We walk about an hour in total, mostly through a park.... but leading to the park I have to walk on the road at least 5 times each time we are out! The buggy isn't even that wide tbh. It annoys me so much ... but not really about me... but because I have no idea how someone in a wheelchair copes. it's really not fair! So are people actually allowed to park on the pavement? even when it's blatantly obvious that a wheelchair / pushchair can't go through!

OP posts:
Original poster
lushaliciousbob · 23/09/2015 21:23

Yes I think it's fine so long as there is plenty of room. And yes you may know 90% of the people there. .. but there could be that 1 person who's in a wheelchair who can't get past! I guess some people just won't change their view. Just another proven point that society isn't fully supportive of disabled people. It could happen to anyone.

OP posts:
LuisSuarezTeeth · 23/09/2015 21:48

YANBU. It's very selfish.

PegsPigs · 23/09/2015 21:50

Pisses me off massively. My road is a frequent dog walkers road yet loads of people block the pavement just for a walker never mind someone with a buggy or wheelchair. I actually think it's good to park fully on the road as it slows the traffic down going along our road. A bin lorry can get passed even with a car fully on the road but only one car can park on each side of the road, rather than on both sides if both are up on the curb IYSWIM. Everyone has a drive which fits two cars so I don't feel sorry for people who choose to park one on the drive and one on the road I just wish they'd think about people like me pushing my buggy or trike.

BlackeyedSusan · 23/09/2015 21:54

if I had to squeeze through on the pavement, I squeezed through on the pavement withthe double buggy. if you were too stupid to not know the highway code and only park on the pavement if you were not blocking access for pedestrians, pushchairs, and wheelchairs then tough luck if wing mirrors were bent back or go faster stripes were put on. the car. pushchair was palstic so no real damage, just gouges in the muck. (on quiet cul de sacs where pavement parking was the norm and it was safe to walk down the middle it was different. )

LetTilikumGo · 23/09/2015 21:57

YANBU it drives me crazy too. It happens loads near me, have spoken to the council before when I can't get through with the buggy and been told it's tolerated, and to call the police if they're totally blocking the pavement. That seems a bit extreme so I've never done that, but I do leave notes sometimes saying to park more considerately and that they haven't left enough room for a wheelchair or buggy.

BlackeyedSusan · 23/09/2015 21:58

some twat parked right onthe pavement on the corner blcoking the view of the road to cross. it was rally convenient though as ds tripped me up trying to squeeze through and round and I fell and sat on his bonnet. (it was before ds was old enough for school and he has asd and used to fling himself about a lot on the end of my arm. bloody nightmare to control. )

lunar1 · 23/09/2015 22:12

I've scratched a car before with my first husbands wheelchair. We had enough on without me pushing him into the road without a dropped curb to bother about some selfish cunts precious car.

queenofthepirates · 23/09/2015 22:21

I carry one of these in my handbag and should the mood take me and no one is watching, I leave a choice message on the windscreen of anyone parking insensitively. It can be removed with windolene but it will take some googling to find that out.

sproketmx · 23/09/2015 22:23

Doubt the lawless here will pay atention. Especially since I have just found out on the bbc news that my county is due to roll out MONTHLY bin collections. There's going to be a Fucking riot tomorrow at that local office from talk on the street corner. Maybe a new law will force them to provide adequate parking then but I haven't heard anything about a new law. Can't see it bein enforced much round these parts either

PlayingSolitaire · 23/09/2015 22:27

It is illegal in all parts of the country if people are parking in such a way that it causes an obstruction... That is open to interpretation by the police.

You think it's hard for pushchairs? Try being blind when the pavement is blocked by a parked car...

JeanneDeMontbaston · 23/09/2015 22:35

Of course it's illegal if it causes an obstruction. There are markings on the road to tell you if you're allowed to park onto the pavement - otherwise, why would you?!

It's incredibly selfish and I actively enjoy seeing people get parking tickets for it on our road - one of my neighbours is in his 80s and walks with a frame, and when people park on the pavement he's either unable to get out, or forced to gamble on whether or not he'll fall if he tries to get the frame over a kerb.

Straightjacketneeded · 23/09/2015 22:37

Its not just inconsiderate Kathy its damn right dangerous to make a pedestrian walk on the road just because you want to park your car like an arsehole!

OddlyLogical · 23/09/2015 23:27

It is not allowed unless there are signs to specifically say that it is.
244
You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.
Law GL(GP)A sect 15

It's also selfish.
When I had my double or single buggy, I would barge it past cars rather than walking out onto the road. I was more concerned about not doing damage to my children than I was about doing damage to the illegally parked cars.
And I am visually impaired so have walked into more cars than I care to remember when they have parked in my way.

If you don't want your car to get damaged, park it properly. Have fun reporting me to the Police when I scrape my watch down the side of your car and break your wing mirror as I fall over because you've parked it on the pavement!

sweetkitty · 23/09/2015 23:37

Totally gives me the rage!
Pavements are for pedestrians

Why should people have to walk out onto the road and around cars just because someone can't be bothered parking a bit further away. See it all the time and I mean vans and cars with just two tyres on the road the rest on the pavement when there's a full road to park in a few yards away.

Getting glared at when you dare to walk past when they are trying to get their car down off the pavement.

Original poster
lushaliciousbob · 24/09/2015 06:51

Thanks all. It's good to see most people on this thread agree with me. and rightly so. was worried about posting in aibu but I'm glad I did now. This issue needs to be sorted. soon.

OP posts:
Mehitabel6 · 24/09/2015 07:26

It is massively inconsiderate - it only needs a modicum of common sense to work out that wheelchair users, those with prams, buggies etc and the blind are going to have to put themselves in great danger all because of sheer selfishness.

lanbro · 24/09/2015 07:43

I have to park slightly on the pavement outside our house as it's a narrow road. I literally put my wheels just up on the kerb, loads of room for wheelchairs and double buggies yet I have a fresh scratch on the side. I've just paid nearly £500 to have a dropped kerb put in to get one car off the road but we'll still need to park one on the pavement.

MythicalKings · 24/09/2015 07:52

You don't "need" to, though. You choose to, despite the inconvenience caused.

I think insurance claims for scratches caused when pavement parking should be turned down.

Blind people used the edge of the pavement as a guide using their sticks. You're in their way and could cause injury to them. maybe it was one of them who fell over and scratched your car on the way down.

Mehitabel6 · 24/09/2015 08:56

If it was made illegal no one could use the excuse that they 'need to'.

ReRegRhonda · 24/09/2015 09:28

This is doing my head in lately too - someone parks their van really far on the pavement and the bush in the front garden sticks out loads so I've been running the bush over slowly destroying it, why should I risk my child's safety by walking the pram in the road. It's not on!

LurkingHusband · 24/09/2015 12:02

MrsLH relies on her scooter to get out and about. Some inconsiderate cunt making the footpath narrower than 3 foot can see her stuck indoors all day.

And don't get me started about the fucking braindead cunts who park across dropped kerbs. Again, one of those in the wrong place, and MrsLH has to come home.

Just as bad, and another target for the word cunts, are the people who let their hedges and front foliage spread over the pavement. One sadly wonders if any children have been blinded by thorny branches hitting them in the face Sad.

NewbieCrazyCatLady · 24/09/2015 12:09

This fucks me off no-end. A couple of years ago a friend of mine began using a wheelchair which she will use for the rest of her life. It's given me a whole new perspective on access issues being out and about with her.

When she has trouble getting her chair through on a pavement, there have been a couple of incidents when drivers' cars have been accidentally scratched as she's tried to maneuver her chair through the narrow gap.

scifisam · 24/09/2015 12:34

When my daughter was tiny I lived on a road where I frequently had to back up and walk back down to the nearest zebra crossing, wait, cross, then walk up to the next zebra crossing, wait, cross, then walk back down to my flat. Took twenty minutes extra. This was because there was a takeaway on the main road near my flat and people would park up taking up the entire pavement; you couldn't even squeeze past. The road was far too busy to risk walking out into it.

I can understand that the drivers couldn't very well park in the road, but they shouldn't have been parking there at all. Traffic wardens for some reason never came round there.

Traffic wardens do seem to miss a lot of dangerous parking and this counts as dangerous parking IMO. Even if you are technically allowed to park there, if it makes it dangerous for pedestrians to get past you then it is dangerous, same as having right of way when entering a roundabout doesn't mean you won't get fined for dangerous driving if you enter when it's not safe.

I have sympathy with those forced to do it on bin day, and the bins make pavements difficult anyway, but most of dangerous parkers I see are just people being arseholes.

Sidge · 24/09/2015 13:01

Ah but if you hoik your car up on the pavement and put your hazards on then it makes it OK, doesn't it? Hmm

I bloody hate inconsiderate parkers/stoppers. DD2 uses a wheelchair sometimes and the number of times we've had our way obstructed by a car on a pavement is unbelievable. Also cars that park across or on dropped curbs so we can't safely get down to cross.

I banged on the side of a car a few weeks ago as it was obstructing our way stopped half on the pavement, the driver stuck his arm out and waved us around him. I then gave him a bit of a shock when I flung his door open, stuck my head in and said loudly "why the hell should I push my disabled daughter in the road because you're too lazy to park properly? Now shift it before I call the police or scratch your car trying to squeeze past."

He huffed and puffed and then moved but acted like I was totally unreasonable for wanting to walk on the pavement rather than in the road. Twat.