to think that if you live near a city centre you should expect this

[mileend2bermondsey]

I currently live about 10 miles from a big city which I work in. To save money on parking in the city centre at on average 8gbp per day I drive to the outskirts of the city, park on the closest street that does not have yellow lines and walk just over a mile into work. I was chatting to a friend about it who said I was lucky my car has been nicked (dodgy area) then goes on to say she'd be fuming if commuters parked on her street. My opinon is that if you chose to live on one of the first streets without parking restrictions, there are bound to be people who will park there to save money, same with living near a train station. I used to live in a terrace opposite a shopping precinct, during business hours you couldn't park on the street for love nor money. It was part and parcel of living in that particular location, I got on with it until I could move and consider such factors when moving since. I certainly wouldnt blame the drivers or key their cars over such a 'slight' as my friend thinks may happen.

YANBU

If it's a problem the residents can apply for residents parking.

I should make the most if it OP because if lots of people are doing it the residents will get the council to bring in permits soon I expect.

That's what I would do if I lived on that street

Just because your not blocking someone's drive you might still be block entry!! Agsin ive had this where some selfis muppet parks right on the edge of the drive making it impossible to reverse in. When I chsllanged 1 lady she told me she was doing nothing wrong she could legally park there and she wasn't moving till her child came I only asked her to reverse slightly! Chav! I lived in a city where I had to parallel oark in tiny spaces for years, it's a talent I have. I blocked her in childish but cathartic! People are incredibly rude sometimes.

Any behaviour which you know irritates people, yet you do it anyway is anti-social.

Yes it's legal but that doesn't make it right. I would be mightily peeved if you left your car outside my house everyday. Mind you, there are never any parking spaces outside my house due to neighbours with too many cars but that's a whole new thread.

I used to park my car on a street about 10 minutes walk from the station, to save on the extortionate parking fees. There was a long stretch of road with marked parking bays and no houses, then houses with bays outside, and opposite them, a sort of free mini car park for about 15 cars. So no need to park outside someone's house, and I never did. But I did get shouted at regularly by one man, who told me that the spaces "were not there for anyone to use" and I shouldn't park there. The mini car park was never full, so I am not quite sure what his problem was.

Yes it's legal but anti social. I used to live in a terraced house with no drive - it's not fun when you sometimes can't park on your own street. Especially when you have shopping/kids to get out of car, I had to decide whether to leave the kids in the car or in the house unattended whilst I got the shopping in.

I go to a hairdressers in my town, there's a massive free car park about 5 minutes walk away but the hairdressers park in the residential street right outside the hairdressers. This pisses me off and I don't even live there....just plain laziness.

Kerberos, one thing I have learned from MN is that everything irritates someone.

YANBU.

But there seem to be some very entitled people on Mumsnet who think that if they own a house, they then own the public road in front of it

In my situation the street I park on is a clu de sac. Coming up to the cul de sac is long stretch of road with a green space/playing field next to it, no houses, spaces for approx 15 cars. Then you go on to the actual cul de sac bit, all the houses have driveways, there is also a little island in the middle of the street with a mini car park for about 10 cars. No one seems to park on street or the island. I never park outside anyones house, but on the long stretch next to the playing field. I could park outside, no parking restrictions and it would be a couple minutes quicker to walk into the city, but there is always available space on the long stretch so I dont want to aggravate anyone unnesseccarily.

However I still think that if people were to park outside houses ect it is something that the residents should expect due to the location they live in, it would seem silly not to consider it.

YANBU at all, you're completely right.

If parking is a big issue for local residents they should request a residents' parking scheme.

The public highway is just that. It is not owned by the people who live near or next to it. If you want a drive, a garage, residents' only parking or to live on a private road, you can choose to make those things your priority when choosing a house.

I am really shocked by people who would contemplate acts of vandalism or harrassment against people and their cars parking legally and correctly. That's a horrible mentality. It's not even vigilantism, as that's usually directed at people who've committed a crime, it's just selfishness played out as aggression and violence.

Our street is like this, people park here for shopping during the day and we're close to two big venues, so that when they have events you cannot go out while people are arriving and expect to park anywhere nearby on your return. That's life, or we could push for a residents' parking scheme.

yanbu

and I live near the city and my street can be shit to park on, its just life

dh goes mad and moans for ages if anyone has parked in "his" space and I just roll my eyes and wait for him to shut up. cos I have lived in the city 35 years and am used to it and don't care

no one owns the fucking road outside their house fgs

I think the problem here is not just when one person does it, but everyone does it, and then people start parking illegally. So OP may not be parking illegally, but if there becomes a culture of 'well other commuters park on this street' then it starts getting out of hand. I walk to work at a university and my daughter is in childcare there so walk with her in her buggy. The road surrounding the nursery is permit free (unlike surrounding roads), and people who work at the uni don't want to pay for a university permit, so park on that road. It gets very crowded, and it's not quite a wide enough road to allow two cars or one car + bus through so cars that park there park way up on the kerb so that often (i.e. every day) there is at least one care that has not left enough space to push a buggy through the gap they've left on the pavement - I end up having to walk on a very busy through road (with buses, cars etc constantly driving up and down and having to make way for one another) with a small child in a buggy, and it's very stressful, particularly now it's dark on my walk home. All because people are too tight to pay £80 for a year's parking at work. Have complained to my local councillor to no avail. The roads nearby are permitted, with some driveways and when it's very busy people just block cars in. So yes, OP might not be doing anything illegal, but she is contributing to a larger problem. Personally if I was living on that street, I wouldn't doing anything so drastic as to key OPs car or damage it in any way but I would be annoyed and I would contact the council about potentially turning my area into a permit area. So enjoy it while it lasts OP!

TL;DR either just use public transport; accept that if you want the convenience of driving you should have to pay for it; or accept you will piss people off and it's reasonable for them to be pissed off.

YANBU

The people who seem to think they own the space outside their house are just wrong.

And the people who talk about keying cars, letting tyres down, dog shit on cars are nuts and need to calm down a bit, life would be so much better for you.

But people are only saying it's antisocial because they have this view that they are entitled to park outside their house. They're not. No one is. If you don't own that patch of road (which clearly you don't) then it's available for any one of the legally driving car owners in the country to use. Just in the same way you could park outside their house. No one has a 'right' to that space. It's not your space.

Of course it would be a different issue if you've been blocking people's driveways or parking on private land. That is VU.

yanbu

Any behaviour which you know irritates people, yet you do it anyway is anti-social.

Rubbish

What about mowing your lawn at 10am every Sunday? My old neighbor did this, used to drive me nuts as I was still in bed.

This was a real bug bear for my husband and so we always paid extra to have a house with a driveway and garage.

I live right beside a train station, I'm quite thankful that we have a long daily parking restriction on-street (8:30am-5:30pm) and that very few people can tell that the cul-de-sac comes around like a hook into a residents car park. Parking disagreements seem to make everyone behave like selfish entitled arseholes though so I'm quite glad we avoid most of them!

I cant believe the nutcases advocating damaging peoples cars/throwing dog shit on them for people having the sheer audacity to park on a public highway. FML

I can see my street getting worse. It's a ferry crossing over the river here ( has been for over 100 years ) and to park here free and sail over then bus to the city centre is cheap and fast. It's recently had major work here and now the wee crossing point is being redeveloped into a fancy marina and riverside walk. Great for my property value but it'll be bloody busy down here I imagine especially in nice weather.

ReginaBlitz son you're saying you need to park right outside your own home as it's difficult to cross the road with your 3 year old? That's ridiculous! What about the millions of us who don't have cars and walk from the train station or bus stop every time we go out? That involves crossing roads you know and we manage!

Yanbu op. I've never had a car. I've managed to talk from bus or tube so other people can walk from few metres if even a street away. You've done nothing morally wrong as long as you are not blocking someone's car or drive.

I think the whole 'if you chose to live wherever then you should expect X or y' is pretty depressing really.
Most people live where they live because of a combination of budget and accessibility to jobs/income.
I live in a city centre. Having a trail of random people behave badly because it's not their home is annoying. Between the crap parking, the drunks, the rubbish etc some people are just arseholes.

I would happily support residents declaring their own streets off-limits to non-residents, strictly provided their own cars were banned from parking on any other public roads and clearly marked to make them identifiable in the event of breach. Any suggestions for suitable markings gratefully received.

Some of the suggestions on this thread are astonishingly childish.