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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder why people are so precious about parking outside their house!

108 replies

Snowflakes1122 · 24/11/2016 15:53

I was driving along a street today, phone rang so I parked up (safely and legally) to answer it.

Next thing I know a woman is outside my car window staring at me, gesturing me aggressively to move my car forward. I look behind and her husband (I assume) was pulling his car off their drive and wanted to park exactly where I was. Despite a half empty street full of parling spots and their double drive.

Why are people so precious about parking outside their house?! Especially when they have a double drive Confused

OP posts:
AwaywiththePixies27 · 24/11/2016 21:00

snowflakes YNBU! I thought I'd seen anything until recently.

Ended up being rushed into hospital and a neighbour was yelling at the paramedics for having the audacity to park outside his house in an emergency! Hmm I mean, if you see two fast response cars and an ambulance parked outside and can't comprehend it's a bloody emergency there's no helping them! entitled twats. Apparently he was moaning about my workvan being outside my house - I'm off on long term sick and said van belongs to a neighbour further down in the cul de sac!

OP, do what my DAunt does. She quite literally, ignores every single moaner (and does things like move bins from 'saved' parking spots on the street). Wish I had her balls Grin

Farfromtheusual · 24/11/2016 21:02

I will add he doesn't even park with his wheels on the pavement like we do (could still get through with pushchair or wheelchair) he parks about 3 ft away from the curb Angry

AwaywiththePixies27 · 24/11/2016 21:05

farfrom I've never understood that either. It used to be fine on this road. Most people have driveways but a fair number don't either. Thing is, we have all the cul de sac workers and the world and his sodding dog parking outside our houses and then there's literally no room for visitors or emergency vehicles as per! It wouldn't be so bad if it was just cars but we currently have small roadwork vans and minibuses (plural) setting up home alongside the houses and it's causing no end of aggro with others.

mumofone1234 · 24/11/2016 21:10

It's because people are lazy and having to walk a couple of metres is the end of the world. This is why the country is overweight.

HickDead · 24/11/2016 21:25

This drives me insane! A cousin of mine used to park her car in a particular street near to the train station every morning. After about a week of doing this she got a rather nasty note under her wiper telling her not to park outside of this certain house. It escalated to coming back to her car and finding the windscreen smeared in dog poo and all the tyres let down. It culminated in the elderly gentleman who owned the house throwing his cup of tea over her one morning. He is in his 80's and doesn't even have a car, he ended up being cautioned by the police, all over parking! My cousin still parks there out of sheer stubbornness Grin!

In our street it's all on street parking, luckily none of my neighbours are overly precious about parking outside of their houses and we all just park where there is space. It is a nice bonus if you do get a spot outside your house though!

AwaywiththePixies27 · 24/11/2016 21:37

Hickdead that's awful! Shock Hope your cousin is okay and the tea didn't scold her. I'll never be able to fathom people getting so possessive over bits of street that aren't even theirs.

Maybe the council should give them the maintenance bills for the bits of road that they want to claim as theirs. .

puglife1 · 24/11/2016 21:41

My ndn is an absolute loon with this. She parks her shitty car outside and refuses to park on her drive. We live in a cul de sac so not many spaces. Everyone parks on their drive but if people have visitors she goes mad if they park outside her house.
She swears and yells. Sad bitch!!

phoolani · 24/11/2016 21:46

Us and the ndn's used to generally park in front of our respective houses until they decided we weren't the right sort, then they started parking in front of our house. I couldn't give the smallest shit. Tossers. I am thinking of setting up cctv tho because I'm convinced the elderly, butter wouldn't melt wife is keying our car on a semi-regular basis. It would not surprise me in the least.

Bahhhhhumbug · 24/11/2016 21:48

Blackfellpony I know I should get a life or even an evening hobby but I have tried for hours a while now to understand your post , even asked DH who has gone into shouty mode after explaining it ten times so he can feck off Can you please explain it or can milady you draw a diagram. Ta

ChickenVindaloo2 · 24/11/2016 21:55

I wouldn't like it. Especially if there are other spaces free e.g. outside their own house.
Like when you're on a bus and someone sits next to you even though there are free seats. technically they're not doing anything wrong but it is invading your space.

carabos · 24/11/2016 21:57

We used to live on a street of terrace houses, no drives or garages, no parking restrictions. Our NDN drove himself crazy trying to police the parking. Not only did all the residents park on the street, but as all our cars left when people went to work in the morning, they were replaced by commuters using the nearby station.

We moved house to a place which is a sort of private development so the only cars belong to residents and each property has designated parking. We thought parking wars would be a thing of the past but no. We went to our first residents meeting last week and spent an hour and a half listening to people moaning about a) parking and b) bins Hmm.

IDreamOfPeace · 24/11/2016 21:58

If anyone ever tells me not to park in front of their house I just politely remind them that I've got road tax and can park there legally. Normally shuts them up!

I once lived in a road where there was no residents parking and it was every man for themselves in terms of finding a space every day. As annoying as it was if someone got the space in front of your house before you there was nothing you could do about it. Like i said, it's not illegal. People just need to get on with it!

PiazzaDelPoppolo · 24/11/2016 22:01

This is what I found on my car one time I parked outside a neighbours house as there was no room outside my own Hmm

To wonder why people are so precious about parking outside their house!
AwaywiththePixies27 · 24/11/2016 22:06

Piazzo is that stuck on with sellotape? Must have been an arse to get off! Confused

reallyanotherone · 24/11/2016 22:08

I used to live on a really busy road. If someone parked in front of your house, chances are you wouldn't find another one for a few hundred metres.

Because we had a train station at the bottom of the road people would park up at 8am, and be there all day till 7pm and later.

I know no one owns the road, but we had an elderly lady that relied on her car and wasn't mobile enough to walk 300m, especially with shopping. On one memorable occasion I'd taken the cat to the vets so had a cat, a toddler, a baby in a car seat, and several bags of prescription cat food that we'd been given. Physically couldn't get them all from the car to the house.

I don't park in front of peoples houses if i can help it, and certainly not all day every day while i bugger off to work.

Blackfellpony · 25/11/2016 07:05

BAH I wish I could draw you a photo but I really have no clue how Grin

Basically we are part of a group of 4 houses around a tight horseshoe shape. We are the middle two.

His drive is more narrow than the other 3 houses therefore if he parks over his drive his car is too long to fit the space so he has to squash his car right up to the edge of both sides of his neighbors drives to 'fit'.

If he parks more to the right he is over other neibours drive by a few inches and more to the left he blocks mine by an inch or so.
So if you look out of my front window he is parked across his drive and his cars nose is touching the edge of my driveway with his cars arse touching the NDNs on the other side Hmm

When I reverse out of my drive because of the angle and narrowness of the street (being on a U shape it's not straight back) I can't get enough of a turn to get out so I'm stuck as his car blocks the turn needed to get out!

So...I park mine across my drive and reverse up to his drive so he cannot fit at all and it's solves the problem Blush

Still might make no sense!?

honkinghaddock · 25/11/2016 07:24

The only moaning I have seen about this is when someone kept parking their work van outside other peoples houses (with no front gardens so van is a few feet from front window) because he didn't want it outside his own window.
It is the pavement parkers that annoy me- not just a wheel on but half the car or the whole car in a few cases.

Littledrummergirl · 25/11/2016 07:40

We used to have one car and a drive but park our car on the road. Our house is on a hill and the drive goes down to the house. The road is flat. Unfortunately our diesel car doesn't start if it's on a hill for too long so we didn't really have a lot of choice.

Cue new neighbour kicking off because we don't use the drive. I solved that by buying myself a car which does start on the hill/drive. Dh still parks his on the road. Grin

TheNaze73 · 25/11/2016 07:55

I think the attitude to all this depends on where you are living. When I was in Islington, it was survival of the fittest, despite having a parking permit. When I moved out to the sticks, some very irrational & uptight people, we're so territorial about a bit of road, in a close it was funny. Some people need to get a hobby. YANBU

Sweets101 · 25/11/2016 07:57

I admit I do get slightly irked when I get home with 4 DC under 8 to get in the house on a winter evening plus all the accompanying junk to find the young man opposite jumping out his (massive Land Rover - jealous) and swanning into his house handsfree whilst I have to drive up the road or round the back and begin the merry dance of getting everyone in. If he just parked forward on his side I could get my car in too! He parks on the other side of the road so it creates a sort of slalom so you can't park both sides unless you leave enough space for a fire engine to get through.
What's even more annoying is when you have left enough room for a fire engine to get through and someone sits outside in their average sized car beeping as they "squeeeeze" their way through the gap that's 3 times the size of their car. Fuck off!

Ifailed · 25/11/2016 08:02

The solution is simple, ban all parking on public roads, I don't see why we all should have to pay to provide storage areas for other people's property.

This would immediately reduce the level of traffic on the road, reduce congestion and pollution. More people would take to the pavements or ride a bike, thus increasing general fitness. Sadly, its highly unlikely as so many people have an irrational attachment to their vehicles.

Inthenick · 25/11/2016 08:06

What astounds me is how some/many people have so little manners about these things. It's totally fine to want to park outside your house and get that spot as often as possible, and to secretly feel irritated when someone else takes the spot, but to go over and bang angrily on their window, or passive agressively put a bin there etc is so bloody rude. Equally if I knew my neighbours usually got the spot outside their house I would actively try to avoid it in so far as it wasn't totally totally inconvenient not to take 'their' space.

Just manners and trying to be decent to other people.

bibbitybobbityyhat · 25/11/2016 08:24

"The solution is simple. Ban all parking on public roads."

Don't be silly now.

TheNaze73 · 25/11/2016 08:35

And where do people then park then ifailed?
A solution to parking issues across all parts of the country is needed, so would like to know where you think people should park?

Ifailed · 25/11/2016 08:42

And where do people then park then ifailed?
It should be up to the vehicle owner to arrange for parking, like we all do for all our other possessions - if I decided to store my fridge on the road, it would be removed & I'd probably be charged with fly tipping. The fact that 1000s of cars are sitting idle on the street, often for days on end, clearly indicates there are too many.