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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be furious at this school run parking nightmare woman?

327 replies

missced · 05/01/2017 15:54

So, excuse me while I try to calm down..... it has only just happened you see! Angry. Usual scenario,, busy residential street, school run parking at a premium. I always scrupulously avoid parking over residents driveway exits where there is a single dropped kerb. I have just been told off by some van driver's wife (house has four cars parked out front) for parking over part of their double dropped kerb. Their kerb is twice the size of everyone else's, no doubt to feed their car collecting fetish, but my point is, as I made politely to her, that I had left an exit for her. It just wasn't the one she wanted to use. I know tempers get inflamed at these times, but our local situation is terrible, and I try my best not to upset anyone. I used to live on the same road, it's a small community, and I don't want to be unreasonable but this woman was so condescending and entitled and told me off like a six year old with a toileting problem. If it was a question of access for pushchairs, wheelchairs or the blind it would be different. Why should she assume she can have two free spaces on the street outside her house when everyone else gets one? I am looking forward to tomorrow's parking battle Shock.

OP posts:
EmpressOfTheSpartacusOceans · 05/01/2017 21:35

Well played, OP.

EthelEgbert · 05/01/2017 22:01

Oh well. It's never any fun when the OP is sensible, is it?

An outraged flounce would've been so much more fun. Smile

Enjoy your walk, OP!

FrancisCrawford · 05/01/2017 22:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 05/01/2017 22:24

Yes indeed Ethel, ability to slap ticket on window of every offending vehicle... or perhaps a pea shooter to fire at them , more of a range and far more satisfying Halo

(Squashes vision of machine gun pellets)

And as for YOU OP, you have ruined a good ranty thread by being all sensible and good hearted - damn you! Xmas Wink

Middleoftheroad · 05/01/2017 22:28

We're just about to move to a road like this. Dreading the parking but it's our compromise to get house I want. I wake up in cold sweats about this as I leave and return for work during peak blocking in times. I can see where the tarmac on pavement outside new house has been wrecked.

Prior to buying the house I would drive down the cul de sac and see all kinds of selfish parking.

Lweji · 05/01/2017 22:40

Wish you could issue tickets as a matter of course!

It would make my day to become a part-time special citizen parking officer where I live.
I'd need a blue light, a badge and a ticket booklet (a new one per week at least).
I'd just need to leave home at least an hour before normal.

Liiinoo · 05/01/2017 23:12

Yay OP. MN at its finest. Star

JanuaryMoods · 06/01/2017 06:54

A question. Is it still illegal if the house owner gives permission for someone to park over the dropped kerb?

When we have visitors they often park alongside the dropped kerb. Not a problem for us at all. We live on a lane that's curved and to park further along would obstruct the view of people leaving their drives.

londonrach · 06/01/2017 06:57

Yabu for reasond previously mentioned by others. Today dont park on a dropped curve.

londonrach · 06/01/2017 06:59

Read thread now. Well done op.

Lweji · 06/01/2017 07:08

A question. Is it still illegal if the house owner gives permission for someone to park over the dropped kerb?

No. Which is why to be penalised the owner of the house has to report the cars parks.

The problem is that actually, it's an offense only in special areas and it's not clear where they are.

JanuaryMoods · 06/01/2017 07:27

Thanks, Lweji. Flowers

Olympiathequeen · 06/01/2017 10:05

YABU. From her point of view you are probably one of many doing this and inevitably she got pissed off.

Park a few streets away and walk!

00100001 · 06/01/2017 10:15

olympia

RTFT

Lateralthinker2016 · 06/01/2017 10:16

It sounds like you're in the wrong- but if it's any consolation she/they sound like selfish tw@ts and having had neighbours like this myself in the past, I can completely sympathise.

myfavouritecolourispurple · 06/01/2017 10:22

If all those who travel less than a mile to school and then go back home walked then this would not be an issue

Quite. This is also why lottery systems for school admissions are silly as well. The more kids can walk and cycle to school the better.

I know a lot of people say they're on the way to work etc but there are usually places to park just a couple of minutes further away which would work fine and you'd still get to work on time. I live in a place in point. My road is a cul-de-sac so there is limited parking for the school. The next road is a big loop which goes on for about a mile. So the furthest away you'd have to park if you used that road is half a mile away. But people force their way into my road instead and park in front of drives and on the grass verges, turning them into a muddy mess. And arrive 45 minutes before school pick-up time to get a space even though they probably only live 20 minutes walk away...

Occasionally a traffic warden comes along and has a nice time issuing tickets. But not very often because they're too busy ticketing people for overstaying their welcomes in the town centre car parks by 5 minutes.

00100001 · 06/01/2017 10:48

lateral

RTFT

ArcheryAnnie · 06/01/2017 12:21

Well done, OP, for coming back and holding your hands up. That kind of graciousness is a rare and beautiful thing.

If all those who travel less than a mile to school and then go back home walked then this would not be an issue

Totally agree, ForalltheSaints. Would help solve a lot of other problems, too - concentration levels at school, air pollution (which is a real and serious problem in London at the mo), and all kinds of other things. I've mentioned it before, but my biggest WTF was seeing the woman who lives next to my sister shove her son in the people-carrier to take him to school, which is on the same street that they live. I didn't say anything, but my mouth must have been hanging open, because she said (very defensively) "I'm very busy!" or suchlike.

That1950sMum · 06/01/2017 14:44

OP, YABU not to come back and call us all bastards!

Don't you know how these things are supposed to work?

You've shown a degree of reasonableness and class that just isn't fitting on an AIBU thread.

Shame on you!

Grin
EvansOvalPies · 06/01/2017 14:52

Well done, OP - I do love a happy ending! Flowers

Lweji · 06/01/2017 15:17

Lateralthinker2016

You can write twats.

EthelEgbert · 06/01/2017 15:21

You can even write cunts. But twats is nicer.

SnatchedPencil · 06/01/2017 15:29

It's very rude to park in front of a dropped curb and can be illegal. It is legal to park in front of a driveway provided it is empty. (Rude, but legal). It is illegal to park in front of a driveway if there is a car on it. (It becomes more complicated if there is a garage of course, because you wouldn't know whether there was a car in it or not.)

Basically, you cannot block someone in, but are within your rights to block someone out.

It's rude and selfish though, and I'm not surprised the resident gave you some abuse. The fact that "it's the school run" and "it's busy" does not give you lawful authority to flout the Highway Code! If you can't park nearby, you will have to park further out and make the last part of the journey on foot.

So yes, YABU.

Vango · 06/01/2017 15:44

Just out of curiosity, and as a regular victim of school run dropped kerb parkers, I googled the Highway Code. I can't see where it says that it's legal if no car in the drive?

Rule 243
DO NOT stop or park

where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles
in front of an entrance to a property

00100001 · 06/01/2017 16:03

sntached

YABU

FOR NOT RTFT