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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Parking on pavements - AIBU

51 replies

ShowMePotatoSalad · 04/05/2017 15:53

Evertime I take DS out in his pushchair for a walk I have to walk in the road at least a few times to get past cars that are obstructing the pavements. Today I counted 8 times, on a walk of about a mile. Now, it's my choice to take the pushchair out so that's not what I'm griping about. It's just that it's made me notice that the cars are blocking the pavements, meaning anyone in a wheelchair or with limited mobility will have to go in to the road in order to get past. AIBU to think this is wrong?

OP posts:
Satsumer · 04/05/2017 16:58

Make a stash of leaflets saying "You park like a cunt" and place them under windscreen wipers every time it's necessary.

Booshbeesh · 04/05/2017 17:11

It's is inconsiderate when they are obstructing easy access for people who may need to get past without the hassle. However, in my area roads are narrow. The school is on a one way street I CANNOT wall there there is no dedicated parking bays. So people HAVE to park partly on the pavement. Or completely block the road.

problembottom · 04/05/2017 17:15

I'd love them to ban pavement parking around here. I'm in a Manchester suburb and it would be lovely to walk unobstructed from my road into the village. Our streets are wide enough in most places to park completely on the road and in the places where they aren't people should park further away and - shock horror - walk to their destination...

Nonibaloni · 04/05/2017 17:21

I was coming on to mention the RNIB campaign. Not just guide dogs. Long cane users need to negotiate round and are in a more dangerous position on the road.

Bog hedges, shop signs and bins are also guilty of this.

I'm not sure you have to apologise for attempting to get a buggy down a pavement, it's a well established way to move babies and children!

ThreeLeggedHaggis · 04/05/2017 17:27

Stupid development rules are part of the problem. It's a while since I worked in residential construction but I remember sometimes they deliberately included too few parking spaces in new residential developments to "encourage public transport use". Yeah, right. All people are going to do is squeeze in more cars than there are safe spaces for, causing this kind of issue.

And there are places, like Worra says, where all the roads for miles are too narrow for on-street parking. And you can give a glib, "Well don't drive then" but life doesn't work like that.

upperlimit · 04/05/2017 17:28

You wouldn't be able to get a bicycle up our road if cars on both sides of our road didn't bump up onto the pavement. In fact, thereare dropped kerbs along the whole length of the street to allow this.

Nobody has a driveway and to park to Mumsnet standards you'd have to park miles away. It's not ideal but it's hasty to presume everyone who parks like this is a cunt.

flissfloss65 · 04/05/2017 17:29

My local council has just introduced a ban on pavement parking. Signs are up on lamp posts saying a fine will be imposed.

Original poster
ShowMePotatoSalad · 04/05/2017 17:38

No worries FuckingSausageFingers Smile

OP posts:
Original poster
ShowMePotatoSalad · 04/05/2017 17:44

Zilpha I agree, I think it would be good to have it as an advert or a poster. I'm not sure it would stop all that many people from doing it though, but it might raise a bit of awareness. And obviously a few PPs are describing situations where they aren't intending to block people's paths but they have no parking whatsoever, and that's obviously a development/planning/council problem because they haven't thought considered residents OR pedestrians.

OP posts:
BlackeyedSusan · 04/05/2017 17:51

Silver dragon fly, you need your white stick at this point... to do what my friend used to do, and whack them really hard use it to navigate a course through the obstruction... tap, tap tap all down the paintwork.

BlackeyedSusan · 04/05/2017 17:55

some of the cul-de-sacs round here require parking on the pavement, but then the road is so quiet you can safely walk up and down it. some of the roads have marked bays on the pavement. some places people are idiots and do not care.

CarabellaSmella · 04/05/2017 17:59

For anyone who lives in Scotland, the Government is currently consulting on legislation to ban pavement parking and blocking dropped kerbs (another selfish and dangerous thing to do) - link to survey if you want to make your feelings known

SabineUndine · 04/05/2017 18:02

Anyone I see parking on the pavement outside my house is going to land in as much trouble as I can make, and I will take photos and get witnesses. Last year we paid about £6K to get the vault under the pavement repaired. It's part of the lease that this vault is our responsibility, and it had collapsed. It can only have been from someone parking illegally on the pavement itself.

wilma60 · 04/05/2017 18:04

You are not being unreasonable. My hubby has just got a mobility scooter. First trip out and we had to go out in the road round cars and also cars were parked across the dropped down kerbs so he couldn't get off the pavement and had to go further down the road then back again

Original poster
ShowMePotatoSalad · 04/05/2017 18:07

wilma exactly, I regularly see people parked completely over the dropped kerb. It's awful for people who need those dropped kerbs to get around.

OP posts:
gamerwidow · 04/05/2017 18:09

I think parking on the pavement in a marked bay is different to parking on an unmarked pavement.
We have opposite problem in our road where bays are marked on the pavement but people don't park on the pavement because their worried about their alloys. It makes the road so narrow that an emergency vehicle would have no chance getting through

Nonibaloni · 04/05/2017 18:12

Thanks Carrabella , completed and shared.

Finnellajoe · 04/05/2017 18:14

It is already illegal to park on the pavement isn't it? We got fined years ago for parking on the pavement ( it was a very wide pavement so not remotely blocking it).

I just thought it was one of those things that are usually ignored though unless causing a massive problem.

Parker231 · 04/05/2017 18:15

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2918675-pavement-parking-justice

Another parking thread with a successful outcome. Hopefully soon it will be illegal to park on pavements anywhere in the country.

BollardDodger · 04/05/2017 18:16

sometimes they deliberately included too few parking spaces in new residential developments to "encourage public transport use".
People will only use public transport if it is fit for purpose: cheap, goes where they want to go, frequent, reliable, runs 24/7, bit it doesn't, so people have to own cars. Especially if they have to drop kids off om the way to work etc

Daffodils07 · 04/05/2017 18:22

Boils my piss people who park on the pavement.
The amount of times I've had to walk on roads with a baby and toddler in a pushchair beacuse of them.
Also cars that park all over the grass (and I'm on about grass where children used to play football) and now are just big muddy messes and the children get told off for playing on the roads.

rachmack · 04/05/2017 18:26

It'san offence to cause an obstruction but actually only an offence if an obstruction occurs (not the risk of one) and also if there is no safe way past (I.e if someone's can not go round safely). Near to me (village with very narrow streets) one of my neighbors parks his entire car on one pavement, and though you can still get past it mean sure that all car sales parked on the opposites side have to park on the pavement or block the road. If he would park on the other side with everyone else it would be unnecessary. Plus he had a go at me for parking on the road because it "makes the bus come too close to my car". I do think it's not always possible to just park elsewhere though. If no one could mount the kerb in my village people would have to park on unlit country lanes, extremely unsafely.

WorraLiberty · 04/05/2017 18:33

Another parking thread with a successful outcome. Hopefully soon it will be illegal to park on pavements anywhere in the country.

Yes but it won't be.

Besides, when councils mark parking bays on pavements, they leave more than enough room for wheelchairs and prams.

Well at least they do around here.

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