....to be bemused by people NOT using their driveways???

[RebeccaBunchLawyer]

Hello.

Moved to the UK nearly 2 years ago, and until I bought a car never really realised that people WITH A DRIVEWAY DO NOT USE THEM MUCH!! Instead, they park next to their driveways, sort of “displaying” their driveways or “protecting” them, then hogging the bit of road next to said driveway.

My very odd neighbours have recently created a driveway and dropped curb (at “considerable” expense as he likes to tell anyone who’ll listen), but, yep, you guessed it, they have only used it to park their car in a couple of times when they went on holiday!

And yes, obviously a fully taxed and insured car can park legally on appropriate bits of road, but why not use your driveway and why the f have one built if you don’t really want to use it? Most of my English friends go on and on about wanting one but would they use it?

I feel like going to my neighbours and asking if I can park my little car on their driveway to get it off the road, since they obviously don’t really want it?!

Mine is narrow and on a blind bend!

Maybe they’re incapable of reversing into the drive and don’t like reversing off so don’t use it.

We have a driveway and it’s a luxury after not having one for years!!!

Wankers living further up the road (wide enough for one car) from me choose to park on the pavement so they obstruct it and also cause the road to be narrower while their driveways sit empty.
I take no care to twist my body away from their wing mirrors every day, I’m not walking in the road or taking care of their vehicles. The local peelers do leaflets here about pavements are not for parking on, I want some.

Rule #63 of having a car. Whenever possible, park it on the road, obstructing traffic, the view of pedestrians trying to cross the road, and access for emergency services.

When people with driveways leave their car half on the road half on the pavement I also take no care to avoid wing mirrors and paintwork.

So many people near us do this and it drives me mad. Learn to drive and manoeuvre your own car, and use your driveways people! If you can't park your oversized showoffy 4x4 car on your ample driveway then you need to buy a smaller car!

We have 2 & use them both if it helps.

The people who live opposite me have 2 cars. They also have a driveway much like ours - which easily fits 3, possibly 4 cars depending on size. They park one car on the drive, and one opposite MY drive on the road, leaving most of their drive empty and also really fucking difficult for me to get in and out. Dickheads.

We live in a cul de sac and are one of a couple of houses with a small driveway. Parking on our street is always difficult, so we get blocked in by vehicles parking a couple of feet each side over our drive even though there are white lines. So, when am leaving early in morning I have to park overnight on the road, otherwise I can't get the car off the drive as there isn't room!

Are me and DH the only people in the world who park the car in the garage?

I don't know of anyone who has a driveway and doesn't use it.

We have a large drive with turning spot, so no need to reverse out, we would never consider parking on the road, parking is not an issue in our area thankfully.

In our old house, the NDNs didn’t use their driveway because they wanted to stop anyone else from parking outside their house. They’d even move their car after someone else had gone to ensure they’d blocked the entire frontage.

They were weird.

Oh yes drives me batty. Most drives in our street can accomadate 4 cars at a tight squeeze. So wtf are there cars all up and down the road??

Fwiw I love having a drive and don't think I could be without one.

My car insurance is cheaper if I say it’s parked on the road outside the house, than on the driveway!!
That’s why I park on the road, even though there’s room on the drive.

We don't use our drive. It's a steep slope on a main road at the bottom of our back garden, and makes it a pain to get into the house as we have to unlock the garden gate, traipse up the muddy lawn, then go down the path and round to the front door. Far easier to just park at the front, on a quieter road.

TBF, there's plenty of room at the front and nobody struggles to find a space to park.

I have always had a driveway and have always used it.
I do not understand people —knobs— who have a drive and park on the road.
They are either pig ignorant or just really bad drivers.
I would have to comment along those lines if their parking inconvenienced me at all.
However, I only use garage when a have a naice convertible. Otherwise it’s the obligatory storage room for everything we don’t need but can’t throw out!!!

< why is my strike though not working any more??>

My delightful neighbours have a lorry they use to block my driveway if I don't have the car on the road. Its highly annoying and I may have taken great delight in sprinkling bird seed liberally around their vehicle last spring to encourage the birds to shit on it.

Haven't been driving the last few months due to various operations and injuries, when I get back on it we'll have several weeks of territory wars before settling into a mutual hatred agreement.

We tend to only park one of our two cars on our driveway and the other on the road because we work random shifts and it's a pain having to shuffle cars around at 3am if the one you want is parked behind the other one.

Meh, we mostly use ours, but not always. If the weather's poor and the street outside my front door is free I'm pulling up there instead! Much easier than traipsing from the driveway with the baby, the toddler and armfuls of stuff. Also I can't get into the garage when the car's in front of it, and you can guarantee there won't be any spaces on the street to move the car to when I need to get something out (typical terrace nightmare parking with lots of through traffic).

throwcushions, I am so impressed. I wish you’d tell people in my road that they might wish to do the same!

My car goes in the garage. DH's is on the drive. . I think if you have a drive, use it. Especially if you value your wing mirrors/paintwork etc.

Some people have a drive but still park on the road outside their house so nobody else can.

How bizarre! I've never seen this. My road can be quite busy as we are near the village green but even so parking on your own drive is so much more convenient surely? Can people really not reverse their cars onto/off their drives?

yorkshire, agreed. And my other neighbour (who has a driveway and a frigging garage, both unused!) parks her car messily near or across her driveway (if she can be arsed) and her grown up son leaves his Porsche on the road. Why he wouldn’t want to park that baby on the driveway, I’ll never know. But he is a bit of a twonk —mumma’s boy—