....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?!

This drives me mad. I'm the only house on my street that has neighbours' cars parked opposite and on either side of my drive, all when their drives are empty. I always reverse on but whichever way I approach, those 3 cars reduce my swing and it's a nightmare. It would be so much easier to park on any of their drives and I must confess I've been tempted to ask if I can park there, as they clearly don't want to. I never have, and quietly gnash my teeth instead.

It's a territorial thing I think.

I have a double driveway and always use it but my parents live in an area near a large teaching hospital which parking charges are increasing resulting in staff using residential streets nearby to park on while they're at work.

This has caused hazards and inconvenience to local residents.
My parents now park on the street outside their house so that their visitors can at least get access and some where to park.

Almost all of our neighbours park on the street, all the time. All have driveways and almost all of them also have garages (baffles me). We have a driveway and a garage, which we use. We park in our own driveway or garage, except twice when circumstances meant we had to park on the street overnight. Both times, our car got keyed.

Fair enough, RuDe, I understand that one!

I can see how a driveway at the back or somewhere similar would make you less inclined to use it.
I don’t think I know of anyone along my stretch of the road who avoids using their driveways in favour of the road.
We have 2 spaces right outside our front door which we use. There is a long bay on the other side of the road with permanent empty spaces. We all use our driveways!
And we have kerb outside our houses where we could also park which, along with the bay opposite, is very handy when we have visitors. Never any problems parking here, although our previous flat didn’t have any allocated off road parking, only one bay for about 10 cars and probably 40 property owners! It was mental and we swore we would never again even contemplate buying a property without ample off road parking.

Next door have up to 4 cars visiting every day but only 2 registered. The others are visitors coming and going. They park in front of my house and make it difficult for me to get out of my drive , yes I realise they are in their rights to do this.

2nd car is parked where ever they can in someone’s normal parking space. This means their drive and space to park in front of it is always constantly available to them.

There are plenty of spaces at the end of the road but people have to struggle so they can have 2 always free parking spaces available to them.

I have a massive driveway and take great pleasure in parking on it, as my neighbourhood is ruddy awful for parking.

It's apparently so good that I came out one day to find CF from across the road had decided to park his posh car right round the side of my house, past my front door and beyond my car! When I went to tell him to move it, he whined and pretended he didn't know it was private.

You like it so much matey-boy, you buy a house with one of your very own!

Following various extensions to the house (before I owned it), my average family car doesn’t fit on my driveway. Possibly there is a position that fits the car without the tyres on the pavement AND allows a person to get around the car to the front door, but we haven’t found it yet. Not helped by the street parking bays on either side of our driveway and on the other side of the road that are always full and mean there is hardly any room to manoeuvre into the drive.

My husband wants to remove the bay window from the front room (losing about 1mx4m of living space) to reclaim the driveway. As much as I hate parallel parking, and often parking streets away, I think that idea is ridiculous!

Melanie; another arsehole in my street that does this will try to block you in if you or your visitor park in “his” space if that space is free, meaning that you have to go and ask the c u next Tuesday to move, please.

Ha ha you have met the British idea of “the space outside my house” no it’s not theirs. Yes they will move all their cars around. Yes it is sad

Our car won't physically fit up the driveway thanks to two gateposts making the entrance too narrow. Spoke to the landlord about it but nothing has been done. Can't blame him really, I wouldn't want to dig up the pavement either. We aren't that bothered by it. We just park on the road outside the house.

Sparkling and Titsy, I concur with you both.

I suppose the general consensus (where I live) is to be territorial even if you’re inconveniencing yourself! Hilarious!

I know, Cherry!

My driveway is very long - would probably fit 6 fairly long cars or 7 smaller
DS still parks on road at front - I park in drive - mainly so we don’t have to synchronise who’s leaving first etc
If DP is around at weekend he parks on drive too and we just move cars around
I long for a drive that is wide enough to park cars other than in a long line

My neighbours are the same, they have one driveway but 2 cars. But they park both on the road. It wouldn’t be a problem except the think that the bit of road belongs to them and park like idiots so only them 2 can park there even though if parked properly you could get 3 cars to fit their. Sometimes if someone is parked there when they get home one of them will park on driveway but as soon as other car leaves, he comes out and moves his car onto the road. The poor guy across the road from the. Is left to park halfway down the street unless h3 gets home before them. Then the other neighbour has noticed my brother has been parking on the bit of road next to our drive which my bf uses so he’s put his car on the road just to be annoying. And don’t even get me started on the other guy across the street, has a massive driveway for like 4 cars, he has one car and a van but parks the van on the road and if he comes back and someone is parked there he parks on the grass verge potentially blocking half the pathway.

Unless I had a very big driveway I'd park on the road because I wouldn't want my car right outside the front window or to have to squeeze past it on the way out. That's the reality for most people unless they live in Downton Abbey. I'd treat a drive as an extension of my garden and handy place to store wheely bins.

I don't have space for a driveway so if I had a car I'd have to park it on the road and wouldn't always be able to park it right outside my house or even in my street.

But I don't have a car so have to put up with other people parking on the road in front of my house. When I say 'Put up with' I really mean it doesn't bother me though I prefer it when someone parks a Mini outside rather than a tall van which blocks the light. But they always move after a day or so so it's not a problem.

People on MN are fucking obsessed with parking.

Vicks, am raging for you in solidarity as in the “cf” family, but so relieved to hear it’s not just my neighbourhood!

We have a driveway and almost a car park outside our house. We never park on the road.

I park on my drive but I only have one car unlike most of my neighbours. Where I live is a quiet cul de sac cars park along side the pavement and if there is no room another car will park parallel to them so that the cars are 2 deep.

InvisibleLlama, I don’t know whether to be offended at your twattery (is this a word,?) or strangely flattered that you think I’m an intern of some sort- thanks?!

I have a drive as do all my neighbours. Mine is narrow so can be quite difficult to get the kids in and out without the doors hitting into the wall but I still use to use it.

But my neighbours opposite and next door who also both have drives park there large vehicles right at the edge of the drop down curb (one either side) so I have no room to manoeuvre in and out (the roads are narrow) and due to the height of their vehicles it's impossible to see any cars or children who maybe coming up or down. Now when possible I park on the road.

Ugh this gives me the rage too. We have a driveway which comfortably fits two cars, three at a push and our NDN have an even bigger drive that is left completely empty.

Got chatting one day, ended up talking about cars and NDN snootily said how "lucky" we are that we have such "little cars" that are easy to squeeze onto the drive. For reference, they are mid-sided but very sensible hatchbacks. She and her DH drive range rovers. I slowly backed away, and was delighted when DP brought home a minibus from work a few days later. They genuinely stood in their empty drive and watched him in amazement as he deftly parked it on our driveway between the two cars.

In summary, some people simply cannot park to save themselves.

I have two drives, but until we got the one at the front I never used it. It was much easier to park on my street than to stop on a different street, run round to my house, go through the garden, open the gates etc.

I Love having a proper drive now! (Even though I live opposite two schools so it’s blocked on a daily basis!)

Oh yes this!

My neighbours have a long drive which easily fits 3 cars, one in front of the other. I know this because the old neighbours had a caravan and their two cars on it.

New neighbours park one car halfway down the drive and the other on the road out front. Despite the fact that the bloke always leaves first and comes home last so there's no car swapping required of them, which I could see would be a reason to park on the road.

The car is technically in front of their property but he parks it right on the edge of the boundary so that it makes it difficult to swing my car into my space on my drive. In fact, if his car is there and DHs car is in his space I can't swing it in at all, I have to shunt it in by inches. Pisses me right off but nothing we can do about it.

I do dream of having a monster truck and flattening his stupid car, but that's also down to the fact that they're vile penis heads who have made our lives miserable since they moved in. I wonder whether his parking is another way to try to get at us.