To think the pavement is for pedestrians

[Whiskeyjar]

Why do people park their cars over the pavement? I genuinely want to understand this better as I think there surely must be an reason for this that I am missing. Example - I live next to a busy main road which is very long and I need to walk up this to access DS1's school and DS2's nursery. Since having DS2 I have walked everywhere with the pram and have came up against this problem almost every week- majority of the time it's different cars but some are repeat offenders. They don't just park slightly over the pavement but over enough that you can't pass with a pram which then forces you to have to cross the road which is really busy and no proper crossings on it. I get so annoyed that I'm being forced on to the road and putting my kids in danger because people do this- but why? What's the purpose of it? It's a wide road so if you parked entirely on the road cars would still pass with ease and even if they didn't, you could still do single file to get round a car that's parked? I have knocked on doors and asked people to move their cars on several occasions and never had any push back luckily. Is it just thoughtlessness?

[SmilingButClueless]

I’ve honestly never parked partially on a pavement and have been driving for the best part of 20 years.

[Redpriestandmozart]

Agreed, don't get me started on the fuckers who park over dropped kerbs. I can't even count how many times I have had to turn and wheel my wheelchair up the road to find the dropped kerb to get across the road, bastards the whole lot of them

[Mammylamb]

Parking partially on a pavement leaving room for wheelchairs and prams isn’t ideal: but sometimes that’s all a driver can do. Parking so far into the pavement that prams and wheelchairs cannot get by is simply entitled, dangerous behavior.

[NinaMarieP]

Last week I was about to cross at a dropped kerb with my pram. A driving instructor was reversing towards me to park. He stopped just short of he dropped kerb and I crossed. He then continued reversing and completely blocked the dropped kerb. I was across the road by this point but stopped and gave him the nastiest look I could muster. I mean seriously this person teaches people to drive and yet thinks it's ok to block a dropped kerb at a crossing with an island?

[WrongOnTInternet]

Didn't take long for a thread about car parking to be used to hate bikes did it? It is far more dangerous for a cyclist to be on the road than it is for a pedestrian to be on the pavement with a bike, particularly if we are talking about children. You could agitate for special bike paths such as exist on the continent if you like.

As for this : "Mothers cycling with their children should not be on the pavement - take them to the park, mothers".
How do you propose I take them there? Fly? I have to take them via existing transport routes and no I will not put my 3 yr old out on the road. It's also odd that there seems to be some disdain for mothers implied there on a site named for mothers.

[PinkFlamingo888]

If cars are parked on the pavement and it is causing an obstruction to pedestrians then you need to report it to the police. The vehicles will get tickets and it will hopefully prevent them from parking there again. It is illegal to park on the pavement.

[SpikyCactus]

Actually (annoyingly) it isn’t illegal to park on the pavement.

[PhilomenaButterfly]

YANBU. This drives me fucking nuts.

[NinaMarieP]

It's illegal to DRIVE on a pavement. Not park. Despite the obvious fact that a car on a pavement must have driven there the police can't do much about it.

[Popc0rn]

It's only illegal to park on the pavement in London.

[kayaking]

WrongOn if you are not competent enough to cycle on the road with your 3 year old, then walk!

[Owletterocks]

This drives me insane. I have had a car drive up on the pavement behind me on more than one occasion beeping me to get out of the way! Only yesterday a bus beeped at me and was gesturing angrily because I was walking on the pavement and he wanted to swing his bus around into my space. Pedestrians have right of way on the pavement, when will drivers learn that.

[Redpriestandmozart]

Actually (annoyingly) it isn’t illegal to park on the pavement.

It isn't illegal to park on a pavement (partially) but it is illegal to block a pavement while parking on it!!

[Pepper123123]

It makes life so difficult when you use a wheelchair too.

I can't get on or off the pavement unless I can find a dropped curb. If a car is blocking access to a dropped curb or covering one I am very literally confined to my house until they move.

I was a single mum for nine years (until I met DP) so it sometimes meant I had to ring a family member to get my DD to nursery/school.

Very frustrating at times.

[MikeUniformMike]

I have never parked on a pavement.

[shaggedthruahedgebackwards]

YANBU

Cars parked on pavements is a pet hate of mine. If the road is so narrow that by parking on the road you will not leave adequate space for emergency vehicles to pass then park elsewhere.

Please don't vilify all cyclists though. There are occasionally times when as a cyclist it is simply not safe to stay on the road so unavoidable to move on to the pavement. Cyclist should of course give pedestrians plenty of space though.

[WrongOnTInternet]

The 3 yr old isn't competent enough to cycle on Britain's roads with drivers who have the level of consideration that you demonstrate. What you are saying then is that no child should learn how to ride a bike.

[MikeUniformMike]

I drive and have a car but agree that pavements are for walking on.

[safariboot]

I'll park partly on the pavement if it seems appropriate, but anyone obstructing it such that a wheelchair or large buggy can't get past obviously doesn't give a shit.

There's one street near me that's always blocked with pavement parkers. I wouldn't mind seeing that side of it double-yellowed, even though it'd probably make it harder for me to find a space

[MyHusbandSaysIHave1000MNNames]

I find cyclists on the pavement equally annoying, if they are too afraid to cycle on the road then they should walk or take the bus.

Also annoying are people oblivious to others walking on the pavement in the opposite direction. The pavement is just wide enough here for 2 prams side by side although in other areas just enough room for two people or even just one. I've come across so many that feel entitled to take up the whole pavement with their friend rather than walk behind one another to allow others to pass. So your choices are walk in the road or stand in their way and most likely get hit by their pram because they're too busy talking to their friend or on the phone to notice other people exist in the world.

[Pepper123123]

Also, I drive. I've never parked on the pavement because I know all too well how hard it can make people's lives.

[Whiskeyjar]

@Popc0rn I have been driving 12 years and I can honestly say I've never partially parked on the pavement

[Popc0rn]

Well that's me proved wrong then. There are obviously plently of drivers who have managed never to partially park on the pavement. I often do tbh, for example if I'm visiting one of my friend who lives on a newly built housing estate which has only has one or two designated parking spaces, and they are both occupied, then I partially park on the pavement. Not ideal, but there's no where else to park.

[MissLingoss]

sometimes that’s all a driver can do.

No it isn't. They can go and find somewhere else to park that doesn't involve obstructing a pavement.

I'd have less of a problem with cyclists on the pavement if they went no faster than walking pace. The ones that cycle furiously, weaving in and out, coming up behind when you don't know they're there, are a bloody menace. As are the ones that go through red lights on pedestrian crossings.

[crazycatgal]

Last June I was walking back from church with the ks2 class that I volunteered in. A car mounted the kerb to park on the narrow pavement that the children were walking on. Some people are absolute arseholes.