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?

I love these threads.

Looks currently out at her car parked fully parked on the pavement legally in London.

Isn't it usually because the road is narrow and pavement parking us sometimes the only way emergency vehicles can access the street?

We all bump up on the pavement in my road, there would be no parking for miles if we didn't. However, the pavement is very wide, you could almost get another car alongside on the pavement. Some pavements near me are actually marked for parking and I hope the council do that in mine one day.

These threads always make me laugh because where I live, you're meant to park on the pavement - it's what the signs tell you to do!

My road is really narrow and there's legal parking on both sides of the street. However if everyone parked on the road, there'd be no room for emergency vehicles, the bin lorry or any work vans etc. The road is just far too narrow to allow it.

But of course all the posters whose roads/towns aren't like they, obviously know better! Parking on the pavement isn't illegal - driving along it is, and blocking dropped kerbs is, but that's not what people are talking about here.

I think the problem is loads of our streets were built in the days where you just had the milk float, the rag and bone man and the odd rich persons car. They weren't built with modern car use in mind.

Yeah I agree with this. The road was designed when most people didn't drive, or only had one car per household, not two or three like they have today.

I live in an area of terraced housing built in the 1930s. Parking is very difficult for those who made the mistake of converting their garages to other use. We have excellent public transport so as a non-driver I often wonder about their choices.

I would love to see pavement parking banned. If it happens somewhere because the pavement is ridiculously wide and the road narrow then the boundary should be moved. This morning I was forced into a busy road by a selfish blocker & it's just too dangerous. There's no safe crossing to just walk down the other side either. When I have complained to the council, they say it's a police matter who in turn say it's a traffic offence but there are no traffic police in the area

It isn't a case of 'knowing better' adaline. People just want to walk safely on the pavement without being forced onto a busy road.

There's lots of on street parking where we are. It wouldn't be at all practical to ban it and in most cases there's still plenty of room on the pavement for prams/wheelchairs. That's fine.

It's the fuckers who park their massive 4x4s fully on the pavement, blocking the entire path that I have an issue with. 2 serial offenders round here. Selfish pricks.

Keys at the ready though

Agreed, we're not smug about it.
We want to walk on the pavement, designed for us, without being forced into dangerous situations.

If your area let's you work on pavements, well done, great for you. We're not talking about people who park on pavements because they're instructed to and leave enough space.
We're talking about the inconsiderate knobs that force disabled people, young kids, runners and the average Joe, into the road because they think because they've a car they've an extra special private and are somehow better then everyone else.

My Ds (6) asked me about this very topic this morning on the way to school. It really bothers him that cars and bigger vehicles park half on the pavement and he says this causes cracks in the pavement.

We live in an area with lots of terraced houses and narrow roads with far too many cars. It's tricky, I can see why people feel the need to park the way they do though.

I find the pavement Parkers are usually the ones who can’t be bothered to trim the plants overhanging their gardens making it impossible to pass.

I ram my buggy/shopping bags between the car and the wall if it’s at all possible and if any scratches or dents occur then it’s not my damn problem. People here park in the most stupid places possible. Hazard lights appear to actually be “I can park wherever the fuck I want” lights, round blind bends, taking so much of the pavement people have to turn sideways, up to a zebra crossing...

Well where I live there are markings on most pavements where people can park (like in the photo)

And population is so dense that people are forced to park on the pavement where there are no markings. On our road (no driveways only house - pavement - street, people park on pavements on both sides, and cars still squeeze past eachother to get through - my car has been hit multiple times because of this so i ended up parking a 5 minute walk away... but thats not always an option for some people

I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but the Guide Dogs campaign against this. Much more difficult for a guide dog user to navigate from the pavement round the car and safely back onto the pavement. Likewise shop signs and scattered bins.
More dangerous for wheelchair users as well. But no one will agree to walk a couple of hundred feet and park their car responsible.

I agree OP. Pavements are for pedestrians. Not for cars.

There are some places where they are designed to be shared and there is room for pedestrians and room for cars to park. Fine.

What is not fine is when they park half on a pavement and half off, so are still in the way of cars, but also cause a problem for pedestrians and particularly people in wheelchairs and with prams. And car drivers don't give you any leeway if you are forced out into the road because someone has blocked the pavement.

And don't get me started on the people who drive onto the pavement more or less right at you. Or reverse out of somewhere without stopping for you.

It's time the law was enforced. It's illegal to drive on the pavement - by definition, if you've parked on it you've driven on it.

The other thing that really annoys me is when roadworks are going on and they block pavements with very little notice - and often don't provide another safe route for pedestrians to walk.

Pavements need to be reclaimed for pedestrians.

I don't have a problem with cyclists if they are sensible, after all you take up less room on a bike than walking alongside it. but don't ding your bell imperiously at me for me to get out of the way on a shared use path. A polite excuse me will be fine.

Now I've got that off my chest I'll get back to work.

We must have super wide pavements too. There's plenty of room to pass a parked car on ours. I get far more pissed off with all the kids using them as cycle paths.

I don’t ever park on the pavement as I dont want to damage my tyres but seriously keying cars

That’s criminal damage and if you get caught it’s your own fault.

That's fine @@TheSultanofPingu but there are plenty of roads where drivers are asked to park on the pavement because there is nowhere else for them to go.

Is it right that they end up with scratched paintwork or bashed wing mirrors because they're just following instructions?

Most houses here have no off-street parking and no garages - it's on the road (and blocking the pavement in some cases) or nowhere for a lot of people. There's literally nowhere else to go. The roads weren't designed for modern usage - they weren't designed for households with 2+ cars, nor were the pavements really designed for modern day wheelchairs or large double buggies.

The problem is with the infrastructure not the individuals. Our road is a two-way street but there's no way you can fit two modern-day cars down it side-by-side, for example. You just have to pull over or reverse or hope you don't meet the bin lorry on your way to work!

Agree this is so annoying! The other day I was out running and there was a car parked half on the road half on the pavement with the doors on the pavement side wide open (so whole pavement blocked) and the lady had her hoover trailing from inside her house going out to the car giving it a good vac out!

I know it's illegal but I've never actually seen or heard of anyone get done for it. They should get parking tickets like double yellows, or maybe they do and I've just never come across it.

Ah, just read the thread that it's not illegal. Should still be treated like double yellows though.

I once had to walk down the middle of the road (Vicarage Road in Watford if anyone knows it) because I couldn’t fit my double buggy down either pavement. There’s actually residents parking as well which makes it doubly annoying!

There will be roads where this is the case adaline, probably the photograph posted by chocolate is one of them.
But surely you can see, that example is totally different to cars blocking narrow pavements and forcing the most vulnerable road users out into traffic.
I have never scratched anyone's car maliciously, but to some motorists, the thought that their car may be damaged worries them more than a pedestrian being killed or seriously injured. That angers me.