To think pavement parking should be banned

[HoustonBess]

There's a government inquiry into pavement parking, you can submit comments here

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/transport-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/pavement-parking-17-19/

I absolutely hate pavement parking - it's someone thinking their car not being scratched is more important than me and DD's lives. I live in an area of terraced streets and especially on bin days, you basically can't go out with a pram because it's so bad.

Anyone else want to comment for the inquiry? Maybe mumsnet could submit something on behalf of lots of people?

As always a blunt approach will never work, however where possible pavement parking should be banned.

It's more about people not being total cunts when parking.

Yup. Drivers should at least think along the lines of:
A) do I really need to mount the pavement?
B) are there additional obstacles eg utility poles, phone cabinets?
C) would popping my wing mirror in help?

It is banned in London.
In some places you can pavement-park where there are clear areas marked out and street signs indicate that it is OK to do so. Often on these streets (usually the terraced ones) it is impossible to then walk/push a buggy/wheelchair along either pavement. It is only just possible to get a car down the middle - I don't know emergency vehicles cope.
Also people often ignore the ban. Unless it is a main road, it is unlikely that a traffic warden will be along so people get away with it.
Many London Boroughs have their own parking restrictions in force - resident permits etc, which seem a far more effective way of managing the issue.

Too many vehicles, too many massive Chelsea tractors, why does everyone have to drag 2 tons of metal with them everywhere they go?
Why can't you walk people?

It feels as if we are all enslaved to the car industry, as if cars have more rights than people, as if society is built around the needs of cars and not around the needs of people

Some roads near me people need to park on the pavement to make room for a car to get down the road - this happens both side of the road. So as a pedestrian you have to walk on the road, and get shouted at by people driving on the road to get on the pavement. Oh and the cars owners having a moan be a their car gets scratched if you try and squeeze between their overgrown bushes and their car taking up 3/4 of the pavement.
What's really bloody annoying though is that most houses have a drive, sometimes though the drive can't be used because of other cars parked and preventing the swing needed to get in. Then others have 3 or even 4 cars. I guess it's time that anyone who needs a pavement to learn to fly? Cars on the road, cars on the pavement..... Where are you supposed to walk?

So people on wheelchairs and buggies should just accept that their needs come after tour desire to own cars?

Do people with wheelchairs or buggies not own cars then? If they do, do they never need to park them anywhere?

Do people with wheelchairs or buggies not own cars then? If they do, do they never need to park them anywhere?

Yes and they can park them on the road and not a footway. It isn't a human right to be able to drive or to be able to park in the most convenient place for you even when it impacts the safety of others.

Where I live there are a number of people with a private parking space at the rear of their property and guest parking spaces which are empty on the opposite side of the road but they still chose to park on the footway which makes it difficult to get past with a pram. And all so they can save themselves an extra 10 steps.

People are arseholes so the only way to stop it is a blanket ban and/or a change to design guidance to introduce areas of pavement which can be parked on. That way it can be marked out to give room for pedestrians and be designed to accommodate the vehicle loading. If this reduces the number of parking available so be it, people will need to walk from where they can suitably park or not use a car.

If it was illegal everywhere the road I live on would be completely buggered. No drives or off-road parking and at least a dozen blue light vehicles every day. The kids who ride their bikes on the pavement are a bloody menace when they nearly mow you down as you step outside the front door. But somehow we all manage to co-exist relatively peacefully.

I live in a Victorian terraced house - we have no front gardens so open directly onto the street. Our pavements are only just wide enough for a double buggy but our road is not wide enough for two sides of modern cars to park and let another car down the road - never mind a lorry/bin men/ambulance/fire engine. therefore we have no choice but to park on the pavement.

Our council have now removed all subsidies from buses so now we are without ANY public transport to our village so we all pretty much need to own one car per adult in the household.

They also use wheelie bins which are too wide to be moved down our alleyways to our gardens so also have to sit on the pavement - regardless of the fact the council have been told 20 times.

New regulations on safety in cars have led to increased safety but also side impact bags and increased structure leading to wider cars

None of this is the individual living in these houses fault - it is totally out of our control. I am disgusted that the well paid officials in our country have not done something to look at parking in the rows and rows of terraced housing that exist in the last 50 years - because they have had that long. They are just building more and more houses in our area with 1 parking space when most houses have two cars - and this building is on places that were factories and gave us plenty of overspill parking which we no longer have. Now they are suggesting banning pavement parking - just where the hell are we supposed to park. And with no car and just 8 small employers within walking distance just where the hell are the 3000 adults living there supposed to work with no car. And with no GP surgery, no hospital, no dentist etc etc just how the hell are we supposed to live. This is the modern world and we need cars and we need to be able to park them

Sorry but this is the classic case of blaming the individual when it is the system that is at fault - multiple changes in legislation by different departments who do not look at cumulative effect and blame each other and multiple and complex changes in society that our State simply has not bothered to address.

When I bought my house 35 years ago this was not a problem. We had dustbins collected from our gardens by dustmen, we had 15min bus services into our local village centre that had a GP, Bank, Post Office, Hairdresser - all now gone and 1/2 hourly services to the local larger town and city, and multiple large employers - all relocated their manufacturing to China and their premises are now housing. Cars were far smaller and most families only had 1.

Bizarrely it is easier for me to get to London 70 miles away than it is for me to get to post office without a car.

It feels as if we are all enslaved to the car industry, as if cars have more rights than people, as if society is built around the needs of cars and not around the needs of people

Considering the pavement around mine eques width of the actual road when you count boths sides together, I disagree.
For many the car is a need.
If you live in an area with crap public transport, you can't really get around properly without a car.
Parents with children/families with members with certain disabilities need a car too.
Tradesmen need a car in most cases. They won't ferry plastering equipment on a bus...

If anything a car industry gave a freedom to get around or do their job to many who wouldn't be able to otherwise.

But yeah. Some people do go quite crazy with 3 cars for 2 adults.

Yes and they can park them on the road and not a footway.
Of course they should if the road is wide enough. If it isn't where would you suggest they park?

I appreciate that unless there is good public transport one cannot get around properly without a car, but now we have so many cars that no one can get around properly
everyone wants a car, the freedom to go wherever they like whenever they like, but we all hate the traffic jams that result from the fact that everyone wants a car to go over there like whenever they like

we all want to have a car but we hate the fact that everyone else has a car that gets in the way of our car and the things that we want to do

Of course they should if the road is wide enough. If it isn't where would you suggest they park?

At the nearest road which is wide enough and parking is permitted. People don't have a right to be able to park on a public road directly outside their home.

so whilst your parking on the pavement as "its my only option" and blocking it to pedestrians and wheelchair users ......where do they go?

oh in the road. so you think its ok for wheelchair users and people to have to walk in the road with the traffic?

No, I don't think anyone should have to go in the road.

Nor do I think it is logical to demand a blanket ban, especially using wheelchair and buggy users as the reason.

We have footway parking here - the pavements are wide enough to park at least 2 cars abreast. The road is not wide enough for cars to park either side and not block the road. Cars parked with 2 wheels on the pavement and the permitted boxes are painted on the pavement. Leaves load of room on the pavement. A blanket ban would move all cars into the road and in order to not cause an obstruction half of the cars would have no where to park.

How does that make sense? Currently there is plenty of room for pedestrians and cars. Ban the parking and some people might lose the use of a car. Those people are likely to be the elderly or wheelchair users who can't walk a long distance to where they could park.

Law of unintended consequences. The very people you wanted to help end up being the ones most harshly penalised.

A blanket ban should come into effect with a system in place for people to apply for restrictions to be lifted. If a footway is wide enough for a car to park then bays could be painted onto the footway/road. If no suitable parking nearby in the case of some rural areas then the ban could be lifted on one side of the street so pedestrians can use the other side without needing to risk their safety by entering a live road. And there may be other situations where restrictions can be lifted/modified. But pedestrians should have more of a right to safely use the footway than a car to be able to park on the FOOTway causing obstruction for convenience.

People saying it doesn't suit them to have a ban on using the footway do you think we should get rid of all parking restrictions as it is more convenient for you? May as well get rid of double yellow lines at corners, I mean who cares that it will put others safety at risk by reducing the visibility, people need to be able to park close to their homes on public land so nobody else matters.

Why can't you walk people?

Because some people live in rural places that have little or no public transport? Because not everyone can live within walking distance of their job/child's school/the supermarket.

Walking to work for me would take about two days - it's hardly practical, is it? The lack of public transport around here means I'd have to leave the night before to get to work in time, then leave work again four hours later to get home - but I couldn't do that because then I'd miss the bus back to work again!

At the nearest road which is wide enough and parking is permitted. People don't have a right to be able to park on a public road directly outside their home.

And what if that nearest road is several miles away in the next town?

Banning pavement parking is a great idea in principle but if you want it to work you need to provide people with a viable alternative, especially in small rural towns where public transport is unreliable/close to non-existent most of the time, so people need a car to get to work or the shops.

Not everyone lives in suburbia where the buses run every 20 minutes and everywhere is within walking or cycling distance.

Pavement parking causes problems for pedestrians, particularly those who use wheelchairs or mobility scooters, or prams or pushchairs, or are visually impaired. There isn’t room to walk past on the pavement so pedestrians have to step out into the road which is unsafe. It’s also unsafe for car drivers as pedestrians just step out from behind parked vehicles. Users of wheelchairs etc may be unable to just step out into the road to pass a parked car, if there’s no dropped kerb they may have to take ridiculously long detours or even just remain in the road for long distances. It’s too much to expect drivers to just leave a sensible space for a wheelchair to pass on the pavement. They don’t do it now and are unlikely to change. So pavement parking should be illegal for safety reasons. If the inability to park on the pavement means there isn’t room for other vehicles to pass on the road then you shouldn’t be parking there in the first place.

My street is wide enough for cars to not need to park on the pavement, but at times we are forced to anyways due to crappy parking from our across the road neighbours. The don't seem to pull in when parking so their car is almost in the middle of their lane. We have to pull on to the pavement to allow vehicles to pass. But we always do so leaving as much room as possible for the lady next door in a wheelchair to get past, which she does.

Where are those many many many cars realistically supposed to go when they can’t park like that any more

Some housing estates are set up for people to park their cars partly on the pavement.

Otherwise, if you are visiting someone, whether for work or pleasure, either park on their drive or if the road they live on is too busy, park somewhere else. Where I live pavement parking is a scourge and there is almost always an alternative (ie a side road a few yards away where you can park neither inconveniencing drivers nor pedestrians).

Anyway even if it does inconvenience drivers, why is it always pedestrians who are put at risk?

If the inability to park on the pavement means there isn’t room for other vehicles to pass on the road then you shouldn’t be parking there in the first place

And yes to this.

so whilst your parking on the pavement as "its my only option" and blocking it to pedestrians and wheelchair users ......where do they go?

This. Pavements are for people to get around safely and they should have priority. It should be illegal to block the pavement.

There are many towns with areas with narrow streets and no off road parking, are you suggesting that the whole town park in the 5 streets wide enough to accommodate road parking? How will that work?