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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think pavement parking should be banned

356 replies

HoustonBess · 08/04/2019 19:17

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?

OP posts:
LittleChristmasMouse · 10/04/2019 00:59

Frequency

How do people manage without a car? How do they get shopping, get to work, socialise etc?

Frequency · 10/04/2019 01:04

I have no car. I do online shopping or use local butchers/grocers. I have in the past walked home with my shopping in carrier bags which I carried in my hands. Shocking I know. And there's these nifty little things called shopping trolleys. They're like bags on wheels. You put the things you buy inside them and then pull them home behind you.

I have these things on the ends of my legs called feet. When I want to socialise I move one forward and then the other. This movement forms a motion called walking. I use walking to get to the pub/bus stop/train stations/work etc.

LittleChristmasMouse · 10/04/2019 01:12

Lucky you that you can use those things called feet and are able to carry bags of shopping home from the shops because lots of us can't and a car is our lifeline.

Frequency · 10/04/2019 01:16

The people I work for can't and I am their lifeline. Me and my ability to navigate the pedestrian footpaths safely with them, which I am unable to do without taking massive detours which eats into their time with me and cuts short their social time but I guess they don't matter as long as people can park where they like, right?

LittleChristmasMouse · 10/04/2019 01:30

I've not once said those people don't matter. Plenty are saying people like me don't matter though. People with mobility issues but who have to get to work, the dr, the shops etc. Drivers should park considerately but often councils designate pavements for parking because they have decided that is the best option.

To just say so flippantly " just walk" shows that so many people have no concept of the problems faced by people with mobility problems. Not everyone is in a wheelchair or have carers to get shopping, take them out. Plenty of us manage with some adjustments. One of those is using a car.

Frequency · 10/04/2019 01:45

And if only those with a blue badge were allowed to park on the footpath I doubt anyone would have a problem getting anywhere.

I understand the attraction of a car. I am planning on learning to drive myself. I have no drive. I could turn my front garden into one or park on the road in front of my house. I live on a cul-de-sac. My gate opens out directly onto the road but as my street is almost impossible to walk down or drive down due to the massive amount of cars parked in a finite space I will probably just park in my Uncle's garage around a 15 minute walk away.

LittleChristmasMouse · 10/04/2019 01:55

Not everyone with a disability has a blue badge, do you realise that? The criteria here for a BB is very narrow. I can walk - slowly, with a lot of pain and not far but further than BB criteria. I can't carry anything heavy. I can't walk to the bus stop.

There are lots of "hidden" people with disabilities - not eligible for assistance and having to cope best way they can. But it's so easy for people without issues to blithely say just park further away or use public transport or don't have a car if you can't park in the road, without comprehending what that means to lots of people who rely on a car.

Frequency · 10/04/2019 02:07

So, what's the solution then? Should the few people who have severe difficulty walking but are unable to get a blue badge trump those who physically cannot walk at all and need clear footpaths to navigate their wheelchairs down?

LittleChristmasMouse · 10/04/2019 02:13

It's not a few people, that's my point. People with mobility issues, the elderly, people who have to travel miles to work outside of public transport hours...

The answer is that the councils do what they do now - allow pavement parking where it's the best option, ban it where roads are wider enough. Longer term they need to consider parking in residential areas and stop building housing with inadequate parking.

The solution is not to blanket ban anything and then casually tell people to use public transport or just walk.

Frequency · 10/04/2019 02:17

The answer is that the councils do what they do now - allow pavement parking where it's the best option, ban it where roads are wider enough

But what they do now is not working. People in wheelchairs cannot go places they should be able to go. People with limited or no sight are having to navigate busy roads with their sight dogs placing the dogs, drivers and themselves in danger. People with pushchairs are having to walk their babies into roads.

Something must change and the only way it could change is to severely limit the number of cars parked on the pavements either by a blanket ban with the exception of blue badge holders or by some other means.

LittleChristmasMouse · 10/04/2019 02:55

You would cause daily life to grind to a halt by doing that. Life now is not set up to support no cars. It just isn't. People don't work or go to school near to where they live, local shops have all but disappeared, banks and post offices have closed and moved miles away into bigger towns. You can't just reverse that by banning cars.

Frequency · 10/04/2019 03:10

Oh don't be silly. The vast majority of pavement parkers are able to walk to a safe parking location and within seconds of any proposal being announced people will be renting their drives/parking spaces out on Airbnb and private parking companies will be pouncing on the opportunity to make more money.

adaline · 10/04/2019 05:32

Oh don't be silly. The vast majority of pavement parkers are able to walk to a safe parking location

Out of curiosity, where do you live?

MrPan · 10/04/2019 05:52

Why is pavement parking ever seen as necessary?
If you have a car it isn't a right to park it where you want to. If hour road is too narrow park it elsewhere.

adaline · 10/04/2019 06:24

Because, for the the hundredth time - there isn't always an elsewhere!

Lots of towns have minimal off-road parking and, shock horror, every street is the same! There is no option to park in the next road over if that street is just as narrow as yours is.

MrPan · 10/04/2019 06:29

There is always an elsewhere. Just not one drivers may like.
Owning driving and parking a car isn't a right.

AuntieCJ · 10/04/2019 06:32

I work as a carer. Part of my job is to take people in wheelchairs out for lunch/shopping/fresh air etc. Alone it takes me two minutes to get from the resident's flat to town. With a wheelchair or a person with limited vision it takes me twenty minutes because I have to walk a different way due to two or three side streets that have cars parked on the narrow pavements. That's 40 minutes of someone's one hour call gone before they've even stepped foot inside the café. It's not safe to walk residents down the middle of the road nor am I insured to do so. I have to take reasonable steps to keep them safe. Plus once the wheelchair is off the pavement we need to stay in the road until we find a dropped kerb which isn't until we reach the town. We'd be stuck in the road the entire way.

Anyone who reads this and still thinks it's ok to park on narrow pavements is just a selfish cunt. Plenty on this thread, sadly.

adaline · 10/04/2019 06:49

MrPan - so do you know the layout of every town in the country then? You know all the roads, the parking restrictions, the accessibility to public transport (which has a big impact on the number of cars around), what car parks exist, what houses have access to off-road parking?

There is not always an alternative. I've said before - the closest road with entirely on-street parking that isn't permit or time restricted is four miles away in one direction, and seven miles away in the other.

Do you really think people should walk 4/7 miles down NSL roads with no pavements twice a day just so they're not parked slightly on the pavement? Really? Hmm

JacquesHammer · 10/04/2019 06:51

Anyone who reads this and still thinks it's ok to park on narrow pavements is just a selfish cunt. Plenty on this thread, sadly

The problem isn’t parking on pavements, the issue is parking like a dick. If you can park on a pavement and people using wheelchairs can still get past there isn’t an issue.

I have no axe to grind, I have one drive and one car but a blunt attempt at solving an issue isn’t ever going to be the best way.

ScreamScreamIceCream · 10/04/2019 06:53

@AuntieCJ some councils in London allow and permit pavement parking shown by painted parking spaces on narrow roads where as an able bodied person you struggle to walk down the pavement. These parking bays are on both sides of the road. So calling people names because they block the pavement for the disabled doesn't achieve anything.

All the enforcing of that law will do nationwide is allow councils to put in parking bays and force residents to have parking permits. Those who are less mobile will find they too will have more parking restrictions even if they have a blue badge.

adaline · 10/04/2019 06:53

The problem isn’t parking on pavements, the issue is parking like a dick. If you can park on a pavement and people using wheelchairs can still get past there isn’t an issue.

Exactly. But people just like to blanket ban things because actually applying logic is too difficult sometimes Wink

butterflykiss00 · 10/04/2019 07:05

On a school morning all the pArents park on the sides of the roads , it's impossible to get past them and dangerous.

LordWheresMyShoes · 10/04/2019 07:12

Anyone who reads this and still thinks it's ok to park on narrow pavements is just a selfish cunt. Plenty on this thread, sadly.

Nah, some of us just know that life isn't black and white sometimes. If the residents of the streets near me didn't park on the pavement, cars couldn't pass, let alone an emergency vehicle. Streets planned and built hundreds of years ago addressed different needs to in 2019.

TapasForTwo · 10/04/2019 07:54

Exactly LordWheres. I agree that pavements should be car free, but in today's world it isn't always possible.

Posters who say just park elsewhere have clearly never set foot in any of our northern towns and cities where there are rows and rows of Victorian terraced houses on narrow streets with nowhere else to park for a couple of miles, and without the public transport infrastructure that they clearly enjoy in their home town.

InspectorClouseauMNdivision · 10/04/2019 08:44

@TapasForTwo amen. It sounds like people think that if parts of London have it, everywhere has it.🤷‍♀️