Parking and Driveways

[zebrazoom]

I parked on the street at the side of my neighbours drive, the nose of my car would have been parallel with the kerb becoming high again.
She asked me to reverse back because it was illegal to park in front of a drop down kerb. I of course did, despite her attitude not being the best.
I am a new driver and I have rarely parked there however must admit when I do I would be focusing on whether or not she could get in and out her drive and not the whole drop down kerb.
Was I BU parking near her drive, even though I was over or blocking her drive in any way?

There is nothing more bloody annoying than someone parked over the edge of your drive. I've lost count of the amount of times I've not been able to get my car out because the nose of someone's car pokes out too far.

Yeah I can appreciate that if it was over the edge of her drive but it's not it's over the edge of the dropped kerb which is way longer than her driveway.

She asked me to reverse back because it was illegal to park in front of a drop down kerb. I of course did

If you were able to reverse back, why did you park there in the first place?

It's not illegal to park in front of a dropped curb. That's purely a convenience for your neighbour. If your car is taxed, you can park anywhere on a public highway (yellow lines etc being the obvious exception). I'm not suggesting of course that you should block your neighbour in but it doesn't sound as if you did that anyway. Sometimes it's the small things hat cause upset so best be sensitive to your neighbours foibles and get along with each other if that's what you want to do.

So her drive on her property was wider than the drop down kerb onto the road?
If so then she was unreasonable.
You car must not go over the councils dropped down kerb irrelevant of how big the opening of her property is. However if you were hanging over the drop kerb at all, yabu.

It's only the flat bit that counts as a dropped kerb not the sloping bit. Our council confirmed that after lots of parking issues in our street.

If you werent stuck out over any part of the dropped part of the kerb then you would be legal to park there (assuming no other parking restriction). So this means not parking over from where the kerb starts to drop.

But...

It is a good idea to allow good clearance to allow the person parked on the drive some space so that they can get better visibility, manoever etc. It's in your interest as well as the other driver's as you are less likely to find your car getting clipped.

No it's not illegal but if they phone the council you will get towed, a parking ticket, tow fee and storage fee. Assuming op is trying to avoid this.

Technically you could get a ticket for parking across a dropped kerb, so I don't see why you'd want to if you could easily reverse a few inches and avoid doing so.

It's her driveway then her gate and fence. The dropped kerb runs along in front of driveway and gate. Tbh I didn't realise I had gone so far forward to be in front of the dropped kerb, I was in no way in front or obstructing her driveway, which is why I thought it was suitable to stop there. And I can't say I was def in front of the dropped kerb because I reversed back and when I got out the car I was was a good bit away from the dropped kerb anyway despite only reversing a little.

I think the rule is that no wheel should be adjacent to the sloping kerbstone. So your bonnet can stick out past the start of the slope but the wheels shouldn't be past the start of the slope else your bonnet starts to encroach on the flat section.

Interesting to read the RAC's view on this and I was wrong to suggest it isn't illegal but it's a grey area in that although it's covered by Uk law, each individual authority has different approaches to enforcing it ... or not in many cases. The police take a relaxed view it seems but I suspect that is more to do with being under-resources and it not being a top priority. Best thing is to leave tour neighbour ample room to get in and out.

I could report my neighbours who do this to the council, who send a lifting lorry within 20 mins & take the offending car direct to the pound for easy revenue, but out of neighbourliness I don't as it costs the owner over £200.

I had some stupid git park their car half over my occupied drive this afternoon. I was able to reverse out around them thanks to my neighbour's drive, but not able to get back on. When she materialised a couple of hours later, she gave a half-hearted apology and told me there was no other available parking on our street at the time. She literally lives around the corner! I told her she was lucky that I hadn't called the council to get her towed, especially has there had been plenty of space when she arrived. She was told not to be so bloody lazy next time and walk!

And no, she wasn't parking there because there was no parking in her street. She was in at the school for something.

@BlueTshirt
What council is this?
(Desperately hoping it s the same as mine!)

That’s interesting as I work for my local council dealing with things like this and we don’t respond to reports of people parking over dropped kerbs except when a car is blocking another car in.

It’s not illegal to park over a dropped kerb so long as you’re not blocking someone in.