Neighbours parking on pavements and overgrown hedges (photo)

[applesauce1]

I walk into town every day with my baby in his pushchair. Every day, I am met with this obstacle. One neighbour has this tree growing so low and wide that it would hit my baby in the face while in his pushchair, so I can't duck under. Possibly the same neighbour or their NDN has the white car, who always parks on the pavement. In the photo, they've left a generous amount of path compared to usual. Most of the time the car is much further onto the pavement than it is on the road.

The house over the road often has vans in who, without fail, park on the pavement. Usually, my best route is to either go around the van on the neighbours garden, or walk in the road.

I have a feeling people do this because it is a bus route. If people park legally, the bus driver just leans on their horn until someone comes and moves the car onto the pavement.

So my AIBU is, who should I be annoyed with? What would you do? Should I be annoyed at all? I can usually get a quite chance to push my baby in the road, but people drive very fast and often on the wrong side of the road (due to parked cars) on this estate, so I always feel vulnerable doing that.

Don't blame the council! It's the developers who build flats.

it still the council who shouldn't grant planning permission without adequate parking
(and adequate school, GP surgery and hospital places for the matter)

@Sashkin I have an 80m round trip everyday and there is no public transport that goes near my work. Shall I cycle too?

amazing advice for any wheelchair user.

She's not a wheelchair user asking for advice is she.

I would be happy with 1 car per household. But that will never happen as it affects well of people.

if you needed your car to work, and your husband needed his van to make a living, you wouldn't be too happy either. It's not about well off people.

Rubbinghimsweetly2

so it's ok to prevent wheelchair user from going through then?
Or would it be reasonable to ensure they can use the pavement, and that would solve the problems for buggies, which yes, can much more easily be pushed in and out of the road.

My first husband would have squeezed his manual or electric wheelchair through there and not given a shit about any scratches. Nobody should have to go on the road for a blocked pavement.

@Sashkin Of course I don't live 9 miles from the nearest parking space. I live about 25-30 mins walk from roads where people do not have to park partially on pavements or there are no double yellow lines.
No I am not cycling the roads to work, far too dangerous. I would as I have said need to move. If this looks seriously like becoming law then we need to find somewhere else to live.
Where I live the council has already brought in lots of parking restrictions on all the main roads so you can only park in the side roads which are narrow.

Car owning and driving ISN'T a right to impose on others. It's a capacity that depends on you acting lawfully and reasonably.
Many drivers don't understand this.

@Eliza9919 apparently yes.

80m round trip? That's about 100 yards. Do you work at the end of your road?

@lunar1 He could try, but there are very thick branches that would absolutely prevent him from getting through that hedge. I've tried pushing it back. He'd suffer scratches AND decapitation! (Probably an overly dramatic analysis)

@Rubbinghimsweetly2 You're right. I'm not a wheelchair user. I'm also not the only person to travel by foot down my road and wheelchair users should be able to pass too. The car and hedge are nuisances for me, but a much bigger problem for a disabled person. There is definitely a wheelchair user on our street, come to think of it.

I Wish I did @MrPan

@Sashkin I have an 80m round trip everyday and there is no public transport that goes near my work. Shall I cycle too? hmm

What I did when I had a 60 mile each way commute (Sussex to Hertfordshire), was cycle to the station, then train, then cycle the last two miles. I did own a car at the time but public transport worked out a lot quicker than driving across central London in rush hour.

But my original suggestion to the PP was to park a few streets away where she didn't need to park blocking the pavement, then drive as close to her place of work as she could get without parking blocking the pavement, and walk the last little bit. I made the suggestions about cycling when she said she lived far too far away from a road wide enough to park on for her to do that.

That same PP is now saying that if she can't park blocking the pavement she will have to move house. That seems like an excellent solution for her if she needs to park directly outside her house for whatever reason (as many people do). My current road has double yellow lines on it, if I needed to park directly outside due to mobility issues I wouldn't have bought it. I doubt her roads have narrowed or drive evaporated since she moved in. Parking blocking the pavement because you don't want to walk around the corner is not okay.

I would say the same to you - park as close to your house as you can without blocking the pavement. If that is indeed 40 miles away, sucks to be you.

Technically if a car is obstructing a pavement so that a wheelchair user or pushchair cannot get past and has to step into the road, that is a police matter. It is obviously not going to be high on their priorities, but if you have the means of getting in touch with your local police officers or PCSOs , try that.

Another option is talking to the local councillor for your highways authority - go to your county council website to see who represents your area. It will have their contact details on it.

I've uploaded a couple of posters which you may find helpful to share in local facebook groups or in local noticeboards. One was from a guide dogs campaign, can't remember where the other one came from.

Here's the guide dogs poster.

Most people who pavement park aren't necessarily aware that it's causing other people a problem. So sometimes gentle nudges can help them to think when they park and leave as much space for vulnerable pedestrians as possible.

How do you think that would work then - if people don't have a driveway or a car park, where are they supposed to park?

In the road, of course. There aren't many roads that are too narrow for a car/van to pass a parked car, even in my historic town which has very narrow streets.

So presumably this means a bus can not get down the road unless drivers park in the pavement? So of course they need to park on the pavement.
No. Of course they need to park somewhere else.

Not RTFT, but at the risk of stating the bleeding obvious (for which I make no apologies), it's situations like this where the difference between wheelchairs and pushchairs is critical.

A pushchair can be (carefully) bumped down the kerb, into the road, up the kerb and carry on along the pavement.

A self-propelled wheelchair is unlikely to be able to bump down the kerb (certainly DW couldn't do it). Which means a reverse back to the nearest free dropped kerb (yeah, good luck with that) a wheel along the road and past the obstruction, and then a search for another free dropped kerb to get back onto the pavement.

One day, I will mount a bazooka on DWs wheelchair, but until that day, she will have to enjoy the lottery of "will I be able to get to the shops or not ?".

I'm not saying pushchair users have it easy. But that it can be much harder for wheechairs.

OP you say if people do not park on the pavement bus drivers blare the horn until drivers move their car. So presumably this means a bus can not get down the road unless drivers park in the pavement? So of course they need to park on the pavement

That is not the conclusion I would come to.

The answer is park elsewhere and the council should re-design the road with parking bays and yellow lines to ensure the bus can get through. "I can't park on the road therefore I have to block the pavement" is the logic of an arse.

@purplepoops Nice idea in theory but if you're not in a town or city with good public transport then it's entirely impractical for a lot of people not to have a car.

People often need cars to get to work or to school. Not everyone can afford a house with a driveway or offroad parking.

Yes of course people should be considerate of pedestrians, but it's a compromise situation all round for residential roads which are not set up for parking.

I'm not saying pushchair users have it easy. But that it can be much harder for wheechairs.

I don't think anyone can disagree, but many people only realise the scale of the problem when they experience a smaller part of the problem with their pushchairs.

I agree you should contact the council about the hedge, but that would probably just mean the car would park even more onto the pavement.

Personally, I've taken to putting their wing mirrors in. Shame that many already do it automatically.

Or leave the house with prepared notes thanking them for forcing you to take the risk of walking with the buggy on the road.

If it's a big problem in your area, and not just the odd car, and little traffic, then the council could install bollards.

Yes, of course, people should be considerate of pedestrians, but it's a compromise situation all round for residential roads which are not set up for parking.

Blocking the pavement is not a compromise though. I don't think anyone minds pavement parking, where is genuinely enough room left for all users to get by. However if by parking, it prevents others from using the pavement, that is not ok.

The compromise is allowing cars to use some of the space if there is enough to share. If there is not, then cars cannot use the pavement, full stop.

People often need cars to get to work or to school. Not everyone can afford a house with a driveway or offroad parking

Then people need to consider this when they are buying the house, not just think "oh well, I will just park blocking the pavement, fuck those disabled people".

Nobody would buy a house on double yellow lines and think "I'll just park on the double yellow lines every day, because I can't be expected to park around the corner". Why is parking blocking the pavement any different? Read DGRossetti's comment, how is it ok for people to do that to her daughter because they are too lazy to walk to a road wide enough to park on?