WIBU to leave my drive empty?

[DotTheCaddy]

A friend is driving down to visit me and street parking is a nightmare on my road, so today when a space freed up outside I moved my car off my drive into it so drive would be free for her to park.

Neighbor who has no drive has gotten ratty about it and called out to me that I shouldn't be parking on the road when I have an empty drive.

WIBU?

Your neighbour is just being difficult.

I'm waiting for the real shit to hit the fan when people start buying their electric cars and putting up chargers on the street so that only they can park there. Which has been floated by the ever-so-green government

The chargers have to be available for public use; its a condition of the planning permission.

Only electric cars will be able to park there, but surely you can see that discouraging ICE cars is overall a benefit to society? (and the planet)

Rule 243^ DO NOT stop or park:^ (blah di blah)^ where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles^

That doesn't mean you can't park across your own dropped kerb.

It means precisely that, it doesn't say in the Highway Code that you can park there if it's outside your own drive. If the kerb 7s dropped then you can't park there and that's that.

@tangycalligrapher

Rule 243^ DO NOT stop or park:^ (blah di blah)^ where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles^

That doesn't mean you can't park across your own dropped kerb.

It means precisely that, it doesn't say in the Highway Code that you can park there if it's outside your own drive. If the kerb 7s dropped then you can't park there and that's that.

I've already accepted I'm wrong. And cancelled the cheque.

Fair play @DGRossetti

Only electric cars will be able to park there, but surely you can see that discouraging ICE cars is overall a benefit to society? (and the planet)

Only when they're all autonomous ...

Same here. I always use my drive and we have a garage so use them both. If I’m expecting a visitor I will leave the drive empty and park on the road. It happens a few times a year. Other people in the road have parties and get togethers and do the same. Do what you need to do, generally everyone else will.

HAHAHA

another neighbour who believe they own the street. If she wants a space, she should buy her own. Otherwise she has to share.

Of course YANBU to leave your drive empty. Anyone with such an entitled and ridiculous attitude tend to attract a legitimate "fuck off" in reply.

A short "yes" or "no" (depending on how she phrases her request) is enough, but come on...The woman needs to get a grip.

Petty neighbour would make a point to leave their drive empty for the next week or month, just for the fun of it.

You could say you were leaving the drive free for the paramedics who maybe required urgently.

Especially if you don't shut yer face.

@tangycalligrapher

Rule 243^ DO NOT stop or park:^ (blah di blah)^ where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles^

That doesn't mean you can't park across your own dropped kerb.

It means precisely that, it doesn't say in the Highway Code that you can park there if it's outside your own drive. If the kerb 7s dropped then you can't park there and that's that.

No, it doesn't because the kerb hasn't been dropped to help wheelchair users, it's been dropped to allow vehicles to cross the pavement.

I find the dropped curb argument very strange as our street is about 50/50 dropped and not (about 200 terraced houses). We all park over our dropped curbs and traffic wardens are up and down all the time, never had a ticket. Our neighbours just paid to have the curb dropped to “reserve a space” outside their house so I don’t know how it then becomes illegal to park over it. Strange how the rules seem to be applied.

I’d have done the same thing as OP! I live in a London borough and we aren’t allowed to park TOUCHING or on the kerb or pavement (dropped or not) unless there is a marked bay. It is okay to park in the road across a dropped kerb unless it is a) “registered” which means not even the homeowner can park there or b) there are double yellow lines like the ones across my drive.

Or kerb, as I should have said. Never quite sure how to spell that one, sorry!

I have to do this half the time as I can't get off the drive because of where the idiot neighbours park. You have as much right to park there as them.

@NikeDeLaSwoosh

I'm waiting for the real shit to hit the fan when people start buying their electric cars and putting up chargers on the street so that only they can park there. Which has been floated by the ever-so-green government

The chargers have to be available for public use; its a condition of the planning permission.

Only electric cars will be able to park there, but surely you can see that discouraging ICE cars is overall a benefit to society? (and the planet)

Well, yes, it's a benefit to the planet, but the main advantage is to well-off people who can afford newer cars. A bit unfair to poor people with older cars, as presumably electric cars can park in any space if they don't need to charge.

I would ignore. We are in the same situation. We have a (very narrow) drive but houses on the opposite side of the street don't. The parking on the street is also residents only for which anyone who wants to park has to purchase a permit. We have a visitors and a residents permit which we have paid for, same as everyone else on the street. We only have one car, many people, who only have space to park one car outside their terraced houses have 3. They seem to think because we have a drive we have waived the right to park on the street, even outside our own house. As I see it, we paid more for our house for the convenience of a drive and if I want to park on the road for my own convenience I will!

@MiriamMargo

Public highway, park were you like, as long as taxed and insured

Absolutely!

I do this when we have a guest and so do my neighbours. If it's an evening/weekend they can park across the drive but during the day they'd risk a ticket.
It's fine.

This is illegal - dropped curbs also provide wheelchair/pushchair access.

Whilst I know it’s illegal to park on a dropped curb, I didn’t pay over £1000 to have my curb dropped to make life easier for people with pushchairs I’m afraid. Wheelchairs are understandable of course.

You aren't doing anything you aren't legally allowed to do but I can see why neighbours would be annoyed. If parking is tight you are basically making someone else's life harder in order to make your (friend's) life easier simply because you already have an advantage.

If your drive wasn't shared I'd say, from a utility perspective assuming we agree that parking on the road is a natural right that doesn't detract from other residents' rights (which I don't actually think is the case, but it's a different argument), you don't have the moral high ground. As, until the neighbour turns up, you have already taken a space with the dropped kerb and you're taking up a space with your car even though the drive is free. Which isn't a fair use of the on road parking resource.

But since you have a shared drive you're removing one parking space from the road with the dropped kerb in order to stop two (or more) cars parking most of the time. Overall you're doing your neighbours a favour and they get more parking availability because of it, so occasionally parking on the road even though the drive is free is not unreasonable payback for that greater provision year-round.

Regardless, from a getting-on-with-neighbours perspective, it's not going to make you popular. But your friend will be happy. Which I suspect is more important to you.

I've already accepted I'm wrong. And cancelled the cheque.

But have you LTB and called 101 ?

@BoomBoomsCousin
If you're going to argue that, then you should also argue that people without a drive should have a limit on the number of vehicles they're allowed.

I'm doing the rest of the street a favour because I have a dropped kerb as typically I only use one space for 2 vehicles (one on the drive, one across the dropped kerb). So I'm using much less of the 'shared resources' than the people who don't have a drive.

And you're also forgetting that many cars parked (where I live anyway) don't belong to residents - I live close to the high street/train station so parking issues aren't caused by the number of people who live here but by people using the road to park on to go to work.

Regardless, from a getting-on-with-neighbours perspective, it's not going to make you popular. But your friend will be happy. Which I suspect is more important to you.

If neighbours are so anxious about a parking space, they are perfectly entitled to purchase one. Not becoming the street police and pestering neighbours who have done nothing wrong.

It makes a lot more sense to leave your drive free for guests and park on the road yourself when you find a space than wasting everybody's time. The number of parked cars is exactly the same anyway.

“Im expecting a delivery so leaving drive clear” and walk off

I'm going to go against the grain and say I think it's rather selfish to stop RESIDENTS being able to park their car because you have guests who you want to park on the drive.