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?

What about NON-RESIDENTS @SleepingStandingUp? Do you go and berate people who park legally on your street when they don't live there?

@Clymene - There's definitely an argument there. It depends (mainly) on whether fair use of the on-street parking spaces should be seen as a per person or a per house resource. I would see it as a per person resource, but I certainly see the issues people have when a family of, say, 5 over 17s comes along with 5 cars several of which are only driven once in a blue moon and no one else can park for days.

@allSantaClaritaDiet - From a legal perspective the OP is perfectly entitled to do as she did and her neighbors are perfectly entitled to apply to make their own front gardens into drives. The neighbours are also perfectly entitled to let her know they don't like what she has done. Nothing illegal about that either, unless it oversteps into harassment or the like. I'm only pointing out that relationships aren't something you can build up by sticking to your "rights" and ignoring everyone's feelings. Personally, I would probably have done what the OP did. I don't really agree with on street parking being the right it generally is in the UK, so I am not inclined to pander to neighbours who want to rely on it everyday. I'd rather everyone had to have off-street parking at home for any car they own and keep streets more open for everyone's benefit.

You did nothing wrong but I can see that it does corrupt first come first served a bit.

Meh, it’s fine. Tell her to do one 😆

YANBU. You can park where you like. I hate it when people who choose to live in a house with no off road parking get their knickers in a twist. Just because you have a drive (which I presume means you pay a premium either in rent or the purchase price) doesn't mean those that haven't get priority for street parking.

Yanbu. If she wants a driveway she can bloody well buy a house with one. I take it’s a public road?

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 don't think being fair to poor people is particularly bothering those in power.

Just because you have a drive (which I presume means you pay a premium either in rent or the purchase price)

That premium, though, doesn't go to anyone else on the street who no longer have the same access to street parking because of it. This is the source of resentment for those without drives. People, effectively, buy preferred access to a shared resource (or, at least, gain their own resource at a cost to a public resource) without any of the money that is generated really compensating those who then lose access to the public resource.

when they start charging people to park on the road, the same price that renting land costs- then things will change.

until then park where you like legally

You pay your road tax same as her she doesn’t own the road

DH's car has been on the road for the last 3 weeks so that our workmen are able to park their van on our drive. His car has a parking permit and he doesn't need to use it otherwise it would cost us a fortune in visitor permits (also limited in quantities that we can buy) and the workmen would need to find somewhere to unload everything

If you pay your road tax then you are more than entitled to park on the public road, drive or not.

@BoomBoomsCousin

It does though, if the house with a drive is on the market for £200k and the one without a drive is £170k, those purchasing the house without the drive are saving £30k. The same with renting, if two houses on the same street are up for rent, one with a drive I would expect this one to have a higher rent. They one without a drive may not be getting the premium but the purchase price/rent will normally be lower to start with.
I personally wouldn't live in a house with no off road parking. Other people seem happy to. Great; just don't get your knickers in a twist if you can't park outside your house.

@mummyh2016 Those purchasing a house without a drive aren't removing a public resource from general use and reserving it for themselves so the lesser cost of their house isn't a discount it's just not paying for an additional feature.

The cost of dropping a kerb outside your house in terms of what you pay to the council doesn't take into consideration the loss of parking utility to all other road users. It only really covers the physical costs of lowering and maintaining the dropped kerb. In areas with scarce parking this creates an uncompensated transfer of wealth from all car owners to the house owner.

As I said in previous posts this framing only works if you see on road parking as a public entitlement. But since the argument is that the OP has as much right to park on the road as everyone else, that is sort of baked in to the question.

Reading this thread through, I’ve actually changed my mind. OP anticipated that there wouldn’t be enough parking space for both her visitor and her neighbour and so chose to reserve her visitor a space in advance, thereby inconveniencing a resident for a visitor. I think that is unreasonable on reflection. It’s not illegal but that doesn’t make it correct.

Residents who chose to pay a smaller amount have to accept they can't have their reserved space. You can't have it both ways!

It's the same things with seats on a plane or a private garden. Either you pay a premium, or you accept you are very likely going to miss out or be inconvenienced.

The neighbour hasn't paid a premium giving her priority parking on her street. It's entitled CF territory to expect special treatment but refusing to pay for that privilege.

@SantaClaritaDiet you can’t be for real I’m not sure the majority of people choose to have less money to spend on their home. Well done for being a considerate human being

Well, yes, it's a benefit to the planet, but the main advantage is to well-off people who can afford newer cars

Not sure if I'm misreading tone here, but is this a joke?

You can't seriously be arguing that the main benefits of taking ICE vehicles off the road are reserved for well-off people?

The brains and lungs of less well-off people are equally susceptible to the effects of pollution.

If anything, the benefits are felt even more by members of this socio-economic group, on the basis that they are more likely to live in polluted inner cities, and experience poorer health outcomes across the board.

If electric cars are encouraged by having some street parking reserved for just electric cars and the rest of street parking available for electric cars and ICE vehicles then the majority of the benefit goes to those who can afford electric cars as they get any environmental benefits that everyone gets as well as the benefit of greater parking opportunities. I'm not sure the argument that poorer people live in city centers holds up anymore - city center property has been becoming increasingly unaffordable over the last 30 years.

[quote Youzam]@SantaClaritaDiet you can’t be for real I’m not sure the majority of people choose to have less money to spend on their home. Well done for being a considerate human being [/quote]
Hold on, how you spend your money is a choice. You chose to live centrally but with less parking, in a certain catchment.. ultimately it's a choice (not a bad one, but still a choice).

Your neighbours are not responsible of your convenience or wrong to behave legally and considerately: blocking a drive is not acceptable. Parking in front of someone's house in a quiet are when the rest of the street is completely free is not necessary.

Normal street parking is absolutely fine. You pay a premium for a drive for its convenience. If it's convenient to leave it free, or to rent it to someone and you have to park in the street, there's nothing wrong with that.

@SantaClaritaDiet You seem to be under the illusion that everyone has free choice over where they live - obviously that isn’t the case. People have complex and different lives that aren’t the same as yours. You have no idea why people live where they do, whether they are constrained by finances, family commitments, work, health or anything else. Yes if you own a drive it’s wonderful and no, if you don’t own a drive you don’t automatically own the road outside your house obviously. We could all just try to be considerate of each other though? For no other reason than making each other’s lives that little bit easier. If you have a drive and your neighbour doesn’t, using that drive is considerate. If you need to park on the road and so does your neighbour then it can’t be helped that someone will end up being inconvenienced, of course. If however, you have a drive but choose not to lake on it and your neighbour is forced to park elsewhere in favour of not inconveniencing a visitor - that is not neighbourly or kind.

Where does it stop and who gets priority though?

My neighbours might not have a drive but 3 or 4 cars - should they park 1 car in our street only , and the rest in an empty street?

Being spiteful is not on, but using your drive as you see fit is exactly why people pay a premium in the first place.

We are all constrained by the same things. It's CF to expect others to leave you free parking when you don't actually pay for the priviledge!

I don’t get why your neighbour even said this though - were they just spying on you or trying to park themselves? Logically they would park on your drive if it’s free, which would thwart your plans.

It's not unlawful to park across your own drive, whatever the delightfully vague and distinctly unreferential Highway Code might suggest ..

S86 of the Traffic Management Act 2004

"(3)The second exception is where the vehicle is parked outside
residential premises by or with the consent (but not consent given for
reward) of the occupier of the premises."

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/18/section/86#section-86-2

This is why traffic lawyers can make money

Note: you can't sell your consent.

Its kinda selfish but it's not illegal.