If you have a driveway use it !!!

[Wineisrequired]

So where we live parking is awful as most houses have a cars. The one thing that winds me up is the people who have a driveway yet park on the road. Not just little driveways either . So they then take up parking and other people have to battle to find a space . I know there are bigger things going on and parking outside your own house isn’t a given right but I just find this very selfish and annoying . Rant over will now go and refill my wind glass

I do think that, as a general rule, it seems daft and potentially selfish to have a driveway and not use it.

It is. The public road is available for everybody to use, no matter how many (legal) vehicles you have and whether you live on the road or 300 miles away - but if you aren't actually using your drive, I don't see why you should have the right to reserve the equivalent of one (or even two) space(s) on the public road, specifically reserved to allow you access, if you do not require that access. Even if you block your own drive, you're still in the privileged position of having an available parking space on the road that nobody else is allowed to use.

I started a thread about this a while ago - just pondering it philosophically, really, asking (as a drive-owner myself) if it was fair that drive-owners effectively have the right to a guaranteed empty space for their use (albeit just to drive across) when those without drives don't have the same right for their own reserved space.

People are idiots. I bought a house with allocated parking in a private car park - in our road, everyone has allocated spaces, none of which are more than about 10 seconds walk from anyone's front door. 2 houses resolutely park on the narrow road in front of their front doors instead of leaving it clear (because why would you walk 10 seconds from your actual off-road parking space when you could walk 2 seconds and blocking half the road doesn't matter to you?) and when they have guests over, those same two houses allow them to park blocking half the entrance to the private car park instead of in either of their own two EMPTY allocated spaces IN the car park...gives me the rage.

YANBU. On the cul-de-sac we live in, everyone parks on their own drive and it would be utter chaos if even just 2 or 3 people started parking on the road. Luckily our neighbours are all bright enough to understand that.

Oh no Tararararara!

I can understand why you park on the road if it's neighbours causing the access problem to your own drive.

I'm considering converting my driveway and I just know people will park right up to the edge of it - fortunately they can only do this on one side. It will make manoeuvring difficult but probably worth it in the long run (value added to house etc).

@torquewench why do I feel like I used to live on the same road as you 😂

We had a driveway at our old house which was next door to a school. The amount of people who blocked my car in (dropped curb too!) making me late for work was ridiculous, so I parked on the road. It's not always so simple as just parking on your own drive just because you have one.

Lots of people do this in my road. We all have drives for 2 or more cars. The man accross the road has 3 cars, all parked in the cul de sac whilst his drive stands empty...Next door have 5 cars!! 3 of them are parked on the path outside their house and on the corner and 2 on the drive. Any time they have workmen or visitors (which is very often) they park across our drive. Why does anyone need 5 cars!

Our next door neighbours do this too, leave their drive empty and park their 2 cars on the road, one outside their house one outside ours.

Our drive fits 2, but if me or DH park outside on the odd occasion or we have visitors, they will very occasionally park on their drive but usually just a bit further up the street instead. They must be at the window waiting for us to move though, cos as soon as the car outside ours is gone they move theirs back!

It's quite amusing and I know we don't own the road outside the house, but I do sometimes consider parking on the road all the time just to annoy them