To ask people to move their cars if its on the pavement and you cannot get past?

[ShonC]

Hi all,

I am not sure why this bothers me so much but I guess it's the sheer ignorance of some people or perhaps they really don't care.

My dad is reliant on a wheelchair or mobility scooter. He is allowed to use his scooter on the pavement as it's below 12MPH. There has been times where he has been out and he has had to ride in the road because he cannot use the pavement as cars are parked there and I couldn't even get through. I worry for him as people drive very dangerously and often use mobile phones so I don't like him going in the road and neither does he, nor should he have to.

My partner says that I am going to get smacked by someone one day as there have been times where I've knocked on people's doors asking if that is their vehicle blocking the pavement and explain my reasoning, they are usually very understanding/ embarrassed and move it immediately. I think sometimes people just don't think.

AIBU? There are some disabled people who wouldn't have the confidence to ask that someone moves their vehicle for them.. I feel like I do this to help. I am never rude or confrontational either, hence why I think people are reciprocative.

I just think it's unfair that people park like this when it's so difficult for disabled people using wheelchairs or scooters to find a dropped kerb and takes longer for their journey. Similarly unfair for those with young children or prams..

I know that roads and pavements aren't built for purpose but I think people need to be more accommodating for the needs of others. I also don't spend my days knocking on doors in case anyone thinks I do, just if there are serial offenders or I cannot get past myself.

Here is a recent image of someone who I asked to move and they did, but he does this all the time

I have a condition that affects my spacial awareness, every couple of weeks I can't get the pram passed a van so I have to walk to find an appropriate places to cross to the other side of the road rather than stepping into it which is a bit dangerous for me to the point I can't drive at all. I imagine it is much harder for someone with mobility issues.

This annoys the hell out of me too. For the same reason, my son has to wheel into the road to get home on one particular road. So I squeeze through the gap when I’m walking my dog. I’m so bad I sometimes fantasise dragging my key along it!

Completely unrelated, but I read the thread title as can people move their cats off the pavement and I was like ehh? Just pick it up yourself

But, yeah, people should move their cars off the pavement if you can get past. Got loads of nobbers on this street that do the same. Does me tits in!

There is no way anyone could live without a car outside of London.
I don't live in London. I don't even live in a city. Despite getting rid of my car, I still manage to hold a full time job (working shifts) and manage to do my own shopping without relying on lifts or delivery.

Is it fair on disabled people, not really but what can be done?
I can think of a very simple solution. It involves a bucket of yellow paint for daubing double lines along roads where it is not safe to use that side for parking and a team of traffic wardens to enforce them.

Failing that, I'm quite enamoured with the suggestions for those of us not-disabled to continuing walking in the same direction, whether that means footprints on the roof or coat buttons on the paintwork.

There is no way anyone could live without a car outside of London.

I live waaay outside London. I don't have a car.
Must be dead and not realised.
🤷

Ha! I’ll rephrase that...

Outside of London, especially in more rural areas, it would be very difficult to live without a car and rely solely on public transport. Especially if you have a job which is not nearby, that includes different hours, some unsociable and there is only one bus per day!

Is that better?!

@Lollipop888

Ha! I’ll rephrase that...

Outside of London, especially in more rural areas, it would be very difficult to live without a car and rely solely on public transport. Especially if you have a job which is not nearby, that includes different hours, some unsociable and there is only one bus per day!

Is that better?!

It isn’t, honestly. Some areas would be very difficult to live in without a car but plenty are fine. (Obviously places with one bus per day and no other transport would not be!)

I’m genuinely interested in how you do It? I just can’t imagine it!

Taking work completely out of the equation, we walk to and from school and walk to local small shops.

But popping to supermarket and other town shops would be impossible, or take all day on the bus. Then there’s kids clubs and activities, football fixtures (away) for dcs at weekends etc. Dog walking in different areas for variety, not to mention visiting older family who live further away. It would cost me a fortune in bus/train/taxi and I don’t think we’d be able to do half of that!!

It is possible, but requires a bit more planning. We survived for a long time without a car, and only got one for our hobby that requires transporting large tents.

Cars definitely aren't a necessity and we use ours once a week just for food shopping. We walk for everything else, even with our dog. If we want to do a river walk or visit a different park, we walk rather than driving.

I think it's unimaginable if you are used to getting in a car for most trips.

@user1471462428

Do they not get tipped over? I live in a fairly rough area and if you park with two wheels on the pavement you get tipped. Slightly rough justice but makes my day when I see it.

That’s amazing!

I’m genuinely interested in how you do It? I just can’t imagine it!

Where I live now isn’t a big town so everything in it I need to get to regularly - shops, school/nursery, kids’ activities, doctor, dentist, parks etc - is walking distance. Good transport links to the nearest city on bus or train for anything else. It’s fine, it’s just something you factor in when you’re choosing somewhere to live if you don’t drive.

I think the more you walk the more appreciation you get of just how sodding annoying it is when people do things like blocking the pavement. But it’s certainly not just something that applies to non/drivers - everyone’s a pedestrian once they’re out of their car of course.

I’m genuinely interested in how you do It? I just can’t imagine it!

I live semi rurally I suppose you could say, technically within the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, in a village.
However there's a decent bus service to local towns through here, in fact it's actually improved recently with regards to frequency and reliability. The town I work in has a rail link, half an hour to a major station that has trains north and south regularly throughout the day. I can be at the nearest airport in 90 mins, major one in 2 hours.
I don't live here by accident, I chose a few places that would fit my needs and wants, finances etc and not driving was just one of those.
It's not the only place that I could live and have the same access, but I've taken a bit longer traveling time because I like it here. By a bit longer I mean 10 minutes on my journey to work. I could go further out and still have the same access but another 10 -40 mins travel if I chose too. But I like it here.

Worked in hospitality and now care, both shift work. Anything that isn't covered by public transport is plan able for booking taxi's (like Christmas day, boxing day and new year day) - no it's not like London where you can hail a cab in the street, but we have about 10 local companies, and probably half work 24/7.

I shop usually after work in the town, few days a week, I'm there anyway. Top up from local shop or get a delivery.
I don't really have time for much socialising, because of other things, but I do (well did!) Go out, days out, weekends away etc when I could.
I supported two family members through isolation with dog walking and shopping.
I walk a lot if time allows.

Like anyone else I plan my life around my needs and wants, I just do it without a car.

Although that said sometimes I think people who are very used to driving everywhere don’t realise that some of us are using the pavements to get from A to B and not just out for a wander.

There was a big discussion on my local FB group a few years ago about whether a particular road junction needed a pedestrian crossing, and some people were baffled by why it would because “you can just walk up to X and cross there!” Yes except X is half a mile up the road and then half a mile back again on the other side, and I don’t want to take an extra 20 minutes to get to work!

We also have an issue with people whose cars are longer than their drives, so the front of the car encroaches a couple of feet onto the pavement

That annoys me too, and a lot of the time it’s not because the cars are too long, they just haven’t driven fully onto the drive.

We have a drive but a couple of years ago we decided to extend it as both of our sons were having driving lessons and we knew that therefore there’d be two more cars and didn’t want to add to the number of cars already parked on the road in our cul de sac.

We applied to the council to have our dropped kerb extended by one kerb stone and they refused because our plans showed that we’d be parking parallel to the road on the proposed extended drive and that’s apparently not allowed but parking the permitted way at a right angle to the road (using the car measurement which they work by) would mean that a car would encroach onto the footpath by mere centimetres so they couldn’t allow it.
We still went ahead with getting the drive extended, we just have to access it from the original drop and we park parallel to the road which was always the intention.

We have people parking fully, all four wheels, on the pavements on our street and totally blocking them yet nothing is done.

Where I live there are idiots that park time this everywhere. So bloody damn selfish and inconsiderate!!! Its bad enough with all the busy roads and uneven pavements and this just tips me over the edge. Makes the school run a dangerous obstacle course having to walk with pram in the road and getting the middle finger from drivers in the process 🙄. I feel so sorry for the disabled having this to deal with on top of everything else. Makes me so mad!!!