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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Why do people with driveways choose to park on the street? AKA my first parking thread

145 replies

NicFairy · 04/05/2021 13:25

We’ve recently moved house. Old house was a row of terraces. Either side of us had dropped curbs and driveways. They both always parked on the road in front of the dropped curb, leaving us to parallel park into our space in the middle. Par for the course with a terraced street but would frequently have us thinking “If I had a driveway, why wouldn’t I use it?!”

Fast forward to new house with a driveway, yay!! But again, seem to be once more next to people who don’t want to park on their driveways?

We can park one car on our drive. The other half is lawned (will be eventually replacing this so we can park 2 cars). Next door neighbours can park 2 cars side by side on their drive, with no impact on blocking each other in. But do they do this? No.

They park one car on the drive, and one on the street in between our houses where there is space for one car to park. Meanwhile we are left parking one car on the dropped curb in front of the one on the drive, with me and DH swapping the cars around when whichever one of us who has blocked in the other needs to get out.

They also frequently park the second car closer to our dropped curb than to theirs. So today, their back wheel is right up against the end of our dropped curb, with a metre of curb left beyond their front bumper on ‘their’ side of the curb. Days like today make it slightly more ‘fun’ to get our cars in and out of our drive as the space is quite tight.

I know I will probably never bring this up with them. I’ll probably just enjoy obsessively watching how they park their cars every day for the next however long, and assuming that the only possible answer for why they would do this is some sort of assertion on dominance that they assume rightly that we will probably never challenge, it is a space anyone can park in after all, it belongs to neither of us.

But why wouldn’t someone want to park in their drive? Can mumsnet enlighten me, or do my otherwise friendly new neighbours actually hate us?

OP posts:

LakieLady · 04/05/2021 18:05

There's a similarly annoying family in our road, @Charm23.

They had their front garden paved so they could park their cars on it, and they do park their cars on it.

Unfortunately, both cars are longer than their front garden, so they overhang the narrow pavement almost completely and everyone has to walk in the road. There's another house with a big van that overhangs the pavement a few doors up from there, too.

Parking is much more difficult at the other end of the road. Some people park right on the corner, so you have to go right onto the wrong side of the road when you turn in, and it's completely blind.

Biancadelrioisback · 04/05/2021 18:08

[quote littlepattilou]@NicFairy People park on the road/street when they have got a driveway, because they are selfish, entitled, arrogant, self-absorbed arseholes who think the world revolves around them.

Such bullshit to suggest that people don't park on the driveway because they find it difficult to get on and off it. Fucking LEARN then. And if your driveway is narrow, GET IT WIDENED!

We had a narrow driveway when we moved to our little rural cottage, and couldn't fit our medium sized family saloon on it without great difficulty, so we paid someone to take part of the wall down on each side, to widen it by a total of 10" (5" each side.)

Why the hell wouldn't you? To say you don't park on your driveway because it's too narrow is bollox. Widen the driveway. And don't say you can't, because you can.

You get people on these kind of threads saying 'it's a public road, and people are entitled to park there if there are no parking restrictions.' So fucking what, if you are ALLOWED to do it? Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD! If you have a driveway, PARK ON IT.

What if EVERYONE said 'fuck it! I have a 2, 3, 4, car driveway, AND a garage, but I will park on the road, because it's 'easier' to get away when I need to, and heyyyy, everyone else does it?'

As I say, selfish, arrogant, entitled, self-absorbed arseholes, that's what people are who have a driveway, and STILL park on the road![/quote]
I can't afford to pay someone to widen the drive way and I don't fancy taking a sledge hammer to the wall.

Original poster

NicFairy · 04/05/2021 18:31

I can understand parking in front of your own dropped curb to stop people blocking you in, but they don’t do this. They park by the curb between both our houses, leaving their 10m wide driveway free, and anyone could still park in front of their driveway and block them in, so it’s not because of that. Wide road, flat driveway, really easy access for them.

I doubt it’s accessibility issues or driver confidence issues. They drive in and out multiple times a day, if one car leaves the space out front, the other one will go into it straight away. Not sure the one public parking space between our houses has ever been unoccupied since we moved in a month ago. One of their cars is always there. Don’t think I’ve seen both cars away from the house at the same time.

I also don’t understand the insurance thing. If your car gets damaged whilst parked on the road and you’ve said on the form that you park on a drive, how do you explain the damage?

We will definitely widen our drive as soon as we can, waiting until we’ve finished renovating as the driveway is going to get trashed then anyway (also we will need to park on the road whilst renovating and that is when car parking wars is really going to get interesting).

OP posts:

CuntyMcBollocks · 04/05/2021 18:49

It's not a magical solution to just widen your driveway either. Not everyone has the space or money to do that, and some people live in rented houses. Realistically you can't just go making major changes to other people's property.

Neonprint · 04/05/2021 19:01

[quote SpottyOrange]@littlepattilou I'll have a word with my landlord then... [/quote]
I know! Like no one rents

Allthereindeersaregirls · 04/05/2021 22:19

I also don’t understand the insurance thing. If your car gets damaged whilst parked on the road and you’ve said on the form that you park on a drive, how do you explain the damage?

Firstly, it'd have to be mega damage for me to claim on insurance. Secondly, you tell the truth. It's not cheaper for me to say I park on the drive. There's more likely to be damage to your house, a break in etc if your car is on your drive.b

SteppinOutwithMyBaby · 04/05/2021 22:26

Mobility issues. My driveway is much less accessible to the front door that if I park in front of the house on the street.

U2HasTheEdge · 04/05/2021 22:43

My driveway is very narrow and in an awkward position. It's a nightmare to get in and out.

Mostly, it is because I live right next door to a very public building with fuck all parking, and it pisses me off when people park outside mine and block the entrance to my front door. Mind you, I also hate it when they park outside mine and don't block the entrance.

Everyone on the street gets pissed off by it, although I know they have every legal right to park outside mine.

SnackSizeRaisin · 04/05/2021 22:48

Yes, there's a bit on the form you fill in that asks where you park. Do you not insure your car?

Yes I insure my car. What's that got to do with it? I was wondering if people with driveways tell the insurers that they park on them even though they don't (insurance is often quite a lot cheaper if you have off road parking). Or do they pay the extra £100 to park on the road, even though they have a drive?

It's not a judgement - just interested!

SarahAndQuack · 04/05/2021 22:54

@SnackSizeRaisin

Yes, there's a bit on the form you fill in that asks where you park. Do you not insure your car?

It's not a judgement - just interested!

Oh, I just assumed you must not insure your car, or you'd have seen that insurers ask this question. Otherwise, it sounds as if you're suggesting people who park perfectly legally are dishonest, and that would be a really weird thing to suggest. I could only understand someone asking that if they were a bit inclined to be crooked themselves - hence the question whether you maybe aren't familiar with the legal process. HTH.

Teesdale2622 · 04/05/2021 22:55

We have the same, bank of 3 house and we’re in the middle. Other houses both have drives at their unattached sides. They don’t park on those as keep free for the occasional visitor.

What really annoys me is they both then leave a good few feet after the drop kerb to leave the once monthly visitor a nice lot of room to back out.

We are then left without enough room outside our house to squeeze in, but never mind at least the visitor is sorted

LindaEllen · 04/05/2021 22:56

I hate parking on my drive as it's impossible to back on/off most of the time as it's a busy road.

Xmasbaby11 · 04/05/2021 22:56

I park on the road. We have a garage and a drive.

It's a Victorian house so the garage is narrow. Dh scraped his mirrors trying to park in the garage. I've never tried. The drive is on a slope, with narrow posts at the end, and there's a large tree on one side. The drive is covered in birdshit from the tree. It's a funny angle to get on the drive and quite a busy road, so I always park on the road. I do feel embarrassed and wonder what my neighbours think.

WorkplaceLlama · 04/05/2021 23:05

I park on the road. My drive is so narrow I can’t open the passenger door to get DS in and out (and it’s already a push to get in myself as I can only half open my door). There’s no other pathway to the door so no access for deliveries. To get out of the car door I need to drive in and reverse out. It’s really steep, and there’s huge bushes at the edge of the drive (one being the neighbours) so I can’t see if anyone is coming on the pathway when driving out.

And no, I can afford to widen the drive. That would cost £1000s to redesign to raised garden structure I don’t have to prioritise. Sorry if that’s selfish

JaceLancs · 04/05/2021 23:08

I have a long drive that could fit 4-5 cars on - but it then means keep moving cars around
Therefore I park on drive with room behind me for occasional visitors
DS parks on street outside - which means we can both get in and out easily

rosiedeus · 04/05/2021 23:17

I park in front of my drive because otherwise I get blocked in. I'm fed up of knocking on doors trying to get people to move their cars

NamechangeApril21 · 04/05/2021 23:36

My Mum parks on the road because she doesn't want any one else parking outside her house 🤷‍♀️

BeachyPeaches · 05/05/2021 06:33

Our drive is too narrow for any car. I have to park really close to the wall just so you can get the doors open on the driver side. Not great with passengers. I could park centrally, but doors won’t open enough for anyone to get out. It’s really annoying - most other drives where I live seem to have more space, but I have a wall on one side and a fence on the other. Also there’s usually the two kids in car seats in the back so we have both of our cars on the road for ease.

AnUnoriginalUsername · 05/05/2021 06:43

Because they're crap at parking.

Voomster953 · 05/05/2021 06:45

@Herbie0987

We have a neighbour who cannot park her car so leaves it on the road for her husband to put on the drive, trouble is she can’t even park on the road properly, which make it difficult for us to get off our drive. If you can’t park you shouldn’t be driving.

I quite agree with this. And comments from posters, such as the one below, make me so depressed for the cause of women. There’s nothing we can’t do but when women claim to be so frightened of something they have to get their husbands to do it, I despair.

For this reason I am terrified of driving on the driveway and always get my husband to do it.

newnortherner111 · 05/05/2021 07:20

About 25% of people in my opinion are for one reason or another not fit to drive. I expect amongst them are those who never could reverse and manoeuvre properly in the car they have. Made worse by Chelsea tractors- I wonder how many of those are the cars the OP refers to.

Original poster

NicFairy · 05/05/2021 09:24

Update: I have parked our car in THE space.

Funnily enough, for the first time I can remember since we moved in , the space was 'free' this morning. DH had parked our car a few houses down on the curb, and I was worried about being parked outside someone else's house in 'their' extra space for too long, so I moved it back outside ours. Had the choice of moving it in front of the dropped curb blocking our other car in, as usual. Or the choice to park it by the curb where they usually park (which is actually on 'our' side of the house, directly in front of our living room window and in front of the grassed front garden area that we eventually want to pave for extra driveway). Figured if I opt to park in front of our dropped curb instead of the other free space, I'm silently conceding to always let them have that space, so seeing as it's unoccupied today....

Someone is parked in front of my car by the curb directly in front of 'their' side of the curb outside their front window, a tradesman I think doing some work in their house. So currently two cars are parked by the curb outside both our houses (because I've parked right to the edge where our dropped curb starts - when their car is in that space they also park right up to our dropped curb so there is never space for two cars to share that area). They still have about 4m of dropped curb and can easily access their driveway. So if we parked like this every day with their second car where the van currently is, and one car each on our driveway, both houses would have a space for 2 cars.

OP posts:

Original poster

NicFairy · 05/05/2021 09:26

@newnortherner111 Just standard size family cars: 2 x 5 seater SUVs (them), 1 x Vauxhall Zafira, and 1 x small 5 seat hatchback (us)

OP posts:

JokeTheCoalman · 05/05/2021 10:07

Such bullshit to suggest that people don't park on the driveway because they find it difficult to get on and off it. Fucking LEARN then. And if your driveway is narrow, GET IT WIDENED!

Why the hell wouldn't you? To say you don't park on your driveway because it's too narrow is bollox. Widen the driveway. And don't say you can't, because you can.

What if EVERYONE said 'fuck it! I have a 2, 3, 4, car driveway, AND a garage, but I will park on the road, because it's 'easier' to get away when I need to, and heyyyy, everyone else does it?'

As I say, selfish, arrogant, entitled, self-absorbed arseholes, that's what people are who have a driveway, and STILL park on the road![/quote]
You come across as one of those people who rant about selfish, entitled and lazy people whilst expecting everyone to do as you wish. You have a very narrow view of the world, narrower than some of these driveways

MusicMenu · 05/05/2021 10:28

In this house in park on the road if I'm going to need to leave around school time in the morning becuase at 9am I won't reliably be able to get off my drive.

At a previous house with a narrow drive I parked in the road because if someone parked on the road opposite, there wasn't enough room to swing round to get out.

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