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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:

LittleMissTeacup · 05/05/2021 10:47

This is so frustrating - we have these issues too!
We used to live in an area that gave everyone with no driveway two road permits to park on the road, if you had a one car drive, you got one road permit and if you had a two car or more drive, you didn’t get any.
It actually made parking much better - well done to that council!
There were some people who had multiple car drives who complained, but I think this was the fairest solution.
Visitor permits were allocated separately, everyone got 100 of these per year.

swimlittlefishy · 05/05/2021 11:22

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

Christ on a bike, chill. I'll park as I choose thanks, and you should probably go park outside a psychiatrist, and get an appt soon as.

Ginuwine · 05/05/2021 11:23

@swimlittlefishy

Christ on a bike, chill. I'll park as I choose thanks, and you should probably go park outside a psychiatrist, and get an appt soon as.

@swimlittlefishy

Nice move there using mental health as a form of admonishment. Class.

Ginuwine · 05/05/2021 11:26

@AnUnoriginalUsername

Because they're crap at parking.

I hugely agree. I also genuinely think 90% of the problems are caused by people not using their mirrors, and being terrified of reversing.

I could fill a whole thread with the terrible reversing examples I see on a weekly basis.

There are some people (and I'm ashamed to say mainly women) on the school drop offs in HUGE SUVs, who just flatly will not reverse even if the parked cars are on their side. Ever. It's like a panicked Mexican standoff. These cars only go forwards - into "combat" with a smaller car like mine, into a kerbside space, then out again. They never ever reverse, they don't use their mirrors.

swimlittlefishy · 05/05/2021 11:42

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. hmm

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

Do stop inventing sexism....I have to parallel park for my husband, he's rubbish at it. It's got nothing to do with what genitals you have

swimlittlefishy · 05/05/2021 11:44

Nice move there using mental health as a form of admonishment. Class. hmm

I was literally pointing out that if you're that worked up about hypothetical strangers parking, you do actually need help with your mental health.
No idea why you would have a problem with that, there's no shame in talking about our needs and issues you know. Odd of you to think it was a manufactured insult, in fact. Quite offensive on your part.

Imissthegym · 05/05/2021 11:44

In a lot of cases “not enough room to get in or out” = I don’t like/I am crap at parking but I’m not happy to admit it. Followed by the “it’s a public highway, I can park where I like.”

I have a fairly narrow, single car drive on a busy street. Initially I found it really anxiety inducing to park but I kept trying and am fine with it now. If you find parking difficult then I suggest people practice rather than shy away. It will make you a much more confident and safer driver in the long run.

RaiseTheBeastie · 05/05/2021 11:47

We have a double driveway with technically enough space to park two cars side by side. However we only use one space and park the other car on the curb outside our house.

The reason being is the kids who don't mind the doors.

namechangedandupstaged · 05/05/2021 11:57

I do not understand this either. My neighbours have a 2 car driveway (can fit side by side) and have actually just had it widened, yet continue to park one of their two cars out of the front of our house. It pisses me off as it means any visitors to our house would have to park further up the street and it makes my visibility worse when trying to drive out. I see no reason why they can't park on the drive apart from sheer laziness. It's a quiet street on a modern estate.

Ginuwine · 05/05/2021 14:40

@swimlittlefishy

Nice move there using mental health as a form of admonishment. Class. hmm

Haha seriously? Ok.

Ginuwine · 05/05/2021 14:42

To be clear @swimlittlefishy there is no problem with people talking about mental health - if they choose to.

There is a problem I have with lobbing insults at strangers, and then disguising it as some sort of proactive support for their mental health.

chocolatesaltyballs22 · 05/05/2021 14:45

I sometimes park my car in the road because I'm fed up with having people parking across my drive way and not being able to leave the house when I want to because of it.

Same here

RozHuntleysStump · 05/05/2021 16:33

I'll tell you why... It's because some people park so close to the driveway either side or opposite it, that it's bloody impossible to get out. Sometimes you just don't want to risk it.

frugalkitty · 05/05/2021 17:27

We use our drive but not all the time, DH is often away and we don't face other houses so there's spare room on our road (when it's not being used up by the family with five cars round the corner!). So if we're both out, first one home parks on the road, second one then gets the drive. We live close to a shop so it's often easier to nab space on the road if it's there during the day than have to wiggle into the drive because people who can't park have parked so badly either side, or park on the drive to find someone parks across it.

Ginuwine · 05/05/2021 17:47

@frugalkitty

I seriously can't wait until someone in our Government adopts the Japanese model where you have to have a designated parking space to own a car.

Absolute madness the Pistonheads types who have five cars, no driveway, park them all across the street.

That's a sure fire way to get a CPZ introduced if ever I saw one.

thehorsealreadybolted · 05/05/2021 22:58

I’ve not read the whole thread. My street is a nightmare for parking. If I am expecting a visitor I park my car in the road at a quiet moment so my visitor can park in the drive.

sbhydrogen · 05/05/2021 23:33

Maybe because they don’t want to look at a car from their front room window
This was my first thought. If I bought a house with a driveway that wasn't down the side of the house (i.e. out of view) I'd eventually dig up the driveway and out in a nice garden.

Alsohuman · 06/05/2021 14:45

I seriously can't wait until someone in our Government adopts the Japanese model where you have to have a designated parking space to own a car

I hope you’re not holding your breath. With millions of people living in properties built before the car was invented that model would be political suicide.

Ginuwine · 07/05/2021 13:14

@Alsohuman

I seriously can't wait until someone in our Government adopts the Japanese model where you have to have a designated parking space to own a car

I hope you’re not holding your breath. With millions of people living in properties built before the car was invented that model would be political suicide.

I'm not holding my breath and it would be political suicide.

But without it the CPZ is the only real tool for stopping the tools who decide 5 cars per household in a row of Victorian terraces with no parking restrictions is a good idea.

WombatChocolate · 14/05/2022 11:40

The reason people don’t park on their drives, or don’t park across their own dropped kerb, even when there are residents with no off-road parking and parking spaces are in short supply is basically selfishness.

Of course, the on-road parking is available to all, and even someone with a driveway that can take 6 cars can use the on-road parking g if they like. But, that is selfish if others have far fewer parking options.

People do this because they find elements if inconvenience with their driveway and cars. It could be the space is a bit tight, that they dont like reversing, that swinging in ir out an be a bit tricky. It can be that they don’t park one of their cars in across the dropped curb or driveway, because in the morning, the other driver has to move one car in order for the other to get out.

Im my mind, these are all minor inconveniences that people should suck-up if parking on the road is tight. Essentially, they don’t care that a neighbour without terrace housing might have to walk 10 mins with heavy shopping, because they have taken the on-road parking and left their own private driveway empty. It’s a bit like people parking selfishly in the middle of an on-road space which can take 2 cars, rather than considerately when spaces are always limited.

The thing is, none of the inconsiderate behaviour is illegal and people are entitled to do it on public spaces. You’d hope they would be more considerate when they know space is tight (no problem in areas where it isn’t) but somehow lots of people are selfish like this. Perhaps it’s because they just don’t consider the impact on others, or they don’t care, or their minor inconveniences which they face with a rather tight space or having to move a 2nd car parked across the driveway feels a really big deal and much more important than some people having nowhere to park. People weigh the various inconveniences and usually opt to benefit themselves at the cost to others. That’s the reality.

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