To think if you park so far across the pavement that even f**king slenderman would struggle to get past, it’s your own damn fault if your car gets scratched?

[AngeloMysterioso]

Walking into town today with DS in the pram (in the pouring rain). I was walking up a road that is in a residential area, but this particular road is part of a cut-through between two main roads into/out of the town centre and is on a bus route, so it gets a lot of traffic.

It’s a fairly narrow one-way street, on one side are parking bays painted onto the road and dickheads people will often park like dicks across the pavement on the other side if there isn’t a free space and they’re too fucking lazy to park round the corner. The other side of the road is single yellow line so parking is restricted 8-6 Mon-Sat.

Apparently this arsehole bloke didn’t think those restrictions applied to him however, and had parked right the way across the pavement, leaving a tiny gap between the car and a garden wall.

This was close to the end of the road and a lot of cars tend to turn up the road without slowing down at all, so my options were to a) squeeze past the gap between the car and the wall or b) go around the car and into the path of oncoming traffic on a rainy day. It’s uphill too, and between DS, the pram, and my 23 week pregnant baby bump I was already fairly out of puff so wasn’t moving particularly quickly.

So I chose option a. Unfortunately, because it was such a tight squeeze the pram came into contact with the side of the car and left a bit of a graze. I didn’t really give a shit to be honest, so I just carried on walking.

What I didn’t realise was that the arsehole driver of said vehicle was sitting in the driving seat on his phone. When he realised what had happened he got out of his car and came running after me, yelling that I’d damaged his car and demanding I give him my details. I refused, pointing out that he was parked illegally, the pavement is for pedestrians and my and my son’s right to not get hit by cars overrides his right to not have to park somewhere thats a bit inconvenient for him.

He followed me a short distance and then went back to his car, saying he’d be contacting the police.

WIBU?

This gets right on my nerves when people do this. Thankfully it was usually navigatable in a buggy, not thay we should have had to have gone on the road, but so bloody selfish especially towards wheelchair users.

Two wrongs don't make a right. He is a dickhead and you are also a dickhead. But, causing costly damage to someone's car ourweighs his dickheadness. I hope he tracks you down in order to ensure you pay for the damage you have caused.

I'm a wheelchair user and I have totally stopped giving a shit about damaging people's cars if they park on the pavement or across dropped curbs

Meh. If you're going to park like a dick, don't cry about your damaged paintwork 🤷‍♀️

So what if you sound gleeful! Pavement is for pedestrians don't give the idiot a second thought, you shouldn't have to walk on the road when there is a pavement for pedestrian safety!

Parking around here is like that too, drives me mental. It was bad enough with a buggy, but a wheelchair user would be compleltely screwed. It's so utterly selfish.

"off you go then sunshine"

The damage was accidental so nothing out of order about it, if the police ever knock the door over it just deny it, we watched somebody smash the window on the car on my drive and as there was no cctv to prove it there was no prosecution.

Hope you got a photo.

It's illegal to park on a pavement in Scotland.

I live in an area where there is a concentration of care facilities. There are often people around using wheelchairs. I admit I hadn't really thought about the problems they faced until trying to push a pram around the same streets.

It sounds entirely like his fault to me. I read it as the scrape being unavoidable from using the pavement as you should expect to, rather than a deliberate action. He's responsible for the consequences of his own actions.

If I were you I'd be tempted to report him first, for parking illegally.

Any damage to your buggy? He's responsible for that too.

Good for you! I've had to walk in the road too many times because of arsehole drivers like him parked across the pavement!

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

If you damaged his car then he is right to report. You could have gone round even in the rain.

The rain isn't really the point here though it's it? Pedestrians shouldn't be forced to walk in the road because of someone's poor (possibly illegal) parking. If you park your car inappropriately then it is more likely to get damaged.

@sirfredfredgeorge

admit to the police he parked illegally and risk getting a fine

It's probably not illegal though.

Parking on a pavement is only actually illegal in London at the moment, but that is going to be extended to the rest of the country (which could be interesting on some of the roads round here where car-parking bays are clearly marked by the council on the pavements of the A-road leading into town, but I expect those will be exceptions). And according to the OP, parking on the side where the plonker was parked is restricted 8-6 Mon-Sat, which means if this was during the day on any day except a Sunday he was liable to penalty.

The latter is why OP can state with confidence that the car was parked illegally, and why anyone on here saying that it was is correct.

@Obbydoo

Two wrongs don't make a right. He is a dickhead and you are also a dickhead. But, causing costly damage to someone's car ourweighs his dickheadness. I hope he tracks you down in order to ensure you pay for the damage you have caused.

Change "causing costly damage" to "using public footpaths properly to protect the safety of yourself and your toddler"

I had similar happen to me a while ago Op. a delivery driver parked fully on the pavement 'because it's illegal to block the road and he would only be a few minutes, I could just walk round'. I was about to argue when a police car pulled up and gave the twat a ticket.

Just to check, the parking bays aren’t on the pavement? I’ve often seen parking bays that are half on road half on pavement (ie there’s an actual box painted on in that way).

If there wasn’t a bay and he just illegally parked, then YANBU!

Do what some people do round here next time, they walk over the car.

If you block a pavement you can’t be upset about damage, if a pushchair is a squeeze then the driver is choosing to completely block the way of wheelchair user, only a complete twat would do that, so, no sympathy at all.

Yeah, YANBU automatically because of the fab OP title!

It’s unfortunate if you damaged his car, but given his crap parking and the very low chances of the police or his car insurer giving a shit if he reported, YWNBU to refuse to give him your details!

This drives me crazy. A guide dog user is basically stuffed in these situations. My grans council has an app where you can take a pic and tag it on a map for various things. I go to town reporting cars parked on the pavement.

@Obbydoo

Two wrongs don't make a right. He is a dickhead and you are also a dickhead. But, causing costly damage to someone's car ourweighs his dickheadness. I hope he tracks you down in order to ensure you pay for the damage you have caused.

And depending how he goes about it he could end up with other charges against him as well as a fine for the initial parking.

If I, a pedestrian, left my bags of shopping in the middle of the road while nipping into a café to collect a take-away drink, I would absolutely expect to come out to find my groceries crushed, and would be utterly astonished if the drivers on that road had chosen to take a different route to avoid damaging my property.

A kind motorist might stop and move the bags onto the pavement, just a kind pedestrian might walk to the next safe crossing point to avoid risking damage to a car on the pavement. But it's pretty unreasonable to expect them to do that.

I once parked badly, half over the pavement near my DC’s new nursery. In a rush. A woman passing shouted at me. Said she had a disabled DC with a degenerative, life limiting health condition, in a wheelchair (her DC was not with her at the time) and had to deal with shit parking from parents of DC at the nursery. .

Turned out that lots of local residents were understandably v pissed off with driving behaviours of nursery families. The nursery regularly issued requests, pleas, reminders etc to parents about parking. To little avail.

There are so many of these dickheads on our estate, usually parked outside a house with a huge driveway that has more than enough room to park on!

I have twice noticed the driver sitting in the driving seat, so gone round to the roadside (his window), knocked on it and ask him if he is aware he is blocking the pavement.
Both times, they have had the sense to apologise and move their cars.

I'd rather scrape their cars than endanger mine and my child's life walking on the road!

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss

If you damaged his car then he is right to report. You could have gone round even in the rain.

I disagree. People should not park on pavements and force pedestrians into what are often busy roads. I usually give the wing mirror a whack as I go past and if it sets off the car alarm, great. I wouldn't deliberately scratch a car but if you have a buggy or wheelchair they deserve all they get.

Pavement parking is NOT ok. And the police will tell him to jog on.

Love the thread title!.its so descriptive

I refused, pointing out that he was parked illegally, the pavement is for pedestrians and my and my son’s right to not get hit by cars overrides his right to not have to park somewhere thats a bit inconvenient for him

Perfect response by the way OP!