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?

@BungleandGeorge
*
Probably wouldn’t have seemed such a good idea had the driver got out and given her a thump either.*

Oh okay, I must have completely misunderstood the meaning of this then.

You can do some google legal work on criminal and civil law but do you really, truly believe the police or a judge would side with this guy? Honestly?

Also, for everyone saying pavement parking is legal in most places. It is not permitted to fully obstruct the pavement even if pavement parking is legal.

Well the OP didn’t care about damaging his property. She could of crossed the road but instead she picked to scratch his car and didn’t give a toss.

What goes around comes around.
It does come around: Park across a pavement so that people with prams and wheelchairs struggle to pass = there's a risk your precious car might get caught.

The lives and safety of humans comes before a chunk of metal that's been dumped across a pavement.

She could of crossed the road but instead she picked to scratch his car and didn’t give a toss.
What goes around comes around.

He could have parked safely but instead, he decided to block the pavement and didn't give a toss.
I think what goes around did come around for him.

[quote FindYourPorpoise]@BungleandGeorge
*
Probably wouldn’t have seemed such a good idea had the driver got out and given her a thump either.*

Oh okay, I must have completely misunderstood the meaning of this then.

You can do some google legal work on criminal and civil law but do you really, truly believe the police or a judge would side with this guy? Honestly?

Also, for everyone saying pavement parking is legal in most places. It is not permitted to fully obstruct the pavement even if pavement parking is legal. [/quote]
It is not legal to park during the day where there is a clear sign saying that parking on that particular single yellow line is not permitted between the hours of 8am and 6pm, which the Op clearly states that this was. Regardless of pavement or no pavement, parking on that single yellow line is illegal at that time. Two wheels on the pavement, two on the road, the car is on the yellow line and the driver is going to get a fine if a traffic warden or police officer feels like issuing the fixed penalty notice. (Unless he had a blue badge and that particular yellow line was one of the ones where those have exemption.)

Oh dear, what a shame. Maybe he should take it as a learning experience: if he really feels that his paintwork is so very precious that it's more important than the safety of passing pedestrians, don't park so that people have to squeeze past it.

Oh, another twat!

@VenusSap

Are you the driver?

Sorry Golden. That wasn't aimed at you, but someone further up the thread.

@HalfwomanHalfcookie

Sorry Golden. That wasn't aimed at you, but someone further up the thread.

Just cross the road instead of being a mouthy chav and damaging peoples cars. It’s not hard
Bless you. Mouthy chavs

Taking your post charitably on the difficulties of various tasks.
It was quite clearly hard to pass the car that had been dumped on a pavement where parking wasn't allowed anyway.
It's not hard to park legally.

Are you the driver?

I’ve already explained more than once why crossing the road would not have been safe.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

It’s totally irrelevant whether he was parked illegally. Is she unreasonable to be upset or to report him so he can get a ticket-absolutely not. However that doesn’t negate the possible consequences of what she did. As she’s able bodied, there’s a clear pavement on the other side the only 2 options were not either scratch the car or walk in the road. If would be pretty unlikely that the gap was big enough for her to fit through but that she couldn’t possibly avoid the car with more care anyway. If it was someone in a wheelchair then you could probably argue that crossing the road would not be possible.

Anyone who's paid attention will know why you understandably used the pavement. It's a shame some others are probably pavement blockers themselves.

@VenusSap
If anyone sounds like a mouthy chav around here.....

Just cross the road instead of being a mouthy chav and damaging peoples cars. It’s not hard.

Ha!
Just park like a civilised human being and your car won't get scratched. It's not hard.

It is, however, extremely hard to cross the road if you are a wheelchair user and there are limited dropped kerbs.

@BungleandGeorge

Yes she could have crossed the road, by putting herself and her 2 children at risk. She was a responsible mother and decided not to do that.

@AngeloMysterioso

Yes, and if a car had come around the corner and slammed straight into DS and me, the damage to us would have been far worse.

Could you have crossed the road to the other pavement so as to pass safely?

Sorry, ignore me, I should have RTFT.

tbh, I wouldn't even have crossed the road if it hadn't been bad weather and a dangerous corner. You shouldn't have to zig-zag back and forth across the road as a pedestrian to dodge the cars of people who think the pavement is their own private car storage space.

But I think a lot of people do park on the pavement, and get defensive and prickly on discussions like this because they know damn well they've left gaps too narrow for a pushchair to get through themselves.

I wonder if they'd feel the same if you stored something of yours on their drive, or right outside their front door? "How dare you squeeze past it, you risk damaging the paintwork! Go round and use the back door instead."

Yanbu. A scratch on his precious car is nothing compared to what could've happened if you'd gone into the road. The guy is an arsehole and it served him right.

I would've done the exact same thing as you!
What a prick!

To be clear, it’s not like I gouged the Grand Canyon into the side of the bloody thing. It’s true I didn’t stop to inspect, but I very much doubt if any mark I left couldn’t have been dealt with with a bit of t-cut and some elbow grease.

[quote JesusIsAnyNameFree]@BungleandGeorge

Yes she could have crossed the road, by putting herself and her 2 children at risk. She was a responsible mother and decided not to do that.[/quote]
Just cross further back, it’s a narrow road. I doubt anything would be flying round the corner with cars parked on both sides, it doesn’t look as if traffic would be able to get past at all in that scenario.

The only child is in a pram, not independently crossing the road.