I'm not wrong to park here am I?

[figwine]

I have a horrible steep driveway that I never use. Instead I park across its dropped kerb, therefore taking up no more space than if I parked on it. Opposite my house and my neighbour's, which both have drives, there is a row of 4 houses which have no drives, though the end two have garages behind them that are quite tricky to get to so they often park on 'my' side. Usually this is no problem as there's a house next to me on the corner that is side on and has its own drive round the corner, so along its side there is parking for about 4 cars before you get to my dropped kerb.

Nonetheless, sometimes I get home and someone is parked in 'my' space. Don't know who usually as I only know 2 of the cars opposite and 1 never parks in my space and the other does occasionally. So often I'm not sure who it is - may be nothing to do with the 4 houses or just a visitor. Next to my drive is my front garden along which 2 cars can park, so if the dropped kerb space is taken I go there - actually prefer it as slightly nearer my front door! I also park the other side of my dropped kerb, so not in front of my house, if I need to - if all 3 other places have gone. None of that is ever a problem and I'm at my dropped kerb about 80% of the time I'd say.

After those 2 spaces my neighbour's dropped kerb begins. It's a weird one as it's not a traditional vertical drive that goes down towards their house but instead it goes along the front so it's wider than it's long and not very deep. It has to be accessed sideways on. So because the dropped kerb is a lot longer than average, if there's nowhere else I park on the half of it nearest to my house, They have a sign in the window saying 'no parking' but I ignore that as it's not enforceable as far as I'm aware. Anyway, doing that has never caused a problem - though it's only an occasional thing anyway. As an additional complication they are often away and it's not unusual for days or even weeks to go by without me seeing their car at all.

Anyway, yesterday I got back from holiday and there were no spaces apart from one that was further down their dropped kerb than I would normally go. I went there because there was no other room and I didn't even know when they would be back. When I got in my car this morning there was a note asking me to move as 'it's a drive' - there was someone across my drive, which they must have seen, at that very moment, but that's just how it goes sometimes. I was also told they had to carry shopping down the street. Now they had parked in front of my house (a car had moved between me parking and them arriving) so they would have carried the shopping about 30 paces, which I quite often have to do.

WIBU to park there? I would only ever do it if no other option (I'm pretty sure I've done it before but moved before they got back), but should I leave their space empty when there is nowhere else? Surely it's first come first served in this situation?

The op has said she doesn’t use the drive because it’s a pain but isn’t it more of a pain to find a space or annoy the neighbours?

I wasn't 'shocked and shaking' - it was an attempt at humour that obviously didn't come off and then was inappropriate anyway when the thread exploded into everyone telling me what a dick I am. Not to worry.

Will people stop banging on about what a waste of space the OP is?
In the greater scheme of things she hasn’t behaved as badly as some and she has apologised for what she has done. I read all the parking threads and I, too, was under the impression that it is an offence to block someone in their own drive, but not to block them out. So that’s 2 of us who deserve to be excommunicated from MN.
Leave her alone.

Maybe I am missing something but if they were out and you parked in front of their dropped kerb, it's irrelevant if they were out or not, what if they had come back and not been able to get up their drive?

And why buy/rent a house with such a shitty steep drive you can't/don't want to use in the first place?

Yes you are very wrong,

@hercisback thanks for replying - love the name, intentional or not

Yabu for parking across a dropped kerb as are your neighbours for parking over yours.

I would get a quote to landscape the drive to level or lessen the incline just far enough to get the car in. I reckon it might cost £2-3k but I don't really know. So worth it to be able to use your drive

OP, you are legally permitted to patk across the dropped kerb of an EMPTY drive as you are not blocking access to the highway. BUT, just because it's legal does not make it the best etiquette unless its for a quick 5 mins. Blocking cars on a driveway is illegal 😊

You are being a dick here.
Just because allegedly you "can legally park across a dropped kerb in some areas in the UK, doesn't mean that you should*. It's a shit thing to do.
Where I live in Greater London, we can call our local council enforcement if someone is encroaching on our dropped kerb, even by just a few inches, and they will send someone out to give them a ticket.
All councils should do this imo.

To avoid the burning clutch issues (and it sounds like that might be a sign of a clutch on its way out anyway, unless your clutch control generally isn't very good), you could always just put it into neutral and edge very slowly forwards using your brake until you reach the end of your drive - then engage gear and drive off as normal.

It's illegal to coast in neutral, but I don't see how that would matter/apply going very slowly along a few metres of your own private property before joining the public road.

I shouldn’t have worded it that way as I was specifically thinking about my situations rather than dropped kerbs in general and you have no way of knowing the layout of my street! I do understand the reasons why it’s best not to park over them generally, but they don’t apply in my situation, yet people will still say that I shouldn’t park there. That’s what I don’t understand.

Thank you Arthur .

And why buy/rent a house with such a shitty steep drive you can't/don't want to use in the first place?

Sorry, but this is where people just make themselves ridiculous. Have you ever bought a house? Because if so you will know that there are a lot of factors to consider, compromises are often necessary, and not everything about a property is apparent or obvious before purchase.

Even a lame, entitled, selfish, twattish dick like me knows that...

@figwine

So if I get back and there is nowhere else to park I need to leave their whole dropped kerb free (about 2 car lengths) and drive around looking for another space - would be in another street. Despite there being quite a high chance they won't even be back for days?

Yes. How do you know how long they'll be gone? They might be ten minutes.

@figwine

So if I get back and there is nowhere else to park I need to leave their whole dropped kerb free (about 2 car lengths) and drive around looking for another space - would be in another street. Despite there being quite a high chance they won't even be back for days?

Yes. Instead of annoying them by parking over their dropped kerb why don’t you make friends with them and ask if they would mind you parking on their drive occasionally if you can’t park in any of the three spaces on the road you seem to think are “yours”.

@GrandDuchessRomanov

Maybe I am missing something but if they were out and you parked in front of their dropped kerb, it's irrelevant if they were out or not, what if they had come back and not been able to get up their drive?

And why buy/rent a house with such a shitty steep drive you can't/don't want to use in the first place?

Yes you are very wrong,

Because everyone can afford the perfect house, and no-one ever has to compromise to get the best fit for their funds! Honestly, this place is ridiculous sometimes.

Where I live in Greater London, we can call our local council enforcement if someone is encroaching on our dropped kerb, even by just a few inches, and they will send someone out to give them a ticket.
All councils should do this imo.

Where I live is nothing like Greater London, and I'm pretty sure no one in my neighbourhood would support our council doing this until a lot of other, more pressing issues have been sorted. I'm sure in some areas it's a necessity, but in ours it really isn't.

In many London boroughs you can park across your own dropped kerb, your visitors can also park across your dropped kerb with your permission. You won't receive a PCN as in most boroughs, you register your dropped kerb and have a unique reference number. Any reports to the parking dept would have to include the ref number.

White lines across a dropped kerb are advisory only. They are not treated as 'yellow lines' in respect to enforcement.

London has been enforcing this for many yrs and whilst the legislation gives the rest of the UK the powers to enforce, many areas don't bother (therefore allowing people to take the piss).

The Highway code does of course state that you shouldn't block a dropped kerb. However, IME people tend to immediately think that this refers to pram/wheelchair dropped kerbs for pedestrians to use rather than a driveway dropped kerb. Lots of people park across their own ie one car on the driveway, the second car parked across it.

To avoid the burning clutch issues (and it sounds like that might be a sign of a clutch on its way out anyway, unless your clutch control generally isn't very good), you could always just put it into neutral and edge very slowly forwards using your brake until you reach the end of your drive - then engage gear and drive off as normal.

That was two cars ago - I haven't tried it for years- I don't think poor clutch control is one of my many faults. I don't think what you suggest would work as I park downhill and come off uphill. It's like the mother of hill starts, and when you get to the end there's usually cars right up to each end of the entrance, walls on either side, a narrow road to get onto, and now, increasingly, cars parked on the opposite side of the road. A bloody nightmare and it's definitely got worse in the last 2 years or so as there never used to be cars on the opposite side of the road.

@figwine Yes I have Thank you and whether I could park conveniently and safely without blocking my neighbours access to their own properties would be pretty high up on my list.

Your "compromise" is at the inconvenience of everyone else in the street and you say I am the ridiculous one!

if you can’t park in any of the three spaces on the road you seem to think are “yours”.

FFS, I haven't said or implied all 3 spaces are mine .

I, too, was under the impression that it is an offence to block someone in their own drive, but not to block them out.

I personally don't bear OP any ill will in the slightest, but I am replying to the AIBU that, yes, this particular behaviour is unreasonable.

I'm intrigued, though: why wouldn't you know that a drive is intended for the free use of the residents to come and go as they please and the dropped kerb the official facility to enable this - whether it's to drive off or to drive on?

You're right about the offence bit, but surely you don't generally live your life antisocially, only paying heed to what is or isn't technically an offence and ignoring anything else?

You don't legally have to pull over on a motorway to allow traffic to join from the slip road - it's no offence to continue in the left hand land at exactly the same speed and position as a joining vehicle and force them to stop dead and thus unable to join safely at the end of the slip road - but it's extremely basic manners and the accepted 'done' thing to pull over or adjust your speed to help them if you can.

It's not a legal offence to barge people out of the queue in the supermarket and push in at the front, but everybody knows that you just don't do that.

Get an automatic car? Don't have to worry about clutch control then....

@RubyFowler Of course I understand that, but that still doesn't give anyone the right to block access to their neighbours drive.

That is my point.

I don't drive an even I know you don't park on a dropped kerb.

[quote GrandDuchessRomanov]@RubyFowler Of course I understand that, but that still doesn't give anyone the right to block access to their neighbours drive.

That is my point.[/quote]
I agree OP is unreasonable to block the neighbours drive.
But you asked why she even bought the house in the first place which is a ridiculous question.

YABVU to not park on your own bloody drive. Anyone who parks on the road, opposite other peoples driveways, is an inconsiderate A-hole. And they are an arrogant and entitled inconsiderate A-hole if they have a driveway of their own!!!

So what if it's steep. Ours is too, and we park on it, because we don't want to be a bloody nuisance to our neighbours!

You sound quite annoying and entitled @figwine FGS, just LEARN to reverse your car onto your steep drive. Took me a while, maybe 10 or 15 attempts before I could do it without the 'clutch smell' but I did it.

It's beyond ludicrous to not use your driveway when you have one.

Also, you asked am I being unreasonable? And most people have said you ARE, yet you seem to think you're not. What was the point in posting? You clearly believe you're in the right.