To think that there are too many parked cars on the roads these days?

[JammyRedRooo]

Its absolutely ridiculous in my area. Whole swathes of road are basically one lane only due to the amount of parked cars. It makes visibility when driving really difficult.

Half of the houses have empty drives as well!

You can't turn into my cul de sac on the correct side of the road because of the row of parked cars all the way up to the junction, it's just so dangerous.

I know you pay a premium for a house with parking, or households often have more cars than spaces but I find it so infuriating and unsafe.

Anyone else?

What do you propose?

You are absolutely right. There are too many cars. I presume you're starting by getting rid of yours?

I hate it too - around us it's parking half on the pavement, which is even worse. But I don't see a solution other than a wholesale shift away from private car ownership and this is not an idea that enjoys much popular support...

We have fly parking here. It’s great fun. Mostly camper vans.

@nocoolnamesleft

You are absolutely right. There are too many cars. I presume you're starting by getting rid of yours?

We actually have gone from two cars to one and we also put in a new driveway so that we don't have to park on the road. Obviously this hasn't made much of a dent in the overall problem, though!

~Other people owning cars makes it difficult when I drive mine~

@nocoolnamesleft

You are absolutely right. There are too many cars. I presume you're starting by getting rid of yours?

Mine isnt on the road it's on my drive!

Yanbu especially in the instances where people actually have driveways but still park on the road, I just don't understand it. On the other hand there are so many properties being built now without parking so people have to park somewhere and will end up in nearby roads.

I agree it's so annoying.

@luxxlisbon

~Other people owning cars makes it difficult when I drive mine~

Quite.

I hear you. Me and my DH both drive however we share 1 car yet our neighbours around us have multiple cars each with one of the houses having 4 cars yet only 1 driver in the house. It's ridiculous especially when they all want to park their cars where they can see them.

Yes there are. Considering how many hours a day they're used (1 on average) and how many occupants they carry on average, and the relatively short distance of the average journey, cars are hugely space inefficient.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56748346

Something's going to have to give sooner or later. In an ideal world I'd like to see a system similar to those in some Japanese cities where you have to prove you have somewhere to park your car before you can buy one.

My elderly mother has off-road parking but the road outside her house is always filled with a neighbour’s ‘extra’ cars which he ‘looks after’ for his friends when they’re away. They are invariably huge and inconsiderately parked and make it hard for her to get onto the road. On-road parking should be limited to a certain number of household cars only.

I think the issue is that when lots of houses were built, there were no where near as many cars on the road. Nor was it considered.

But I agree.

I don't drive, and for me it is infuriating how cars park in the bus lane and even in the pavement at the side of the bus lane, so not only does the bus have to stop in the middle of the main road, I have to stand in the main road to flag the bus to stop. If public transport was made free, or at least heavily subsidised, and more available, that would certainly sway people away from car ownership.

I don’t know anyone who has a drive. Anyone who has a car has to park on the road. You have to buy a residents’ permit.

@Lockheart

Yes there are. Considering how many hours a day they're used (1 on average) and how many occupants they carry on average, and the relatively short distance of the average journey, cars are hugely space inefficient.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56748346

Something's going to have to give sooner or later. In an ideal world I'd like to see a system similar to those in some Japanese cities where you have to prove you have somewhere to park your car before you can buy one.

Surely in an ideal world we'd just have better solutions than private car ownership?

Near me there is a new estate and every house has a garage plus driveway space for two cars. So all of the people currently living on it bought a house knowing that was the case. Yet many houses seem to have three cars, or two cars and a van, or two cars and a trailer. The roads look like car parks. It is a shame as it no longer looks like a nice place to live really. Add visitors and tradespeople and deliveries and it's really congested with parked cars.

On my estate, some houses have drives, others don't but have allocated parking in parking areas dotted throughout the estate. People choose not to use them, parking on corners, or diagonally opposite others so that you can barely get your car through. Meanwhile, the said parking areas are barely used. I'd love for the police to come round giving tickets, but they haven't as yet. I hope that there is not a serious event that needs a fire engine / ambulance etc to come through.
YANBU.

Yep, I agree. In our town, there are a lot of Victorian terraces. Obviously when they were built, the town planners failed to realise that in the future each house would need parking for at least one, possibly two vehicles outside and rather frustratingly, they didn’t put drives on the front. It was a massive oversight on their behalf
Obviously the area you describe might not be rows of terraces, but I still don’t know what you want people to do? We do have a drive but sometimes it’s empty as dh has taken the car off the drive and left the one on the road for whatever reason.

We have one car now, on the drive. I think it's different if your needs evolve over time but you can't move. I just don't understand why you'd buy a house that doesn't meet your needs immediately.

@HardbackWriter of course we would! Much improved public transport, better town planning and design etc. I felt that went without saying though.

It is annoying I agree, however, for a lot of people they are a necessity.
I live in the middle of the countryside and there is very little in the way of public transport and what there is is usually very unreliable.
Also for the amount of houses there is round here, very few have driveways/garages.

The last house we lived in had a driveway, we always parked on it, however, there was so many occasions where someone would park over it blocking us in and so I can also understand why people choose to park on the road over their driveway instead of in it.
If people were a bit more considerate there would be less issues but there is always going to be more cars than there is parking that's off road

I live in our cul de sac and our turning bay is treated as a car park. The idiots doing it don't seem to grasp that if emergency services need to get to them, they won't be able to. They would rather have convenient parking than keep things safe. They also let their children run in the road, where cars are having to reverse onto the main road (luckily no junction markings). The thing is, I'll be fine. Emergency services can reach me and its not my child at risk.

I raised concerns to the council about the safety and they just told me to get a camera for my car!