ugly parking causing frustration

[RoxyMoosic]

Live on a street of semi detached houses. It’s a ‘nice’ area. Most houses have room for 2 cars. Depending on configuration could fit 3, or just 1 if a larger area of garden instead of driveway.

the crux of the matter is that residents are parking on the street. E.g house over the road has room for 1 car on the driveway. They moved in a few years ago and bought the house knowing this. Yet have 2 cars and permanently park 1 on the street outside their house. All in a quite considerate manner btw. But I just think is stupid and inconvenient on their part anyway.

other residents park on the street despite having room on the driveway, presumably because they can’t be bothered reversing in/out every time they want to leave.

house a few doors up inexplicably owns 4(!) cars, with room for only 2 on the drive, with regular visitors too parking all over the place.

when the street is chocked up with cars I just find it so unbecoming and quite frankly ugly . It didn’t used to be like this even 10/15 years ago, when people had only enough cars that they could fit on their driveway…. I feel this was helped by the fact that they were often older couples who only had one car…. and those who invariably buy the house are families and have more cars than they can fit on their property.

so… AIBU to think on-street parking is ugly and ruins the look of the street…?

New builds near us have garages but are not allowed doors so you can't use them for storage, just to park your car
@RoxyMoosic I think you need to move if it annoys you so much

To fit council regulations about ratios of parking to housing. It doesn’t matter if the garage could only fit a two seat classic sports car. It counts as a covered parking space.

I'm with you OP, because I used to live somewhere like this - modern development with plenty of specified resident's parking spaces and visitors parking, which were generally nearly all empty because people wanted to save the 25 seconds or so walk from them to their front doors. So they parked all around the development instead, as close to their front doors as possible. I don't get it - who wants a car blocking out all your light from your window? It was a really safe area as well, or at least it was until a bin lorry crashed into one of the parked cars because it made turning almost impossible, collided with a lampost which came crashing to the ground, causing damage to 2 of the houses and the road. Guess who had to pay for the damage - all of us, because the development wasn't adopted by the local authority. Still didn't stop people being obsessed with parking in front of their houses though.

Its just laziness.

@RoxyMoosic Have you considered reversing into your drive and driving out forwards?

I’m on a Days Gone By type FB page for my city on which people post old photos and it’s incredible how wide and spacious the older streets look when they are uncluttered with cars.

You would have hated our street yesterday- the neighbours children had a birthday party and there must have been about 15 extra cars on our street- think Tetris style haha. As long as everyone can get in their house/ drive and the cars are safe does it really matter?

Golly OP, you must feel apoplectic when you walk down little streets of old terraced houses. WHERE ARE THE DRIVES.

You can’t fit most modern cars in modern garages. The minimum size is tiny.

It's when they park the caravan on the driveway and the car on the pavement that annoys me. We live in a rural area with no end of places offering caravan storage locally. Just pay to store your caravan there and bring it home to pack/unpack when you're going away! The restrictive covenants on the deeds actually forbid the parking of caravans and commercial vehicles (I'd say 50% of the houses on our estate have works vans on the driveways) but it's impossible to police so totally pointless. And virtually everyone who has a works van has his and hers cars as well.
We've been here 30 years and the parking has definitely got worse in that time.

Could it be that many people believe its better to keep a front garden for environmental reasons, rather than concrete over to make additional parking off road? The house with 2 cars and only a drive for one but a front garden are more considerate to society overall than those who have ripped up the garden to park 2 cars on the drive.

Cars go on roads. It doesn't look cluttered, it looks like a normal street.

Also garages are useful storage spaces. I dont know anyone who uses theirs for a car, they are bike storage, workshops, utility rooms, not for cars.

it took me about to 2 mins to reverse out of my drive this AM because I couldn’t see past the parked cars , and people kept coming along as I was trying to manoeuvre… so I had to keep moving back in to let them past .

You shouldn't be reversing off your drive to begin with OP - so if you parked properly, you'd probably solve that problem overnight 😉

FOr decades now, It's been seen as the norm to have an ugly metal box parked outside your house. The scathing mockery op has received for saying car cluttered streets are not great to look at shows just how car obsessed people are. There is a bigger picture here.

You should be reversing into your driveway, not out. Sounds like you are creating quite the hazard for your poor neighbours.

Our close is similar to what you describe. When we moved in 10 years ago there were predominantly older residents, most of which had bought original new builds in the 1960's and never moved away. There was rarely a car on the road. The odd district nurse or shopping delivery but that's all.

Suddenly the original residents seem to have all hit 75-90 years old. Over the last three years homes are popping up for sale as they downsize or move into care homes.

As we a close of 4 bed houses, the new residents are younger (40-50's) with teenage children and all seem to have 3+ cars.

Our quiet road is now full of cars parked on the roadside.

I think it's the age of the families that make the difference. The noise levels have certainly risen with our new residents. I like that. I liked it silent before too, but it's lovely to hear children playing and laughing.

I'm now no longer the youngest member of the close.

Okay Hyacinth

@RoxyMoosic my point is that plenty of identical / v similar houses in the area do have room for 2/3 cars … so why on Earth would you buy a house with room for only 1 when you know you have multiple?!

Because they can park the rest on the street …… Quite likely they didn’t like the layout or interior or yard or whatever of the houses that had more driveway room. People don’t just buy houses based on driveway size you know 😂.

The last three properties that were sold very near me between them all had only three cars as two houses didn't drive. Now there are nine cars between them.

The juggling for parking is a sight to behold as at least 5 of the cars are now on the road. It doesn't affect me parking wise but they park on a corner that can make it really difficult to see past the parked ones to make sure I can turn into the road and get into my driveway.

FOr decades now, It's been seen as the norm to have an ugly metal box parked outside your house. The scathing mockery op has received for saying car cluttered streets are not great to look at shows just how car obsessed people are. There is a bigger picture here.

^^ this

people saying it’s op with the problem and she should move, rather than consider whether cars are blighting the view

children used to play in the street when I was younger and there are people recreating this on some days per year

but many people seem to worship cars

We have 6, 4 on the drive and 2 on the road. Obviously we do this just to piss off the neighbours who have nothing better to do than winge.

You'd hate us living in your road. Our house has a long drive where you can easily get 4+ cars on one after the other. First car is covered in an all over plastic car cover ( dh project ) 2nd car no tax , no mot , flat tyre , 3rd car mine , 4th car dh .
Are we lowering the tone of the area Don't give a shit

Well that ugly metal box is my lifeline and many like me.

The neighbours are doing nothing wrong abd yes if they don't like it, then move somewhere else. butnot the countryside as they will need a dreaded car

I'm not bothered about drives, it's all that road space given over to cars that is a waste, more space for people would be preferable

Sky hooks are clearly the answer

@RoxyMoosic ignore those who disagree.

The OP is right, it's well known that sight lines and urban clutter are important. Excessive parked cars and vehicles can create a sense of claustrophobia just as trees and green spaces bring a sense of calm and peace.

We have a resident's car park....bloody nightmare when there is something going on at the weekend in any of the houses across the road as all the visitors use "our" car park. Wish they'd park on the road.

Part of the problem is child reliving at home for longer. I grew up in a Victorian terrace so cant get worked up about this. There is one space outside each Victorian terrace and every other terrace is a HMO.