Woman’s death could have been due to parked cars

[MikeRafone]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6k7n734jgo

something should be done to prevent drivers blocking emergency vehicles

lines in red on narrow roads to show width of vehicle and if if your car doesn’t fit park elsewhere ( not on pavement)

It isn't as simple as that. Look at this picture

The road I live on is wide and so are some of the pavements. The council has gone along the road and marked out some parts of the road and some parts of the pavement for parking on.

Highway Code

Don't park on the pavement unless it's explicitly signed as acceptable

I once posted a photo on our local Facebook group because I couldn't get through where 2 cars had parked. My car (Volvo xc60 isn't that wide and easily fits in normal parking spaces). The response (presumably from the owner of the blue car) was "The blue car is local and is always parked there!! " as if this excused the appalling parking. The blue car does indeed always park there leaving its own double driveway entirely empty every day, one can only assume to prevent any outsiders parking in what they perceive to be their space. Infuriating.

pavements aren’t for parking or storage of cars

Except they are, in boroughs where you have to park on the pavement because you're not allowed to park in the tiny narrow roads.

Ignoring those rules and parking in the tiny narrow roads, would block emergency services and get you a parking fine.

Barking and Dagenham is a perfect example of a borough where it's mainly pavement parking only, or incur a fine.

The people of Darwin Drive need to practice they aren't doing it right

They really need to ban all the stupidity massive cars that are being sold now. Some are so wide now, that they take up almost the entirety of the single lane road near me forcing pedestrians into the bushes at the side. The older cars and vans don't have this problem.

This ^

I don't understand why so many posters seem to have difficulty grasping the idea that parking on the pavement does not necessarily cause problems to others and that very often, not only is there no alternative, but it's the only lawful way to park, and you'd get a ticket if parked on the road.

53 Parkway - Google Maps

And this ^

Where I live, an estate built in the early 1960's there aren't even enough spaces for 1 car per household, yet we have massive areas of grass outside each block of flats that could be reduced to make par king areas but for the refusal of the council to fund it or we have a massive site that used to be a primary school which is surfaced but locked & barred to stop anyone using it.

No. The Highway Code is not as categoric as that. What it says is:

"You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs"

That's not written very well (I think there ought to be a comma after "elsewhere") but it's basically saying that in London parking on the pavement is totally forbidden, unless expressly permitted by signage.

Outside London there is no blanket ban on parking on the pavement, but you should do your best to avoid doing so for the reasons given. Outside London you don't need a sign permitting parking on the pavement to do so - so long as you are not obstructing the pavement or causing any other offence.

The key to the difference between London and elsewhere is in the use of "MUST NOT" in respect of London and "should not" in respect of elsewhere.

PS - I believe there is also since last year a blanket ban on pavement parking in Scotland

Yes a road near us is mainly victorian terraces, the residents parking bays are marked half on the pavement. It put me off buying a house there (partly because I'm shit at parallel parking) but I've no idea where people would park if they weren't allowed to use the road at all

It shouldn't be one or the other. If the road isn't wide enough for cars to park without obstructing the footpath or carriageway then cars shouldn't park there.

This is a road about 10 mins from me. I know the owner of the white car owns one of the houses in this shot of SV but why doesn't she park on the driveway?https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.5913506,-1.1071586,3a,24.6y,301.66h,86.75t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFqvJkjGsWyj8KZJXxW4WyQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D3.25330547303642%26panoid%3DFqvJkjGsWyj8KZJXxW4WyQ%26yaw%3D301.662628292821!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTAyOS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

I know this is a road is a busy road normally as its the road that takes people to Leicester city centre and to the M1/M69 as well (about 4 miles away) but still. Though plenty of room for pushchairs/wheelchairs to pass her car

It is that simple. There are estates where it is expected that you park partly on pavements, but that leaves both vehicles AND pedestrians room to get by.

Otherwise, you don't park there, you find somewhere else to park.

The previous government was going to legislate on this, but didn't.

Yes, this is a major issue. Nobody needs a car that size. People managed in the not so distant past with smaller cars, and with bigger families in most cases.

There are a lot of cul-de-sacs here that are very narrow and quiet where walking in the road is ok.

Some places have parking marked on the pavement either half or fully, but the pavements are wide here.

But generally some people park really badly.

As a council tax payer I would be seriously annoyed if my council started spending public money to rip up grass areas so people could store their private property in a public space more easily!

IMO resident parking should be brought in everywhere, you want to store your private vehicle on public land then you rent it from the council at market rate.

@Nat6999 Have you any idea how important grassed areas are in preventing flooding? If the water can't sink into the ground it might end up sinking into your carpet then I'm sure you'd be here complaining the council hadn't taken prevention measures.

Either take the bus or move somewhere with a driveway the grass is there for a reason. I'd be furious if councils started tearing up grass verges to accommodate cars.

The grass area is twice as big as the block of flats, it would only need the pavement moving to allow the parking spaces to be made diagonal instead of parallel. The old school site has been empty for over 20 years & other than during covid when it was used as a mobile testing site is just going to waste. As for being on a flood plain we are on the top of one of the largest hills in the city, so flooding isn't a problem.

We need fewer cars, not more parking spaces

I don't understand why so many posters seem to have difficulty grasping the idea that parking on the pavement does not necessarily cause problems to others and that very often, not only is there no alternative

this is why I have an issue with pavements being a shared space, not keen on cyclists sharing pavements either

www.roadpeace.org/pedestrian-pavement-deaths-2/#:~:text=The%20figures%20are%20quite%20shocking,about%2040%20people%20a%20year.

Until we get reliable public transport car use will never reduce, we get 1 bus an hour where I live to the city centre & that service isn't reliable. If we need to get to the hospital, it's nearly 90 minutes on the bus, in the car it takes 20 minutes & the bus to the hospital doesn't run after 6.00pm.

IMO resident parking should be brought in everywhere, you want to store your private vehicle on public land then you rent it from the council at market rate.

In that case public transport needs to be improved. I'm not working at the moment but when I was I had a 20 minute commute each by car. Public transport would have taken over an hour each way and the roads weren't safe for cycling in the winter.

There's plenty of jobs near me that specify 'must have own transport'. Are you going to prevent people from taking those jobs because they don't have a driveway or can't afford to rent a space?

And what about people who need a car to be able to do their jobs, e.g. carers? There's a shortage as it is without charging people to park their cars.

Ripe for building some housing on it then.

Not just to use as a car park.