People using our drive to turn around

[Allthenameshavegone1972]

We live in a cul de sac with a primary school at the end. Occasionally we have caught people on camera using our drive to turn around, but not at school times. There is no reason to use our drive, there us plenty of road space. We've just spent a lot of money last year on having it blocked page.
This is really irritating me, it's just cheeky & lazy. Would I sound petty if I put it onto the village Facebook page?
I don't want to sound petty to the rest of the village, but if this is some parent from thd school who thinks they're entitled, I want them to stop.

Please do not post in on the local facebook page. However annoying you find it, you will look very petty.

I don't think posting on Facebook would stop them. A folding bollard would probably work better

If you look at general coordination (people walking into door frames, the range of ability for catching a ball etc) there's a large range of normal for spatial awareness. I'd rather someone with poor spatial awareness is cautious and takes a lot of tries than guesses at it being OK and bumps into something!

Very annoying although I doubt you can do much unfortunately - this morning I read in our local paper that people have been trying to use a restricted road through a cemetery as a shortcut, so the council put bollards up - and as a result, people have literally been driving over graves to get past the bollards. I despair.

It would bother me a lot. Driveways suffer wear and tear and if multiple people are using it twice a day they're getting more use out of it than I would!

If it’s important to you, posting it on the village Facebook page could be an effective way to raise awareness. You can keep it polite and non-confrontational, just explaining that it's causing an issue and asking for respect for your privacy. A lot of people might not even realize it’s bothering you.

It isn’t so bad when it is a car but when it is a huge delivery wagon and it leaves a big hollow in the middle of your new block paved drive… it gets a tad annoying!

It's telling how many people here are quite happy to give away someone elses property without a moments pause. Seems communism isn't dead yet.

To all the "what does it matter" crowd, has the possibility that the actions of 10 cars a day turning on a drive (especially if they hoof the power assisted front wheels of their cars into it) might damage the drive ?

I am guessing they are in a venn diagram with the people who say it's OK to block a dropped kerb because it's "only a minute" ?

If I get lost in an unfamiliar area, or miss a turning I sometimes use a driveway to turn around in if there doesn't seem to be any other way. I'm adept at turning in most roads though, so this doesn't happen very often.

No there really isn't. I can't recall ever having to use someone else's drive in over 40 years of driving.

As to people asking why it's a problem. We ended up with a trail and huge splodge of oil on our newly laid drive when some moron decided to use it to turn - they must have been a moron to not realise how much oil was leaking from their vehicle! We could never get the oil marks off and they're still visible today, several years later.

We bought a penguin bollard to keep the cheeky sods off our property!

I never understand this level
of pettiness, your drive is built to take the weight of a car many times over, a slight turn on it won't destroy it.

Haha the Assad fans was something I hadn’t foreseen !!

I don’t think you are being petty or unreasonable. We live down a very narrow street, and it’s a dead end so get lots of people who drive down, look beyond the end of their bonnet and suddenly slam the brakes on. Then it’s pretty obvious a good few simply have no idea about reversing, delivery drivers come down in very big vans and get stuck etc….. They end up spending ages shunting and shuffling in the only drive that now isn’t gated, then you hear a grinding noise that is either gears or scraping side of vehicle down, or a bang where they hit the wall opposite. We lost two gate posts like this, in the end we put gates on, only open when we have car on drive. Next door, the only non gated drive are currently getting very fed up at the moment. If other people’s bad driving starts to cost you money, then you have to make it difficult for random drivers. I do occasionally go out if I see someone stuck and watch for them as they reverse, so don’t mind helping those really stuck. But you do see repeat offenders (post van drivers, I have you on my radar😡)

Quite!
in 35 years of driving I have never had to use someone else’s driveway.

Get a grip. How long does it take to turn a car around on a drive way? Like less than a minute. Get over yourself.

Get some really spiky, thorny shrubs planted. It will hurt if he walks through them 😁

This sounds like a brilliant idea, but that could also just be my sense of humour, too!

Under communism most people walked or got public transport and were all the healthier for it tbh

This would not bother me.

I don't really understand why it bothers other people.

Maybe put up a sign saying there is a camera. Might put people off if they only do it when you're not home (or is that just because the drive is blocked when you are home?)

They shouldn't do it but mo doubt it will contine. Have yiu thought if having a central drop post fitted?

Sorry but this seems really petty, and only about 2% of people even look at Facebook so it will just make you look silly posting it there.

If you care then you will have to get a big "PRIVATE DRIVE" sign, or a bollard, or a gate (also at your own inconvenience so choose your battle I guess?)

The camera is a good idea.
People will only want to be filmed if they are politely and rarely using your driveway.
I have needed to use a person's drive way - not right into their property but the first part over the nature strip - about once every five years. It is usually due to the road width being narrow and the traffic not infrequent so I judge that doing the 3 point turn on just one side of the road and poking a little into a driveway is much safer than doing one over the entire road. Cars parked on both sides of the street can restrict the space for turning too.
I would never mind someone needing to turn in my drive, as long as it was not more than about once per week.
If people were driving a long way into my property, I would not be happy about that.
What could I do? Maybe a sign saying Watch for Children; I wouldn't complain on Facebook.

OP was pretty clear that this is not ten cars a day, though.

She said it was "occasionally."

And has only ever happened when they're out.

Unless she lives in a toadstool in fairy-land with a driveway of gossamer thread, someone "occasionally" turning in the drive seems unlikely to cause any damage.