Parking - would you talk to neighbour or live with it?

[EvangelicalAboutButteredToast]

Currently put up with it for a few months but we’ve just had the driveway redone and I think it’s made it even harder to get off the drive due to two parked cars on the road.

No parking restrictions. Cul de sac. Not new housing so plenty of parking but house opposite is rented and has four people - three cars. House next door has the son’s girlfriend who stays every weekend. These cars are only ever there Friday night/Saturday/Sunday/Monday morning.

I’m the pink car and reversing off the driveway and heading towards the adjoining road is impossible. I can pull out and go up the road and turn around at the end and come back. Can’t reverse into the space as there’s not the turning room.

Would you go talk to the house opposite and see if they would park further up the road which wouldn’t be directly outside their house or would you leave it and hope they’re on a short term rent?

I suppose because I’d recognise the difficulty I’d be causing the opposite resident to get on and off their driveway and make a different choice but I know not everyone thinks that way.

I bet if you count, you'll find it takes nowhere near an actual minute to do it. It says something I learned from an entirely different situation but boils down to the same thing. We get worked up over things that causes an inconvenience and assume them to take up far more of our time than they do, but once you realise that thing doesn't actually take that much time and there's only an inconvenience in your mind really, it makes it much easier to come to terms with.

Another situation I was in was that on my way home from work I come to an intersection we're turning right leads me home.. but it's quite busy and sometimes there's quite a wait & you really have to be on the ball & make the move quickly when there is a gap, or alternatively you can go left up to a roundabout and use that to end up in the direction you want to be. No hassle., no stress. No risk, but a bit annoying when you see large gaps in the traffic that you could have taken to simply turn right. But each night it was a left right left right, weighing up in my mind, when I finally decided that each night, I would just turn left, use the roundabout and give it no more thought, it stopped bothering me that there were nights. I could have just turned right at the intersection and saved.oooh a few seconds of my time🙄🙄 it sounds like a daft little thing but no longer having to think about it every night made the drive home less stressful. 💁🏻‍♀️

Try that, try just turning left, using the cul-de-sac to turn & going on your way. Count the seconds it takes if that makes you feel better too, it will be far less than a literal minute.

I understand what you're saying but then I don't think you're really considering the inconvenience you may be causing them by asking them to park further up the road.

Bit snooty with the “renting” don’t you think!

Why is it snooty. It has a rolling military contract where some people stay for six months and some stay for two years.

That’s true. And actually the girlfriend’s car has moved so I can get out. So the problem really is the two together creating a chicane.

I guess the difference in that scenario is you are making a choice due to volume of traffic and not being forced into a manoeuvre.

I’d park on the road

But that actually makes no difference to changing your mindset about something being a problem. If you just accept, it's far easier to turn the other way., go round the cul-de-sac and head out to the main road, you're not looking at the car opposite as an irritating obstacle any more. Once you stop saying it as an irritating obstacle & allowing yourself to get wound up by it. It won't cause you as much irritation.

You can try it or not it doesn't affect me in the slightest

But you're saying it's harder to get manoeuvre into the road because you've just had your drive redone, so it's not the neighbours' fault.

@AmIHumanOrAmIAYeti there was no need. It was right above your post, you were the first response.

Marginally harder yes as there are now lights whereas I was having to mount the pavement before which also wasn’t ideal!

If they’re legally parked I’d leave it to be honest. Get a smaller car?

🤣. I could get a moped. That would definitely solve the problem. It would create a new one but solve the old one certainly.

I think I’d drive to the end of the cul-de-sac turn round and then reverse onto the drive. I know it doesn’t save you time overall but it means you are facing the right way when leaving when you might be in a rush and the time seems more important.

Just leave it , I assume they are legally parked on a public road so it’s really not their problem .

I would leave it unless they are blocking you getting in & out your drive or illegally parked which they are not.
Sometimes I have to reverse onto my drive at a different angle because of some one parked by my drive or someone is parked opposite my drive and nearly every time I come out of my drive I have to turn around. Driving out is so much easier than baking out and is also part of the highway code to drive out of a driveway.
However I would leave it unless you physically cannot get in & out of your drive.

Not possible coming from that direction as there’s not the turning circle available. The only way to reverse would be to enter the cul de sac from the adjoining road. Do a three point turn and reverse onto the drive.

You’re right. It’s my problem. Hence the thread.

I'd say something because there's really zero need for them to park like inconsiderate morons and inconvenience other people when they could shift their car up a few feet and it'd be fine. I don't understand why other people think you should be the one inconvenienced due to other people's carelessness and thoughtlessness. If they don't respond, I'd probably park my car across my own driveway so they'd be forced to park elsewhere, but I am pretty petty when people fail to respond to very reasonable requests.

Maybe they don’t realise it’s causing OP an issue because they haven’t said anything yet

Reverse on to the drive. If that does not make it easy enough, then talk to the neighbours.

Do the people who have the green car also have the two cars at the bottom left of your picture? If so, ask them if they could park on the opposite side of the road (bottom right of your pic, where the trees are). If they say it will make it difficult for them getting their other cars out of their drive then you can say that's exactly your problem at the moment.

Isn’t this just part of living on a busy road with other people who also drive? It would honestly never occur to me to complain about something like this.

Then why not do that? If it's it a faster option than your additional one minute detour each morning.