Trades man yelled at me from his van after I called him about his parking!

[pontipinemum]

On Saturday I was in my very small town with my baby and toddler. Baby was in the pram, I was holding the toddlers hand.

There is a pedestrian crossing, not a zebra crossing, at one point in the town. There is a dropped kerb, a yellow box, and blister paving on the path beside it. There are a few of these in town and it is a constant problem with people blocking them.

A van was blocking it this time, since his number was on the side I decided to call him, I said 'Hi, you are parked in a yellow box blocking the pedestrian crossing, where the kerb is dropped to let people cross easily' He said he was doing a quick job.

I then crossed the road by lifting the toddler, and lowering the pram backwards onto the road. It is a little steep. I was able to then use the dropped kerb on the other side.

The man returned to his van and happened to drive by me. He yelled out the window at me that 'it is not a pedestrian crossing you idiot' something else I didn't catch. And smirked/ laughed. I just said it is. I felt a bit intimidated.

It is inconvenient and dangerous for me with a pram. But blocking those crossing means that people who use wheelchair cannot cross at all. And we have 3 (that I know of) people who use electrical wheelchairs in town.

YABU - not your business where he parks stay out of it
YANBU - it was OK to call him on it

He sounds like a completely entitled twod.

In my council you can report people parking like this and you can also report to police via a non emergency online portal specifically for dangerous/inconsiderate driving.
If it happens again that’s what I would be doing.
Sorry you had a run in with such a numpty. These people would be up in arms if a child got knocked down but can’t amend their own actions to keep children safe - see it all the time at the school gates.

Absolutely. They need to be told.

I was once kept waiting for 20 minutes behind a van that was blocking the road - me and about a dozen other cars. They took their time and completely ignored everyone waiting. I was furious because I was on my way to pick up my mum to take her to a hospital appointment and it made me late.

I called him on the phone and spoke to him in a normal voice. I didn't expect him to yell at me on the street from his van as he drove by. On the phone is actually sounded OK about it.

You did nothing wrong. He was a twat. I’m so sick of people driving like idiots, parking wherever the hell they want, on corners making it impossible to cross safely, on the pavement and yellow lines directly outside our school, not stopping for crossings when we are waiting to cross, even the traffic lights at a big junction we regularly cross seem to be optional to some people lately who just decide to completely ignore red lights and just go anyway. Twats, the lot of ‘em.

Men hate being called out by women so instead of doing the right thing he ‘punished’ you by intimidating you. That is the price women pay for fronting up to horrible men unfortunately. They dominate and throw their weight around because they can.

I’d have just walked away satisfied that he was riled up enough to provoke a reaction. In future take a picture and put it on the local Facebook warning people who might want his services what an inconsiderate prick he is.

If it’s a business not just a one man I’d report it to the company. Good on you for calling it out

@Meandmyguy more fool you. Rules are made for people’s safety. If we all ignored them, and ignored people who broke them, it wouldn’t be a happy world.

OP he’s a dickhead, enjoying having a go at a woman. I bet if you’d been with a muscley bloke rather than 2 young kids, he wouldn’t have said a word. He did wrong, you called him out on it, and it pissed him off, so he thought he’d big himself up a bit but shouting at a woman. He’s a loser, and you did the right thing correcting his mistake.

The dropped kerb itself indicates that parking is prohibited. No additional signage required.

Try that in a wheelchair

Agree. You did the right think OP.
Many entitled, selfish people parking where they want to today.

YANBU. I’m sick of inconsiderate drivers who seem to think “a quick job” or “quick drop off at school” etc.. is no big deal. It is a big deal and they are all big twats.

One of the school mums parked her massive tank on double yellows the other day right near a crossing near school. It made it difficult to cross because drivers couldn’t see people trying to cross as we were hidden away, and it also blocked our full view of approaching vehicles.

Anyway another mum called her out on it. Selfish mum of course defended herself and couldn’t see why she shouldn’t be parked there. She also said she’s only going to be there for 5 minutes. 5 minutes is enough time for someone to get ran over but hey ho.

He was alright on the phone because he hadn't yet realised you were a lone woman with small children.

@Theunamedcat irrelevant in this situation. OP did not have a wheelchair.

This us the correct response! Yes: OP was right to call him on it. She did it for everyone and for her own convenience. Why shouldn’t she call hom? He has his number on the side of the Van for a reason! He wants people to call and give him work? He can accept people will call and give him a bollocking for poor driving, parking, or other public nuisance behavior.

I think you were right to call him. I've done similar from the hands free when driving after being harassed by a a group in a work van with contact details on it. They had no respect for me, so hopefully the fact their boss knew about and was not at all impressed with their behaviour got through to them.

I mean, I have to navigate life in a wheelchair every day. I would have crossed the road, however difficult. I have enough to think and worry about daily without stopping to call up tradesmen about their parking. It's fine that OP did it, but I wouldn't have.

I would have just crossed the road and got on with my life! Honestly - what a petty inconsquensial thing to complain about!
In the town where i went to uni, there were lamposts right in the middle of the pavement - which was narrow anyway - i take it you'd be one who campaigned to shut the whole road for a year to rip them all up, and put them somewhwere else - thereby removing much needed parking instead?
Christ alive

If you chose to tell him something he’s obviously not going to like, you can’t be surprised when you get a response you don’t like.

I agree with you. Not sure I’d have rung the guy but he shouldn’t have parked there. I too live in a town like this where this is a common occurrence. I tell drivers they’re blocking the pavement frequently. We have steep curbs and narrow pavements it’s awful. I should t have to be going into the road into oncoming traffic with a buggy.

No wonder life in the UK has gone to shit. A stiff upper lip is not a suicide pact. You did the right thing, OP, and I would have go e further and lodged a complaint and tried to get him towed or notified his boss (if any).

Read this back to yourself slowly.

I think this is one of those things you don't massively notice until it effects you, like when you start using a pushchair.
I recall being pissed off about the number of cars parked on the pavements blocking the access for pedestrians when I came out of hospital with my baby. I think in the space of a week I had to move onto the road with the pram 3/4 times. I'd never have given it a second thought before that. I did post on our local Facebook page and got told I was a Karen by a lot of people. Sad.

Just because there are some badly placed lampposts somewhere, doesn’t mean we should have to accept people’s bad parking. It’s incomparable seeing as drivers have brains and make decisions in there here and now. They should park properly and safely otherwise they block the view of the road for pedestrians and other drivers. Lampposts don’t do that.