How can this be allowed?

[BadAmbassador]

This is my very first AIBU!

I’m afraid I’m turning into THAT neighbour - help 🤣

I live in a quiet residential street, houses with families, houses on my side are quite close to the road ie not far back at the end of a long drive.

11.15 this evening, really loud engine/mechanical noise started up outside my house, across the street. The kind of noise that would wake you up if you were asleep.

Looking outside - there’s a big van with the side door open, engine running, interior bright light on, man inside doing something to a tyre on a very noisy piece of equipment.

Evidently he’s repairing someone’s car tyre in situ (as posed to them taking it to a garage), so an emergency call out service for people who don’t have a spare tyre.

I went outside to see what was happening because it was so loud. Gave man in van a very hard stare which he ignored for quite a while 🤣 He carried on another 10 mins or so, eventually seemed to realise I was still there and turned off the noisy machine - he’d left it going while he was fiddling with the tyre. Engine still running of course. So 15 minutes of very loud, intrusive noise - like having roadworks outside your house at night when you’re in bed.

Is that acceptable? It’s not a busy high street with loads of traffic noise, it’s not a main road or a motorway. I know you can’t help where you break down but surely there are bye laws about loud noise after 11pm and this is just really inconsiderate?

it wasn’t a lone woman driver being helped btw it was a man. He stood and had a loud chat with the mechanic in the middle of the road before driving off - cheers for that, now know exactly where the mechanic is based 🤣

Is it me? Why is it me? 😭

I saw curtains twitching but I was the only one who went out - if he hadn’t finished the job when he did I would have gone over to say something. And I’m small, shy and non confrontational but this was Very Annoying!

However I HAVE reached the age/life stage of not giving a fuck 🤣

I dunno, what’s normal behaviour any more? One person’s convenience for a street full of people having a broken night’s sleep? Woken babies?

Storm in a tea-cup? Shut up and put up? Angry mob with pitch forks?

Help me Mumsnet! 🤣

You came out and stood there silently staring for 10 mins?

They probably have no fucking idea that you were outside for the noise, probably think you are just looney.

Why do people do this? What's the bloody point of standing there silently seething? I'm embarrassed for you.

If someone breaks down in a residential street, how can it be not allowed for them to call a repair service?

And why didn't it occur to you to offer the poor chap a cup of tea, given that he'll have probably had a long wait for the repair service and might have a long drive home as well?

That's a quite unusual level of self-centredness.

Exactly this its weird if you can't mind your own business at least use your words standing staring at someone is so weird.

You are better than me OP. The last time a very similar thing happened to me at our old house about 8 years ago when DH was trying to get his son to sleep (he was 6 at the time) I opened the window and gave them hell!!

If it was an emergency and a one off, I’d be irritated but not livid. Unless you’re saying he works as some kind of off the books mechanic and that it’s a regular occurrence? That would be a different matter altogether.

Neither my car nor my husband’s car have spare tyres. Very few cars these days do.

For what breaking down near your house

Nope for consistently working on cars in a shared car park that backs directly onto others houses late into the night! Helps when you have facts doesn’t it 😉

"consistently" - so, not the same as this one-off scenario in the original post here then.

What the Henry Hoover is a “Paddington Bear stare”?

So thats not similar at all

Why is that? My current car is 12 years old, has a spare under the floor of the boot. Why do modern cars not?

Wwe paid extra for our car to have a spare 7 years ago.

Weve used it maybe 5 times over the years. So much better than having to wait for 2hrs on the hard shoulder for example. (Which is where we've changed it once).

But most people don't know how to change one now.

All to do with weights and emissions.

An easy way for OEMs to meet such targets is to ditch excess weight - ergo, the spare tyre/kit etc is ousted.

I believe it’s to reduce the weight of the car therefore increasing fuel efficiency, and to meet emission targets. Our cars have tyre sealant that you inject into the valve that you inject into the valve that seals small holes as a temporary measure. The tyre still needs to replaced asap though. Some cars have run flat tyres that enable you to get to a repairer.

I think it's also partially to do with the design of modern cars, with the emphasis on the most efficient use of space.

You get the tiny little city cars, where they 'take out' the back seats so they only fit in two people with a very small bag or two. Makes a mockery if they then have to make them loads bigger again to accommodate a spare tyre.

Even at the other end of the scale, I have a large 7-seater MPV; but if you use all 7 seats (we don't need to - we usually treat it as a 5-seater with an enormous boot), the remaining boot space for all those 7 people's luggage is less than in a Golf, and also mainly vertical.

Add to that the extra weight and bulk with modern-day safety features - multiple airbags, roll cages etc.)...

It's not like the old days where people would happily drive around in a large saloon/hatchback that only comfortably seats 4 with not that much available luggage space.