People who don’t use their drives. Why? 😆

[emmerdaleorcorrie]

I’m really curious about this. I doubt it’s just my area. It doesn’t annoy me or anything like that, but after living in a terrace with on street parking for years, I love having a drive now and can’t wrap my head around people who don’t use theirs. There’s a house a few doors down with 2 cars always parked on the street, while their drive sits empty. I’ve been living here for nearly a year, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a car on their drive. I only noticed because one of their cars is always parked on a bend, forcing everyone to drive on the other side of the road to get past.

My whole estate is like this, with cars scattered everywhere, on pavements, and drives just sitting there empty. I know that some people don’t want to play car jenga, having one car in the drive and another on the street, but not using it at all seems a bit odd. Houses with parking usually cost more too. I feel more at ease knowing my car is safer and less likely to get damaged. It also frees up more space for guests.

I don’t know, I just think it’s a little odd, but what can you do. I don’t think there’s a law that saids you have to park on your drive haha. Is there anyone on here that does this? 😆

I'll bite. I have many reasons. My driveway is narrow with old stone walls on both sides. It's listed so would have to get extra permission to widen and it would be expensive. I can get my car in but it's a big production. Plus, my gates are manual and I have pets so they always need to be closed. Getting the car out would require opening the gate, get in car, drive out of narrow driveway, park in street and get out of car to close gates, get back in car and I would have to do the reverse when getting home. To be fair though, it's not a high traffic area so I'm not taking anyone's spot when I park in the street. One of my fantasies is winning the lottery and sorting out my drive.

I can hardly use my drive because my neighbours have got 5 sodding vans/4x4s, and they block my vision. I live on a main road so it's very dangerous pulling out blind.

I have one neighbour who parks on the road near to my drive (never parking on their drive), I have another who has 4 cars so the street gets cluttered with them and another neighbour who has a regular visitor who parks close to the other side of our drive (doesn’t do it to the people they visit!) It’s now a nightmare to get off my own drive. I fantasise about ramming their cars sometimes!

I live in a dead end road filled with houses with drives that easily fit three cars, four at a push and yet there’s a handful of older/elderly people who never park on their drives, will put cones out in place when they leave their street space and will write notes on peoples cars if they dare park on the street.

It blows my mind how entitled they all are but I just remind myself how sad and bitter their small worlds must be to act like this.

Our road also has taxi drivers that colonise it, taking up all of the free spaces throughout the day, which is why I suspect so many houses now have dropped curbs as you can't return if you leave the house. Is there a law on taxi drivers using residential parking spots as a taxi rank until they get a call?

I was really lucky to be able to have a new drive fitted just before my daughter learnt to drive as I wanted her to have a parking space at home. It can take three small cars and I could only afford the cheapest option which was gravel.
My daughter and I always have our cars reversed packed on the drive so it easier to see around us driving out including when its school drop off and pick up time or when the neighbours have double parked again.
As well as my daughter learning to drive, the reason I put the drive in was because the old drive was hard work to reverse in to and if you didn't reverse in to it, as it was on a slop it was hard to see all around when reversing out. We have three schools near us and I was terrified of hitting someone.
It's such and investment though, I can understand why its not top of the list for everyone to do straightaway.

I sometimes do this, and it's basically because it's easier. But I live on a quiet street that only has houses on one side, and where most of the neighbours only have one or no cars, so it doesn't really impact anyone. If the street were more crowded, I'd always park on the drive.

There’s house near me with a semi-circular drive with entrances to the drive at the two ends. But only one end has a dropped kerb. The other end has a normal kerb and a marked parking bay. The woman who owns the house shouts at people if they park in the parking bay and claims they’re blocking her illegally. I asked her why she thought she could claim access rights without a dropped kerb and she said it was the law 🙄.

We have to leave a car on the road despite our drive being the same width at the entry point as it is the whole way down due to the neighbours fucking parking overhanging so we can’t manoeuvre out as you need to swing to the side a bit and would hit our other car of it we’re parked on.

It’s lazy bastard syndrome OP. They can’t be arsed to take 2 mins to manoeuvre into their drive and would rather inconvenience everyone else.

We have neighbours like that. Apparently they also come out and shout at you if you park on “their” bit of road outside their house too! (Not blocking their drive, just within sight of their house) It’s bizarre!

I don't park on the drive if the kids are out on their bikes. You can't get the bikes out from the back garden when the car is on the drive and if they are in and out its easier to park on the street so generally in school holidays if I'm off work, I'll stick the car on the road as they are constantly in and out on their bikes

My drive is at the back of the house down a lane and can only be accessed by either going out the front and round or through my garden. Which is not really a problem but it’s just more convenient to park right outside my front door when I’m wrangling a toddler or disabled dad into the car. We are lucky here we aren’t lacking in on street parking, if we were I would absolutely use the drive more to accommodate my neighbours who don’t have drives.

My drive is very narrow and to leave enough space for me to get out means no room for a passenger to get in/out so I have to stop in the road, let them out (which if it's my very disabled dad takes a good while) and then get on the drive. It's also a ball ache getting the bins past. I generally do park on the drive when it's just me in and out but if there's space on the road right next to the driveway and I know I'll be taking someone else out very soon I'll go on the road instead. It's also only a one car drive so if I know I'm having visitors in a car I'll nab a space on the street so they can use the drive.

My gran doesn’t use her drive mainly because others on the street don’t use theirs and so their vehicles on the path would make it really difficult for her to get off visibility wise. If they could all collectively agree to just all use their drives then life on their street would be much easier😂

That's so weird that neither car use the drive!

We have a driveway that in theory fits two cars, but in reality was just way too tight (especially with getting the kids in and out of the car) so we used to park one car on the road and one on the driveway, but we only have one car now because of it!

My parent's friend doesn't park on her drive though as she doesn't like people parking outside her house, so she parks there instead!

Laziness? It’s sometimes easier to pull up outside the house than reverse onto the drive.

Oh we have someone who parks in the most awkward place right outside their drive (which is massive). People have to stop to let others through. Going to cause an accident one day cause its right
on the corner. They always have their gate open plenty of room for them. But they decide to block the road.

Suppose better than blocking the path like my other neighbours do. There's a guy in a wheelchair who always ends up on the road 🫣 . Nevermind me with my pram. Like do they have no shame?
The drive sits empty most the day. They have room for their two cars. It doesnt take much out of the day to do car jenga. But they must see the issues they cause.
I make sure when i have guests they have room to park on my drive.

Yep, I don't get this. If I ever get lucky enough to have a house with a drive, you bet I will be using it.

I occasionally park on the road although I have a drive . I live a few doors down from a school and if I dont park outside my house some parent will park across my drive and block me in .
Its also a main road and is sometimes easier to just pull out of my space instead of waiting for someone to let me out while I do numerous maneuvers to get out of the drive (our neighbours have 3 cars and 2 large vans) the vans are parked outside their house so I have limited visibility getting out of the drive .

Nail on the head. We have two moronic neighbours who do exactly that. They only put their car on their drive if they have a visitor to their own home or tradesmen etc. Otherwise, they park centrally outside their house on the road in such a position that no one else can park because they'd be blocking overhanging their drives.

On the rare occasion that they've gone out and someone else (shock horror) has parked on the road in "their" space, they go ballistic - often knocking on neighbour's doors to try to find out where the driver is and "telling" (not asking) them to move it!

The weird thing is that one of them had a teenage daughter, who, a few years ago, started having house parties when she was 16-20 years old every few months and most of her "guests" came by car, causing chaos all over the road as they'd park on pavements, blocking drives, etc., and the mother would gave a load of abuse if any of the neighbours knocked on her door asking for a car to be moved that was blocking a drive!

One "rule" for her, a different "rule" for everyone else.

I think another aspect is that too many people can't reverse, so don't want to risk damaging their car on the gate post etc when either reversing in or reversing out.

We have 2 cars, one is on the drive and one in the road (residents parking). The house on the other side of the drive is extended right up to the boundary. If we drive one car right up between the two houses there isn’t enough room to open the door wide enough to get out.

I’m probably one of these people!

We have a drive with more than ample room to fit both our vehicles and get the doors open however, it’s a tandem drive and my DH gets home first but also leaves first in the morning so it just means we aren’t faffing moving vehicles about.

Right now for example our drive is empty and my car is on the road. It’s not inconveniencing anyone though, the road is wide.

Weekends though generally both vehicles are on the drive

Ha, yes. I rented in London for 15 years. Had to park so far away from my house sometimes that I’d have to put the children in pushchairs when they were little to walk from car to home and do two trips with shopping.

I now live hundreds of miles away and own a house with a drive and Christ, the sheer joy of backing into the drive and emptying the boot into the hall still fills me with joy 5 years on.