Our car storage strategy in the UK is a joke. AIBU?

[JacquesHarlow]

Note: I'll put the disclaimers at the end of the thread to try and mitigate against the usual "never seen this before OP, you sound overly invested" gaslighters.

AIBU to think that for a small island with a rapidly growing population, our approach to car storage and parking is ... well, a joke?

And that we need to start restricting street parking somehow to stop the households who have three or four cars on the street, making life a misery for others and for visitors?

Hear me out please for a minute.

I admit I have mainly lived in suburbs or zone of major cities. And today, I have a driveway that can park 5 or 6 cars.

However in the nine places I've lived, and the many places I've visited, you see the same things:

• It doesn't matter if it's a street of semi-detached 4 beds, or a row of Victorian terraces, or a new build estate: you find houses not using driveways, parking cars nose to nose, often on kerbs.

• Even if a house has a driveway, the British driver's strange attitude to owning the street in front of their house, means they'd rather park on the road instead of the driveway. Meaning more congestion on the kerbside, fewer places for visitors etc.

• And let's face it, many can't even reverse onto the driveway or pilot their car with enough skill to use it

• Away from driveways, I have visited streets with HMOs where friends are tearing their hair out, people with 7 cars to one house. Imagine what happens to street parking then..

• Or it doesn't even need to be an HMO. Billy big balls can buy vintage pick up trucks and line them up on the street nose to nose and take all available parking. As long as you're within the permit structure, or if no CPZ, then all the cars are taxed and MOT'd? Then you're fine to have as many cars as you want on the street

• Finally, people who have three or four cars, tend to have the "advantage" in situations like this. They usually have one or two cars "in place", so if parking is tight, they can (and do) "shuffle things" around to ensure they keep their road positions.

So, AIBU to suggest another way? Can we limit the number of cars owned to two a household on a street, and with a designated storage place needing to be named for anything over 2 cars? Should all suburban streets have some form of visitor permits so that people aren't parking three streets away because big Billy has to be able to see his pickups from his window at all times? Can we have proper enforcement from councils to ensure wheelchair users, buggies, young people can actually traverse our streets without having to brush past metal which has taken up part of the kerb?

We're a small island with a lot of history. We weren't designed to have two rows of cars parked down either side of suburban and urban roads, with delivery drivers racing towards nervous nellies who then refuse to reverse.

We are however horribly in denial about parking. Councils are addicted to the revenue, or ignore the problems if they do exist, knowing that there's little or no alternative.

All I see on threads like these in the past are people saying

• "My eldest daughter uses her car for work, I use mine, so does my DH, and we have something fun for the weekends. I have every right to my four cars on the street. YABU"

• "You're advocating for 15 minute cities, you will own nothing and be happy, you're a communist, YABU"

Why are we so addicted to car use to the point where anything now goes?

AIBU to ask for a more forward thinking solution to car ownership, where people aren't owning five cars on one small suburban street, without a driveway? Surely car ownership is far too cheap if that's an option for any regular Joe.

What do you think...AIBU?

Yes, I often wonder why more people don’t park in their driveways! Often so they don’t block each other in I think but that comes down to laziness. Or they don’t have the driving skills, as you say. But I don’t think the government will ever implement the measures you suggest, unfortunately.

Why not let councils charge extra council tax per car registered to an address? Then use the money to fix potholes?

I don’t see many roads where people all have driveways but park on the road. There’s usually a lack of spaces if everyone has a driveway!

You need to reduce car dependency by improving public transport.
But that costs money and requires strategic direction.

Stupid things like building new housing with no bus service or major employers who build out of town offices with no public transport would be fairly easy to solve by forcing developers to pay to support the bus service... And make it useable! One bus each way isn't a bus service.

It is sort of crazy that you can just own multiple cars then expect to store them on the public road.

I live on a road where almost nobody has a drive (the few that do certainly use them) and it's a bit out of control. The house opposite us has three cars and a van. I do always manage to find a space though (I have one car).

We have to have permits to park so I don't really understand why they couldn't enforce some sort of rule about number of cars per household.

I do agree, OP. I live on a residential street close to centre of town. Terrace houses with no front gardens or driveways. Most houses have one or two cars, but some have a lot more. There is one guy who buys cars to fix up and sell on, but they end up just sitting on the road. He's had up to ten before. A colleague of mine had similar with her husband. He was a mechanic and bought old cars intending to do them up and she said their road was filled with his cars.
Just one or two households can make it hard on everyone. My suggestion is simply taxing additional cars. First one is free, second minimal but by the time it gets to five, it's prohibitive.

If you lose your job because you can’t get to work, that’s more than £300 a month. There’s one bus an hour from the village where we live. The town I grew up in now has one bus every 90 mins.

The bit I don't get on these kind of threads is this:

Does everyone drive off their large driveway, make their journey, and then always park onto the large driveway of their friend? Every time?

Surely some of you do the journeys I do? Which is to leave your driveway, but your destination is on one of these crowded streets?

My aunt commented to me that her street used to see cars naturally move during the day as people used them for commuting.

Fast forward however to 2025/2026, and these cars often only move once a week if that, due to people working from home.

It means there are next to no "spaces" on the kerbside for a visitor.

Now I am fit and in my 40s, I don't mind walking from the next street along, or sometimes it has to be even further than that.

But are we seriously saying that everyone is able to do that? People with DCs, people with elderly parents...

Why are we ok with folk storing a vehicle for 28 days of a month, by a kerb, clogging up road space, which means no one can easily visit these areas?

And when these folk do leave their precious bit of kerbs, out come the cones .

Or out come the shouting and the daggered looks if you, a visitor who knows nothing of the unspoken covenants, turn up and park perfectly legally outside their house.

It is sort of crazy that you can just own multiple cars then expect to store them on the public road.

This, word for word!

However I fear the real reason is that councils just want the permit revenue.

Many don't actually care about road littering of massive hunks of metal.

They just want the receipts.

If we also get public transportation more on par with Japan for urban areas, then sure.

Unfortunately I'm not sure there is a solution. Restricting number of vehicles per household would further impact young people living at home as they can't afford to move out. Perhaps restricting number of cars owned per person or only allowing a maximum number of cars (2-3) for a company registered at a residential address would help.

I would like a ban of RVs/motorised caravans parked on the road though. No driveway? Then sorry you can't have one.

Not sure what you can do about it though. It’s not uncommon now to have adult children living at home , maybe two , each with their own cars. So houses built 40 years ago designed for one or maybe cars, have now four cars parked there.

With people live on a terraced road without driveways- that’s their choice. I agree it’s annoying having a family with four cars parked on a road , but if they haven’t a driveway , what can they do ?

Not everyone works 9-5, Monday to Friday in a city with 24 hour transport.

May people have very limited public transport, they work irregular hours , including nights and bank holidays .

And not everyone can live next door to where they work. Not everyone can work from home.

I think the OP is being unreasonable.

30 years ago, when we converted one half of our double garage into a room, we were only allowed to do it on condition that we maintained 3 parking spaces (4 bed house). We had a double drive and the other garage, so we were OK. I believe that this requirement no longer exists, so as someone else said, there are insufficient parking spaces per house even in suburban/rural areas.
When I moved into this house 30+ years ago there were rarely any cars parked on the street. 15 years later, they built more houses, including 2 bed terraced homes. Many of the occupants had no or 1 car. Now the majority have 2 cars which are parked on the street/pavement even though they have allocated parking spaces - but they're seemingly inconvenient as they're around the back. Now the street is littered with cars blocking the pavement or causing difficulty for neighbours with drives reversing on/off.

There are too many cars on the road and most of them are hardly used. Those who used to walk the DCs to school here when they were a 1 car family now drive them there because they have a car. It's half a mile, parking is a nightmare and the parents on my street leave home 30 minutes earlier in the car than they would if they walked - just to get a parking space. And don't get me started on them driving to the shop 1/4 mile away and parking on the double yellow lines at the junction because they're 'just popping in".

The whole mindset about car ownership needs to change. Costs of 2nd hand cars have gone up massively. I'm surprised car ownership isn't going down, but it doesn't appear to be.

No permits?

Ask your council to enforce, they’ll love the opportunity to make some money from you all.

YANBU. I live in a terraced house with enough off-road parking for 2 cars. Most houses on the street have no off-road parking or just 1 space. There are various HMOs with multiple car-owning adults. The family over the road have 1 space, 4 cars and 2 work vans. On-road parking is horrendous, especially if you're coming home late or having visitors.

DH and I have already said we'll need to move house before our teenagers get cars. There's simply nowhere to park them.

Car parking is a source of friction in new build estates. We have limited public transport (one bus an hour, none past 6pm or on a Sunday), the council planning rules are 2 spaces for a 3 bedroom house, but the garage can be included in that. And of course no one uses the garage (the houses have no storage/ too narrow/ too much of a faff).

And even where 2 parking spaces, developers do tandem drives more often than not. If people can park one on the drive and one on the streeet then they will, rather than have to do the car shuffle.

And nearly all houses where I live have two cars, often three or four either due to teenagers/ young adult children, or a ‘fun’ car, or a work van. Oh and camper vans (those are normally on the drive, but then their cars are not)

We can’t help it with our Edwardian and Victorian streets, but we could at least have better design for all the many many many new developments.

Not sure what you can do about it though

That's the point of this thread. That Britain has been experiencing "inertia" around this issue for too long.

People go "nothing can be done" and our streets remain chock full with cars.

It’s not uncommon now to have adult children living it home , maybe two , each with their own cars. So houses built 40 years ago designed for one or maybe cars, have now our cars parked there.

Yep I know all this, we all know the reasons. It has been stated multiple times in the thread.

Do we just continue with this approach then until you find people fighting each other for space?

There isn't any solution being proposed by you here - do you think this whole setup is sustainable @Paul2023 - really?

I agree it’s annoying having a family with four cars parked on a road , but if they haven’t a driveway , what can they do ?

It's not up to them to decide road policy.

We need councils and local authorities to be stronger about this. It shouldn't be a free for all.

May (sic) people have very limited public transport, they work irregular hours , including nights and bank holidays .

I'm NOT advocating an end to car use in the UK.

I'm talking about where those cars are stored.

If there are 30 terraced houses in a small road, but one house owns six cars, they are using 20 percent of the available parking.

But actually they're using more than that, as many cars are wider than the average Victorian terraced house.

So all it takes is for two houses to do this, and you've got 50% of the street "gone", and those two houses playing cone games and fiercely defending "their" kerb.

When these terraced houses and houses with no off road parking were built, cars were a luxury that most ordinary people couldn't afford.
Then slowly but surely car ownership started to balloon, and parking wars started .
So what is the solution? We are on a small island and unless we turn all the green spaces into carparks, what else can we do?
P.S our estate has off road parking for either one or 2 vehicles and I do sympathise with those who clutter up the road with mums, dad's and 3 adult children's vehicles 😬

That's the point of this thread. That Britain has been experiencing "inertia" around this issue for too long

I think the issue isn’t just cars though, just general inertia & we don’t have any money to fix anything!

We are pretty unusual on our street only owning one car for the household. Our neighbour has 4 cars sometimes 5. Two adult children and one to 'play' with which never seem to move. Our street is fine though as it is not particularly near the tube and most houses have driveways, it is not a cul de sac but goes around on itself so doesn't actually lead you anywhere.

Even though I agree with you OP, I really can't see anything happening to restrict how many cars people can have.

We're in a 20mph street that people fly down at excess speed. This is a factor for me in not driving on or reversing on to my drive.

There are some very antisocial people and I don't have the energy after a long day to either deal with someone slamming into my car or getting cross with me because I've slowed them up by a few seconds. That sort of altercation outside my own home would make me feel quite vulnerable.

Japan is a similar island with large population - so they came up with this

Generally,
you cannot legally purchase and register a standard car in Japan without proving you have a dedicated off-street parking space, known as a shakoshōmei(garage certificate). This law (since 1962) requires proof that a parking spot exists within 2 km of your residence.
Here are the key details regarding this requirement:

• The Law: A "Proof of Parking Space Certificate" (Shakoshōmei) is mandatory to register the car in your name.
• Location Constraints: The parking space must be within 2 kilometers of your residence.
• Size Restrictions: The vehicle must fit perfectly within the designated parking space.
• Small Cars (Kei Cars): In some rural areas, small kei cars (yellow license plates) may not require a shakoshōmei at the time of purchase, but you must still report the parking location to the police afterward.
• Exceptions: You cannot easily purchase or drive a car without this documentation, as dealers will not deliver plates without it.

It’s not just the number of cars, it’s the size of the cars too. These days, a family of 4, who would quite happily fit in a standard Ford Focus 10 years ago, now need a vehicle the size of a tank for their weekly trip to Sainsbury’s. It blows my mind how normal people, with normal numbers of kids/animals, who don’t live on farms and just do short city journeys, can’t cope with a normal car.

Yanbu op.

My house has 4 cars (one a classic that sits on the drive undercover most of the year) but I have a drive that fits all 4. We tend to have one on the street usually, but the other two just get shuffled about when the other needs to get out.

In my small street we have a 2-car-driveway house that has a 3rd, GIANT long wheel base van that parks mostly on the drive with their car out front. We have a 3 car household with only space for 1 car on the drive, a 3 car household with 2 driveway spaces yet ALWAYS parks in the turning circle.

A friend has just moved into a new build estate. Barely enough space on the drive for one car, few garages, it's already mental with both adults usually having cars. These are mostly young families, god knows what chaos there will be in 10 years when their kids start driving.

I don't know what the solution is.

A house on my street (A mid terrace with no drive, but a garage accessible from the back, and additional parking as the previous owners paved the back so it could be used as such)
have 3 taxi cars parked up on and off all day. Which is why they're never going to put a car away as it's behind a gate and a bit of a PITA.

So they take up more room on the front, which means when I go to drop anything off at this house I have to park elsewhere and walk further. Fine if I'm not carrying too much shopping but a proper PITA.

The report comes after a government poll suggested 76% of people think that for the sake of the environment, everyone should reduce their driving. BBC Article
I imagine everyone thinks it should be someone else who stops driving.
I don't want to order a taxi to fetch me to take shopping to relatives houses and then mine. What should I do? Take two journeys to take shopping separately?

And then the roads would just be filled with taxis parked up waiting for them to be booked....

If we're serious about reducing the number of car journeys we take, we have to have a fully functioning healthy public transport system to start and then accept that many journeys will be done in a car. Maybe just not our car.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-12/Chinese-mobility-scooter-amazes-U-S-car-pundit-RfZiJ6gnXq/index.html

they use these in china, as in heavily populated areas, space is lacking

these cost less than £1000