AIBU to park my van on the road?

[Vantopark]

My family and I live in a quiet village. DH and I have 2 cars between us which we park on the driveway. DH also has a separate work van which can’t fit on the drive, so he parks it down the road. He can’t park it directly outside our house because the road is narrow at this point and it would cause an obstruction. So he parks it legally on the road a bit further down where the road widens. It is not parked directly outside anyone’s house as there are no houses there, but it can be seen from some people’s windows at a distance. The parking is not at a premium, and there is always plenty of space left for other people to park there should they wish.

The other villagers seem to hate this. Their objection is based purely on the fact that they don’t like the look of it (it is sign-written). Not that it is obstruction anyone or using up valuable parking spaces (because it isn’t). They don’t have any objection to the other cars that are parked there. We’ve been asked repeatedly to move it, but as we haven’t obliged they are starting to get more aggressive, stopping me in the street to call me a ‘fucking selfish bitch’ etc. There are things I can see out of my windows that I would rather weren’t there, but I think that’s just village life isn’t it? There isn’t anywhere else that we can park the van in the village, anywhere else would be even closer to people’s houses.

YABU: yes you are a selfish bitch and the van shouldn’t be there

YANBU: You are legally entitled to park the van there, crack on and the neighbours need to get over it.

I live on a development that has strict covenants that we all had to sign. Visitor parking is not to be used by residents. I've had a large sign painted vehicle parked in one of these spaces non stop for two weeks. I only have one downstairs window and all I see is the van and its ladders on top. Everyone has a minimum of two spaces and there's an overflow car park provided. It's so selfish. I see that OP's DH tries to park where the van cannot cause offence, but I can assure her that the sight of a van, after a while, can become very triggering. I think that once you get annoyed, every time you see it sets you on edge. I suggest that her DH varies where he parks to give everyone a break. It doesn't excuse the rudeness though.

Not particularly relevant here, and please don’t shoot the messenger, but my dad has a right bee in his bonnet about work vans being parked outside people’s homes. HIs view is that they belong in a work compound overnight and that it suits employers very well not to have to provide overnight parking for their vehicles.
He’s well aware that it saves employees time and wear and tear on their own vehicles by not having to drive in to their base, but nothing will persuade him that it’s ok for those with no connection to the business to be inconvenienced by works vans, lorries etc that are often inconsiderately parked in residential areas when they have no need to be.

Roads conceived 100 years ago are not suitable for today’s parking needs. It wasn’t 50 yrs ago when some families owned no car or one.

I totally agree.

From my living room window, all I can see is my neighbours work van. I live in a bungalow, and since my front garden and house are on a slope, the pavement is higher, making the van look much bigger and it pretty much blocks my entire view. He dumped it there after I politely asked him and his wife to stop using my driveway to manoeuvre their cars because they were starting to cause damage. They could have parked her car outside mine, which I wouldn't have minded, but instead, they decided to stick the huge van there instead. Dicks. There's nothing I can do about it as it's a public road, but I hate it!!

It's always the neighbours and the rest of the street who end up dealing with the fallout when people have more cars than they have space for.

Houses and roads built now are not suitable for today's volume of car/van ownership either. New housing developments only allocate 1 or 2 parking spaces, depending on house size. That leaves no parking for visitors, no space for works vehicles and definitely no space if someone owns a caravan or motorhome that they park on their driveway.
So the system is set up to fail in the planning process.

You’re not doing anything wrong. There’s no yellow lines or permit parking or blocking of anyone’s drive way.

Some people are so privileged they have no clue.

Ive had three trollies abandoned down my road this week, I’d love for my issue to be that someone has just parked their van near my house 🙄🙄

Park it in different places. Not just one place.

People who get their knickers in a twist about vans parked on the street need to get some real life problems. It's embarrassing.

This is bonkers YANBU. As long as the vehicle (whatever type it is) is parked legally and not causing an obstructions it's a non-issue. I think they're a bunch of snobs and I would tell them to go and suck a bag of dicks. What's this nonsense about commercial vehicles not being parked near houses overnight? I've never heard such snobbiness. They need to get a life.

Or what @bigboykittysaid, get some real problems!

Could you get rid of one of the cars or would the van still be too big for your drive and 1 car?
Also I would report any further abuse to the police.
I live in a similarly petty village. One of our neighbours has a motorhome
on their drive. Oh my god some of the residents had an apoplectic fit over it. It’s still there though.

God almighty. How petty some people are. Surely it would be just as offensive parked on the drive as it appears to be on the road?
I'd be asking the twatty neighbours how they manage out in the big world seeing vans with names on and recommending they get blinds so they don't have to look at it.
My dh used to have a works van and it would have been pointless to leave it parked at work when he regularly needed to go to work at 4.00am and return at 9pm. Just adding pointless time on his day plus it left the car free for me.

People get very annoyed over street parking. I don't blame them. It doesn't look nice, but at the end of the day there's often nowhere else.

Have read some more replies and am even more baffled by these ridiculous neighbours. It's not even outside anyone's house. I understand if it was parked immediately outside but that's not the case.

Yeah, it's weird, isn't it? If you don't want to see an everyday item in its normal place, just don't spend your time gazing at it. Just like if you don't want to look at a giraffe or a lion, don't book tickets to go to the zoo.

HIs view is that they belong in a work compound

He can have whatever views that he likes. He can firmly believe that vans belong in a work compound, that women shouldn't work outside the home, that sourdough isn't 'proper' bread, that the Tories/Labour/Reform/LibDems/Greens/all of them are unfit to ever govern the country, that people should support their local shops and never buy from Amazon, that Jif should never have been renamed Cif.........

We're all entitled to our own views, but he isn't the king or prime minister, so his views have no bearing whatsoever on what other people do within the law. As the cliche goes, if he doesn't believe in work vans being parked in the road overnight, he's perfectly at liberty to never get himself a work van and park it in the street.

Presumably OP's household don't have and pay to run an extra car that they don't need just for fun. Why should they have to consider it, just because of nutty, dictating views that neighbours may have?

You could just as well ask why a family with a three-bedroom house and two children don't downsize to a two-bed and get the children to share a room? Because they don't want to and it doesn't work for their chosen lifestyle!

It's just not practical. Can you imagine having to go pick up your work van before you actually start work, or to grab a load of materials? What about being self-employed? My van was also my main transport; yes, we had a family car, but a 3-seater van meant I could pick both kids up and often did.

I'm just as pissed off by idiots who park like utter knobs in their cars, at least a work van all signed up. You can make a complaint to the company if you like.

God, this is bringing back all the moronic things my old neighbour did in what can only be some petty win he thought he thought he was getting, like every Sunday he'd move his car off his drive and onto the road to purely stop someone else parking there, not even in front of his own house, he'd park between the two dropped kerbs. A drive big enough for two cars, a garage, and he'd do that.

Triggering?!

Please get some help. There is something very wrong with you.

Is he often small-minded, selfish and a bit slow on the uptake, your dad? Commiserations if so.

@SarahAndQuackYes. I have just been diagnosed with an incurable lifelong disease, so am mentally fragile. Nice of you to point it out.

'It's just not practical. Can you imagine having to go pick up your work van before you actually start work, or to grab a load of materials'

Yes what's wrong with that? Loads of people drive to work to then pick up their work vehicle.

Streets are getting so congested, most households have 2 cars plus. To add a big works van adds to the congestion obviously.

I hope councils start charging for street parking.

Honestly, then, you should realise that what is 'triggering' you isn't a work van.

I'm sorry you've got genuine health problems, but hiding behind them to make nasty comments doesn't help your case.

'I've had a large sign painted vehicle parked in one of these spaces non stop for two weeks'

My relatives have a massive work van parked outside their bungalow all the time. The man who uses it live 400yds away but as they have 3 vehicles their drive and street area is used so this selfish twat thinks residents should have the view of his van from their window whenever he is off which is quite often. Yes it's legal but it is still ahit.

Honestly, then, you should realise that if someone has an incurable disease stuff like inconsiderate parking just adds to the stress and can indeed be the last straw when it comes to coping. What 'nasty comments' did the poster make?