Would this bother anyone or am I just being petty? Neighbours walking past

[thebakera]

I recently moved into a house which is a modern new build with 2 allocated parking spaces outside my living room and front door.
So it isn't a driveway as such but 2 parking bays designated for this property.

A few of the neighbours use it as a short cut to go from A to B and they literally are walking right by my living room window multiple times a day.

At times they will even have conversations.

The kids do it as well and it is really annoying me.

I want to kindly ask them to stop as I feel it's invading my privacy but feel petty doing so.

Would this annoy anyone else?

Can you not park you cars right up close to the house?

People will say you are being unreasonable but they will probably have never lived with this kind of set up. I completely get what you mean. It's annoying as hell.

I once lived in a ground floor flat. We had a teeny tiny patch of lawn outside and then straight onto the carpark for the whole block of flats so about a foot and a half from my bedroom window and my living room french doors, cars were parking. People would pull up outside and gave LOUD conversations several feet from my sofa or my bed. Often leaving their cars idling while they did so, so fines would drift into my flat.
One workman used to pull up right outside my bedroom window at 6am with his windows down and his radio blaring, van idling, while waiting for his mate to come downstairs. It took me appearing at the French doors with a toddler in my hip and pointing at the bedroom window for him to realise and turn it down.

They don't do it on purpose, but it is super annoying that they just don't think. Maybe hang a nice polite sign, or start popping out and politely saying something, and hope word gets round

The OP doesn't say she has a car(s). Not everyone does

Didn't you post this a few weeks ago?

Looking at that picture, isn't that a public path they would be walking on?
I think without a pic or diagram from the OP this is pointless really!

Yes they are walking past the parked cars and past our front door and windows.

There is a road/ tarmac area that they can walk on outside all the houses which is what the postman/ delivery drivers all use.

This is a small cul de sac with a row of 5 houses including mine.

Diagram

Eta, see diagram now

This was my set up from my flat, years ago (picture lifted from Google)
Parking spaces right up to my doors and windows and people parking there and walking by - completely oblivious to their noise from their conversations and radios and their fumes from idling.
So I feel your pain entirely!

Yeah that would drive me insane OP. Put up a polite sign or have polite words until word gets round.

So there's no footpath, just your houses, the parking spaces and then the road. I'm not surprised that people are walking between the houses and the cars then, as I'd not want to walk between the cars and the road...

Pretty s&*t... it's the way things are going though, no proper parking or privacy anywhere...

Do you have cars parked there? If you park as close as you can they might stop. If no cars, what about plant pots - anything that disrupts the flow of walking might help!
Or a sign in your window saying quiet or something.
I think it is a downside of not having an actual front garden sadly.

Lease the parking spaces

But OP has said it is a tiny cul-de-sac, almost like a shared driveway. You would not be in mortal danger walking on the road. OP, your neighbours sound really inconsiderate.

I can see why people don't want to walk in the bit cars drive along though!

In the photo, which I know isn't of yours, there's what looks like a footpath between the parking bays and the houses, but there isn't in your diagram - so am I right that they're squeezing between the cars and your house and there is no footpath in between? Or do you not have any cars parked in your bays?

It's a dead end with 10 houses. How much traffic do you think there is?

Can you park so the cars are virtually touching the house leaving no gap wide enough for a person?

The opposite side have their parking bays allocated further down the road so it's literally parking spaces for the 5 houses so hardly any traffic at all.

Planters with trellis on the side, you can put chain in between them. Fill the space and stop the flow of movement.

Yes, this has come up quite recently.

You get used to it after a few weeks.

I live on the ground floor of a block of flats and the bin storage is to the side of the building next to my flat. Everyone has to walk past my living room window to get to the bins so there is someone going by at least once an hour. Very similar set up to the pic posted above.

At first I would startle and turn to look at the window every time, now I rarely notice unless I happened to be already looking at the window.

Pro tip if your windows open right out - it's fantastic for taking deliveries without having to walk out the flat into the main corridor and then to the door. Just pop open the window and grab. My regular postie, pharmacy, and chippy all automatically knock on the window instead of ringing the door now and it's great.

Dh’s place of work (LA planning) refers to them as ‘desire lines’, which I think sounds rather nice! 🙂

How much traffic do you need for a child to be hit by a reversing car or an Amazon delivery?

I still prefer not to walk on the road... but you do you...