Hostile note left on my windscreen

[Whatsgoingon777]

For the past week I have been working in a different town. It is temporary, and I will return to my usual workplace by Christmas.

Parking in town is very expensive, so I have been parking in a quiet cul de sac about a 10-15 minute walk from my work.

Every house has a drive way and I’m parked right at the end away from their homes, and there is always plenty of space for anyone else wanting to park there.
I also have a tiny car.
I would never park here if it seemed like I would be inconveniencing the people who live there. My car is doing no harm there and is in the way of no one!

Anyway I return from work this evening to find a note saying ‘TRY A CAR PARK’

It seems utterly pathetic to me, but they clearly think I’m in the wrong.

AIBU thinking about parking here still?

Haven't RTFT so apologies if this is repetitious. I would put a note on the dash saying, "Thanks for your input. Please note that this car has an onboard camera."

Keep a petrol can of fresh water in the boot for scenarios like this. The second you start pouring it over the blocking cars you can guarantee the owners will come running.

"TRY A CAR PARK."

I'd have been tempted to write 'no need' on the note then put it back the next day.

Anyhow, people parking legally on your road is tough shit. There's a chap over the road who parks his big SUV outside our house all the time instead of outside his own. It annoys the fuck out of me but I'm only ever cheerful and friendly to him because he can park there if he wants. It's not up to me.

When they introduced parking controls in my town, commuters from the surrounding villages started parking in residential roads just outside the controlled parking zone. Residents would come home from work and find that they couldn't park anywhere near their houses until after about 7pm, when all the London commuters had buggered off.

In a couple of roads, they badgered the council to extend the controls to their streets so that they were able to park. There's nowhere you can park all day without a permit within a mile of the town centre now, maybe even a bit further.

People then started to get the train from a rural station one stop up the line, where there was free parking in the station car park. It wasn't long before a parking charge of £6pd was introduced!

You are creating bottleneck for the residents as they drive in and out.

There used to be multiple parking threads involving neighbours who refused to understand that public highways are public.
(Yet, at the same time, it is a bit annoying when a random person parks outside one's house 😅)

Their "home street" isn't theirs. It's none of their business who parks on a public road.

My workplace has drastically reduced the size of the car park. Street parking is permit holders only, so I have to use a cul de sac a short walk away.

I don’t think residents like it, homemade parking signs are starting to appear, but it’s public space and I don’t have another option.

I vote carry on.

I live on a similar road - everyone has driveways and plenty of space for non residents to park without inconveniencing anyone. Only one neighbour gets all weird about it, all over WhatsApp going “does anyone know who this car belongs to” etc, leaving anonymous notes. I feel embarrassed for them, no one else cares.

They won't, they could vandalise her car, is it worth it?

Love it 😂

That's for the OP to determine, not me. It might depend, for example, whether she has a dash cam that she can put into park mode. Or what CCTV there is on the street etc.

You seem to think she should be harassed or intimidated into not doing something that is entirely legal. Is that really the kind of society we want to live in?

For some reason, my NDN has a real thing about vans parking in our road. I think it started when my ex had a work van that he had to bring home at night and weekends as he was often on call. He used to park it on the drive as it was effectively a mobile workshop and was full of expensive tools.

NDN hated it. She never really had a go, but moaned several times about how it meant she couldn't see along the road any more. She also had the same moan when we had a motorhome.

There are now far more people with vans living here, and she hates it. The woman over the road has a boyfriend who stays overnight and he drives a van, she's very snitty about "yet another white van". I suspect she thinks it lowers the tone to have so many manual workers living in our "naice" middle class road.

The only people who piss me off are the family of 4 who have 6 vehicles between them: parents and both kids have a car each, the man has a work van and the son has a motorbike as well as a car. They park them all on the street, unless there's no room, then they deign to use the parking space in their front garden.

Years ago (at least 25) we parked on a residential road for the airport - got a train a couple of stops - when we got back we had a couple of flat tyres. Never did it again.

By that logic the OP can reasonably put a brick through the perpetrators window to "make their point more strongly".

All this could have been avoided with a DIAGRAM !!

Unless you want to find your car scratched or tyres damaged next I would start parking somewhere else and pay for proper, secure parking.

Yes it is unpleasant and that individual should not be doing that but ultimately you have to do something so this does not escalate.

You can debate the ethics of this as much as you want but that won't change the situation...

A former client of mine managed to persuade the council to create a disabled parking space outside her house for precisely this reason, even though she didn't drive. She had a disabled parking badge though, I doubt if they would have done it otherwise.

My NDN would like such an "unwritten agreement".

She'd like me to park in my drive, but I don't because it's on quite a slope and since I had a knee replacement it's incredibly painful to get out of the unless it's fairly level.

As pp have said, if you’re determined to not pay for parking, you should probably just vary where you park.

I live in an area with a 20 min commute into central London. All of our residential streets have parking restrictions so no parking allowed between 10 to 11 am, then again at 2 to 3 pm. Stops any London commuter parking, but still allows for other necessary parking.

I suppose what annoyed me the most was the unpleasant tone of the note.
I have arrived and left at the exact same time each day this week, and someone could have easily just popped out to ask/advise about their opinion on my parking there. Especially given they are probably watching me anyway!

The reality is this road is unlikely to ever be heavily parked as the walk to the town is less than ideal in many ways 🤷‍♀️

There was no need for unpleasantness.

Humans are so funny aren’t they. I can’t imagine feeling such satisfaction about this situation

Don’t be ridiculous! Who made you Boss Of Parking?

I used to live near a university. I didn't have a car but I did get taxis home occasionally, or even the odd food delivery.
It was a nightmare.
We had a small car park for the care home. That was always full during term time. The street itself was always full. One day one of my neighbours came and knocked on as she was blocked in and needed to get her child to hospital. My friend who is the best reverser in the world moved her car for her through a gap she didn't think was possible. I wouldn't have dared squeeze it through that gap either.

Always students - as they weren't there once term ended. Unfortunately the local thief used to do a roaring trade in whatever he stole from cars when people were stupid enough to leave things on show. Our streets were quite sparkly because of him.

It meant when I did get a car I had to come home at certain times or park 500m away through the estate away from the university - which is a very long way when you've got shopping and equally probably annoyed those people when they got home. Also meant going and moving the car at half three when the students started to clear and park outside my house.
I moved.

I don’t live near a university, station, airport, town centre etc. Non residents can easily park without inconveniencing anyone. No one is blocked from going to hospital, having carers etc. I don’t know why one of my neighbours is so obsessed and leaves anonymous notes, it’s so weird.