to be sick of parked cars on the pavement - long rant sorry!

[shivster1980]

Hello all,

I need to rant about this or I may just explode.

We are in the fortunate position of living close enough to DS's nursery (he is 3). It is on the school site though privately run.

On the way to nursery every morning we have to circumnavigate the sheer volume of cars parked on the pavement. We haven't used a buggy for ages but I know people who do and it is damn near impossible to squeeze a buggy through the gap left on the pavement once the cars are in place.

I have a few problems with this:

1. The cars should not be parked on the side of the road the school is on anyway. There are no yellow lines but it is school policy and they have been informed.
   
   
2. The general safety aspects of it. they mount the kerb suddenly (as there is a lot of traffic) and we have had 2 near misses personally since september.
   
   
3. Some (not all) drive along the pavement to rejoin the traffic !
   
   
4. A few weeks ago I was walking back home having dropped DS off and a passenger (child) swung their door open onto the pavement and just missed a child walking along. The doors obviously have to be opened - they are doors, but because of the amount of the car on the pavement already the door in question just fitted the gap!
   
   My DH will mock me for using the 1,2,3,4 points! I annoyingly use it in speech as well and my DS has started to copy it!
   
   Anyway - rant over! I feel better for that!
   
   AIBU

[shivster1980]

I only hope that I am aware of my slips into selfishness and do something to address them (I obviously don't park on pavements but am aware of my faults)...

the mind boggles with people's selfishness and lack of consideration.

on your behalf Riven that someone else's convenience appears to come before your family's safety.

[OtterInaSkoda]

There's a trailer running at the mo (at least I think it's still running) for Jo Asseptible's current show in which she mounts and parks on the pavement. And yes, I shouted at the TV

[OtterInaSkoda]

Oh my. I just remembered. There was a huge rust bucket old Volvo that used to park across the lowered kerb by my house. The spot was the only safe (-ish) place to cross without being forced onto a junction and was a bastard of a place to negotiate without a wheelchair, let alone with one (is on a hill so even trickier).

I came home one night pissed and kicked the wheel arch. Lots of it fell off. I'm not proud but it felt good at the time

[Fifichef]

Another point about cars on pavements is when a car pulls out of a driveway or entrance and stops accross the pavement. The pedestrian surely has the right of way and if nearby should be allowed to walk accross in front of the car before it drives accross the pavement. This really gives me the 'whatsits'!!!

[BackToBasics]

I think we could all learn something from that highway code link. I hate it when someone is parked facing the traffic coming towards them at night and they have their lights on. Really annoys me.

[BackToBasics]

Ah yes FifiChef, that annoys me too. I was walking along with my dd in her pushchair a while back and despite there being "give way" marking on the exit, BEFORE the driver reaches the pavement, a stupid woman drove straight out the exit. If i had been a second earlier she would have squashed us. Drivers seem to think giveway markings at exits mean giveway to drivers and not pedestrians!

[chippy47]

Probably been said but parking with your wheels on a pavement is illegal even if there are no yellow lines (single or double). I have been done for this (not near a school and after 8pm on a road with huge pavements and no houses on the side i parked -i was quite surprised at the time so checked out the law).

[cory]

Same experience as Riven. Can't use street that leads from infants school to the main shopping centre as the pavement is always full of parked cars and dd's wheelchair won't squeeze past. (very tempting to go for it anyway and see how much of their lacquer I can take off).

[pollywollydoodle]

having given a warning in the start of term newsletter, our head walks outside the school on random days and reports bad parking etc to the police..does seem to make some difference

[olderandwider]

Bollards? Cheap and effective

[fernie3]

I hate this too, there is a really narrow pavement I have to go past every day to the school. Even if it is clear you can only fit one pushchair down there and yet people STILL manage to park their wheels on it blocking it not only for pushchairs but for people walking as well. It means you have to walk down the road to get around what could be 4 or 5 cars.
I dont see why they cant park just that little bit further away from the school. The school has a nice big staff carpark which is also open to people with disabled badges on their cars from what I have been told/seen.

[madhairday]

YANBU.

We are trying to stop this round our school at the moment and the local CPO comes out once a week to stop it, it's unbelievable how much abuse she gets asking people not to park on the pavements - there is usually a whole line of them on the yellow line by the school gates who obviously can't let their precious darlings walk more than 5 paces to school - this is not parents of children with mobility issues.
The days the CPO is not there they just do it again. My friend was walking up that pavement with her dd and some tosser pulled onto the pavement and his wheels locked (it was icy) and he skidded, almost but thankfully not hitting her and her dd. She called him what she thought of him and got a mouthful in return.
Some people are so selfish they can't see beyond their own immediate world and convenience.

I have to say I was naughty once; I had just had ds and was pushing him in his pram with toddler dd beside us down a very busy road. There was a white van parked so far onto the pavement I could not have got through, let alone pram and toddler. Going into the road was taking our lives into our hands.
I...ahem....broke his wing mirror 'accidently' on the way past.

[madhairday]

p.s hi shivster

[OTTMummA]

walk along with your keys jutting out, if it hits - oh well! serves them bloomin right -

ive lost count the amount of times ive had to wait for someone to come move their car from the pavement, and im not being precious either, its always on a main rd with lots of traffic, and i literally can't pass without walking in the road! and to top it off I get evils and tuts from the idiot who's blocked a one person width pavement!!
ive never keyes a car BTW but i sure am tempted sometimes!

[LadyBiscuit]

Are there an unusually large number of pupils with SN that necessitates them being parked within 20 yards of the school? One of my kids has SN but he's perfectly capable of walking a fair old distance.

I think a lot of this is about the 'she's doing it so I will too' mindset which is horribly prevalent.

[shivster1980]

hi madhairday!

Thanks to everyone who has shared their views. I feel much better having ranted and read your responses.

I shall pursue all sorts of lines of enquiry, I am like a dog with a bone on this one now!

It's rather sad that we Mumsnetters are from all areas of the country and this is going on in so many places - rather damages my faith in human nature all this selfish behaviour!

[shivster1980]

LadyBiscuit I completely agree! It is rather like "She dropped her gum/litter/cigarette on the floor so mine wont matter." Or "He didn't clear up his dog's s**t so I don't need to". Absolute madness!

[heckythump]

To clarify, parking on pavements is a movement offence (unless accompanied by a parking restriction, usually seen as yellow lines or certain parking bays which is a static offence) and there is often little the Police can do as they actually have to see the car bumping up on the kerb themselves (i.e. for the vehicle to be moving so that it is a moving offence). They can not come out and ticket static vehicles on the highway (the Road is different from the Highway, incidentally. The Highway includes pavements and verges where appropriate - the Road does not)

Seriously, you need to contact the Police or the Safer Routes to School team at the local council, Shivster. The Police can put off this behaviour for a while, but be aware that human nature means it doesn't last forever, sadly. If you can convince the Safer Routes to school team to get a TRO (and it IS possible to get one at school times only so there IS little excuse for them not to) then the council can enforce as a static offence.

[scanty]

admittedly I was living in an other country at the time but had a go at some stupid bint who had actually parked ON the pedestrian crossing of the local primary as she was picking up her kids. I was driving through and slowed right down(about 7yrs) peeping out from in front of her car as he tried to cross. I was soooo angry but she just looked at me vacantly as though I was a loon!

[SingForJoy]

YANBU this is so annoying, the temptation to just squeeze past and scratch the cars is so damn strong (to date unindulged).

My other pet hate is the idiots reversing/going around corners/in car parks who don't actually look where they are going. I have had several near misses as a pedestrian lately where some fuckwit is doing the above whilst looking behind/sideways. It's not hard to actually look where you are pointing your great big vehicle you selfish bastards grrr.

[Mermaidspam]

I often park half on the pavement and I have truly never considered that a pushchair/pram couldn't pass (even though I have a dd).

Just one of those things that has never crossed my mind. I promise not to do it ever again

YANBU.

[Mermaidspam]

Sorry, that meant to say wheelchair/pushchair/pram

[BitOfFun]

I think that as long as there is room for a pram or wheelchair to pass, parking partly on pavements is the norm on narrow streets.

From the driver's perspective, it is HUGELY irritating when somebody parks just next to the kerb when everybody else has either pulled into a driveway or onto the enormous grass vergeway (doublepass pavement still clear). It means that cars have to stop to let each other pass on a major thoroughfare, and the flow of traffic is totally screwed. Winds me right up as a driver.

[MedusaHead]

YANBU this really pisses me off. Last year my DD was in reception and we were walking home from school past a car parked half on the pavement. I told my DD to go first as there was only room to go single file on the pavement between the car and hedge of the garden. As my DD was walking next to the car the stupid woman drove off down the pavement about 6 inches from her. I couldn't believe it. If my DD had stumbled she would have been under the wheels of the car. I banged on the back of the car but the driver just drove off. When I confronted her about it the next day she just denied it was her. I was livid and still am tbh. It is my pet hate. It's not even as though parents have to park on the pavement at my school. It's in the middle of a housing estate and there are loads of roads to park on. They are just too fucking lazy to walk more than 30 seconds to the school gate.

I took down her registration number though and said I was going to send it to the police and complain. I didn't but it stopped her from parking on the pavement for a while .

[MmmCoffee]

Scratch the cars and you'll get done for criminal damage - you can bet someone will 'see' you do it.

Far better to give DS something nice and gooey to accidentally drag along the sides of the cars as you squeeze past. You can help him if he can't get the aim right. Ice cream is good, but if it's early morning a nice peanut butter sandwich should do nicely.

Sticky Nutella toddler-handprints would probably be a lovely fashionable addition to the nice cars.