Pavement parking

Things would be easier if cars were not so big nowadays.

Fleurpepper

Dickens

Treebee

I agree in theory. But here the roads in new estates are so narrow that parked cars, even on just one side of the road, would mean that a fire engine couldn’t get past without cars parking half on the pavement .The houses I’m thinking of where DD2 used to live, are terraced with no garage or parking space. A real problem.

We have a similar problem in my small Cotswolds town. The roads were not built for the traffic we have today.

It's all very well calling for a total ban on pavement parking but - in my street if cars did not, at certain points, park partly on the pavement, cars would not even be able to pass each other, let alone an emergency service vehicle get through.

So, no - I don't think there should be a complete ban. If cars could not pass each other, it would cause huge jams in the street and enormous tailbacks.

The problem is with careless and selfish car owners who don't park carefully - because if you do, there is still room for pedestrians, wheelchairs and prams to get through.

People need cars to get to work. The bus service is inadequate and expensive - and for those with an early start and late finish - non existent. We are a terraced street so there are no other places to park.

Perhaps if the country had a proper, joined up transport system that was run for the purpose of moving people around instead of, as in some instances, subsidising corporate profit -and with a reasonable charge rather than the extortionate cost we are expected to pay - fewer people would have fewer cars.

This is the result of the 1985 privatisation and de-regulation of public transport.

Get the council to provide a parking area just outside the village, and walk to your door. Drop off only for shopping, or mobility issues. This is what happens in many 'no traffic' villages and towns in other countries. Quite simple, really.

Get the council to provide a parking area just outside the village, and walk to your door. Drop off only for shopping, or mobility issues. This is what happens in many 'no traffic' villages and towns in other countries. Quite simple, really.

Apart from the fact that getting the council to do anything is a work of relentless discussion, phone calls, emails, meetings and procrastination, we don't live in a village - it's a small town which ends at each end with country lanes, and unless the council were to nab someone's piece of farm land for a car park (and it would need to be pretty big) - there is no area that could be used for parking. The nearest space that could be used is in the next town - quite a big one, which has its own parking problems, and is too far away to make it a feasible option, even if the residents were cool with the idea. No one is going to walk 15 miles from a car park to their home. And public transport is infrequent, and in the evening virtually non-existent.

The land is just not available.

Simple, in theory, but not practical in this instance.

Get the council to provide a parking area just outside the village, and walk to your door. Drop off only for shopping, or mobility issues. This is what happens in many 'no traffic' villages and towns in other countries. Quite simple, really.

It sounds a good idea, except
Starting with get the council will mean it won’t happen. Currently, on a road near us The problem isn’t cars parking on the pavement it’s grass verges or bushes or tree roots overflowing as much as 2/3 of a pavement area.
Where the bushes belong to houses, the owners have cut them back, but the council just shrugs.

We have "luxury retirement apartments" built here.

Then they somehow end up housing all sorts.

I was told it was a loophole in gaining planning permission, to pretend that they are retirement places.

No idea if that's true since it was a taxi driver who told me.

meanwhile here in the UK there seems to be a trend of building 'car parks' by housing developments which get gated off and more planning is put in for more housing <this may also fall under facebook moaning>

Dickens

Treebee

I agree in theory. But here the roads in new estates are so narrow that parked cars, even on just one side of the road, would mean that a fire engine couldn’t get past without cars parking half on the pavement .The houses I’m thinking of where DD2 used to live, are terraced with no garage or parking space. A real problem.

We have a similar problem in my small Cotswolds town. The roads were not built for the traffic we have today.

It's all very well calling for a total ban on pavement parking but - in my street if cars did not, at certain points, park partly on the pavement, cars would not even be able to pass each other, let alone an emergency service vehicle get through.

So, no - I don't think there should be a complete ban. If cars could not pass each other, it would cause huge jams in the street and enormous tailbacks.

The problem is with careless and selfish car owners who don't park carefully - because if you do, there is still room for pedestrians, wheelchairs and prams to get through.

People need cars to get to work. The bus service is inadequate and expensive - and for those with an early start and late finish - non existent. We are a terraced street so there are no other places to park.

Perhaps if the country had a proper, joined up transport system that was run for the purpose of moving people around instead of, as in some instances, subsidising corporate profit -and with a reasonable charge rather than the extortionate cost we are expected to pay - fewer people would have fewer cars.

This is the result of the 1985 privatisation and de-regulation of public transport.

Get the council to provide a parking area just outside the village, and walk to your door. Drop off only for shopping, or mobility issues. This is what happens in many 'no traffic' villages and towns in other countries. Quite simple, really.

People do like a neighbourly moan with like minded individuals.

so many arguments about parking, dog poo and the post office being closed

That happens on our next door site.

If anyone parks on the pavement here they get name and shamed on facebook local

A lot of our roads are just too narrow to accommodate cars, bikes, buses, which has led to huge potholes, the pavements lifting and tilting, which is made worse by lack of maintenance of weeds, etc.

Not so many people had cars when these roads were built. Now they have cars, people prefer to use them rather than use buses regardless of how good the service is, But that’s been a problem that has increased since we got our first car a good many years ago.
We have a bus service that runs every 20 minutes from the uni into town and further on.
When the uni is in session, the buses are always busy. During the holidays they are always almost empty, as they run past houses with 2 or more cars on the front and roads with houses without drives where people park on the pavement.

The new student buildings near us have car parking facilities for the students and the students who rent houses as a group often come with more than one student with a car.

Grammaretto

In Cambridge I saw many of the narrow streets have the white lines halfway across one pavement to allow on street parking and space to drive along the road. I was surprised because it does make it hard for those on foot.

Maybe we will lose the use of our legs altogether in a generation or two.

How did people manage to get around in the days before everyone drove cars?

We had much better public transport before the Tories ruined it.

The pavements here are in such a sorry state that it's impossible to get past cars that park on them.

It's virtually impossible to manoeuvre a wheelchair past them.

In Cambridge I saw many of the narrow streets have the white lines halfway across one pavement to allow on street parking and space to drive along the road. I was surprised because it does make it hard for those on foot.

Maybe we will lose the use of our legs altogether in a generation or two.

How did people manage to get around in the days before everyone drove cars?

A town near me has wide pavements. Parked cars still leave plenty of room for wheelchairs and double buggies, so no, a total ban is unrealistic.

Pavement parking gets you a fine unless it’s specifically stated that you can. Neighbours have received fines for just 2 wheels on the kerb where I live in West London.

I think it should be illegal to completely block pavements, a double buggy width should be able to use the pavement so pedestrians never have to walk in the road. Most people who park semi on the pavement are doing it for a reason though, to allow vehicles to safely pass on the road, so I’d be against a complete ban.

I agree in principle for the reasons some have given.
It’s easy for me because we have a drive, but DD2 and her neighbours would find it impossible to have a car if it was made illegal unless they build multi-storey car parks close by.
It would make things difficult for some wheelchair users too.
People I know who have mobility with problems and park in disabled spaces at the supermarket, have their cars parked on the pavement outside their house, because the roads are too narrow if cars on both sides parked on the road. I’m not sure how they will cope.

Grammaretto

Is it illegal in Scotland? I didn't know that. There are cars parked on the pavement outside my house, daily, here in Scotland.
If I catch them I politely point out that the pavement is for pedestrians and sometimes they move or say they'll move.

The pavement gets very hard to navigate especially with a wheelchair or for the disabled people who live in the house next door.

www.transport.gov.scot/news/pavement-parking-ban

Around here there’s at least one road where cars are allowed to park partly on the pavement - there are white lines to show exactly what’s permitted. I doubt that e.g. a fire engine could get down the road otherwise, or the waste collection vehicles.
The houses were all built in the pre war 30s, when obviously nobody thought about parking problems.

fewer people of course what I meant was more people

Treebee

I agree in theory. But here the roads in new estates are so narrow that parked cars, even on just one side of the road, would mean that a fire engine couldn’t get past without cars parking half on the pavement .The houses I’m thinking of where DD2 used to live, are terraced with no garage or parking space. A real problem.

We have a similar problem in my small Cotswolds town. The roads were not built for the traffic we have today.

It's all very well calling for a total ban on pavement parking but - in my street if cars did not, at certain points, park partly on the pavement, cars would not even be able to pass each other, let alone an emergency service vehicle get through.

So, no - I don't think there should be a complete ban. If cars could not pass each other, it would cause huge jams in the street and enormous tailbacks.

The problem is with careless and selfish car owners who don't park carefully - because if you do, there is still room for pedestrians, wheelchairs and prams to get through.

People need cars to get to work. The bus service is inadequate and expensive - and for those with an early start and late finish - non existent. We are a terraced street so there are no other places to park.

Perhaps if the country had a proper, joined up transport system that was run for the purpose of moving people around instead of, as in some instances, subsidising corporate profit -and with a reasonable charge rather than the extortionate cost we are expected to pay - fewer people would have fewer cars.

This is the result of the 1985 privatisation and de-regulation of public transport.

Astitchintime

Definitely! Pavements are for pedestrians, or they were when I was learning to drive. I see so many vehicles obstructing pavements, often meaning that wheelchair users, mobility scooters, people pushing prams etc have to walk in the road to get by. Add overgrown shrubbery and it makes it almost impossible to use the pavements at all. Thoughtless behaviour by the motorists

When I was a teenager learning to drive ( im 59) ...there were far less cars on the road so less of an issue ....I try not to do it....but if its a choice of not being able to park without a mile walk then I will

Treebee

I agree in theory. But here the roads in new estates are so narrow that parked cars, even on just one side of the road, would mean that a fire engine couldn’t get past without cars parking half on the pavement .The houses I’m thinking of where DD2 used to live, are terraced with no garage or parking space. A real problem.

I agree with this post....its ok for those with drives ....but so many people don't....and they have to park somewhere....and the roads are too narrow for cars either side ....so it happens .