Parking On The Pavement & Bikes On The Pavement

[securespark]

I hate it!

Always have and always will.

I see people parking on the pavement even when there is no reason - not that there are any valid reasons to park on the pavement.

Members of my own family do it, and I'm always at a loss as to why. Surely, if you think parking your car is going to cause an obstruction, parking it on the pavement is not the answer - it should be parked elsewhere where it is not an obstruction.

I know many of you will say "in an ideal world.......", but I've always felt like this and can honestly hold my hand on my ticker and say I've never done it and never will. As a pedestrian who has in the past wheeled relatives in wheelchairs and also use prams, it is exceedingly frustrating to find that there is not enough width to get past - and think of the visually impaired - they have enough worries without contending with badly parked vehicles.

And for that matter, bikes on the pavement. I suppose you can forgive the odd five year-old, but how many times do you find grown adults on their bikes on the pavement?

I say to them "there's a whole road for you just a few feet away.." and I usually get a facefull.

 

[AdamW]

I hate parking on the pavement too. Mainly because it can't be good for the car. But it also just looks wrong.

I have had to do it a couple of times recently, my mate has moved to a 1980/1990s Barrat's development. They decided that 3-bed houses only need a one-car drive, and in order to make it look nice and get more houses in they made the road all narrow and serpenty and squiggly. So it isn't really possible to just park on one side of it. So, everyone parks with 2-wheels on the pavement. Nowhere else to park. Seeing as even in the 1980s most families in the area would have been 2-car families, it seems to be shortsightedness on the developers' part.

It's actually illegal, I understand. My neighbour had the police come knocking because he seemed to think he could park a LWB Transit on a Fiesta-sized driveway and was blocking the pavement. This being on a residential road with no through-route, and next-to-no traffic.

 

[pipme]

The whole thing needs looking at... Very dangerous in 'one road' access Culs De Sac, from the fire aspect.
Parking on pavements, over fire hydrant access plates .. Thoughtless... Of course the 'street sweeping vehicle' is also unable to function. .. Leading to blocked road 'sinks' and possible flooding.

 

[Diyisfun]

It has been a contravention since 2nd Jan 1985 to park a vehicle with one or more wheels on any part of an urban rd other than a carriagway within the greater London area.

 

[pipme]

............

Criteria for Exemption

1. Exemption to be granted only where parking of vehicles wholly within the carriageway reduces the carriageway width to less than 3 metres.

2. A minimum footway width of 1.2 metres be available for pedestrians.

3. Roads in shopping and other busy pedestrian areas not to be considered.

4. Areas outside schools, play areas, libraries, hospitals, health centres and residential homes for the elderly and other places of public assembly, not to be considered.

5. Any road, were it to be exempted, vehicles would park on a grass verge, not to be considered.

6. No vehicle be allowed to park where it would obstruct the proper use, by all classes of vehicles, of the turning area provided at the end of a cul-de-sac or similar blocked highway.

7. Motor cycles be permitted to park on footways.

8. Exemption not to be granted where residents can provide off-street parking but have chosen not to do so, or do not use existing off-street parking places for a variety of reasons not considered acceptable on highway, traffic or amenity grounds.

9. Where a street does not meet the above criteria for exemption and where any enforcement action would create a situation where access for emergency vehicles is obstructed and/or the capacity of the highway is reduced below its functioning level, special consideration will be given according to the particular circumstances, and the criteria relaxed as necessary.

That looked handy .... oh, twas bl##dy Brent council !!

 

[andy]

i only park partially on the path if i have to. but 1 good rule when doing so is to make sure there is more than enough room for a wheelchair to get past. some small streets you have to park partially on a path otherwise youd only be able to park down 1 side

 

[securespark]

A few months ago, our local rugby club had a do on, and the world and her husband parked nearby....there were literally tens of cars parked on the pavement, on the road illegally, on grass verges...anywhere they could fit, with absolutely no regard for anyone. We drove past and saw four coppers writing like their hands would drop off.

Apparently, 89 tickets were issued, and five drivers ended up in court charged with obstructing the highway, after a fire tender had to smash its way through.

Dreadful.

 

[pipme]

Fire tender ... We live in a culs de sac, stupid parking could cost lives, there would be nowhere to smash or push cars too.. Very few seem to care, or consider their actions beyond parking as near as possible to destination.
There appears to be no sensible planning going on in the town halls.

 

[AdamW]

after a fire tender had to smash its way through.

Dreadful.

I've always wondered about that. Can they do this?

Y'see, my parents' road has this a-hole who makes a point of double-parking the house across the street from him because she is a piano teacher and thus has cars coming and going. His words, not hers. His parking sometimes makes it so narrow that you could barely crawl a car through.

This has always been an annoyance to everyone who ever has to drive into our road (w*nker), but it wasn't until I had to call an ambulance that I realised the potential danger. Luckily he was out (nasty old s*d), so the ambulance had no problem. But I did wonder what would happen if an emergency vehicle had to get to our house (sad little man)

Are emergency vehicles allowed to barge other vehicles out of the way if life and property are at stake, and no-one is around to move the vehicle? Do they have to radio back or can a fireman just make his own mind up and ram the heartless old g*t's Rover 820 out of the way? Preferably knackering the transmission brake?

Would an ambulance have enough oomph to push a car with handbrake on and possibly automatic transmission brake?

 

[AdamW]

Fire tender ... We live in a culs de sac, stupid parking could cost lives, there would be nowhere to smash or push cars too.. Very few seem to care, or consider their actions beyond parking as near as possible to destination.
There appears to be no sensible planning going on in the town halls.

My road is also a quiet cul-de-sac (I've just realised that means "a**e of the bag" in French ), but they left an alternative method of entry for emergencies. It isn't obvious, my solicitor actually showed me on the plans when I bought the place. To use it you have to bump up a kerb on a nearby main road, drive across 100 yards or so of grass (up a slight, but not inconsiderabel incline) squeeze between two houses (which is also a path), drive over a dog-poo bin, and then they are on the road. The only thing that gives it away is a dropped kerb with seemingly no purpose on the cul-de-sac end of this route.

 

[Diyisfun]

securespark
A few months ago, our local rugby club had a do on, and the world and her husband parked nearby....there were literally tens of cars parked on the pavement, on the road illegally, on grass verges

I went to the lake district, parked on the verge with all the other cars, we all got a ticket. Cars parked on the road causing an obstruction no ticket. Oh well it was cheaper than a ticket in London..

 

[Big_Spark]

Bleet bleet bleet...

And what of the self employed who MUST park beside a job and can only park there without causing an obstruction by putting a foot or more of van on the pavement...it may not be ideal but as councils make all roads parking free zones or residential parking only there is not other choice.

Simon, I suggest you take this up with your MP and get the lazy twwat to earn his keep and get the law changed so that us poor sods trying to earn a crust don't get robbed by illegal immigrants in uniform employed by kiss arrsse liberals with brown tongues sucking up to the likes of Commi Ken and the namby pamby NIMBY Green brigade.

If Bleeting was an Olympic sport this country would win every Gold medal, but we are so good at that instead of actually doing we win buggger all.

The Public in this country make me puke, Bleet Bleet Bleet, but no action!!

 

[securespark]

Well, if I'm a bleating, vomit-inducing MOP, then so be it!

I reguarly work the Greater Manchester area, and while it is not London, I have also delivered stuff nationwide in a Tranny and parked many times in all the major cities, including the Smoke.

I have never had to park on the pavement, but I have had to park on yellows for some deliveries, only after talking to a cap and agreeing a stop.

If you talk to them, they're quite human. They realise you have to deliver, and you can usually agree a stop of 15-20 mins max.

I stand to be corrected because from what people have said in previous threads, they have had a bad experience with wardens and attendants, but I have nothing bad to say about them. My last (edit and should I say only) parking ticket was in 1989 for parking on double yellows.

 

[Adam_151]

I had an argument a few months back with a builder who has parked his pick-up truck across the pavement in a diaganal sort of fashion, meaning that if he has straighened up, he would be blocking the road no more than he was, and most of the width of the path would be usuable, it was sheer laziness that he hadn't done so.

I ended up thrown through a hedge backwards

(I have a bit of a temper sometimes though, and he accused me of being rude (I was not rude, I merely told him that his method of parking was not acceptable), and swore at me, and I wasn't haveing that and demanded an an appology from him, and it went downhill from there )

I dare say some of you on this board would have also thrown me through a hedge (going on past experience mentionoing incidents like this on forums)

 

[Big_Spark]

Adam, in that instance you should have called the Police and had him arrested for Assault.

If a person needs to park o the pavement, they should do it with some form of intelligence, and I have no love of bad parking. However sometimes we need to park in iffy situations that are not desirable, but that is no excuse for total lack of consideration and committing assault.


Simon, Good for you, but with respect mate, delivering in London is not the same as working there. I cannot remember the last time I parked on the pavement OUTSIDE London, but in London's back streets in certain areas there is no option, to park normally would block the road or be a hazard for tohers using the road.