Parking with two wheels on the pavement

[Kiltie]

Is it legal to park with two wheels on a pavement?

The setting I'm thinking about is a residential street.

It looks like the footpath is more than 50% obstructed as a result.

This isn't a quick drop off. It's long term / overnight.

Looks to me like people who live opposite each other do this as if they both parked at the kerb, the road would still be passable with care in a car but maybe not in a bigger vehicle.

The road has quite a few elderly people living on it so the footpath being obstructed could be an inconvenience (certainly for someone using a powered wheelchair.

Any thoughts?

[Kiltie]

Additional, but related, question ... is it ok to leave an unhitched trailer parked on a street?

This is where I'm seeing both things.

[GetCarter]

Kiltie said:

Is it legal to park with two wheels on a pavement?

Any thoughts?

From HC: You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.

[Hollowpockets]

Good question about the trailers, not sure but even if it was allowed, I wouldn't want to leave my one on the street as they could quite easily be nabbed by a traveller or someone like minded.

[Siscar]

GetCarter said:

From HC: You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement [b]in London[/], and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.

It's illegal in London but not elsewhere in the country.

[GetCarter]

Siscar said:

It's illegal in London but not elsewhere in the country.

I thought that was what I said.

[Siscar]

GetCarter said:

Siscar said:

It's illegal in London but not elsewhere in the country.

I thought that was what I said.

Hmm, you expect me to read the whole post before responding? What is this place coming to?

[Terzo123]

The offence could be covered under the followng legislation

Driving elsewhere other than a road. i.e driving onto the pavement to park. (You have a defence if you have to drive over the pavement to get to your driveway)

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/52/sectio...

Or causing an uneccesary obstruction

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/66/sectio...

At the end of the day though it should be down to common sense. Housing estates do not always have adequate off street parking, and it is not always suitable to park vehicles on the road.

If pedestrians can get passed vehicles parked partially on the pavement and vehicles can also pass relatively freely on the road, then discretion/advice would probably be used/given.

I can imagine the legislation only being used if someone was seriously taking the piss.

[Terzo123]

Kiltie said:

Additional, but related, question ... is it ok to leave an unhitched trailer parked on a street?

This is where I'm seeing both things.

Looks like the trees should be ticketed for causing an obstruction

[jaf01uk]

Hollowpockets said:

Good question about the trailers, not sure but even if it was allowed, I wouldn't want to leave my one on the street as they could quite easily be nabbed by a traveller or someone like minded.

I think the only stipulation would be that the trailer had reflectors on it and they were facing the oncoming cars?
Gary

[CO2000]

It's a good way to get your car scratched, accidental or otherwise..........I'm speaking from the receiving end so a bit like speeding, there are risks doing it.

Edited by CO2000 on Saturday 25th January 17:33

[dycecooper]

Many years ago I used to park all day on a narrow street where all cars parked at the same side and with two wheels on the pavement.
One day I got booked for it, the following day I parked in the same place but not on the pavement, I came out of work and the car had been moved by the same policeman that had booked me the day before, a note was left by him stating that I was causing an obstruction.
I went to court and lost!

It is illegal to park on the pavement but if you drive out to Bucksburn towards the police station they turn a blind eye to it, including the car parked on the pavement at the double yellow lines under the speed camera.

[ross-co]

A huge amount of the streets in Westhill suffer from this. In General people have more cars now especially in some streets made in the 80's and 90's and the street is to narrow to park on the road so it results in people "bumping" the kerb at both sides.

[Who me ?]

I'm talking England, but we had problems in past due to street being narrow,whereby Residents Association tried to "persuade" county to drop a lot of kerbs in the street to allow for gardens to be made parking areas and remove problems for Emergency service access. The old excuse of ££££ came up and police response was first to ban parking on one side of street. That got bad press ,so next police response was to agree to turn a blind eye to "discrete" use of the wide footpath to remove the problem . But these days- what force has the resources to police pavement parking. On some streets I notice that prams/OAP mobility things would have problems getting past, as cars are wholly parked on the pavement. With the advent of decrim parking ,where the parking wonders can't target obstruction and police doing a Nelson, little chance of anything being done. In olden times ,pavement obstruction was an easy thing to cure. beat officer ( now that's a thing of the past, these days it's a PCSO with no powers ,except to bother cyclists/dog owners) could ask owner to park elsewhere ,but with the threat of checking the vehicle for problems.

[ViperPict]

In certain areas (without parking restrictions) there is more obstruction (to road traffic) by not parking partially on the pavement. I always have my car parked with 2 wheels on the pavement.

[BGarside]

This seems to be normal where I live in Cove. Part of the problem is narrow roads which do not accommodate two parked cars while allowing enough space for traffic to pass between. Then there's the massive increase in car ownership such that every house has at least 2 cars. Finally, the housing developments constructed without provision of sufficient parking.

I live near the school and parked cars must be a major obstruction to mums bringing their kids to school. Pavements are for pedestrians, not car parking.