MP`s want a ban on cars parking on pavements.
Discussion
Pupbelly said:
Houses that do have "garages" on these new estates are built for an Austin A35 not a modern Ford Fiesta which despite being a "small" car has no chance of fitting in said garage.
Modern cars really don't need to live in garages, but driveways to accommodate cars side by side should be used where possible.Many/most UK residential roads are not wide enough to accommodate street parking and the passage of 1 car.
I moved in to a new build estate about 5 years ago. 4 bedroom three story house with an inbuilt garage that wouldn’t fit a mini in it let alone any normal sized car. I drive a 1 series and it had 5mm clearance (no way am I using that it’s just an inevitability to damage the car).
The house has 1 car space on the driveway for a 4 bedroom property. Mental. Now when I first moved in there were small plants and shrubs/trees freshly planted on my front property. . I asked the builder to remove them so i could put more bricks down (brick paved driveway). Said sorry were not allowed to a certain % of the development has to be green (shrubs/trees etc). I knew there were restrictions on the estate saying we weren’t allowed to remove the greenery but it’s amazing how quickly they died when coated in industrial weed killer.
I now have 2 parking spaces outside my house perfect. As all properties should have been built in the first place, but no the council refused planning permission until a certain % of green space was allocated.
Now the developer wanting to maximise his profits went fine. Put the green space on each houses footfall but I’m not giving up land that can be used to build extra house on.
Until this regulation changes then it’s going to be a problem no matter what.
The house has 1 car space on the driveway for a 4 bedroom property. Mental. Now when I first moved in there were small plants and shrubs/trees freshly planted on my front property. . I asked the builder to remove them so i could put more bricks down (brick paved driveway). Said sorry were not allowed to a certain % of the development has to be green (shrubs/trees etc). I knew there were restrictions on the estate saying we weren’t allowed to remove the greenery but it’s amazing how quickly they died when coated in industrial weed killer.
I now have 2 parking spaces outside my house perfect. As all properties should have been built in the first place, but no the council refused planning permission until a certain % of green space was allocated.
Now the developer wanting to maximise his profits went fine. Put the green space on each houses footfall but I’m not giving up land that can be used to build extra house on.
Until this regulation changes then it’s going to be a problem no matter what.
MC Bodge said:
Pupbelly said:
Houses that do have "garages" on these new estates are built for an Austin A35 not a modern Ford Fiesta which despite being a "small" car has no chance of fitting in said garage.
Modern cars really don't need to live in garages, but driveways to accommodate cars side by side should be used where possible.Many/most UK residential roads are not wide enough to accommodate street parking and the passage of 1 car.
It is a problem in my area when you go through a TW to get to the local skip the road leading in is littered with cars blocking the way.
Also town planners went through a phase of giving people car ports... which is fine if people are nice and care about keeping things tidy but it appears most don't care and just use it as a public dumping ground (I'd be embarrassed to have an old washing machine outside my place).
The other change in the past 20 years in the number of corporate vans that now get taken home..... they annoy the hell out of me.
CooperS said:
MC Bodge said:
Pupbelly said:
Houses that do have "garages" on these new estates are built for an Austin A35 not a modern Ford Fiesta which despite being a "small" car has no chance of fitting in said garage.
Modern cars really don't need to live in garages, but driveways to accommodate cars side by side should be used where possible.Many/most UK residential roads are not wide enough to accommodate street parking and the passage of 1 car.
It is a problem in my area when you go through a TW to get to the local skip the road leading in is littered with cars blocking the way.
Also town planners went through a phase of giving people car ports... which is fine if people are nice and care about keeping things tidy but it appears most don't care and just use it as a public dumping ground (I'd be embarrassed to have an old washing machine outside my place).
The other change in the past 20 years in the number of corporate vans that now get taken home..... they annoy the hell out of me.
On the bottom end of my road we have two large vans for the same national business that park on the road outside the same house very night. Its right on the curve of the road, so everyone has to tip-toe round because you cannot see if anything is coming the other way.
Hol said:
CooperS said:
MC Bodge said:
Pupbelly said:
Houses that do have "garages" on these new estates are built for an Austin A35 not a modern Ford Fiesta which despite being a "small" car has no chance of fitting in said garage.
Modern cars really don't need to live in garages, but driveways to accommodate cars side by side should be used where possible.Many/most UK residential roads are not wide enough to accommodate street parking and the passage of 1 car.
It is a problem in my area when you go through a TW to get to the local skip the road leading in is littered with cars blocking the way.
Also town planners went through a phase of giving people car ports... which is fine if people are nice and care about keeping things tidy but it appears most don't care and just use it as a public dumping ground (I'd be embarrassed to have an old washing machine outside my place).
The other change in the past 20 years in the number of corporate vans that now get taken home..... they annoy the hell out of me.
On the bottom end of my road we have two large vans for the same national business that park on the road outside the same house very night. Its right on the curve of the road, so everyone has to tip-toe round because you cannot see if anything is coming the other way.
I walk to work every day and for me, cars parked on the pavement are very annoying. They aren't there because there isn't room on the street, because they could park on the road pretty much exactly where they are on the pavement. But often I then have a choice of having to cross or walk in the road, or squeeze past someone's dirty car or wet shrubbery in my work clothes.
It's annoying for me and while I can generally cross a road without killing myself (so far so good) it annoys me that every pedestrian has to take that option, perhaps with dogs, prams, visual or hearing impairments, who knows what else.... for an unknown benefit to the car driver.
Regarding parking on road instead of driveway: Last time I renewed my insurance, it was cheaper to declare it parked on road instead of drive. The difference for me was only 2 quid.... but I can imagine if someone gets a big enough difference they will park on the road instead of on their drive.
I think most of the points have been raised on here already.
I don' t think there are many who would park partially or wholly on the pavement if the road was wide enough not to have to.
So the main issue are
where will all the cars go?
Where is the adequate public transport to remove need for vehicles.
Who is going to enforce it?
But the biggest unaddressed question. In lots of small older, and newer, areas, it would be impossible for an emergency vehcicle to get through. Whilst pedestrian access is an issue, surely emergency access is a more important issue and has not been raised as an issue by these think tanks, or even the emergency services. It needs tackling in stages, no way could it be done by the issuing of a law.
I don' t think there are many who would park partially or wholly on the pavement if the road was wide enough not to have to.
So the main issue are
where will all the cars go?
Where is the adequate public transport to remove need for vehicles.
Who is going to enforce it?
But the biggest unaddressed question. In lots of small older, and newer, areas, it would be impossible for an emergency vehcicle to get through. Whilst pedestrian access is an issue, surely emergency access is a more important issue and has not been raised as an issue by these think tanks, or even the emergency services. It needs tackling in stages, no way could it be done by the issuing of a law.
I live in a new house on a small development and the parking is a bit crap. Our garage counts as one space plus the drive. Ultimately the parking provision is inadequate because most people have a car outside their house but it doesn’t impeded the bin lorry etc
Downside is that the garage isn’t really big enough for a modern car plus it’s got tools, bikes etc in. Our previous house had slightly better off road parking so the garage became a man cave for storing all of my mountain bikes in. The plan is to extend our drive across the front lawn to get another off road space.
Amazingly they didn’t bother with any visitor spaces but I imagine that these would have been abused.
Parking in our village is pretty bad; people keeping their drives clear and parking in the road and I stop visitors etc parking outside their house. Some of the parking on the pavement is a pisstake; one house has visitors in an Insignia who park totally on the pavement making it impassable for pedestrians. A few people have had notes / fines from the police for parking too close to junctions.
I guess fundamentally there are too many cars on the road and too many get defensive about parking (e.g. those who have an empty drive to prevent parking outside their house even for brief periods).
Downside is that the garage isn’t really big enough for a modern car plus it’s got tools, bikes etc in. Our previous house had slightly better off road parking so the garage became a man cave for storing all of my mountain bikes in. The plan is to extend our drive across the front lawn to get another off road space.
Amazingly they didn’t bother with any visitor spaces but I imagine that these would have been abused.
Parking in our village is pretty bad; people keeping their drives clear and parking in the road and I stop visitors etc parking outside their house. Some of the parking on the pavement is a pisstake; one house has visitors in an Insignia who park totally on the pavement making it impassable for pedestrians. A few people have had notes / fines from the police for parking too close to junctions.
I guess fundamentally there are too many cars on the road and too many get defensive about parking (e.g. those who have an empty drive to prevent parking outside their house even for brief periods).
Coilspring said:
But the biggest unaddressed question. In lots of small older, and newer, areas, it would be impossible for an emergency vehcicle to get through. Whilst pedestrian access is an issue, surely emergency access is a more important issue and has not been raised as an issue by these think tanks, or even the emergency services. It needs tackling in stages, no way could it be done by the issuing of a law.
When I'm on foot, I think of the problems that a car parked on a pavement would be giving someone with a pram, for some reason.When I'm in a car squeezing through a gap made by parked cars that's just wide enough for my little Nissan, I'm thinking an ambulance will never get through there.
Even though I have a bigger picture available, I'm susceptible to only considering the part that impacted me most recently, unfortunately, even though I can recognise that failing. I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, to be fair... maybe it just means that if I'm like that, I can't expect others to do any better as long as they have a personal interest in the outcome, and those making the most noise are nearly always motivated by a personal interest, unsurprisingly.
Another big issue of parking that really annoys me, maybe because I drive quite a large van, is how turning areas at the end of cul de sacs are now used as parking for cars and vans preventing many vehicles from actually turning around.
But it is not on the pavement so it is not even on the discussions of such think tanks over parking.
Parking is an issue, generally. Planning and foresight is too.
But it is not on the pavement so it is not even on the discussions of such think tanks over parking.
Parking is an issue, generally. Planning and foresight is too.
phil4 said:
Dave Hedgehog said:
a lot of councils put restrictions on the number of car spaces to discourage car use to save the polar bears
when we rebuilt our office we had 40 spaces, council refused to give planning until we reduced it to 20... fortunately a smart bit of design with a long wide access road a few 'HGV' spots gave us 20 more spaces lol
Same here... offices have room for 20-30 people easily, but only permitted to have 10 spaces.when we rebuilt our office we had 40 spaces, council refused to give planning until we reduced it to 20... fortunately a smart bit of design with a long wide access road a few 'HGV' spots gave us 20 more spaces lol
As mentioned earlier, it's the council trying to persuade everyone to use public transport. They're the one actually creating the problem.
kiseca said:
When I'm on foot, I think of the problems that a car parked on a pavement would be giving someone with a pram, for some reason.
When I'm in a car squeezing through a gap made by parked cars that's just wide enough for my little Nissan, I'm thinking an ambulance will never get through there.
Even though I have a bigger picture available, I'm susceptible to only considering the part that impacted me most recently, unfortunately, even though I can recognise that failing. I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, to be fair... maybe it just means that if I'm like that, I can't expect others to do any better as long as they have a personal interest in the outcome, and those making the most noise are nearly always motivated by a personal interest, unsurprisingly.
I don't disagree with your comment, and admitting always a narow viewpoint, which ultimately most of us do, most of the time.When I'm in a car squeezing through a gap made by parked cars that's just wide enough for my little Nissan, I'm thinking an ambulance will never get through there.
Even though I have a bigger picture available, I'm susceptible to only considering the part that impacted me most recently, unfortunately, even though I can recognise that failing. I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, to be fair... maybe it just means that if I'm like that, I can't expect others to do any better as long as they have a personal interest in the outcome, and those making the most noise are nearly always motivated by a personal interest, unsurprisingly.
But this parking issue and suggested answer was by a think tank set up to solve such issues. By its very nature, they should look at as many pictures as they can find before even thinking of any solutions.
It is always easy to solve 1 problem, but create others. Only by understanding the full (er) impacts can any sensible solution ever be found. In this case they seem to be prepared to cure 1 such problem and ignore, or even worse, create, more issues.
Shakermaker said:
Hol said:
Yes, was going to say that isn't parked on the pavement
From: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.9310306,-1.30606...
The 'pavement' that has been marked out as parking spaces has streetlamps, BT inspection chambers, etc on it.
300bhp/ton said:
Have the seam not too far from me. Parade of shops which people obviously people want to park by. Rather than modify the pavement or restrict parking, they have simply painted spaces half on the pavement. Also there's another road near me which has cars parked up on both pavements. Without that happening, there would be no way to actually get down the road. Even if they limited it to parking on one side, I'm not convinced you'd get anything but a small car down the clear part of the road let alone emergency vehicles. I suspect that applies many roads across the country.
Again, a blanket ban just doesn't take into account the logistics of every area. Bit like the blanket roll out 20mph zones across an entire borough!
sjg said:
In Japan you have to prove you have off-street parking (either at your house or rented close by) in order to buy a car in the first place. No overnight street parking.
If you have to park on the pavement to allow enough space for emergency vehicles, then don't park there. Go further away and walk
People seem utterly incapable of this.If you have to park on the pavement to allow enough space for emergency vehicles, then don't park there. Go further away and walk
I've a neighbour who parks their car right smack bang in front of their house, even though they have allocated parking in a block 25 metres away.
Dare I raise a stereotype, that the worst offenders are the school mummies who's little darlings legs clearly can't manage a walk more than 10 metres from their front door? ..... probably the same ones that were whinging about pushchair space on pavements only a year or two prior.
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