People parking on the pavement

(94 Posts)
nesticles Wed 26-Feb-14 12:54:33

Sorry if this is long.
I am blind and have a 1 year old ds. I use a guide dog so pull the buggy behind me. Yesterday after picking up ds from dm's who had been looking after him while I had a KIT day I came across something that was both dangerous and made me very angry. My guide dog stopped half way along a busy road and wanted to walk in the main road. I was unsure why she was doing this so gingerly walked infront of her to have a feel, Someone had parked a car on the pavement leaving a small gap not big enough to get the buggy through. I couldn't walk in the main road around the parked car so I had to get a sleeping ds out of the buggy, I then had to put him in the sling that was lucklly under the buggy causing a complete melt down, then I had to take the seat of the buggy carry it to the other side of the car, squeeze back between the car and someone's brick wall fold the buggy and carry it back through side ways in the pooring rain. I then had to put the buggy back together and get ds back in to a wet buggy. I am so angry I had to calm down in order to post this today. Not only is this something dangerous to me who is blind but for many many people, mums with buggies, wheelchair users, parents with older children holding hands. Why is this not illegal? Am I being unreasonable to be this cross? What do you guys feel? Has anyone else come across this? Does anyone actually agree with parking on pavements?
PS sorry for typos ds is trying to help!

MrsPear Thu 27-Feb-14 21:01:53

I once had to walk around a car that was parked straight across the pavement which meant walking into a busy road. It was a police car and the officers were eating! It is not just cars we seen to have a problem with rubbish esp mattresses and god they can get heavy after rain.

ErrolTheDragon Thu 27-Feb-14 15:11:58

Piglet - yes, I was surprised how hard it was when I took my mum out in a chair, and goodness knows how people who are self-propelled manage. Presumably most have to spend longer in the road between whatever dropped kerbs are available which could be round a corner or other such unsafe place.

PigletJohn Thu 27-Feb-14 14:02:18

it's my belief that if you have a wheelchair or a pram, and someone is parked on the pavement, you are entitled to try to squeeze through the gap.

If they didn't want their car to be scratched, they wouldn't have put it on the pavement.

BTW it is quite hard to get a wheelchair with an adult in it, up a curb. They are not as light as buggies or prams.

Quoteunquote Thu 27-Feb-14 13:08:49


I have no intention of intimidating anyone, I have much better things to do with my life, but I do not give into bullies, never have never will,

Well we live in a tiny village (south hams), with very narrow lanes, mostly without pavements, it can be very dangerous,

We do have a few pavements in places where it would be certain death to walk in the road, lots of the places where you do have to walk in the road on narrow bends with twenty foot sheer banks don't have them, we rely on each other driving very slowly and carefully, which of course anyone cutting through is not, nor are the grockelstourists.

In the rare places we have managed to squeeze a pavement in they are life savers, so when some selfish lazy twonk decides to park on the pavement, it means all our elderly residents, children, wheelchair users, have to walk into very dangerous traffic.

Pavements are for people, everyone is a pedestrian, everyone needs them, cars do not need them.

The police will not prosecute me for walking over cars on pavements, I have being trying for years to get them to, I have in fact called them myself on occasions, no one wants to go to court and explain that they parked their car on a pavement blocking it, so leaving people the choice of walking into traffic, or climbing over it.

I have also used my tractor to pull cars off pavements, and out of gateways,

If you cannot follow the highway code don't drive, it is very simple.

CromeYellow Thu 27-Feb-14 00:07:27

yanbu, it's incredibly selfish, if drivers need to park further away so they're not blocking the path they should get off their lazy arses and do that. I'd love to see mandatory confiscation of the car and a huge fine for any idiot caught doing that. There is no excuse for blocking peoples right of way and endangering the most vulnerable members of society.

The number of times I was forced to push dd onto a busy main road because of selfish bastards like that, I was so tempted to key their cars....angry and in all cases there were plenty of parking spaces available, they just wanted to save themselves walking a few extra feet. It's so much worse and more dangerous for people in wheelchairs or those who are me rage.

OddFodd Wed 26-Feb-14 23:47:44

MostWicked - I was quoting manic, not talking about disabled drivers.

Some of our very narrow old roads here have no pavements but they have no parking either. So people that live on those roads accept that they have to park a way away. The roads are SO narrow though that if a car parked at all, even on the pavement, it would block the entire road so people don't. If cars could actually get past though, I'm pretty sure people would park there because sadly most people are a lot more worried about causing an obstruction for other vehicles than they are people on foot

There isn't anywhere else to park I sympathise and it might be something to campaign about. The current situation is getting worse.

Still, it doesn't make it right. What happens if there are cars parked on all the pavements. Should you then park on the school playground on in someone's garden and say "There isn't anywhere else to park"?

Pipbin Wed 26-Feb-14 22:34:42
AgaPanthers Wed 26-Feb-14 21:15:14
MostWicked Wed 26-Feb-14 21:11:17

You might see it as more of a problem for a car to have to park further away than for a person to have to walk in the road but that's not very convenient for the disabled is it

You cannot use that argument, because one disabled person can't intentionally make a pavement inaccessible for another disabled person.
And I would somehow expect a disabled driver to be more than aware of the need to keep the pavement clear so not park on one.

PhallicGiraffe Wed 26-Feb-14 21:09:50
PhallicGiraffe Wed 26-Feb-14 20:59:31

Don't forget Royal Mail staff with their trollies too. It annoys them just as much, stops them from doing the job they're supposed to.

manicinsomniac Wed 26-Feb-14 20:43:30


There isn't anywhere else to park. Just a few more cul de sacs and a roads that are also single track (as ours is) and have their own residents parked up on the pavements and the one main road through the village that nobody can park. Oh, and the pub car park - but I don't think that would go down too well!

It would be much more of a problem for all of us, disabled and non disabled, not to be able to own cars in our village in the middle of nowhere than to walk down the quiet single track road that serves as both pavement and road so we can park on the pavement.

Bettterandnow Wed 26-Feb-14 20:41:32

rockybalboa same as where i live plus thebiggest hazardis. A few streets away people are always having extensions and the vans have no option but to park on the pavement for months on end or block the road all day. I blame planners etc. the pavements and roads are not planned for people to live on where i live. There is always a hazard for all so even worse if you are as OP. It makes me fume.

heronsfly Wed 26-Feb-14 20:08:20

YANBU, I unintentionaly badly scratched a pavement parked car with my pram a few years ago, I still feel guilty about it but there was no way I was taking a new baby and a toddler out into the main road.

Cookethenook Wed 26-Feb-14 20:06:16


I walk a 5 mile school run every day with a buggy and get driven mad by people parked inconsiderately. I want to get some stickers printed that say "you park like an idiot"... ones that are really difficult to get off!

hmc Wed 26-Feb-14 19:58:31

Also bit confused about the walking on car bit. Are you in the circus?

hmc Wed 26-Feb-14 19:50:47

I'd love to discuss it with you in person Quoteunquote because you wouldn't intimidate me - and I would delight in reporting you for criminal damage if I saw you or your dogs walking on someone's car (not my own, just anyone's) - simply because you sound really arsey and I don't like hypocrites (i.e. people who complain about inconsiderate drivers breaking the law by obstructing pavements then think they are above the law and can damage the offending vehicles)

siblingrevelry Wed 26-Feb-14 19:37:15

This occurs for two reasons; people who do it are lazy and people believe they have a right to park outside their own house.

So all those explaining their mitigating circumstances and wondering what else they're supposed to do, it's quite simple; park elsewhere, even if it's away from your house!

Quoteunquote Wed 26-Feb-14 19:25:42

Funnily enough if you park on pavements around here you end up with footprints (not all human) across your vehicle.

I love a challenge, and so do my dogs who follow me everywhere.

Funnily enough no one ever wants to argue the toss with me about why I shouldn't. Which is a shame because I love the chance to re educate people.

We have the only village without pavement parkers in the whole area.

Only lazy rude people park on pavements.

MostWicked Wed 26-Feb-14 19:18:06

Keying someone's car is criminally wrong, and rather base unacceptable vigilante behaviour irrespective of how inconsiderate the car owner has been

Maybe not, but when I had to force my double buggy past a car that had taken up half the pavement, and scraped the car in the process, that's unfortunate and completely accidental.

AgaPanthers Wed 26-Feb-14 19:02:32

It would be nice if Parking Pataweyo was omnipresent to prohibit all acts of cuntish parking, but sadly it's not quite the case. Could do with a few outside schools in the morning too wink

hmc Wed 26-Feb-14 18:58:45

Well, funnily enough I believe someone on this very thread has told us how she got a parking ticket issued by a traffic warden for parking on the pavement Agapanthers - so those authorities I suppose.

BlueberryWoods Wed 26-Feb-14 18:56:48

It's tempting to walk up and over the offending vehicle! Maybe just get the kids to do it grin

"Keying someone's car is criminally wrong"

Yes, it is, but if there's no room for the buggy and you find it scraping along the side of the car I'd call that the fault of the driver.

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