Motoring Discussion > Pavement parking again Miscellaneous
Thread Author: bathtub tom Replies: 51

 Pavement parking again - bathtub tom
You may be familiar with my particular 'bee in bonnet', but I came across this yesterday:

tinyurl.com/ndymxaj
tinyurl.com/ohyo26e

Town centre. Pushchairs and mobility scooters had to use the road to get round it while the driver delivered to an adjacent building.

I've emailed the only contacts I can find on their website, but they appear to be sales and uninterested (they haven't replied).

Any suggestions as to where I can publish these photo's to name and shame the perp?
 Pavement parking again - Alanovich
YPLAC?
 Pavement parking again - Bill Payer
Isn't that also illegal use of hazard lights?
 Pavement parking again - Old Navy
Our council has recently dropped the kerbs continuously along this road to facilitate pavement parking. Out of working hours cars are parked along the pavement on both sides.

goo.gl/maps/qvajc
 Pavement parking again - Bromptonaut
>> Our council has recently dropped the kerbs continuously along this road to facilitate pavement parking.
>> Out of working hours cars are parked along the pavement on both sides.
>>
>> goo.gl/maps/qvajc

If it works and the pavement remains passable for wheelchairs etc then all well and good. What I see locally is 'f8&k you' stiff where there's just enough space to sidle through.
 Pavement parking again - jc2
Don't bother naming and shaming;just send them to the Chief Constable!
 Pavement parking again - -
Didn't that used to be the Ford showroom BT, used to have to park right outside the showroom (on the road) to collect and deliver cars, caused havoc, some nice totty used to pass by in those days.

Yes it can be a PITA such parking and i don't know how many 'drops' this company requires, but...

The parcel delivery drivers have their work seriously cut out and i have an awful lot of sympathy with them and try me best to help them out traffic wise whenever i can.

Chap called at out house the other night, nearly 8pm, he'd already done 100 drops plus 20 odd collections from his normal delivery area some 40 miles away, when he got back he had to reload his Sprinter and go out locally on route home to help the usual local chap out.

We all want cheap parcel deliveries, but the reality of these peoples jobs i really don't know how they do it day in day out.

The van parked whilst yes its a PITA i would cut him a bit of slack depending on how long he was there, he might have another 125 deliveries that day.
 Pavement parking again - bathtub tom
That's the place gb.

If you managed to park a transporter on the road, then why couldn't this ignoramus?
 Pavement parking again - -
>> If you managed to park a transporter on the road, then why couldn't this ignoramus?
>>

to be fair we used to get away with blue murder, weight limits all sorts, possible we might have taken advantage now and again, not always taking the mickey either you had lots to think about, road approach angles and turn angles trees as well as wll the normal hazards, nine times out of ten if a proper warden came along (not the weird characters now around London boroughs) they'd be as helpful as possible in order for us to get done and clear off asap.

ordinary vans don't get anywhere near as much rope to play with and its quite possible there are now loading restrictions there..again we used to get away with most due to the size that weren't red routes.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 3 Oct 13 at 12:29
 Pavement parking again - Mapmaker
Is he actually on a pavement? I'm not sure at all.
 Pavement parking again - Ted

There's another aspect to ' full on ' pavement parking. Sight lines. This junction is one I use a lot, cars park full on the pavement with driver's side wheels by the kerb. Clear in this pic but usually one 20ft from the junction and 4 or 5 more down the road.

goo.gl/maps/kZ15K

You can't see down the road to the right without sticking your snout out into the main road some distance and the lack of parked cars encourages drivers to go that little bit faster. If the cars were parked against the wall then the view would be ok. It's a good wide pavement so users aren't inconvenienced in any way.

Ted
 Pavement parking again - VxFan
>> Is he actually on a pavement?

No, he's parked across an entrance. The footpath ends where the kerbing is. Those concrete bollards don't look the type that are removable though.
 Pavement parking again - bathtub tom
>> Is he actually on a pavement?

It used to be a car dealership that closed years ago (and before that a bus station). The dropped kerb would have been used in those times. It's now a car park.

goo.gl/maps/GuUmA
 Pavement parking again - Armel Coussine
Prams and the occasional zimmerframe would be able to get round the van in the photo by filtering through the bollards and back, looks like.

I don't understand why people get hot under the collar about pavement parking. One often has to do it in busy places, not just in London either. Naturally one tries to do it considerately, or failing that very briefly. Faffing about it disapprovingly, as so many here do, is just giving ammo to the enemy, the local councils who reduce short-term parking space by slopping yellow paint all over everything so that they can pick your pocket when you stop for two minutes without causing an obstruction. Damn carphounds they are, and silly old women are they who faff.
 Pavement parking again - Manatee
You can't win. I'm all for a pragmatic attitude but then Idle Inconsiderate Gits abuse any tolerance.

The local pub has an enormous car park at the back that always has space, but a couple of IIGs amongst the regulars always park on the pavement at the front, blocking the pavement and the sightlines at a very awkward crossroads where the pub is situated.
 Pavement parking again - Armel Coussine
No offence Manatee, but sightlines schmightlines... it isn't a race track and it's in an urban area, proceed briskly but with all necessary caution.

Being British I tend to use a car park if there's space in it. But I still feel nostalgic for Paris 30 years-plus ago, where people would often park on corners with one wheel on someone's doorstep... it was hilarious as well as convenient.

That said, some people are astonishingly stupid about where they park on the road - at the inner apex of a difficult bend for example. Actually that's a position where it is positively criminal not to get as far onto the pavement or verge as possible.
 Pavement parking again - Manatee
>>No offence Manatee, but sightlines schmightlines...

None taken. It is an awkward junction however and traffic on the main road is frequently too fast as the road is straight. People joining from both minor roads have to put their noses out regardless. The minor road at the side of the pub has no pavement and the buildings come up to the road edge. The pub wall and that of the house opposite are frequently scraped, the house has been hit at first floor level by the front of a car transporter more than once.
 Pavement parking again - -
The pub wall and that of the house opposite are frequently scraped, the house has been hit at
>> first floor level by the front of a car transporter more than once.
>>

L Buzzard MT?, one of the blokes at my first transporter home shoved a transporter peak deck through someones bedroom window there, did the earth move for you my love>:-)
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 3 Oct 13 at 17:07
 Pavement parking again - Manatee
>>L Buzzard MT?

Not actually in Leighton, no. Ever been to the airfield industrial estate between Cheddington and Long Marston? Near there. There are certain approaches that the heavy stuff is usually not supposed to use. There is/was an outfit operating from there, not saying it was necessarily their vehicles...
 Pavement parking again - -
. Ever been to the airfield industrial estate between Cheddington and
>> Long Marston? Near there.

Rings a bell and if its the right place been there many times, ISTR Kia had a defleet/refurb site there for ex rental/fleet stuff.
 Pavement parking again - Dutchie
I don't condone pavement parking but delivery drivers must be under lots of pressure.

Reporting them,don't know I'm not the reporting type somebody could lose their job.
 Pavement parking again - Armel Coussine
>> I'm not the reporting type somebody could lose their job.

Quite right Dutchman. Anyway life's too short to waste your time playing the volunteer copper's nark.
 Pavement parking again - Robbie34
I have recently had to buy a mobility scooter and it's a disgrace the number of cars that are parked on the pavement. I never realised how bad it was until I had to negotiate the number of badly parked vehicles. If I lived in a busy urban area I could understand the need to keep the roads clear. However, I live in a semi rural area with wide roads and houses that were built with garages and masses of parking space. A lot of residents have converted their garages into living areas, - one has made his into a bar with what looks like a juke box or slot machine installed near the window. This particular house has drive through parking, and the owner has paved over his big garden, yet parks his cars outside on the pavement. It seems that he's too lazy to open the gates at either side. A few people park their cars totally on the pavement.

It is just selfishness, and I have no idea how mothers with prams and the partially sighted negotiate the vehicles. To make matters worse, there is also a stables in the village, and we have the occasional few riders who think the pavement is for their horses, and parked vehicles make an ideal obstacle course.
Last edited by: Robbie34 on Thu 3 Oct 13 at 17:14
 Pavement parking again - Old Navy
Are pointed, tungsten carbide tipped handlebar extensions available as an accessory for your scooter? :-)
 Pavement parking again - Robbie34
Unfortunately, in the majority of cases there is no room to get past so have to drive on to the road.
 Pavement parking again - Old Navy
I am sure the aforementioned accessories can be fitted to both sides and you would not want to go too far into the road. :-)
 Pavement parking again - jc2
If some of you had to spend three months(like I did)in a wheelchair,you'd soon realize how unpleasant some pavement parking can be and mine was only temporary-for some people it's for a lifetime!
 Pavement parking again - BiggerBadderDave
Robbie, you need to carry a lump hammer on your scooter journeys.

My little sister ended up on a scooter too and the MS gave her very little mobility and balance, no bouncing down the kerbs, not looking over her shoulder to reverse. One time some brainless, selfish prick parked on the pavement, blocking her journey to the shops. She tried to squeeze through but on the garden side the wheels dropped off the pavement and bogged down into the soil, tipping her off into a hedge. The steroids made her a hefty girl so she had no chance of picking herself and nobody driving past could see her. It was 20 minutes until a neighbour found her and they called for an ambulance but the paramedics weren't 'allowed' to rescue her in certain incidents (Health and Safety etc.). So she lay there in that tight confined space until enough neighbours could heave her out. Someone went around knocking on all the doors but nobody could locate the driver.

So do I understand why people get hot under the collar about pavement parking? If I'd been there, there'd be a lot of glass to sweep up.
 Pavement parking again - Dog
This is a previous owse we lived in goo.gl/maps/I8hlH and a friend used to park right on the drive/pavement because she couldn't be bothered to drive or reverse up my narrow driveway.

I never knew she parked there until she told me someone had stuck a notice on her windscreen, I made the ignorant cow park further up the drive afterward (hello Maureen) :)

All those trees are gorn now, and the driveway entrance has bin widened.
 Pavement parking again - Armel Coussine
I am surprised and a bit shocked by the tolerance - even applause - for malicious damage by some here. Inconsiderate parking is one thing, vengeful and incidentally illegal malevolence is another.

Yes, people often park stupidly. But the car may be borrowed or stolen from a person who will care and who perhaps can't afford the very high cost of cosmetic repairs.

I'm not at all keen on people who scream the place down about parking nerfs that do no damage (there's a story in the comic today about little Bercow, who can't drive apparently, and some ghastly blonde bimbo with a Range Rover). But people who anonymously do deliberate damage to other people's property are disgusting and beyond the pale.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 4 Oct 13 at 16:11
 Pavement parking again - VxFan
>> I am surprised and a bit shocked by the tolerance - even applause - for
>> malicious damage by some here.
>> Yes, people often park stupidly. But the car may be borrowed or stolen from a
>> person who will care and who perhaps can't afford the very high cost of cosmetic
>> repairs.

IIRC, you previously had no issue with moving another car a few inches/feet with your bumper so that you could fit into a parking space, potentially leaving them with cosmetic repairs to pay for ;)
Last edited by: VxFan on Fri 4 Oct 13 at 16:53
 Pavement parking again - Manatee
>> >> I am surprised and a bit shocked by the tolerance - even applause -
>> for
>> >> malicious damage by some here.
>> >> Yes, people often park stupidly. But the car may be borrowed or stolen from
>> a
>> >> person who will care and who perhaps can't afford the very high cost of
>> cosmetic
>> >> repairs.
>>
>> IIRC, you previously had no issue with moving another car a few inches/feet with your
>> bumper so that you could fit into a parking space, potentially leaving them with cosmetic
>> repairs to pay for ;)


That's comes under not getting upset about parking nerfs!
 Pavement parking again - -
Theres a whole world of difference between selfish uncaring abandon it for days at a time style of parking, and often enough in the vicinity of where the antagonist lives where they know full well the problems it causes but could care less....and the van driver who's parking started this thread, who will in most cases be there seconds or minutes whilst he dumps the stuff gets signed and runs.

The van parking might be annoying for a few minutes, but in this overcrowded and not getting any bigger island we'll just have to cut each other a bit of slack.

 Pavement parking again - Manatee
That is undoubtedly true gb. Some people are just gits.

There was a neighbour who repeatedly parked opposite a drive in a private road at at our last house, obliging either me or my immediate neighbour to drive across our own garden to get out of our respective curtilages.

This continued, despite polite requests to cease and desist, until the immediate neighbour accidentally reversed into the side of the git's car, quite hard.

 Pavement parking again - Armel Coussine

>> IIRC, you previously had no issue with moving another car a few inches/feet with your bumper

True, but in another context really. In the US in the early seventies it was common practice to snuggle gently up to a car and nudge it a little forward or back against its handbrake. You could tell immediately if it was an auto in Park because it really wouldn't move. The steel bumpers most cars still had got a bit scuffed, but no one really cared.

I've often complained about the cosmetic bumpers many cars have nowadays which are ridiculously flimsy and ridiculously expensive. Absolutely stinks of planned money-for-goddam-jam for the aftermarket repair and spares industries.

My own car has bumpers that are quite sensible (as HJ noted in his review of the Cruiser). However they are far from perfect; even if they were perfect though I wouldn't go around marking other people's jalopies and doing a runner. When I do that, I leave a note. Hasn't happened for years: you can touch another car without damaging it and I sometimes do that in small spaces.

There really ought to be a standard for bumper height and so on. But don't hold your breath because most legislation is for profit, not practicality or economy or the purchaser's real convenience.

 Pavement parking again - -
>> There really ought to be a standard for bumper height and so on. But don't
>> hold your breath because most legislation is for profit, not practicality or economy or the
>> purchaser's real convenience.

Couldn't agree more, Volvos came with them on the last of the 144 and the 244 range, big solid aluminium bars with a rubber facing, solid as hell and would stand an awful lot of punishment.

144 was the best, last of which had these huge bumpers mounted on two impressive rubber mounts so they stood proud of the car by about 2".

One of my friends waved goodbye as he left our house, wallked behind our 144 to get to his car and immediately dropped from view with a cry of pain...he'd found the brick outhouse towbar which stuck out another 6" behind that bumber..:-)
 Pavement parking again - Bromptonaut
Reminds me of the BX. Really solid plastic bumpers in self coloured plastic to match car's paint.

Mrs B in 1994, suffering pregnancy induced brain atrophy, turned wheel too soon exiting our drive and demolished the boundary wall. Bumper was barely marked.
 Pavement parking again - Old Navy
>> One of my friends waved goodbye as he left our house, wallked behind our 144
>> to get to his car and immediately dropped from view with a cry of pain...he'd
>> found the brick outhouse towbar which stuck out another 6" behind that bumber..:-)
>>

Many years ago I saw a BMC MINI rear end a Volvo with a towbar in low speed traffic, it smashed the MINI engine block, the Volvo was undamaged.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 4 Oct 13 at 20:56
 Pavement parking again - -
>> Many years ago I saw a BMC MINI rear end a Volvo with a towbar
>> in low speed traffic, it smashed the MINI engine block, the Volvo was undamaged.

Similar in one of the West Mids suburbs where a chap nudged my empty transporter up the back with his Rover 214, sharp steel rear end dug right on causing lots of car damage, bloke was broken hearted just an ordinary working feller.

Obviously there was no damage to the lorry but my boss of the time saw some pound signs in his eyes and wanted the other blokes details so he could put an estimate it, he's still waiting.
 Pavement parking again - Zero

>> Couldn't agree more, Volvos came with them on the last of the 144 and the
>> 244 range, big solid aluminium bars with a rubber facing, solid as hell and would
>> stand an awful lot of punishment.

Which was more than the kids they hit could take.
 Pavement parking again - Old Navy
>> I've often complained about the cosmetic bumpers many cars have nowadays which are ridiculously flimsy
>> and ridiculously expensive. Absolutely stinks of planned money-for-goddam-jam for the aftermarket repair and spares industries.
>>

And fitting lights and indicators in them, particularly right on the corners front and rear is just taking the pee.

KIA Sportage anyone?

tinyurl.com/o2jrb4y
Last edited by: Old Navy on Fri 4 Oct 13 at 18:44
 Pavement parking again - captain chaos
The only car manufacturers who make cars with bumpers fit for purpose are the yanks. Standardised bumper height too, resulting in the raised suspension of seventies MGs with their ridiculous bumpers to comply with US 5mph impact regs. The yanks first had body coloured front ends in 1970 called Endura, which meant it could "Endura" bump without damage. The rest of the world followed many years later with brittle plastic as used in tic tac boxes, which is useless for the job and costs a fortune to repair. The yanks only used this plastic for their car interiors. Apparently.
 Pavement parking again - No FM2R
>>Standardised bumper height too

Are you sure? I don't see how that can be unless its only for a reduced subset of cars.
 Pavement parking again - CGNorwich
16 to 20 inches (41–51 cm) for passenger cars.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bumper_(automobile)
 Pavement parking again - Fursty Ferret
Modern bumpers don't seem that brittle to me. The Insignia (and the BMW before it) just bounces off other cars / bollards / trees etc at low speed with no marks at all.
 Pavement parking again - -
The Insignia (and the BMW before it) just bounces off other cars / bollards / trees etc at low speed with no marks at all.
>>

Just remind us what it is you do for a living.;)
 Pavement parking again - Old Navy
>> Just remind us what it is you do for a living.;)
>>

He just thinks it is a little turbulence. :-)
 Pavement parking again - VxFan
>> just bounces off other cars / bollards / trees etc at low speed with no marks at all.

I tend to not try and run into things if I can help it.
 Pavement parking again - Alanovich
>> >>Standardised bumper height too
>>
>> Are you sure? I don't see how that can be unless its only for a
>> reduced subset of cars.
>>

I think you must be talking about the issue of fitting correctly heighted bumpers to SUVs and their ilk. But surely it's obvious that these wouldn't be included in such standards, as they are not cars in the first place, and they are special vehicles for special people with special needs.
 Pavement parking again - No FM2R
Actually I was thinking about my Firebird (seemingly a very low nose) versus things like Towncars (I thought, not a low nose).
 Pavement parking again - No FM2R
BTW, "heighted" ? What kind of word is that?
 Pavement parking again - Alanovich
>> BTW, "heighted" ? What kind of word is that?
>>

Not a good one. In a rush, at work, etc, couldn't think of a way of putting it better on the spur of the moment. Usual internet forum pitfall, really. If I could write for a living, I would, but I don't think I do too badly most of the time! ;-)
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