better parking etiquette

[Huggers]

I've just driven home to find yet again not a single parkable space in my really long road despite there being about twenty gaps, but cars have slapped themselves across what could have been a double space, making them untenable. Can we decide to snuggle up a bit more to the car in front, and don't leave huge gaps?

[Louisa]

Don't get me started on this one. I am constantly arguing with neighbours over this. I've taken note of speicific vehicles who I know where the owner lives, and if I find one of them in my space I will politely ask them not to do it again. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Some roads down near the station are now free for all zones, It's disgraceful in residential zones that outsiders can come park up for the day and bugger off again. As for parking etiquette, if you catch someone parking in an antisocial manner, confront them immediately.

Louisa.

[Seabag]

Indeed, it's a ball ache. I'm slightly cautious about 'owning' the space just because it's in front of the house, it is after all a public highway. But there is a point when people take the piss, like my neighbour. he has a drive way with a car on, which is fine. But he has two other cars also, one which he never drives and it's parked up in the street.

So essentially he takes up 3 car spaces, in a small street. That said, he's a slightly bonkers wife, so I cut him some slack

I wonder in a residential street with many houses just how many vehicles should you park in the street. There's some streets in ED where there's hardly ever a place to park, with many vans and cars owned by the same person & taking up the spaces.

Some people are just bloody selfish

[Huggers]

our street would have plenty of places if people parked in a car sized space and not one and half.

[tomskip]

This is one of my bugbears too! I always park as close as I can to the edge of a drive or the car in front of/behind me. It's got nothing to do with claiming a space outside my house, just somewhere in the vicinity is nice. Yesterday a neighbour was parked right in the middle of two "spaces" just as you've described Huggers. There was some mild tutting and muttering from me, I don't mind admitting.

[Louisa]

Perhaps if we had painted white marked out spaces we wouldn't have such a problem? Often it's just a lack of common sense.

Louisa.

[ratty]

Afraid I do this deliberately to stop getting hemmed in!

[uncleglen]

When half the houses are being turned into flats....and every piece of land has a block of flats...

I get hemmed in all the time....

Is this the answer?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3057166/Crab-micro-car-drives-sideways-turns-spot-SHRINK-make-parking-tight-spaces-easier.html

[Huggers]

I've never been hemmed in. Just leave yourself enough space in front to get out even if someone parks tightly behind you. If everyone did this we would liberate more spaces. But last night i had to park a street away. Also people don't anticipate how the parking pattern will change in the next hours. You park loosely in ehat looks like a one car space but when another person leaves a whole new space is created. I often readjust my parking if i see i have hogged too much space.

[Earl Aelfheah]

There is a lady on my street who does this every time she parks. I can only assume it's deliberate. Perhaps she doesn't like anyone parking near her, I dunno. Very annoying though.

[tomskip]

I've never been hemmed in either and I do like to cosy up to the cars near me. With power steering you'd practically have to have cars touching both bumpers to be hemmed in.

[Jeremy]

I've never been hemmed in either. Sometimes you need a few turns to get out, but very, very hard to get stuck.

[rendelharris]

It might help if people with perfectly normal sized families didn't feel the need to buy seven seater people carriers or enormous 4x4s to get around! With all the discussion on emissions nobody ever seems to suggest a tax on the physical size of a vehicle, but as engines get cleaner and cleaner (so one can buy bigger and bigger vehicles without being penalised) it's really time for the amount of road room and parking space these vehicles occupy to be looked at.

[????]

Actually, 1 person owning a mini is a far more selfish use of space if you work it out. Predictable targeting though.....

[miga]

Often it's that the person in front of you has parked out of sequence, you snuggle up to them, they leave, then you look like the idiot. Hopefully now that the faceless bureaucrats of Europe aren't making our laws, we can execute these villains on sight.

[rendelharris]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Actually, 1 person owning a mini is a far more

> selfish use of space if you work it out.

> Predictable targeting though.....

And one person owning a large vehicle is more selfish than anyone. If a single person needs a car, they need a car. If they buy a small car they're not being selfish. If a family needs a car and buys a tank far bigger than their needs, they're being selfish.

Predictable desperate desire to contradict everything I say though, give it a rest.

[Seabag]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Actually, 1 person owning a mini is a far more

> selfish use of space if you work it out.

> Predictable targeting though.....

I've been harbouring an idea for a double-decker mini and a VWT5 for a while now

And soon as the ruling elite are freed from the clutches of Europe, I'm second guessing the inevitable 'footprint tax' for London cars

[miga]

Seabag Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ???? Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Actually, 1 person owning a mini is a far more

> > selfish use of space if you work it out.

> > Predictable targeting though.....

>

> I've been harbouring an idea for a double-decker

> mini and a VWT5 for a while now

>

> And soon as the ruling elite are freed from the

> clutches of Europe, I'm second guessing the

> inevitable 'footprint tax' for London cars

I heard there will be a free car for everyone, and I believed it.

[Seabag]

rendelharris Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> ???? Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Actually, 1 person owning a mini is a far more

> > selfish use of space if you work it out.

> > Predictable targeting though.....

>

>

> And one person owning a large vehicle is more

> selfish than anyone. If a single person needs a

> car, they need a car. If they buy a small car

> they're not being selfish. If a family needs a

> car and buys a tank far bigger than their needs,

> they're being selfish.

>

> Predictable desperate desire to contradict

> everything I say though, give it a rest.

I'm in the bad here. I own a big vehicle and often drive it solo, but I do take my son's team to matches every weekend, so I forgive myself. It's hell to park, as It needs a space and a half

It's odd how people treat you tho, and I'm a very calm driver btw. In the big Black VW, people move over or let you through. I always wave and smile whilst mouthing 'thank you' But when I drive my lady's mini, specially with the roof down, oh how different it is. People won't let you through, they cut you up and are generally a lot meaner (even I know I look a knob in it). So the bigger vehicle is my preference to drive, but not park

[rendelharris]

Seabag Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> It's odd how people treat you tho, and I'm a very

> calm driver btw. In the big Black VW, people move

> over or let you through. I always wave and smile

> whilst mouthing 'thank you' But when I drive my

> lady's mini, specially with the roof down, oh how

> different it is. People won't let you through,

> they cut you up and are generally a lot meaner

> (even I know I look a knob in it). So the bigger

> vehicle is my preference to drive, but not park

Odd isn't it, when we're in our regular small car we do seem to get a lot more of the sort of behaviour you describe than on the odd occasion we need to hire a bigger one. I guess many people just have an ingrained bullying instinct to pick on anyone smaller...

[Seabag]

rendelharris Wrote:

>

> Odd isn't it, when we're in our regular small car

> we do seem to get a lot more of the sort of

> behaviour you describe than on the odd occasion we

> need to hire a bigger one. I guess many people

> just have an ingrained bullying instinct to pick

> on anyone smaller...

Even worse, I occasionally swap vehicles with one of our drivers. He's got a red BMW and when I've ever driven it I'm gobsmacked at how openly hostile people are. You'll rarely get let out of a side street or a roundabout, and people give you the daggers too.

But one time a huge rasta came towards me as I parked "Nice nice" and spudded me. Maybe it was the white leather seats and red carpets that did it.

I had to laugh, it was the only time that has ever happened to me.

[Jeremy]

Hmm yeah... BMWs have a bit of an image problem, one reason I'd probably never buy one. Bright red paint job and white leather seats aren't exactly going to help matters!

[TheCat]

I'm with the OP on this one, its infuriating crawling down your street to see 'half sized' spaces everywhere....

If having less than a foot either end of your car sees you worried about being 'hemmed in', then I'd suggest you need to learn to drive and maneuver your car a bit better.

[dirac]

yea the half sized spaces are silly, it's always occurring down our road because people are SOOO bad at parallel parking. It's pure comedy seeing people try over and over again to parallel park in a space the size of three cars, mess it up and kinds give up right in the middle of the space because they cant drive backwards in a straight line.

I was thinking about putting benches in the front garden, making a bar and having it as one of those gimmick 'pop ups': The Comedy Parking Club or something haha.

[Dee Dee]

What is worse is when mum, dad, and one/two off springs now own a car and all park

in a line. I get so angry when my one little car has to be parked half way down the street

to accommodate these thoughtless people who just say "we pay our road tax we can park where we like"

I have to drive to work and when I get home I have to sometimes park in a different street!!