karlt wrote:Thirdcrank is correct. ...
I thank you!
In addition to your social history, I'll offer a bit more on the legal side. I've mentioned the bill poster several times on here over the years. My knowledge of the background is greater than usual because when it was decided I was a subscriber to The Criminal Law Review (published by Sweet and Maxwell before Cap'n Bob injected more criminality ) and I was able to read it in detail.
The way most people find out about these significant cases is in a very abridged form in tomes like Stones Justices Manual although the internet has probably changed some things.
Under "unnecessary obstruction" it might include a number of cases with only the briefest summary of each eg: leaving vehicle partly on footway may be justified if obstruction is necessary and this reduces obstruction of carriageway.
Then there's the citation for anybody who wants to dig further - search for "loopholes."
There's a tendency for prosecutors to adopt the widest possible interpretation, without checking the facts of a case so parking with two wheels on the footway is legalised de facto overnight.
Terraced housing has been mentioned and it's a common legal fact that the freehold of the houses extends halfway across the street. Try telling anybody who "knows" they own the bit of street outside their house that highways and traffic legislation applies to them as much as anybody else. It was never an issue until car ownership mushroomed. Once upon a time, the streets of this terraced housing formed communal spaces but that all changed with a car outside every house eg complaints about street football, which everybody "knows" is illegal (but only concerns them if they think their car will be damaged.)