Dutch approach to residents' parking

[cotswolds]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/17/sun-terraces-and-lawns-dutch-residents-transform-parking-spaces

Shows how even the Dutch get very attached to their cars and get irate about other uses of the road space they think they're entitled to.

[Bmblbzzz]

Oh dear.

It seems a straightforward offer: swap your resident’s parking permit for a bit of greenery in the freed-up space, a lawn, a sun terrace or somewhere for the children to play.

So where does this bit of greenery go? It goes on the street, in the very same space where previously you parked your car. You could, of course, park anything there:

Two residents have, however, pre-empted the scheme by putting flower-filled tow-carts in front of their homes, much to the irritation of some.

Because it's your space. It's your space in front of your house and you've got your permit to park there. You might get quite jealous about your space:

Around 60% used their cars less due to fears that they would lose their parking place.

Because although it's your space and you've got a permit entitling you to park your car in your space, it isn't actually reserved for you in law. No, anybody with the relevant permit can park in your space! They might not even live in the same street! So, behind the nice sharing talk of greening the district and getting together with your neighbours to decide how you want to use the space in your street, it ends up as another way to privatise public street space. As if simply parking your own personal vehicle there wasn't enough of that.

[pwa]

I think most of us know folk who can't park outside their home. So what do they do? They park outside somebody else's home. A scheme like that could only work fairly if it were applied though an entire town. So that parked cars did not end up concentrated on fewer residential streets. And that isn't going to happen. Better and more realistic to look at how to tidy up local parking, using vacant land if there is any.

[dobbo800]

Far too many drivers have a massive sense of self-entitlement when it comes to parking. Urban streets are rammed with stored cars, most of which barely turn a wheel all day or, in some cases, all week. No road to park on? No problem, there's always a handy bit of pavement or grass verge to drive onto. It's common to see drivers use dropped kerbs as handy aids to pavement parking. Don't want to damage the alloys, do we? Stored cars are a blight on urban landscapes and occupy huge amounts of public space. Sorry about the rant but inconsiderate parking and the sheer number of stored cars on streets really grinds my gears. Cheers.

[Bmblbzzz]

We're not told the details of this particular residents' parking scheme. Some schemes give you a permit for the specific street you live in, some for a number of named streets, some for a whole district. And some might give you a specified space. We're also not told how many permits each household is entitled to. The article does say that those residents who give up their space or permit will be given a different place to park their car, so it's just going to be a (probably short) walk for them to their new parking space.

[Phileas]

A road I cycle on daily has a series of parking bays on one side of the street but residents still park on the pavement:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/38-16 ... 02e06001f6

[Cyril Haearn]

Far too many drivers have a massive sense of self-entitlement when it comes to parking. Urban streets are rammed with stored cars, most of which barely turn a wheel all day or, in some cases, all week. No road to park on? No problem, there's always a handy bit of pavement or grass verge to drive onto. It's common to see drivers use dropped kerbs as handy aids to pavement parking. Don't want to damage the alloys, do we? Stored cars are a blight on urban landscapes and occupy huge amounts of public space. Sorry about the rant but inconsiderate parking and the sheer number of stored cars on streets really grinds my gears. Cheers.

Hamburg is full of parked cars, in the leafy suburb near the airport it is especially bad, why pay to park for two weeks when you can park for free?
There was a suggestion a parking spot on the road could be charged at €500 a month

Mind, I think I prefer parked vehicles to moving ones

[dobbo800]

Mind, I think I prefer parked vehicles to moving ones

I happiest riding on busy roads where the traffic is snarled up and can't move or is moving slowly, where I can control things. Quiet urban streets frighten me because I have little control over what's coming up behind me - one of my biggest fears is a distracted driver smacking into my rear. For example, approaching a traffic light it turns amber and then red, so I stop in the middle of the advance box. Next thing I know a driver passes me, on the inside, through the red light at speed. The gap was small - he just missed my left leg. I knew he was there but I really wasn't expecting him to run the light.

I guess this is the difference between running lights on a bike or in a car. A rider approaches a red light and enters 'pedestrian mode', looks both ways and then decides whether or not its safe to cross the junction. A driver sees the light change to amber and accelerates to beat the red, going through the red at speed and sod anyone coming the other way.