Cycling UK Forum

Hi All, No one has ever taken up my suggestion for deterring drivers from using the pavement? "land Mines under the first flag in from the kerb", "Free wheelchair for all survivors"! TTFN MM

It should be like Japan. Over there, when you buy a car you have to have a certificate that you have off road parking for it. If you don't have such a permit then you're restricted to a teensy Kei car, or in some prefectures no car at all. It's a smaller more densely populated country than ours with much less habitable land, but having visited I couldn't spot any pavement parking, or 'abandon your car where there is a space 2" bigger than the car with no yellow paint in it' that seems so common over here.

I was heartened to read a sign in a window which said "no parking on the pavement"...

...until I read "car owner lives here" underneath

Have we now got reserved pavement parking spaces?

Bicycler wrote:I was heartened to read a sign in a window which said "no parking on the pavement"...

...until I read "car owner lives here" underneath

Have we now got reserved pavement parking spaces?

I enjoy a good read (and laugh) of our local areas Farcebook page. Whilst people seem pretty aware that they don't have an automatic right to park outside their house, to say it rankles when someone else does would be something of an understatement!

Perhaps it is time for pedestrians to start taking direct action.

There was a guerrilla campaign in France a few years back - mainly targeted at 4x4s. The owners would find their cars covered in mud (to remind them of their natural habitat) and any wheels left on the pavement were deflated. Apparently, bicycle pump extension tubes were effecive for letting the air out gently without triggeing the alarms.

Something Mrs Dopestrong reminded me of. In our country the parking regulations have been de-criminialised, and the powers devolved from the Feds to the County Council. The CC in turn engage a company of parking wardens, but because the profit is best made in the town centres we never get any parking enforcement out here.

kwackers wrote:

Bicycler wrote:I was heartened to read a sign in a window which said "no parking on the pavement"...

...until I read "car owner lives here" underneath

Have we now got reserved pavement parking spaces?

I enjoy a good read (and laugh) of our local areas Farcebook page. Whilst people seem pretty aware that they don't have an automatic right to park outside their house, to say it rankles when someone else does would be something of an understatement!

Even I find that instinctive reaction. I have to consciously remind myself that the road outside my house is not mine.

Bicycler wrote:I was heartened to read a sign in a window which said "no parking on the pavement"...

...until I read "car owner lives here" underneath

Have we now got reserved pavement parking spaces?

Some round here must have and if they're on the pavement side of the double yellow lines it's OK.

I could do with that sign to stop the school parents from parking across the front of my drive. I do have a dropped kerb so they shouldn't park there. They always seem very annoyed when I make them move so I can park on my own drive.

My own little addition to this subject:

The scourge of the pavements in a small town in Hampshire:

http://aheadabovetheparapet.blogspot.co ... ments.html

It's the same in rural North Wiltshire, and I'm sure everywhere else. Offenders don't seem to think they are doing anything wrong. Citizens should be able to capture the culprits on film, send the clip to the police or local council, and a fine imposed on the offenders. After all, we learned recently that the police expect us to solve our own crimes

The pavement parking here has now reached gargantuan levels... I mean, what is the driver worried about? Any car clipping him if he sticks out into the road is probably going to bounce off the tyre!

I expect that for most drivers their main concern is not “blocking” the road, and so impending the progress of other motorists. Plenty of residential streets with a decent pavement on each side and in principle a road wide enough for two large cars to pass easily have been reduced to parking right the way down the pavement at both sides and a central roadway which is only wide enough for a single vehicle. I think you’ll find it’s called progress...

But it is great for keeping the speed down as drivers pull into gaps to let oncoming traffic through

Also great for encouraging head-on confrontations as drivers of larger vehicles use their bulk to force others out of their way.