Right, bit of a warning, this is a rant I fully intend to swear.

I live on a very quiet and narrow road, it's actually a culdesac so only really residents and deliveries come down here, for the last 17 years we have parked outside with no problems, always had two cars, for a short time 3 when I first passed my test 10 years back, one the drive and then the other(s) on the road, never been clipped or anything.

18 months ago I got shot of the Large 2nd car when I moved from the Furbie to the Octy as it was just sat rotting 90% of the time (furbie was far too much fun), I work away from home a lot and in the last year I've noticed that people have been in more and more awkward places well it came to a head this weekend when I got home on a Friday night to find someone had parked completely opposite my drive, this means to park I pretty much have to drive into my neighbours drive, reverse out to get the rear swung and then full lock back to drive into my drive (and before anyone asks the obvious why I don't reverse in, my drive is narrow and built in such a way that you then end up with the nose of the car on the road to be able to open the drivers door!)

Next day I come out to head off, reversed out of the drive to the point where I can see down the road, and this is where things went pearshaped, I usually have to start turning in such a way as to get my car changing direction without pulling my wing off on the gatepost, while still making sure I am not backing into anything or there's nothing coming down the road, I am quite used to the parking sensors going off and seeing cars in the mirror back there as stated people park in awkward places, always managed to get around far enough to avoid their front ends or at least stop before making contact this time however I bloody dinged the car opposite!

So I've got a nice scratch and rub of paint on my bumper and they are sans indicator lens and a lovely dent in their wing....

Bloody swearing to myself now about it I left my phone number on their windscreen and went about my day (I wasn't sure whos car it was but it wasn't my direct neighbours or those directly across the road)

Anyhow next day I get the owner (well actually the one that seemed to wear the trousers sent her husband who said about 5 words to me) knocking on the door demanding to know what I was going to do about the damage, which was annoying, not so much for wanting to know what was going to happen, I have no interest in upsetting my neighbours, by and large we have all happily ignored each other for the last 17 years, I like to keep it that way

I was however utterly slack jawed at her attitude when I asked why she felt compelled to block my drive that "it's a public road" thus she can abandon her car wherever she likes with zero consideration for anyone else (she's the daughter of the retired teacher bloke who lives across and one house down visiting) and that I could get my car out.

Both of these are factually correct, it is a public road and I can get my car out, I have to reverse out, go forwards at an angle and not hit my gatepost,then reverse again and drive off using the pavement, over a grass verge and then down a full hight curb.

When I pointed out that she could park on the 60odd feet of road on the other side (my house side) she went on about how people come into my road very quickly... despite the fact that my side of the road is for traffic LEAVING the road and I had parked there every day for 10 ****ing years without any problems.

Oh and apparently I must have been going at quite fast (she said this about several things so I can assume she goes at 0.3mph everwhere) which again I had to bite my tongue at such a ****ing stupid statment as any ****twitt with half a brancell would know you reverse out of drives so that you can be aware of things like watching out for other people and the fact that I'm really going to build up a massive amount of speed going in reverse for 5 feet or would have at least put a dent in my bodywork somewhere....

So net result is I've got to pay my excess (fortunately having 8 years protected NCB helps) and my insurance want to send my car to the same bunch of comedians who took 6 weeks to descrach my bumper and change the driver / ignition locks when my car was stolen last year, they delivered the car my dealer is a worse state then when the car thief left it!

But I am actually much more annoyed about the attitude of people who can abandon their car where they bloody feel like with zero consideration for other residents and road users and think that this is a good viewpoint to have!

I've always been hyper careful where I park my car so as not to cause anyone any problems, am I the only person left who cares??

Feel for you, we often get idiots parking right opposite our drive. Road isn't that wide and its on a slight bend, makes getting on and off a right pain in the backside, generally involving driving over my grass. Unfortunatly common courtesy seems to of died out long ago.

You aren't alone my friend.

I live in a Cul-de-sac and the parking was OK when we moved in 6 years ago. Since then, loads of people have passed their driving test and purchased 2nd, 3rd or even 4th cars. The garages for our houses are in a block further down the road but no one uses them because they are about 2 feet wide. The upshot is everyone parks on the road.

Added to the fact most people down my road are part of some obscure, ignorant, self centred, selfish, cnutish sub-culture where they snub you for buying 2 new cars and then go out of their way to park outside my house when there is loads of space outside theirs. They also like to dump their ****ty old cars wherever they like, halfway up kerbs is the best one. This means wide vehicles struggle to get past to the point where they are forever folding my door mirrors in to squeeze past.

I try and park in a considerate manner but I am pretty much the only one down here that bothers. Every other half wit seems to do as they please and its rapidly becoming the norm everywhere you go :thumbdwn:

I cant wait to move house, I might buy a dozen old legal bangers and park them down my road for a year or so

No, you're not the only one that cares - I care too - unfortunately being a caring soul and honest doesn't seem to count for much in today's society which is all me me me.

The problem is with society not you. Unfortunately you end up paying.

They'll be telling us our politicians are a bunch of expenses fiddling snouts in the trough lying shysters next.

D

Next door have three cars (only two drivers) all sizable cars. Think 4 wheel drives x 2 and an Audi A6! I live on a terrace that is pretty thin. One out of the three cars gets 'parked' for a week or so at a time.

Thanks from the way they were going on I was beginning to think that I was being unreasonble here.

The way you described it, I thought you lived in a tiny street!

See this

BBC NEWS | England | AA wants improved parking signage

Not sure what constitutes "blocking a driveway" though

I must say that looking at your last two pictures the parking situation doesn't look to bad to me (unless its the perspective from the camera)??

I used to live up a close near a primary school. If you think that's tight to get in and out, you should see what I used to have to cope with! If it's becoming a regular problem the sensible thing is to widen your gateway a bit - makes all the difference.

Binking annoying though! I should know - I grazed an arch on my gatepost a few weeks back pulling out onto an empty wide main road - no obstructions just an aberration! First time in 20years - arrrrrrrggggh!

Cutting those hedges might help you seeing whats coming down the street.

That's also quite a large cap, even where the vectra is parked in the pics. I could get a stretched Sprinter out of that gap! You should easily be able to get an octy out.

Like I say, cut the hedges down, as IF you crash into a car moving on the street, the insurace co would take a dim view of reversing into a road with such restricted vision!

Hedge doesn't restrict it that much, there is seriously about an octy+6-8 inches length between a parked car and my posts, can't presteer too much before clearing the gates as you just end up rubbing your front wing and bumper on the gates.

Can't widen the gates drive either without felling very old tree.

Gadgetman - you might be able to get a sprinter into that gap but all you could do is go back and forth the road really is only as wide a parked van with room to pass (and I should get some evening photos of the parking madness on the back part of the road)

I was using 12mm lens for the wide shot, that what makes it look deeper then it is, I should really shot closer to 40mm to get a "normal" pov.

As I said you can steer round cars that are so far across but they really decided to park round hence why it was caught on the corner as I was fully locked coming back.

Surely they will write the Vectra off for a new wing and indicator lol

Thought you were supposed to enter the highway (road) in a forward gear ? My highway code says so...and if plod saw you backing into the road, you might get a ticket. I got a telling once about how dangerous my manoeuvre was even though it was "only" a 30mph road. I'd get someone in to make some alterations to your entrance.

Thought you were supposed to enter the highway (road) in a forward gear ? My highway code says so...and if plod saw you backing into the road, you might get a ticket. I got a telling once about how dangerous my manoeuvre was even though it was "only" a 30mph road. I'd get someone in to make some alterations to your entrance.

You are not supposed to reverse into a main road (although people do) and can't really make alterations to the entrace without killing an old tree

The hedge on the l/h side of the pics is too high to see well enough. As said, insurance co would side with 3rd party in the event of an accident that YOU werent looking.

The road looks more than wide enough to get the car out. If it really is that tight, then you should be reversing into your drive!

A pic showing the width of the road with your car would be nice, but I bet you have more than enough room! Certainly looks like you have.

I have lived in a street barely 1.5 cars wide (no curb), with similar tight turn, and could get the octy out easily.

You must be gutted

I'd 2nd the last comment about reversing into drive so you can drive straight out. I think the hedges would restrict view quite a bit if reversing out of there.

Having lived with selfish parking for years at my old house we ended up changing our front garden so we could add parking as well as at the back. The main benefit was that we could then drive in, turn and drive straight out again.

Unfortunately you hit a stationary car. This reminds me of a scene in Snatch - "It was at a funny angle" .... "When you reverse things come from behind you" Any speed with 1.5 tonnes of metal is going to hurt, but lets be glad it was only a car and not a child in your blindspot.

Surely they will write the Vectra off for a new wing and indicator lol

If only.

i agree with gadgetman etal.

The drive might be difficult but you could do yourself a favour with some minor hedge trimming on both sides.

Also reversing in would help with egress. It's recomended down here because of a spate of kids being run over by reversing SUVs.

Sure, life was simpler 17 years back. There were less cars & you could drive through a busy shopping centre with a smoke in one hand, burger in the other, have a perv on the girlies & only look at the road every 20 seconds or so. Can't do it any more as there is more traffic.

The base fact is, it's a public road & they can park where ever they want. If your driveway causes difficulties then you have to fix the driveway. My drive is on an angle. I prefer to drive to the left because it's shorter to the main road but sometimes cars park opposite & I can't - so i just go to the right..... or i could spend $2000 getting the driveway straightened.:thumbdwn:

I was using 12mm lens for the wide shot, that what makes it look deeper then it is, I should really shot closer to 40mm to get a "normal" pov.

As I said you can steer round cars that are so far across but they really decided to park round hence why it was caught on the corner as I was fully locked coming back.

I am experienced in using 12 mm (or even 10 mm) lenses, I am sorry to say but you had enough space to manouvre your car. Of course it is not convenient compared to no car opposite, but where I come from (Netherlands) it is always like that in actually very narrow inner city streets and this kind of accidents are not that common. If you were right on blaming it on the other car owner, then this kind of accidents would happen thousends of times in Amsterdam.

I fully agree on the reverse parking, in the Netherlands you really have to make sure to drive forward out of a parking spot.

You are not supposed to reverse into a main road (although people do) and can't really make alterations to the entrace without killing an old tree

I do have sympathy for you- the car being opposite makes it harder, and an inch of misjudgment caused the issue here, but if it was me, the chainsaw would be out, if only to make it easier for yourself. I'd lose the gates as well. The owner of the car could have a better attitude too.

As I said, reversing into the drive isn't a problem..... I just can't get out of the car once it's IN! (The drive about 4-6 wider then the car) no sunroof and putting the seats down to crawl out the back would get a little old too.

Visability is not a problem, never had any issue with observation as long as we reverse slow (as I said in my first post it's not exactly a busy road anyhow) get plenty of time to see people and cars which are on the road.

I knew the vecra was there I just missjudged how overlapping the drive it was, without a car being parked there I can reverse right over and move off with only mounting the pavement on my side slightly on full lock, if I have to stop because I car is there, even if I back up to the point of nearly touching them I get about half a foot clearence from my gate which means I have to shuttle back and forth and end up pulling off over the pavement on my side and down a curb.

I agree the drive could be better but unfortunatly it's not really practical to change although as cjb pointed out it would be easier if the gates were gone, it really hasn't been an issue up till now as never really had these sorts of problems before (most people have the common sense to park along my side of the road where there's about 60ft of kurb and no access over.

If you were right on blaming it on the other car owner, then this kind of accidents would happen thousends of times in Amsterdam.

I fully agree on the reverse parking, in the Netherlands you really have to make sure to drive forward out of a parking spot.

So you are saying that it's pefectly fine to park in awkward / dangerious places when alternative options are available to you? - I should point out that there are other places available to park on the road.

I know I am at fault for hitting the car, I am just really fked off with this attatude of general abandonment because it's always fault of the poor ******* who you **just** about impossible for them to get access to their property, but thats not your problem though,

Its easy to say 'yeah, get a tank in there' but Im not there so wont judge one way or the other on what happened, but I agree on trying to make things easier for yourself. If widening of the gateway is possible even by 6 inches or so it would give you more flexibility in and out, Dealing with that hedge should help as well.

As for inconsiderate parking in general I agree. When I park I try to make as little hassle for others, not just out of courtesy but I dont want the hassle of dealing with insurances etc if someone did hit it, even if the law was on my side. My old neighbours had a 2 1/2 car drive, a lot of the time had 3 cars parked in it so one was always sticking out. But the most annoying thing about it was that our drive, their drive and 2 other neighbours drives converged on roughly the same point of road (end of a cul-de-sac) and when they had visitors, it would usually be 1 or 2 more cars parked on this bit of road because their drive is full, completely blocking the other 2 drives and making mine a bar steward to get into. Yet there was a grassy area in the middle of the cul-de-sac 20 feet away that could have been so easily parked around.

Some people just have no consideration.

Its easy to say 'yeah, get a tank in there' but Im not there so wont judge one way or the other on what happened, but I agree on trying to make things easier for yourself. If widening of the gateway is possible even by 6 inches or so it would give you more flexibility in and out, Dealing with that hedge should help as well.

As for inconsiderate parking in general I agree. When I park I try to make as little hassle for others, not just out of courtesy but I dont want the hassle of dealing with insurances etc if someone did hit it, even if the law was on my side. My old neighbours had a 2 1/2 car drive, a lot of the time had 3 cars parked in it so one was always sticking out. But the most annoying thing about it was that our drive, their drive and 2 other neighbours drives converged on roughly the same point of road (end of a cul-de-sac) and when they had visitors, it would usually be 1 or 2 more cars parked on this bit of road because their drive is full, completely blocking the other 2 drives and making mine a bar steward to get into. Yet there was a grassy area in the middle of the cul-de-sac 20 feet away that could have been so easily parked around.

Some people just have no consideration.

Sums it up perfectly.

Oh her dad's drive would take 3 cars easy but that would mean they would have to shuttle cars to get out.....