There are a growing number of Facebook/Twitter groups that seem dedicated to posting pictures of poorly parked cars and commercials.   Groups like "Parking like a tw4t" seem to derive some sort of pleasure from uploading photographs of someone parking slightly over the guideline, a motorist who parks on a "family with children" space at the supermarket (it is a moot point whether or not these dedicated family spaces should even exist!) or someone pulling up on double yellows to buy a morning paper.

 

My own theory is that the sheer number of cars on our British roads is causing frustration.   Added to that, when you consider that the average family car of the 1950's/1960's was tiny by comparison (the Morris Minor, Austin A40, Ford Popular, Vauxhall Viva HA were normal, the Hillman Hunter, Ford Corsair, Vauxhall Victor or Ford Escort or Cortina were a bit more upbeat.   When you consider that the Morris Oxford / Austin Cambridge (both described as limousines) were the preferred choice of taxi operators in the provincial towns, you realise how much bigger cars are today.    Having recently seen both an Austin A40 and Ford Popular lovingly restored, I can tell you today's Volkswagen Polo is larger!

The trouble is our roads, city streets and parking spaces have not grow in dimensions to meet the supersize breed of family car now abundant throughout the nation.   When a Range Rover, BMW X5 or Mercedes C Class parks illegally, it causes much more of a traffic hazard than the cheeky Austin/Morris Mini or even the Ford Corsair of years gone by.   My own personal frustration is that I like to look after my car and keep it nice - I hate being forced into tight parking spaces as I just know that someone who simply doesn't think or care will bash their doors into my pride and joy.

It would be very interesting to hear the Briskoda members' views?  

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-28328078

Edited 28 July, 201411 yr by bealine

If a space is big enough I'll park within it.  But say, like in a supermarket, if one person would't be able to get out cos of the trolley park shelter or something... then I'll park across two spaces.  If the supermarkets want my money, and they make plenty anyway, then they can build a second level for parking and give us all spaces that our cars will actually fit into without the guy next to you scadding your door.

I disagree about it being the number of cars on the roads that cause the problem.

 

Like the saying - Guns dont kill people do - Cars dont park themselves people do.

 

Having very recently driven in Holland & stayed in a small hotel in the suburb of Amsterdam, I found the driving around this suburb along with the city of Amsterdam to be FAR more considerate than in the UK.

Primary Example that stood out in both city & suburb - We were waiting to cross at a zebra crossing & found by the hotel drivers wold be far more polite in stopping to let you cross rather than - ignore pedestrian waiting i am in a car & can run you over if you step out, OR in the city where most crossings are traffic controlled drivers were not creeping onto the crossing to get going when their lights were amber or had JUST turned green. The whole way of driving is FAR FAR less aggressive off the motroways than here, however motorway driving - That is a completely different topic.

 

Supermarkets seem to be the biggest culprits in reducing the size of the parking spaces in order to squeeze more cars in to boost profits ( well except Tesco whose profits are dropping)  so IS IT the car parking that put people off & not the prices elsewhere.

 

I will NOT use my local Tesco as the small parking spaces & bad parking along with lots of drivers who REALLY must go to specsavers to read the signs, changes the mood instantly to - can i go home NOW before i have even got to the front door.

A picture says a thousand words.

 

 

They make the spaces to suit old fashioned cars from the 70s when mostly men drove.  

Even if they were 10ft wide virtually every woman who uses my local Tesco would 

still have 14 shunts getting in (12 of which don't actually change the direction of the

car at all) to eventually give up and leave the car diagonal in the bay. Then 

have three shunts coming back out of the space when anyone even slightly competent 

would have done it in one. 

I go to our Tesco every day, I'm available so buy each days fresh food as we need it.  

There's one woman who drives a ML merc and quite literally backs it in until she hits the

post. Every single time.

It's another emotive topic, and physical measures have been taken in countries where it's okay

to say something negative about a woman without getting washed away by a tidal wave

of estrogen whether or not the comment is true. 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-28468868

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10977763/Wider-car-parking-spaces-for-women-drivers-in-China-spark-accusations-of-sexism.html

Those ' Women only ' parking bays would be ignored here in the UK.

I have no problem believing that. 

UK women won't be told anything.

Parking over two spaces in a supermarket, to someone parking dangerously is a different matter. A bad parker is normally a selfish parker.

 

Why do drivers feel the need to park over dropped kerbs? Why park literally on junctions? I could go on...

 

Poor parking is lazy parking.

One of the first things I always consider when buying a car is size in particular width

Am a small guy with small family= small car

Seeing tiny women in X5's is just vain and unnecessary and makes their parking task harder

Photo-ing a parked car doesn't always tell the whole story either,it could be like it for a reason

Using 2 spaces? Car next to him (since left) could've done same

I once dropped my child off at Tesco's to his grandparents in the car park

Went in to buy food and came back to my car (in parent/child space) to glares and head shakes from someone in a nearby Beemer

Most annoying!

Somebody here has  recently taken to parking half on the pavement outside their house (or sometimes mine).

 

It brings no benefit, as traffic has to stop for oncoming anyway, and it obstructs the pavement which also has a ditch next to it making it difficult to pass safely on foot.  Perhaps not as obviously to them, it also obstructs my view down the road  when going out, making it more dangerous to come out of my drive.

 

I wouldn't mind if they parked on the road.

 

I don't think they walk anywhere themselves, just come and go by car.

 

Laziness and lack of manners is my reasoning.

 

I quite enjoy a little walk from the empty end of a supermarket car park.  But why is there always somebody parked right next to me when I get back?

Parking over two spaces in a supermarket, to someone parking dangerously is a different matter. A bad parker is normally a selfish parker.

 

Why do drivers feel the need to park over dropped kerbs? Why park literally on junctions? I could go on...

 

Poor parking is lazy parking.

I agree up to a certain point.   Here on our housing estate, the council in their wisdom decided each house only needed one parking space.   The roads are too narrow to park unless one puts wheels up on the pavement - if people are sensible about it, they can leave enough room for pushchairs/wheelchairs to pass without them having to walk out into the road and, to be fair, most of the residents and their visitors take the sensible approach.   It is annoying, though, to find great gouts of oil left on the pavement after the weekend's visitors have departed!

Taking up two spaces?   Well, that's just plain rude unless it's for the reason dazz600 mentioned!   There's no excuse whatsoever for parking within 15 yards (45 feet) of a road junction or a bend or the brow of a hill - it's mentioned in the Highway Code.

I don't think the adage "Poor parking is lazy parking" quite sums it up - it's true to a point, but you also have those that don't mean any harm and just don't think!

Then again, you get those that think illegal parking is okay if they stick the hazard lights on and then drive halfway to their next destination before they realise they have forgotten to switch them off!  

My current parking dislike is our neighbour's behaviour.  They park over their drive which in itself isn't an issue what does annoy me though is when they block us in too.  This means that we have to ask to get our cars out of the drive on a regular basis.  You might ask why I haven't asked them to stop doing this.  It's mainly because I've got bored of asking and they don't get why I'm annoyed anyway.  If someone does it to them they go mental and have been known to get quite threatening to whoever it is.  When they do it to us it's acceptable because we're nice quiet people who don't resort to foul language and threatening behaviour.

 

As we are near to some shops, people also park up for a 'short' while and are surprised when I point out that their thoughtless actions.  They don't see it as something they should avoid doing and that their need for whatever from the shops is greater than the need to leave our access free.  Here is a prime example from a couple of weeks ago.  Both of these cars arrived within minutes of each other and the silver car over our drive was there for about 40 minutes.

 

 

How can anyone see that as acceptable?

 

Rant over.

A picture says a thousand words.

 

 

They make the spaces to suit old fashioned cars from the 70s when mostly men drove.  

Even if they were 10ft wide virtually every woman who uses my local Tesco would 

still have 14 shunts getting in (12 of which don't actually change the direction of the

car at all) to eventually give up and leave the car diagonal in the bay. Then 

have three shunts coming back out of the space when anyone even slightly competent 

would have done it in one. 

I go to our Tesco every day, I'm available so buy each days fresh food as we need it.  

There's one woman who drives a ML merc and quite literally backs it in until she hits the

post. Every single time.

It's another emotive topic, and physical measures have been taken in countries where it's okay

to say something negative about a woman without getting washed away by a tidal wave

of estrogen whether or not the comment is true. 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-28468868

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10977763/Wider-car-parking-spaces-for-women-drivers-in-China-spark-accusations-of-sexism.html

 

Do you not find it strange that women pay less to insure their cars? I wonder why this would be? Oh yeah, because women are less of a risk and have fewer accidents.

 

I think a lot of the myths surrounding women and parking might have something to do with projected chauvinism, i.e. you're only seeing examples of bad women drivers because you believe no bloke could possibly park/drive badly, when in actual fact if you stayed in the car park all day you'd see just as many blokes making a pig's ear out of it. Just a thought

 

As for that pic by skinnyman, two words – drug dealers

Paint Stripper - That's harsh....

 

This however, is just liberating the air:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/231278147508?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

 

Especially if you put them back in afterwards.

 

Obviously I'm not suggesting anyone actually does that, as some dozy twunt would drive off with 4 flat tyres and not notice until they killed somebody.

Edited 28 July, 201411 yr by cheezemonkhai

My current parking dislike is our neighbour's behaviour.  They park over their drive which in itself isn't an issue what does annoy me though is when they block us in too.  This means that we have to ask to get our cars out of the drive on a regular basis.  You might ask why I haven't asked them to stop doing this.  It's mainly because I've got bored of asking and they don't get why I'm annoyed anyway.  If someone does it to them they go mental and have been known to get quite threatening to whoever it is.  When they do it to us it's acceptable because we're nice quiet people who don't resort to foul language and threatening behaviour.

 

As we are near to some shops, people also park up for a 'short' while and are surprised when I point out that their thoughtless actions.  They don't see it as something they should avoid doing and that their need for whatever from the shops is greater than the need to leave our access free.  Here is a prime example from a couple of weeks ago.  Both of these cars arrived within minutes of each other and the silver car over our drive was there for about 40 minutes.

 

 

IIWY I'd start finding things to do at four in the morning and ring the doorbell and politely ask them to move their car. A few days of that might make them reconsider.

Paint Stripper - That's harsh....

 

This however, is just liberating the air:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/231278147508?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108

 

Especially if you put them back in afterwards.

 

Obviously I'm not suggesting anyone actually does that, as some dozy twunt would drive off with 4 flat tyres and not notice until they killed somebody.

 

The problem with that approach is that the offending vehicle is likely to be left causing an obstruction for even longer.

Photo their parking & log every time you have to ask them to move being polite, then after around a dozen times, knock & rant telling them that if they do it again you will pass the log & pics to the police & have the car ticketed / towed away for causing an obstruction. Specailly if they are blocking a dropped kerb.

Usually when you are polite for a long time then turn nasty, it has more of an impact than if you are just aggressive all the time, it is the complete shock that you can turn aggressive that makes an impact.

Here you go.   This is as things stand right now,

 

 

I politely asked how long they'd be parked there and the response was 'Why, do you need to go out?  Just ask us when you need to.' 

 

I pointed out that I need to go out a few times over the course of the evening & they got all huffy with me saying that it wouldn't be there long.  I refrained from saying that it was last night as they then act all offended as if we're in the wrong.  How can you deal with people like this?

 

edit: There are spaces available on the street in either direction too.  The Ignis might just - just be able to go straight out & not turn but the Vectra has no chance.

We had similar problems with people parking right opposite our driveway.

 

We put up a "Please keep driveway clear" sign and the problem just went away. They no longer parked there.

 

Phil

Here you go.   This is as things stand right now,

 

 

I politely asked how long they'd be parked there and the response was 'Why, do you need to go out?  Just ask us when you need to.' 

 

I pointed out that I need to go out a few times over the course of the evening & they got all huffy with me saying that it wouldn't be there long.  I refrained from saying that it was last night as they then act all offended as if we're in the wrong.  How can you deal with people like this?

 

edit: There are spaces available on the street in either direction too.  The Ignis might just - just be able to go straight out & not turn but the Vectra has no chance.

Id put a bottle from my bottle bin under their tyre, or get both my cars out and park either side!

I'd go buy a set of those car dolley a put it on them and move the car further down the road out of sight!

I agree up to a certain point.   Here on our housing estate, the council in their wisdom decided each house only needed one parking space.   

 

The number of parking spaces, here at least, is dictated by the type of house. If you've got a 4 or 5 bed house, the standard provision is 3 spaces and less bedrooms, 2. But the problem is that the spaces are 6m x 3m so unless you've got at least a 12m driveway, it's not happening.  OTOH, some will also allow houses to be built without any at all in the name of sustainability. That's walking or the bus to you and me.

Here you go. This is as things stand right now,

I politely asked how long they'd be parked there and the response was 'Why, do you need to go out? Just ask us when you need to.'

I pointed out that I need to go out a few times over the course of the evening & they got all huffy with me saying that it wouldn't be there long. I refrained from saying that it was last night as they then act all offended as if we're in the wrong. How can you deal with people like this?

edit: There are spaces available on the street in either direction too. The Ignis might just - just be able to go straight out & not turn but the Vectra has no chance.

Move.

Here you go.   This is as things stand right now,

 

 

I politely asked how long they'd be parked there and the response was 'Why, do you need to go out?  Just ask us when you need to.' 

 

I pointed out that I need to go out a few times over the course of the evening & they got all huffy with me saying that it wouldn't be there long.  I refrained from saying that it was last night as they then act all offended as if we're in the wrong.  How can you deal with people like this?

 

edit: There are spaces available on the street in either direction too.  The Ignis might just - just be able to go straight out & not turn but the Vectra has no chance.

 

 

This was outside our old house, the lady in the saloon thought there was nothing wrong with it!!