Dear Sir,
I wanted to ask your readers when it became the accepted normal, in the UK, for vehicles to drive on, park and block pedestrian pavements?
I live in a village and I’d estimate that at least 50% of parked vehicles I see are either partially or fully parked on the pavement. Now, I do accept that there are more vehicles than there used to be and parking fully on the road can cause blockages for other vehicles but, drivers need to be aware that parking on a pavement causes pedestrians to have to take risks by walking on the road to get past vehicles. I saw an awful example online of a blind man whose guide dog was walking him up a busy road because the dog couldn’t avoid a row of parked cars on the pavement!
In our village there’s one particular street where pedestrians are forced to walk up the road and keep dodging into the gaps between parked vehicles – on the pavement, whenever a vehicle comes driving along the road. We also have a village shop where vehicles park on the pavement outside, rather than in a parking bay opposite, so that the drivers can be a massive 5 to 10 metres closer to the shop! I’ve actually been on that bit of pavement and had an annoyed car driver revving his engine at me as he drove up the pavement and wanted me to walk on so that he could park where I was standing. My attempts at sign language to demonstrate that I was on the pavement were met with confused bewilderment!
Also, to the home owners with garages and driveways … why do you park your car on the public pavement outside your property rather than use your garage or driveway?
Ultimately, for me, it’s not a massive issue, I am relatively healthy and I can generally squeeze past vehicles on the pavement. I also drive a car myself.
I just want some of your readers, who park on the pavement, to tell me why they have this attitude, that they have a right to do it and in which year or decade did this attitude manifest itself?
Name and address supplied
