Parking issues!

Fortunately we had a drive but the parking on the road at my previous house was getting silly - people would park in "their" space (no marked bays) rather than optimally use space so by the end of the evening there would be lots of odd size gaps that could have fitted 2-3 more cars in combined, while the last few people were having to park in increasingly silly places. Increasingly people bringing work vehicles home like one guy had a flatbed recovery truck...

What annoys me though there is several places on my way to work which is chaos due to the street parking but according to an ex-colleague who lives at one of the worst ones everyone has a garage at the rear and/or allocated parking space in a nearby private carpark but don't use them due to laziness and/or rent the parking space out so instead everyone has to suffer.
 
Council is having another go at trying to get this area to volunteer to have the streets converted from free for all to permit parking.

Yea. No.
 
It won't help existing housing, I don't think there is an answer for existing housing, but all new housing should be built with a minimum number of parking spaces per bedroom plus 1 extra. So a 1 bed should have 2 spaces, a 2 bed 3 spaces etc etc.

Some new housing estates have restrictive covenants put into the deeds where commercial vehicles aren't allowed to be parked on the estate or driveway unless for a sub contractor to carry out repairs, as annoying as it is to those that have commercial vehicles, it is useful.

I've seen a lot of 4 beds spring up with parking only suitable for 2 cars, this is never going to work.

About 5 years ago a house in the next village sold 3/4 of his garden to a developer, they built 2x 4 bed houses with virtually no garden and only 2 parking spaces, the houses are on the main road that feeds a major A road, so there no way they can park on the street. How this got through planning I've no idea, the houses sold straight away which personally I find bizarre but each to their own.
 
If I was dictator of the world, I'd ban parking cars on the public road, or at least have no free parking on the roads. It would severely limit car ownership so the design of towns and cities would have to change, no school run mum in her SUV, better local amenities, more cycling, better and cheaper public transport and a healthier population. Instead we all sit in our cars, not going very fast because everyone 'needs their car'. Driving between 7am until 8pm is a miserable experience around here and as such I avoid it as much as possible.


There is a main through road near me, one way, 30mph limit, tightly packed terrace houses, road that is too narrow for parking on both sides so people park 2 wheels up on the pavement and cars regularly get hit. But nothing is done to sort it out because the council are too concerned about upsetting the vocal car owners. This road of course has a few people that reserve their spot with cones, chairs etc.
 
sx_turbo said:
Thing that annoys me most is when people park on the street even though they have a driveway that is empty.

In my village there is a street that's one of the main bus routes and people park on the road either side turning it into a single lane street.

90% of the houses have parking for a good 3 cars, yet most people park on the road and don't use their driveway. And the reason is "so others don't park outside my house" feeble excuse.
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That's literally the old duffer across from me!

Has a 2 car drive but instead parks in the middle of a double visitors bay.
 
Rroff said:
I've never got why some people get so worked up about someone else parking outside their house, in a spot they'll never use or don't need to use, and not parked obstructively.
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Depends. If its a nice car. The house may be broken into for the keys. When its not even their car.

Thats one reason
 
sx_turbo said:
It won't help existing housing, I don't think there is an answer for existing housing, but all new housing should be built with a minimum number of parking spaces per bedroom plus 1 extra. So a 1 bed should have 2 spaces, a 2 bed 3 spaces etc etc.

Some new housing estates have restrictive covenants put into the deeds where commercial vehicles aren't allowed to be parked on the estate or driveway unless for a sub contractor to carry out repairs, as annoying as it is to those that have commercial vehicles, it is useful.

I've seen a lot of 4 beds spring up with parking only suitable for 2 cars, this is never going to work.

About 5 years ago a house in the next village sold 3/4 of his garden to a developer, they built 2x 4 bed houses with virtually no garden and only 2 parking spaces, the houses are on the main road that feeds a major A road, so there no way they can park on the street. How this got through planning I've no idea, the houses sold straight away which personally I find bizarre but each to their own.
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This already exists, parking guidelines are supposed to be 1 car per expected adult in the property after a few years, but there are exemptions such as access to public transport, recreation and local facilities. In my town I'm fortunate to work local, have family local and have other local facilities on my doorstep, however I still need a car for evening entertainment and to see friends/other family. They've built an estate with a collection of two bedroom flats which you'd need two professionals working full time to get a mortgage but only one parking space per property. In the planning documentation the "leisure and sport" facilities consisted of a library and a bowling green. Shopping was covered by half a supermarket and a corner shop, evening entertainment was a couple of pubs. Public transport is covered by a half hourly bus to a town 45 minutes away, but only in the daytime and if you do need to commute into London, the station doesn't have bike facilities, only a car park 5 miles away, which means you'd still need a car.
 
I've noticed a lot of American/Australian houses, have nice big driveways where you can get many cars on. They consequently then have clear streets/roads with no parked cars on. Much nicer. I know they have more space generally than the UK does to build in that way but still.... :(
The UK should not be building houses like they are on new build estates where the houses don't even have driveways on a lot of them. At best, some have one or two spaces, and then no real area for visitors to park. So then the lovely new build estate with brick roads everywhere just have cars littered, blocking all the house fronts. Everyone then looks out the window to random cars and dented white vans of all the people in the trade.

Houses should be built now with much better thought to parking. Frankly just build them with driveways having an absolute minimum of 2 spaces. The average cars per household in the 80s might have been 0.5, but in 2024, it's probably over 2.0.
 
Where I used to live, there were "rules" set by the residents association of the entire estate. One of them was not to have works vehicles parked on the estate at all. Yet every day towards the end of our time there, we could look out and spot at least 4 or 5 long wheel base vans too large for the spaces, taking up all the room. The association did not police this at all. They did decide to police not allowing children to play on the grass courtyard areas though, because it wore the grass out.

We also had contention for spaces from near by train station users and an industrial estate which had car garages, cafe etc. Twice we had letters from the council saying would you like to vote for parking permit style spaces where each house would be given ONE parking space confirmed. The residents always voted that they did not want this. I think this was due to a combination of factors though.
 
Neil79 said:
I'd pay for permit parking
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Same.

We have a University & Hospital very close to us, our road is used as their overspill/free parking space. It is a nightmare some days, cars parked haphazardly and dangerously anywhere they can get them. The hospital even advises staff to park there to ease their own paid for parking solution.

A permit would solve some of those issues for sure.
 
The whole situation is ridiculous.

Housebuilders don't want to put parking spaces in, because they can sell houses for more money. The council doesn't want parking spaces because on paper without them people will get on a bus instead.

So we end up with housing developments with about 50% of the parking capacity they really need. And then everyone spends years trying to fix it, police it etc and just move the problem somewhere down the road.

100% decided my next house must have a driveway.
 
I think permit parking often gets rejected because whilst everyone wants to sort out that one house with 17 transit vans ruining life for the entire street, everyone has 2 or 3 cars themselves and so don't want permit systems that only allow 1 car on the road and a visitor pass that's allowed to be used something miserly like 5 days a year.
 
Jim99 said:
The whole situation is ridiculous.

Housebuilders don't want to put parking spaces in, because they can sell houses for more money. The council doesn't want parking spaces because on paper without them people will get on a bus instead.

So we end up with housing developments with about 50% of the parking capacity they really need. And then everyone spends years trying to fix it, police it etc and just move the problem somewhere down the road.

100% decided my next house must have a driveway.
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In my area, you cant build a house without at least 2 spaces when its 3Bedroom+
 
Jim99 said:
The whole situation is ridiculous.

Housebuilders don't want to put parking spaces in, because they can sell houses for more money. The council doesn't want parking spaces because on paper without them people will get on a bus instead.

So we end up with housing developments with about 50% of the parking capacity they really need. And then everyone spends years trying to fix it, police it etc and just move the problem somewhere down the road.

100% decided my next house must have a driveway.
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It is ridiculous.

Nothing they are doing public transport wise is turning people away from cars, and as you say, new builds like to try and skimp on parking and driveway space as much as possible to bump their profits.

I'll never buy a house without a private driveway. Wont even entertain a shared one.
 
Neil79 said:
I'd pay for permit parking
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Townie here, I pay £180 a year to maybe get a space on my street. It's a joke, as people use it as a car park for the shops ect. and it's a free for all after 18:30, when all the restaurants are open. God forbid you get home late or want to drive somewhere in the evening... We tried to push for 24hr or at least until a later time but the council don't have wardens to work the night
 
Diagro said:
In my area, you cant build a house without at least 2 spaces when its 3Bedroom+
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Based on what I'm seeing it may well be the same here.

Thing is though, 3 bedroom+ generally means it's a family. Round here, mum and dad always have a car each. So the two spaces are immediately full up.

If a family member visits, no space. Tradesmen, no space. A kid grows up and gets their own car, no space.

Then you've got the couples in flats with a single space between them.

Before you know it there are 40 cars all jostling for 5 random visitor spaces, and wind up parking on the junctions, against any bit of kerb they can find etc.
 
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