OK, we all know how convenient it is to just pop our cars up on the pavement and nip into a shop, or climb the kerb to make a parking space where there previously wasn’t one. However, if we thought about it for just one moment, we would realise just how many problems we might be causing for people in wheelchairs, or mums with pushchairs, or those that are visually impaired.
Pavement parking seems to have become a fairly big problem lately and Regional and Local Transport Minister Norman Baker has written to councils prompting them to use their powers to prevent drivers parking on the pavement where it is obviously causing issues. Up until now, councils have had to get special permission from government each time they wanted to put a pavement parking ban in place, but now the Department of Transport has given all councils in England permission to use signs to indicate a pavement ban is in place. In fact, pavement parking is completely banned in London already.
In some circumstances its recognised that parking on the pavement is almost unavoidable and there are thousands of narrow residential streets that have no off road parking facilities and if you don’t put a couple of wheels on the kerb, it would end up blocking the street completely, but sometimes, even spending a minute or two dropping something off, could cause difficulties, placing passer by’s in real danger by forcing them to walk into the road to get past and of course, risking an accident, so is there a happy balance?
Apart from the obvious obstruction problems, parking on pavements can also cause structural damage resulting in trip hazards and of course, forcing councils to spend the tax payers bucks on repairs, so realistically, it isn’t good and its not the right thing to do.
What we are saying here is, if you are considering leaving your car parked even partially on the pavement, it’s selfish and it’s dangerous and now that ministers are encouraging local councils to use their powers to enforce the law, you just might get a ticket for doing it. So think again and look out for any signs that tell you not to park on the pavement and obey them, or perhaps better still, use your common sense.
