Parking On Pavements

[Bazile]

Why do people park on pavements - either part on or full on ?

Do You park on the pavement - If Yes - why ?

[fourteen85]

I was interested to note the word 'pavement' was used and not 'footpath' is there a difference?

[dannyk13]

Not in the opinion of the Prosecutions dept.

[hc4361]

Was that before 1991 when it became decriminalised?

[retrocop]

In the Met area most summons for Highways obstruction were successfully prosecuted in Magistrates Court under statutory law. That included motor vehicles,hot dog/ice cream vendors,suitcase johnnys. The sec 121 Hioghways act covered it but I am sure there were the Town,Police,Clauses Act that the County Mounties used.

[andy-hughes]

I park outside our house with my offside wheels just on the pavement, leaving plenty of room for pedestrians to pass by.

We live on an estate, and foot traffic is minimal past out house, but just beyond us is a bend, and some people do take it a little quickly, hence my parking, to avoid any accidents.

Although there is ample room for people to walk past, someone dislodges my door mirror every day between when I park at tea-time and when I leave in the mornings, and that is seriously annoying!!!

[dannyk13]

HC .How can you decriminalise something that in itself was not a crime? Do you have a link?

[Islay]

When I lived in London all street parking was half on half off he pavement, in fact the pavements had a white strip down them to show you how much of the pavement you could park on.

[MargoTester]

^as I posted at 12.41

[retrocop]

andy-hughes
Then you are lucky that is all the damage you get. Perhaps a large perambulator pushed on a pedestrian pavement could cause body/paint work damage as well!!

[hc4361]

Danny, s.19a Road Traffic Act 1988: Prohibition of parking on verges, central reservations and footways.

Repealed by s.83 and Schedule 8 of the Road Traffic Act 1991

[dannyk13]

After my time I'm afraid.

[hc4361]

That explains it, danny. I'm referring to the law as it stands today, you are talking about history :)

[dannyk13]

☺☺☺

[Old_Geezer]

I never used to but I tend to do so on occasion now. Everyone else does, and to be honest the roads are too narrow for purpose so often one doesn't really have a good option if traffic is to continue to flow.

It's just so easy to blame and castigate drivers for finding the best compromise possible, but if the issue is to be solved it's useless flogging the usual scapegoat; the councils should pay a decent price to compulsory purchase a strip of garden from each side and make each road a minimum standard width wherever possible. Perhaps they could use some of the annual road fund licence they purloin so much of each year.

[pauln90]

From House of Commons Briefing Paper
Number SN01170, 10 February 2016

1. Are on-street and pavement
parking legal?

The general principle is that it is legal to park at the side of the road (onstreet
parking) everywhere except where there are local authority
restrictions in place.
Driving onto the pavement to park is illegal (see section 1.3, below), but
there is an issue about how widely this is enforced as it is a criminal
offence (i.e. enforced by the police) rather than a civil offence (enforced
by the local authority). Almost all other parking offences are now civil
ones.
There is separate legislation banning pavement parking in London and
more widely for heavy commercial vehicles.
Some on-street and pavement parking will be seen as causing an
obstruction and can be dealt with by the police or traffic wardens.
However, most enforcement will be by local authorities who have
assumed control for decriminalised/civil parking enforcement under Part
6 of the Traffic Management Act 2004. As part of this process they can
designate ‘Special Parking Areas’ (SPAs) in which vehicles parked on
street or on the pavement can be ticketed for contravening parking
regulations (e.g. parking on a yellow line), rather than for causing an
obstruction.1
Some local authorities, i.e. Exeter, took their own Private
Act powers to ban pavement parking within their areas.
Government guidance is available for all local authorities on alternative,
non-legislative measures to discourage pavement parking. This includes
suggestions such as guardrails, the planting of trees and the placement
of bollards on pavements. Such physical measures, whilst perhaps
costly in the first instance, have the advantage of being self-policing and
self-enforcing.

[hc4361]

Driving on the pavement is a tricky one. If you see a car parked on the pavement, or facing the wrong way in one way street for that matter, you cannot assume it was driven there.

[pauln90]

Indeed prosecution for driving onto the pavement would be problematic as witnesses would be required for a prosecution to succeed, but a fixed penalty could be given by a police officer for the obstruction offence. However unless specific regulations have been applied by a local authourity then their parking wardens would be unable to take action.

The obstruction of the free passage of the highway was in my day not only applied to vehicles but also to A frame advertising boards outside shops and also to the likes of greengrocers who stacked boxes of goods on the pavement. The classic scenario outlined in classes at Bruche when i was there in the 70's was "what action could be taken if a blind person collided with these obstructions" and you were directed towards the Highways Act or the Towns Police Clauses Act if this applied in your area.

[whiskeryron]

I would suggest that roads are built for moving traffic & pavements for pedestrian traffic. Cars etc. should be parked where possible on owners property ( by making provision on front gardens where possible & paying for dropped kerbs )

[hc4361]

paul, the council would be hard pushed to enforce that where I live.
Many of the houses open directly on to the very narrow pavements and years ago the dustmen would go up the entries to empty the bins. Galvanised dustbins were emptied in to baby bath type bins which the dustmen would haul to and from the dustcart.
Now the residents must put the wheelie bins on the pavement which completely obstruct them. This is on some extremely busy roads near schools so it is a nightmare for pedestrians, and motorists when the bins stray in to the road.

[hc4361]

All well and good, Ron, until you need to go somewhere and park up. Many small old towns and villages do not have sufficient car parks and the businesses don't have car parks either.

I don't use my local post office to send heavy parcels for precisely this reason - there is no parking. I have to drive miles to the next suitable post office.