Every morning (before I get up), a minivan parks directly in front of my house. I’m about two houses down from the bus stop, and this guy likes to use the front of my house as a park-and-ride spot. His van’s there all day long, but he leaves before I get home.
Personally, it annoys me- because if he’d just park twenty feet further on, he wouldn’t be in front of anyone’s house… but no, he’s always got to park directly in front of my front door.
As an aside, I’m not sure why it annoys me so much- maybe it’s just because if he would park just a bit further down, it wouldn’t feel like he’s doing it to just piss me off. I didn’t say I was logical about this.
However, since the road’s not too wide, he ends up parking on the sidewalk- actually, most of his minivan’s on the sidewalk. What’s more, there’s a woman who also rides the bus I ride… who’s in a motorized wheelchair. She has to either drive partly through my yard (if the guy has left her enough room), or she has to drive through the street (if he hasn’t).
What can I do about this guy? I, and several of my neighbors, have left notes on his windshield… but he’s apparently ignoring us.
If you parked on the kerb here you would get ticketed. We have this problem in my street. These two people save on paying for parking where they work by parking directly across from our driveway on a narrow road. My mother backed her car into one of them one day, partly because it was such a tight squeeze.
If he’s blocking access to your mailbox, you or the Post Office carrier, can have his car hauled away by the police. And as some of my neighbors on our small street with small driveways found out, the letter carriers might have very different ideas of what “blocking access” is in a mailtruck, compared to what SUV lady thought.
If it at all could be an issue, it’s probably worth your while to talk to your mail carrier some day when he delivers and see what his opinion is.
Did you miss the part where Lightnin’ and several of the neighbors have left notes on the windshield?
If he’s blocking the sidewalk, I’d say it’s an issue, especially for your neighbor in the motorized wheelchair. If he isn’t, then he’s legally parked, and you need to just live with it.
If the barking doesn’t work, because you don’t see him coming or going… maybe you could pee on his tires.
I have this same problem with a neighbor (an elderly guy) who frequently has a lot of guests over. For some reason, his guests never park in front of his house. They park in front of mine, and others on the street, and walk over to his house. It’s weird. I mean, wouldn’t you first try to park in front of the house you were actually going to if you could, and park elsewhere only if there was no space left there? He must be telling his guests not to park in front of his house; I can’t come up with any other explanation. It’s annoying but not a big enough deal to confront him over.
One more says call the cops. You can be ticketed and/or towed here for blocking sidewalks. They’re very, very likely to do so in neighborhoods with handicapped residents.
My vote is for the passive/aggressive attack. Be creative. Cover his entire van in post-it notes saying things like “Don’t park here”, “Remember to get butter”, and “Do you live down by the river”.
My father-in-law got tired of the neighbors guests using his narrow driveway to turn around in at the end of the street in the middle of the night, cutting it too sharp, and ruining his lawn.
He invested in a couple of 3 foot boulders to put at the bottom corners of his driveway. Now he says he smiles a little bit when he hears a “crunch!” wake him up in the middle of the night.