# Why get upset if someone parks in front of your house? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 28, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874 "2011-09-28T13:18:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/101 "2011-09-28T21:34:11Z")
It doesn’t bother me all that much, but I see it, in the suburbs anyway, as the parking equivalent of holding your hand an inch from your sister’s face while chanting “I’m not touching you!”. Also, I am reasonably sure I don’t own the airspace above my house but if a black helicopter hovered over it for hours at a time every day I would still get creeped out. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/102 "2011-09-28T22:10:02Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’m accustomed to street parking that is marked with painted lines. That’s what you find downtown in front of stores. But not on residential streets, where there aren’t any painted lines. I’m not sure where you are, but every place I’ve ever lived parking on streets is allowed unless there is signage specifically prohibiting it. Where do you live? Residential streets aren’t like downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/103 "2011-09-28T22:12:59Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There’s no marked parking on my street. No painted marks or lines on the pavement, no signs saying you can park. Sounds like every residential neighborhood I’ve seen in every part of the country I’ve been to. Signs are only used to spell out when one _CANNOT_ park. In the absence of signs, parking is understood to be legal. I’m finding it amazing that you haven’t observed this. > [@](#): > > Why would anyone think it’s legal to park there? Because it is legal, just like in every residential neighborhood I’ve seen in every part of the country I’ve been to. > [@](#): > > Parked cars are a traffic hazard on residential, suburban streets. It chokes the street down to one lane. If the city determines that it’s a problem, they’ll put up signs regulating parking. > [@](#): > > I’m accustomed to street parking that is marked with painted lines. That’s what you find downtown in front of stores. It’s quite a different matter downtown. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/104 "2011-09-28T22:29:31Z")
Guess I learned something today. 😉 I’d never really thought about residential parking before. I’ve always been invited to a friends house for a visit or parked at my own. Randomly parking at a strangers house never occurred to me. It would scare the crap out of some of my elderly neighbors to have a car parked in front of their house. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/105 "2011-09-28T22:32:54Z")
> [@kjckjc](#): > > It doesn’t bother me all that much, but I see it, in the suburbs anyway, as the parking equivalent of holding your hand an inch from your sister’s face while chanting “I’m not touching you!”. Also, I am reasonably sure I don’t own the airspace above my house but if a black helicopter hovered over it for hours at a time every day I would still get creeped out. Racist. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2011, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/106 "2011-09-28T22:55:46Z")
I had a moron neighbor who would occasionally park IN my driveway or across it. That bothered me. Otherwise, no. I didn’t care who parked in front of my house. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/107 "2011-09-29T00:03:06Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Actually in a neighborhood without driveways/private parking you can get the city to mark a space in front of your property as handicap parking. Doesn’t count if you’re on crutches for a month, or are just old and a bit wobbly, or have only just been disabled in a more permanent way but the permits haven’t come in yet. > [@kjckjc](#): > > It doesn’t bother me all that much, but I see it, in the suburbs anyway, as the parking equivalent of holding your hand an inch from your sister’s face while chanting “I’m not touching you!”. Also, I am reasonably sure I don’t own the airspace above my house but if a black helicopter hovered over it for hours at a time every day I would still get creeped out. That’s a good way of putting it. I just remembered that, at my mother’s house, her neighbour would always park outside my mother’s house rather than in front of their own house. This would happen regardless of the other people parking: the person at number 31 would always park at number 33. It wasn’t an inconvenience in any way, it wasn’t bad, it was just strange. ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/108 "2011-09-29T00:36:27Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > I feel like a number of posters have mentioned that the parking for _no reason_ is what bothers them, and I’m confused by that. Why do people park anywhere? I may be able to answer this on behalf of my parents’ neighbors, among many others. My parents live on a fairly quiet suburban street where nearly everyone has a driveway and/or a garage. There’s almost always quite a bit of room to park on the street. As others have already said, there’s an implied parking “code” among folks on the street that one parks in one’s own driveway, or in front of one’s own house, or in front of the house of the person you’re visiting. My parents can easily accommodate five cars in their driveway and four or five more in front of their house. For a few years, one of my sisters lived a few miles from my parents. When she’d visit, she’d park her car across the street, in front of the neighbors’ house, because that’s the direction she was going when she drove up. So basically, she was too lazy to either pull into my parents’ driveway (and risk having to move her car if she had blocked someone in who wanted to leave before her) or to make a u-turn and park in front of my parents’ house. The neighbors were on the tetchy side, and they complained. While my sister clearly had the right to park in front of the neighbors’ house, her laziness and lack of compliance with the code irritated them. Would I have complained? Probably not. Would I have been annoyed? Yep. I might have guests that need the space. Laziness bugs me. I don’t want to look outside and see your junky car in front of my house. But the best reason: toward the end of his life, my grandfather was very frail. He needed a great deal of assistance to get from a car parked directly in front of my parents’ house into the house. Forcing him to walk farther because someone was too lazy to turn their damn car around would’ve pissed me off. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/109 "2011-09-29T01:32:37Z")
So parking in front of your house is a moral failing? That’s kind of nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/110 "2011-09-29T01:49:47Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > Mom and dad now have an empty nest and a two car garage-cum-storage-shed and are much more relaxed these days. That’s one storage shed I won’t be stepping foot in. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/111 "2011-09-29T03:24:46Z")
I understand the winter/shoveling thing. But I don’t get this whole attitude when there’s no snow. If I’m visiting a residential neighborhood, then _anywhere I park is going to be in front of somebody’s house_. If you don’t want people parking in a legal parking place on a public street in front of your home, then where are they supposed to park? Residents are only allowed to invite as many people to a party as can park in front of their home? If you show up to visit Grandma and someone is already parked in front of her house, then you can’t stay and visit? This makes no sense to me at all. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/112 "2011-09-29T03:31:50Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Doesn’t count if you’re on crutches for a month, or are just old and a bit wobbly, or have only just been disabled in a more permanent way but the permits haven’t come in yet. > . In CT and NY old and creaky is actually grounds for a gimp tag, my mum has one [and at 85 years old, is pretty creaky.] [I cheated and read the back of the CT paperwork to see if old and creaky worked here] ---
**Author:** ![Borzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@Borzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borzo)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/113 "2011-09-29T03:55:00Z")
This all seems like a strange inverse of the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Instead of abusing and neglecting and forgetting and abandoning a shared public resource… people seem to slowly and subtly and deliberately begin to claim it as their own. They then get upset when someone points out that “Ehrmmm, excuse me but it’s still public property, buddy!” ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/114 "2011-09-29T03:55:54Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > My family had four cars and one single car garage. Sometimes when my brothers moved back in temporarily there would be five cars. Plus, it really was a theoretical garage - in practice, it was a storage shed for my dad’s tools. > > My dad would get absolutely furious at this one guy. He owned a shop down the street, but wanted his customers to park there, so he parked right in front of our house when we had all gone to school/work. When we made it back home, his big blue van was right there, and we all had to shuffle around or park in the municipal parking lot. That may not have been so bad, but it was right behind several dive bars and our cars had been damaged or broken into on numerous occasions, so we tried to avoid it. > > My dad had words with him on numerous occasions, but of course it was a public parking area, so he did have the right to park there. It was just a dick move. The municipal parking lot was closer to his store, but he knew the dangers of parking there, so he would make us park there instead. > > Mom and dad now have an empty nest and a two car garage-cum-storage-shed and are much more relaxed these days. So the business owner wanted free space in HIS parking lot but the street adjacent to your parent’s house was his own parking space? Nice guy. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/115 "2011-09-29T04:46:08Z")
Although I admit that someone parking in front of my house for no apparent reason would feel odd and/or creepy, I find it amusing to think of calling the police about it. “911, what’s your emergency?”\* “There’s a strange car parked in front of my house!” “Ma’am, what is the car doing right now?” “It’s just sitting there!”:eek: You cop-callers must live in small towns where the police have nothing to do. If I called the police because a car was parked in front of my house, they would come over specifically to bitchslap me. \*I know you cop-callers are going to say you wouldn’t dial 911, you’d call the non-emergency line, but it’s my funny daydream. Humor me. ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/116 "2011-09-29T05:02:17Z")
I don’t know if this thread was inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=625548) one or not (the parking part of that thread starts about post #74), so I guess I’ll repeat myself. Our neighborhood has two car garages (that most folks use for storage), room for two more cars in the driveways and room for two more regular sized cars at the curb in front of each house. The people across the street from us have turned their garage into a bedroom, so they have widened their driveway to hold three of their five vehicles and they also have the space on the curb in front of their house. But, they park in front of our house every day, which I wouldn’t really care much about except they leave trash on the boulevard, put two Expeditions there so they slop over into our driveway and, when I have the gall to want to use the space in front of our house every other month or so when we have the travel trailer out, they get pissy. Yet I’m sure if we parked the trailer in front of their house and had to wend our way around the flowers in their boulevard, they wouldn’t like _that_ either. As far as I’m concerned, my neighbors are being inconsiderate but apparently since it is legal for them to park there, people think their convenience is more important than mine. Shrug. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/117 "2011-09-29T05:05:41Z")
I certainly can understand the annoyance of this particular situation. I hope your neighbors move out soon- they sound hellish. Have you considered poison? ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/118 "2011-09-29T06:11:17Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I certainly can understand the annoyance of this particular situation. I hope your neighbors move out soon- they sound hellish. Have you considered poison? Eh, they can’t really afford the house and they have bad spending habits - I don’t figure they can last much longer… ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/119 "2011-09-29T07:04:12Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > As far as I’m concerned, my neighbors are being inconsiderate but apparently since it is legal for them to park there, people think their convenience is more important than mine. Shrug. So just go buy a car off of Craigslist and park it there next time the spot it empty. Park right in the middle so there’s no room in front or back. Make sure you get a really long car, like an early 70’s Electra or Bonneville. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874/120 "2011-09-29T13:36:13Z")
**curlcoat** , that thread was partly the inspiration for my thread, but it is a general theme I have noticed in the suburbs. I didn’t link to that thread because that situation seemed to have unique circumstances that made your annoyance understandable. I understand being annoyed with someone blocking your parking space, or being thoughtless, but I was surprised to see so many people describe seeing a car in front of their house as creepy, weird, or an act of aggression and talked about calling the police. A couple of people responded that they didn’t understand the reason for the car being there, it just creates this image for me of someone peering through their drapes at the outside world in dread and living their life in a defensive crouch. I know it’s a cliché, but people in the burbs seem needlessly scared of the outside world. Crime is at a 40 year low, what are people so afraid of? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-get-upset-if-someone-parks-in-front-of-your-house/597874.md?page=7)