In our town, you can be ticketed for parking facing the wrong direction (i.e., parking on the left side of the street). If I am visiting someone who is on the left as I approach, I’m going to park on the right and walk across the street instead of making a U-turn or looping around a block or two. Don’t you do that?
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You asked me directly, so I’ll answer - no, we do not get ticketed in my neighborhood for this. We have fairly wide streets and lots of room to park, so almost always, people park in front of the house they are going to, without making a u-turn - that is, they just pull over to the curb on their left.
No, they’re adults. The older one is 26, I bought my own house by that age. I think that’s why people get upset about cars in the street in front of the house. It might be your former kids coming back.
I’m in the suburbs and notice (not get upset) when someone parks in front of my house because I just notice that kind of thing and in my neighborhood it’s rare for anyone to park there since everyone has 2-car garages and driveways that can fit 4 more. Usually it’s just a guest of the neighbor across the street and I don’t care because they just want to park facing the direction of traffic, which I can understand. The only time it kind of bugs me is when I want to mow the lawn. I won’t mow the terrace next to someone’s car because I’d hate to kick something up and cause a ding, so I end up having to come back and do that section later. Only happens a couple times a summer, so not really a big deal.
The people down the road do kind of bug me because they park three cars in the road and none in their driveway. Normally this wouldn’t bother me but that section of road happens to be on a tight curve and a steep hill and they park on both sides leaving a single narrow lane with limited visibility. They also push all their snow out into the road during the winter so navigating that spot can be a real pain.
Assholes. The snow was higher than my head in some places this winter and I still didn’t throw snow into the road. I had to walk it a little further, but you just don’t do that.
I thought about this thread yesterday. I don’t live close enough to work to go home at lunch, so often go park under a tree in front of a vacent lot to read and smoke. People do notice me. I see them looking and just mentally shrug when I see some walking across the street to talk to me about it.
Yesterday was the third time someone asked me what I was doing there. He was nice about it and we made jokes about us smokers being social outcasts. He had even noticed that I was there about the same time every day and thought it was a lunch time and shade thing. He just wanted to be sure.
This was in the 4th largest town in AZ.
I live in the sticks. I do notice when someone is parked in front of my house. I think its happened maybe 3 times in 7 years. I don’t get offended about it, but its odd enough that I do pay attention when it happens.
I notice when someone parks in front of my house…or any of the homes in my line of sight. Not that it bothers me, but because we’ve been having a problem with people sitting in cars casing homes for robberies. If I see someone sitting in a car for any length of time, I will walk up and ask if they’re having problems. Of the four times I’ve left my porch and walked toward a car, the car has driven off before I got across my driveway.
My across the street and next door neighbors have someone home most of the time (elderly and stay at home moms). Most of the rest of the neighbors have empty homes most of the day. Neighborhood watch is a good thing for us.
I live in a rural area. Over the summer the neighbor across the street had a party and he stopped me to ask if it were OK for his guests to park in front of my house.
I told him that I appreciated his courtesy, that it wasn’t needed as the street belonged to everyone, that I wouldn’t mind anyway and that I was crushed that I hadn’t been invited.
He of course invited me over for a some burgers and dogs, but I politely declined claiming a previous engagement. (I didn’t have one, but didn’t want to guilt him into including me.)
Actually, with all the trees in my front yard, I would have to be really looking to see his guest, or I would have to be coming or going.
Not really related, but kind of: I do find it odd when, in the fall, he comes over and rakes the leaves in the street in front of my house into little piles. I almost want to ask him to stop, not because it in front of my house, but because, having run one of those leave vacuums, I know that (at least when I did it) it was better if you didn’t put them in piles. If you put them in piles, it was a series of starts and stops for me, where if you left them alone, I could inch my way down the street in a continuous manner.
I live in a 3br ranch house in suburbia and I don’t care about parking issues. Then again, I have a fire hydrant in front of my house so no one can park there, even me.
In the my college days I lived in a house in a neighborhood with limited parking. There was one parking area across from my house that was between two driveways that had just enough room for two cars (this was in the days before the ubiquitous SUV.) A little VW bug was parked right in the middle of it for a few days annoying all of the neighbors because it deprived us of a parking spot. One neighbor and I finally noticed that the door was unlocked so we took it out of gear and pushed it forward so that someone could park behind it. Two weeks later it still hadn’t moved so I called the cops and it ended up that it was stolen.
In that same neighborhood there was a guy living in a camper on the side of the house I was renting. He was there for weeks but I didn’t really care that much because he was clean and kept to himself. There was enough room behind him for one car to park. One day I wanted to park there and he was standing in the street screwing around in that space. I politely motioned to him to move so I could park and he flipped me of and told me that he would move whenever the fuck he felt like it. I parked elsewhere and went inside and called the cops. No, you’ll move when I feel like it, bitch. He was gone a day later.
I’m pretty sure this is why people noticed and confronted me about it. Well, not confronted. That implies hostility and nobody was hostile. They just wanted to know what was going on. I don’t get defensive or upset. If someone told me that they didn’t want me parking there, I’d find another tree to park under.
So, feel free to come and talk to me. I won’t drive away when I see you walking across the street. It will make you (generic you, btw) more comfortable and I’m a friendly, mostly harmless sort.
The only issue I have about someone parking in front of my house is blocking my driveway or making it difficult to see around the vehicle while backing out. There are children that ride bicycles pretty fast down my street, teenagers on skate boards, pedestrians, and dogs running loose, not to mention how fast some people drive. So if I can’t see around a large vehicle I’m taking the chance of being hit or worse, hitting someone. I’ve noticed regarding this issue some people are very territorial about their front curb area, believing it to be an extension of their house hold, while others, like yourself, don’t see what the big deal is. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground. People have very strong feelings one way or the other on this issue. It’s pretty much a neighbor courtesy to not park in front of other neighbors homes, but that only applies to neighborhoods with plenty of parking, and homes that have drive ways that can be used. Street parking is available to anyone so you didn’t do anything illegal.
While we’re on the subject of parking, how long can a boat be parked in front of a house? I was driving down a street that is connected to the street I live on and this guy has his boat parked in front of his house and the boat is angled so part of it is in the street and if two cars are headed towards each other one has to stop to let the other go by, because the boat is angled into the street. I was wondering how the people that live across from the boat owner got their pick up out of their driveway because there are also cars parked around the truck owners drive way. What a challenge that must be. Anyway, I noticed the boat gone after almost two weeks of sitting out on the street one day but back the next day. I’m just curious what the regulations are about boat parking. Personally, I think the guy should use his driveway to park the boat. It’s big enough to hold the boat and his vehicle. But then again it is parked in front of his own house, just not lined up with the curb.
I came in to say this. The HOA covenants in my neighborhood forbid street parking period. There are exceptions for short-term visits, but anyone claiming a “permanent” parking space in front of my house will soon find themselves in a legal battle with the HOA’s lawyers. AFAIK, they’ve prevailed in every case like this (although I can’t be certain).
Why? Because we don’t like a bunch of cars clogging the street, we think it’s unsightly, and the neighborhood requires all houses to have either side or rear-entry garages (ensuring lengthy stretches of driveway to store one’s cars).
I’m an RV’er myself, but I sure as heck don’t want them parked on my street. If it’s there very long, rest assured I’ll be calling the HOA prez.
Additional reasons… my boat trailer stretches about 28 feet behind my truck, and there is simply no way to maneuver in or out of my driveway if the neighbor is parked across from it.
My biggest beef nowadays is construction crews deciding they can leave their large equipment trailers on the street as they please. I understand the need for it during the workday, while working on (whatever) project, but I tend to get bitchy when it blocks or limits my entry/exit. One crew elected to leave their big backhoe trailer (sitting on two flats) for a week right in front of my gate. Repeated calls were met with “we’re busy” and “don’t have time to fix it now” etc. Turns out some of us suburbanites have some pretty sizable tow-rigs ourselves, and don’t really care how much damage it does to drag the thing away on flat tires
Hey, to all of those saying there’s nothing wrong with it, because its not illegal, I ask you this. Since its not illegal to cheat on your spouse, does that make right to do so?
It just kinda sucks. I live near a high school football stadium currently and if I don’t get home in time after work, I can’t park on my block or even near my block. I don’t have off street parking. It doesn’t happen often, but it sucks after a long day parking blocks away from your house because a bunch of high school kids want to park in front of your house to walk half a block to the stadium.
First of all, if my next door neighbors does so, no problem.
But the spot is exactly big enough for two cars and is so marked. Too many idiots park taking up both spaces. I think we can agree this is wrong.
Next is weird- I live in a middle-class neighborhood. Down the street, almost a full block are a few young techies who drive a Lexus and a BMW. Instead of parking in front of their building, they park down the street, their reasoning seems to be that they don’t want to be targeted for a burglary by having a nice car parked out front. All very nice, but then that turns the rest of us into targets. Entitled douchebags?
Finally, my across the street dude hates people parking in front of his building to the point he has even painted his own red markers. He incessantly calls Parking control. Needless to say, I think he is a dickwad and shouldn’t park in front of other peoples houses.
