I’m not picking on you at all, because you seem completely reasonable, but quoted your post because it specifically mentions something I wonder about … maybe I am more clueless than average, but usually I don’t monitor the parking on my street that closely, so I don’t generally know what reason a person may or may not have had for parking in a particular area. If the street is empty, the car parked close to one’s house might seem odd, but at the time the person parked, it might have been more crowded. Or there could have been a delivery truck blocking access to some spaces. Or they may have had a passenger who needed assistance exiting the back seat, which made them choose a spot on the opposite side of the street from their own house. Or any other number of reasons that would be impossible to discern after the fact, but don’t imply any malice or even weirdness.
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?
For what it’s worth, I live in a city where you park wherever you find a spot, it’s not at all connected to what’s in front of people’s homes. The idea of “saving” a spot would be insane, because there’s such a premium on parking.
I don’t care where people park, as long as they don’t park on my daylilies. I’ve had an old non-running Buick parked out front for over a year, and so far no one has complained about it. My neighbors and I park in front of each other’s houses occasioanlly–I can never discern why, but I just assume that there’s a decent reason–otherwise, why would they park and walk?
I have nice neighbors.
I had a coworker whose homeowners association didn’t allow any on street parking at all. I know this because he mentioned that his wife was ticked off because one of their neighbors parked his RV in front of his own house.
BTW, there is a place near my house that specializing in storing RV, boats and extra cars called Adult Toy Storage. I’d heard of it, but I had a completely different image in mind until I drove past it.
My problem is that if I see a strange car parked in the same place without moving for a couple of days, I start wondering how long before I start noticing a rotting smell from the trunk.
You perfectly summed up my attitude, when I see a car parked in front of my house, I don’t think of it more than, oh, there’s a car there, guess I’ll park somewhere else. I think it is just what you are used to, if parking is at a premium, you can’t worry about who parked in front of your house, or why they did it because you will make yourself nuts.
Certainly, and I wouldn’t care at all in a city setting either. This really only occurs in suburbia because that’s where the living space per person really expands, but is still crowded enough that folks can infringe on one another by accident. Just as I wouldn’t care if someone took the urinal next to me in a crowded restroom, I wouldn’t care in an urban environment. Everyone’s budged up and you just have to deal with it.
As to your question about “no reason,” I think most people who are going to feel particularly affected about what happens on the border of their property have a reasonable idea of how busy their street is (unless they’re particularly irrational about it, which is always possible). The quieter the street is normally, the less likely there was some reason like a party you didn’t know about and thus the more someone getting on the border of your property is going to feel like a deliberate imposition.
Idle thought: I wonder how much this happens in truly rural areas. I have less experience with such than suburban or urban areas, though. My guess is there’s so few people that it just almost never is an issue, and there’s so much space that on the off-chance someone parks in front of your property, it’s going to be very deliberate. Suburbs have that odd mix of lots of personal space per individual pushed together with lots of individuals where it becomes an issue.
I know full well that I have no right to the street, and that anyone with a legally-registered vehicle can park on it (for 24 hours, after which it can be considered abandoned and towed), but it still (mildly) irritates me when people park in front of my house. I look after that sidewalk and that piece of road; I shovel it in winter, I sweep the grass off of it after I mow my lawn, I pick up the litter in the gutter daily so it looks less like we live in a slum - I have all these obligations to the sidewalk and road, but I have no rights.
When I drive somewhere and have to park in a residential area, I’m careful to try to park so it inconveniences the residents the least, because I know how I feel at MY house. Oh yeah, I’ll fully admit that I am a very territorial person - my house and my yard are MINE!
I get a bit miffed when someone parks infront of my house because there are no driveways in my neighbourhood and houses on only one side of the street. So there are pleny of parking options that wont inconvience anyone. There is an unpoken rule on the street that every house gets the space directly infront of it. The other side of the road is overflow. I would never say anything, but I still get annoyed.
Also for some reason it seems like someone only parks infront of my house when I have a car full of groceries and a toddler and newborn to contend with.
Oh and don’t get me started on winter. We don’t spend all that time clearing the spot for the neighbours buddys.
This is part of the reason why I will never live anywhere without a designated parking spot.
I’m a little growly about the stuff around me, but that’s because I had an entire farm to myself growing up. My walk down the driveway to get picked up by the schoolbus was probably a block long.
I lived in an apartment near downtown once, all the street parking filled up fast but that was only during business hours and my building had guest parking. But to have to deal with that without having a designated spot of my own? I would go nuts.
I haven’t had this kind of issue in many years, because I park my car in a garage nowadays. But maybe 20 years ago I lived in a place where I had to park my car on the street every night, so I ran into this issue.
Sometimes I did park my car outside other people’s houses. In general, the reason was that those parking spaces were a little more convenient in some way: They were in my direction of travel, or they were easier to pull into or get out of, or they required less “parallel parking” type maneuvering to get into. So there was always a rationale.
I have to admit that during this period, I was renting the house I was living in. So the concept of territoriality was completely foreign to me.
Happened to me in otherwise peaceful Andersonville a few years ago. And the most annoying part was that the chairs had already been tossed aside by someone else!
There aren’t any legal parking spaces on streets in my neighborhood. People sometimes park their own cars in front of their house. But it’s not a public parking space. I’d call the cops too if a stranger parked in front of my house.
I guess to fully stop parking on the street the city would have to post signs. But a neighborhood street isn’t a legal parking spot. They aren’t wide enough for parked cars and traffic.
I live in a residential area, on a corner of a very quiet street and a fairly busy street. Every home on both streets has more than ample driveway parking and there is nothing within walking distance of my home except for other homes.
So, if a car is parked in front of my house it is unual and while I won’t say it always sends up warning flags, it bothers me in the sense that, there is really no good reason to park there and leave.
Now, I am on the corner lot so I have seen a few cars parked there that were broken down from the busier road, or somebody pulled over and on the phone. This doesn’t bother me at all. A couple times the car was parked there with nobody in sight for a little while and was retrieved by the owner within an hour. These cars I just keep an eye on. Finally, one time a car was there for over an hour. I called the police, they ran the plates, flashed a light inside the car to see if it was occupied and told me the car is not stolen, etc. He said, you did the right thing though because you never know what can happen in any neighborhood. He said call him back if anything changes.
A neighbor has never parked in front of my house and never would have any reason too, so if a stranger is parking there, it makes me notice. And yes, they have every right to park there, but I have every right to have the police run their plates etc. if it is left there.
If I lived near some businesses it wouldn’t bother me at all.
There’s no marked parking on my street. No painted marks or lines on the pavement, no signs saying you can park. Why would anyone think it’s legal to park there? Parked cars are a traffic hazard on residential, suburban streets. It chokes the street down to one lane.
Some neighbors park on the street but they have to get up on their grass. So traffic can squeeze by.
I don’t have any idea how many people live in the house across from me, but they have 4 or 5 cars. Since it’s too far to walk from the street to the door - they park on the grass.
Yeah.
The orgiinal owners of these homes would spin in their graves if they could see what this neighborhood looks like. About three of us make an effort to keep the yards looking nice. It’s really a shame.
I’m afraid you are delusional, especially since since you have already pointed out that local residents do park on the street. Can you cite an ordinance that supports your interpretation?
Never checked any ordinance. It’s never been an issue. No one ever parks on this street unless they live here or are visiting the neighbors. It would be extremely suspicious for someone to park in front of my house.
I’d call the cops and let them deal with it.
I’m accustomed to street parking that is marked with painted lines. That’s what you find downtown in front of stores.
