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It doesn't bother me for a once in a while thing but I do think it's very inconsiderate to park in front of someone else's house and leave the space in front of your own house empty. I have my own alley loading garage in the back so it doesn't impact me directly but I like for my own visitors to be able to park in front of my house.
But I've had worse - where I used to live, people parked in front of my driveway, so I had no access at all to my own garage. This was on a private alley in a townhouse community and there was no additional parking, so I would have had to park two blocks away, on a public street outside of the community (there was some guest parking but it was very limited and almost always full, plus residents weren't supposed to park there). Once, I got home as someone was getting out of a car. When I said excuse me, you are blocking my driveway, can you please move, the response was "well, I'm only going to be a few minutes!" Because yes, I'm supposed to sit there and wait for you to do whatever instead of being able to access my own home.
Out of curiosity, why is it so annoying to have people parked in front of your house? People park in front of my house all of the time. I don't think twice about it.
Personally, I'd also want to park as close to my door as possible, and am thankful I have a driveway, but I don't give two hoots what happens out front.
It's annoying when it happens because the townhome communities next to ours have a lot of overcrowded housing. I'm talking---no exaggeration---3 families in a 3 bedroom townhome. The thing is when they move into a townhome, it's impossible to not know that you only get 2 parking spots.
Plus, when the local laws have no teeth in them, it's very hard to fight this. You could have 20-30 people living in a house but if they all claim to be related, then it's okay.
It's also annoying when you live a few miles away from an airport and people use the front of your house as airport parking. We've seen people have an airport cab drop them off in front of their cars.
It's annoying when, after a snowstorm, I'm shoveling our driveway and random people come up to you wanting to borrow your shovel (the answer is "No. Go park at your own house.").
All that said, if I lived, for example, someplace like Manhattan, it wouldn't bother me to see cars parked in front of my building because if I lived there, I wouldn't even need a car. Plus, with city living in an area with high rise buildings, you expect to encounter this. You don't expect to encounter this when you live in an area where each house comes with parking.
In our old neighborhood if we parked in front of our house we would be directly opposite the driveway of the house across the street, which made it difficult to back out. My parents parked there once and actually had their car backed into. My son would park his car across the street, in between two houses, never directly in front, and the across the street neighbors would deliberately put their garbage can 6 inches from his bumper. Never understood why they couldn't put it on the other side of their house.
My old neighborhood of 1950s houses had narrow streets. Eventually someone talked town council into only allowing parking on one side of the street so you could at least back out a truck or SUV without hitting anything...
Sorry OP, but if you want to be territorial about your house that is fine, but you can't be territorial over something that doesn't belong to you and that you have no rights over.
Your territory ends at the curb. In some cities, your territory ends several feet inside the curb and you don't even get to control the sidewalk area. The parking area in front of your house is not yours to control. Give it up; you are giving yourself stress over something that is out of your control.
If there is a garbage pick-up issue, set your can in the middle of your driveway entrance. That way, the garbage company will have plenty of room to pick it up.
Veering off topic, this parking war is going to get horrible in many cities where progressive governments have decided that the population should use public transportation and that they can force people to give up owning a car by not providing any parking.
I watch the city of Portland allow new apartment buildings to go up with no parking at all provided. My own town is allowing a 5,000 student college to go in with only 300 parking spaces. Their theory is that those students won't own cars. The reality is that all those students will park their cars on the surface streets around the college.
Veering off topic, this parking war is going to get horrible in many cities where progressive governments have decided that the population should use public transportation and that they can force people to give up owning a car by not providing any parking.
I watch the city of Portland allow new apartment buildings to go up with no parking at all provided. My own town is allowing a 5,000 student college to go in with only 300 parking spaces. Their theory is that those students won't own cars. The reality is that all those students will park their cars on the surface streets around the college.
Wow, those situations are disasters in progress.
I wonder where the staff for the college is going to park? From cooks, to janitors, to clerks, to librarians, to secretaries, to lab technicians, to professors, I bet that there will be at least 1,500 to 2,000 support staff members. Where will they park?
I'm thinking about my local HS where there are perhaps 800 students with drivers licences and the student parking lot fits 400 cars and they still have to have a lottery system because there are not enough spots for all of the students who want to drive to school (plus some days 20 to 40 students park their cars on the road in front of the school.
Sorry OP, but if you want to be territorial about your house that is fine, but you can't be territorial over something that doesn't belong to you and that you have no rights over.
Your territory ends at the curb. In some cities, your territory ends several feet inside the curb and you don't even get to control the sidewalk area. The parking area in front of your house is not yours to control. Give it up; you are giving yourself stress over something that is out of your control.
If there is a garbage pick-up issue, set your can in the middle of your driveway entrance. That way, the garbage company will have plenty of room to pick it up.
Veering off topic, this parking war is going to get horrible in many cities where progressive governments have decided that the population should use public transportation and that they can force people to give up owning a car by not providing any parking.
I watch the city of Portland allow new apartment buildings to go up with no parking at all provided. My own town is allowing a 5,000 student college to go in with only 300 parking spaces. Their theory is that those students won't own cars. The reality is that all those students will park their cars on the surface streets around the college.
It's true that people don't own the public street parking in front of their house. And this discussion is pretty irrelevant in a more urban setting where a street gets fully parked up every day. But in a suburban setting with larger lots and where everyone has a garage plus a driveway plus room for at least a couple of cars on the street in front of their own house, it's common courtesy to use those areas for parking rather than taking up the street area in front of someone else's house on a regular basis while leaving it empty in front of your own house. Just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's not rude.
I didn't realize people cared so much. When visiting my parents I occasionally parked in front of the neighbor across. Didn't see why anyone would care. If someone minded, I'd park elsewhere (if there were space in front of the house I'm visiting) but seems unnecessarily rather picky to me.
It's true that people don't own the public street parking in front of their house. And this discussion is pretty irrelevant in a more urban setting where a street gets fully parked up every day. But in a suburban setting with larger lots and where everyone has a garage plus a driveway plus room for at least a couple of cars on the street in front of their own house, it's common courtesy to use those areas for parking rather than taking up the street area in front of someone else's house on a regular basis while leaving it empty in front of your own house. Just because it's not illegal doesn't mean it's not rude.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have to live next to these people for the next undetermined amount of years but I 'm not going to let them call the shots.
Trade your car for two older limosuines, park one in front of your, and their house. Me; I would buy some gojacks, and move their car to the middle of the street everytime they parked there. Doesn't matter if it's a public road if they have on property parking they could use. They apparently feel entitled since they were there first.
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