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Reporting a shared pedestrian / cycleway parker
I'm not au fait with the nuances of pavement parking offences, and it seems complex.
This chap is parked across a shared bike / pedestrian pavement. I I think he is parked in front of his own house, part-blocking the pavement.
Can I report the driver for any offences? Obstruction, perhaps? And who is it - the County Council or the Police?
Thanks
Matt
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The biggest crime is that the local council think that chucking up some little blue signs equates to spending on cycling/walking provision. It's a footpath, not a shared use facility.
More crap infrastructure. Perhaps the council could pay a visit to Nottingham to get some ideas on how to do it properly.
That's not too bad. There's a road near me with 16 cars rendering pavements on either side impassable to wheelchairs, mobility scooters, pushchairs, and all but very thin pedestrians. It's a particularly pressing issue for the disabled, mobility impaired, and parents with young children.
If it's causing an obstruction (per above), the police can get involved. If not, local authorities can involved by making a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) on individual streets, which then makes vehicles potentially subject to civil enforcement. And howls from the comments secion of the Daily Mail about the war on motorists, etc. But TROs are expensive and time-consuming to make, so most local authorities don't bother.
Which is dumb. Rather than trying to attract and spend lots of money on - quite frankly - crap infrastructure, I'd much rather we just be able to use the walking and cycling infrastructure that's already there - pavements and bike lanes - and stop cars from parking and driving in it.
Links & resources:
https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/policy-and-resources/our-policy/pavemen...
https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/news/2022/may/ban-on-pavement-parki...
https://www.disabledmotoring.org/campaigns/pavement-parking
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/mps-call-for-overdue-government-ac...
I wouldn't waste any more time on this.
Unless the car is making the pavement impassable then, frustratingly, no offence has actually been committed*.
IIRC it is the police, not the council, who have responsibility so even if the pavement were completely blocked you'd be lucky if they actually attended.
*London has a ban on pavement parking so is the exception to this rule.
Thanks for that.
I was doing a survey of a local route to try and get some active travel spend into the planning gain taxes for a new housing estate, so this was an aside - so still some benefit from whole the exercise I hope.
The issue with the local route is that it is very decent quality for a mile, but is littered with A barriers and just stops at the edge of the estate - another 125m of track and some removing-barriers would make it a safe cycle to the town centre for 5k people rather than for dog walkers only.
The more recent half of the estate use gaps with a single car-preventing centre post.
Those A things are a nightmare. Recently came across one on the cargo bike, had to fold the stem and handlebar flat then wheel the bike through like a barrow.
I believe that, because they cause so much difficulty to larger bikes and are therefore basically impassable for many people with limited mobility, they are actually illegal as they breach various disability discrimination laws.
May be worth mentioning that to the council when you put your suggestions forward. Nothing like the implied threat of litigation to concentrate minds.
Wasn't Crippledcyclist (RIP) on here explaining how you get them fixed? Essentially you need to borrow someone with a disability, they go visit, fail to get through, send letter (available on internet) to the relevant authority and then if something doesn't happen sharpish it's straight to the court and regular, repeatable financial penalties until they fix it?
Seems (from the reports I read here) to be that rare bit of (anti-discrimination) legislation which is well targetted and rapidly effective.
This barrier is a very common design so it presumably was technically legal. Or designed when such concerns weren't important. Times may have changed though!
I find these a nuisance and am not disabled, don't use a mobility scooter, don't travel with a buggy full of kids...
There are a lot of links in here
https://mobile.twitter.com/CrippledCyclist/status/1483499167678926851
I think that's really interesting.
In the past I have used services such as Fix My Street, and a similar cycling one to flag them up.
But there are hundreds of the buggers, as well as non-dropped kerbs and similar, so it's quite a chunky job.
I want the work done rather than the Council Officers buried in paperwork.
I'll try a few routes, and try and get some stuff rolling.
On the recommended cycle route to the Council Offices , at two places we have bars across the cycle path at chest height.
We have literally hundreds of them - that estate alone has 50+ in the immediate area - in Ashfield.
On this path alone there are around 20 on the path or adjoining the path, mainly cutting of access from estate cul-de-sacs.
I had a long chat with out local County Councillor on my doorstep last year about all the entrances to that park with the playground being surrounded with A gates, and one has now been replaced with a slightly less crap one with 'sliding plates' which is a still a couple of thousand of Council money p*ssed away - I can just cycle through on my Broadman hybrid, and granny can just go through on her Type III mobility scooter.
Plus a rather fetching stone age bike rack.
A further issue that some will be familiar with is that Planning Permission is District but footpaths and bridleways are County.
Scotland is different too. MSPs voted to make pavement parking illegal in 2019. Transport (Scotland) 2019 Section 50
Unfortunately, the process for enforcement is not yet in place and has been delayed until next year.
Wales are apparently working towards a ban too.
Hopefully this sort of behaviour will soon be seen for the antisocial selfishness that it is.
We can thank the likes of Mr Loophole for that. Until I think about the 90s, blocking any part of the pavement was obstruction, but then someone argued that as you could go round the obstruction on the pavement you weren't obstructed. I believe there is a double buggy test - if there is not room for a double pushchair then there is an obstruction.
Of course, if you are partially sighted, this interpretation is not particularly helpful, and vehicles parked on the pavement can confuse guide dogs and people with limited vision. Further, it also ignores the damage done to pavements - most councils have had to abandon paving stones as vehicles destroy them - oddly enough, the mythical excessive load of a bike does not.
Can't be the motor vehicles, because driving on the pavement is illegal ... although this must be the illegal activity you are least likely to get any trouble for - is it even possible?
Perhaps mattw could borrow an old double buggy to test if it will fit through the gap, I say an old one as you wouldn't want to scratch or damage a new one on the car paintwork.