Our community has a bunch of smaller homes on one side with shorter driveways. There is a big problem with people parking on the street and blocking sidewalks. This parking configuration has been proposed. What are your thoughts?
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Am I just dumb or how the heck does car #3 get into the parking space without driving through the grass?
ETA: I am dumb... figured out #4, still confused about #3
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I don't understand how you'd park car #3 like that. Otherwise, it doesn't bother me. Our HOA prohibits blocking sidewalks and parking on the streets too, but I don't have four cars so it hadn't been an issue.
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@LBee: I figured car 4 you'd parallel park the same way you would between cars. No idea about 3.
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@rattles: Ha! Just edited my post.
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We have a short, but wide, driveway and cars are not allowed to block the sidewalk, so we have guests park like #4. If the cars are small enough we can fit two.
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It looks like how we parked at my LA college where parking was at a premium. It would be weird to see cars parked like this in a suburban area!
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How does car #3 get in and out when car #4 is parked?
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#3 baffles me too... I could see a lot of torn up lawns. Otherwise, I guess #4 doesn't bother me except I could see the sidewalk getting blocked and that annoys me since I'm always pushing a stroller.
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When car 3 wants to get and car 4 is still parked then car 3 has to drive on the grass.
To get into position car 3 could possibly not have to drive on the grass unless I was the one driving.
If all four cars are parked and 1 or 2 needs to get then at least two cars are on the grass to let out one.
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A few people in my community park the same way as 4 and it bugs me. The only people who have the short driveways are the people who are on the ends of the block and this means their driveways are on the street perpendicular to our street. Sight lines are severely limited when they park that way. Some people really do have a tough driveway for parking though.
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How many four car families are there?? In my neighborhood, those with more than two cars that don't want to park on the street have widened their driveways so they can park in front of their house.
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Are the sidewalks extra wide? It could be a problem for ambulance and firefighters. If we don't shovel even extra width from our sidewalk we get a notice that it's not sufficient for 'stretcher bearers'. It also seems dangerous for people using the sidewalks for walking to have cars that have to look past extra cars, it seems like it could easily obstruct views of both traffic and walkers.
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@MaryM: I live in a cul de sac and two of my neighbors have 4 cars. They seem to be parents with grown kids still living at home.
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This would just confuse me. People blocking the sidewalk is annoying but I can't imagine that the problem is bad enough that this would have to happen.
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I don't like it when streets get clogged up with cars. Whether the cars are overflowing on the street, or crowding the parkway, its an eye sore and possibly a safety hazard for kids who want to play out in the front of the house. I'll never understand why people would rather pack their garage with crap or make it an extra room than park their some of the plethora of cars they have in it.
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@agold: do you have a basement? I noticed one big difference from living in the NE vs FL that the garage is used as storage because people don't have basements. Many of our neighbors use their garage for storage and place to park their motorcycles or golf carts. Those with three car garages park at least one car in the garage.
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I'd rather park in the street.
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I understand not wanting to have cars park on the street, but I think it's a little ridiculous. I know it would block the sidewalk, but I think it would be better to have the cars 3 and 4 parked normally behind 1 and 2
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@Maysprout: great point!
@MaryM: quite a few, surprisingly.
@LBee: I'm pretty sure you're going to ruin your grass.I really, really don't like this. Our neighborhood will look totally trashy, in my opinion, if we add this option. We have a meeting tonight and I appreciate the feedback. I think it will take away from the beauty of our neighborhood.
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How many houses will it actually effect? I'm assuming some of the on the street arking is from people from only 2-3 car houses as well, and therefore won't look as bad maybe?
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@mediagirl: I'm assuming you're part of an HOA (otherwise how would it be enforced)?
Is there no street parking? It seems like it would make sense to simply limit the number of cars allowed in a driveway so that all cars are on the opposite side of the sidewalk from the road (so two in that picture. Three if they have a wider driveway). Then people have to either park in a garage or on the street (if there is street parking).
In my old neighborhood, each person had two parking spaces. Any other cars/visitors parked on the street. If you got home late you usually had to walk a ways, but that's just the way it was. People who played "create a space" and blocked crosswalks or parked on yellow curbs were towed.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I do not have a basement. I do live in small house with neighbors who tend to put a lot of stuff in their garage so I suppose I somewhat understand. But it always looks like things that should go into a storage unit. Or often its game rooms or man caves or whatever. I get it. The houses are small and its sad to not be able to afford a bigger home with more rooms/storage/garages. I can't afford a bigger house, and luckily I can't afford to pack my garage with stuff either.
Just a personal aesthetic preference.
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I'd put #3 & #4 in the garage. It looks ridiculous to have them parked that way.
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@agold: I swear one of my neighbors rehabs schools or something because his garage is filled to the brim with old desks and chairs. It's the strangest thing to see when I drive by. Our garage is used partly for workout space for DH. Not having a bunch of storage space in the house or in the garage definitely keeps any hoarding tendencies in check!
ETA: can your HOA enforce rules about garage use- must be used as primary parking? The community where we rent out our condo has a rule like this. That HOA even fines people for not so nice looking window treatments. So they're sticklers!
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I think it looks ridiculous, and I would hate it. Is walking around the cars really that difficult?
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Your neighbor should rent a storage unit! I hear you keeping hoarding tendencies in check with a small house. It seems like a must! But I think its great that there are neighborhoods that do not have an HOA and people can live there and do whatever they want with their yards.
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@mediagirl: I just don't understand how cars 1 or 2 would get in/out if car 3 was there?? Someone enlighten me please...
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What ever happened to parking in the garage? I swear DH and I are some of the only people on our block that do
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Oh heck no. That seems so impractical.
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So this is to prevent people from just parking two by two, therefore blocking sidewalks? I think 3 would ruin the grass- no one is that good of a parallel parker. And obviously they'd have to move a bunch of cars to get out?
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@photojane: well, yeah. When you have a stroller or a kid on a bike or in a wagon, it sucks to have to walk off the sidewalk, onto the street and back up again. All over the curbs.
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@mediagirl: my current neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks because we're kind of in the boonies, but our last neighborhood did. We went for walks and bike rides all the time and walking around the cars never bothered me enough to need a solution like this. I just can't imagine having to park like that every day. I mean, granted we only have two cars, but I would feel ridiculous asking guests to do that. Is it possible to get around the cars without having to go off the curb? Can you go down the slope of the driveway beside the parked car and around them that way?
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@mediagirl: If your kid wants to ride his bike just a few houses down on the sidewalk, you won't be able to see him from standing in your own front yard. Also, when kids are playing with balls and such in the front yard, cars parked all along the street block the view of cars who are actually driving down the street. So I view it as a safety hazard, in addition to a major eye sore.
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That's ridiculous! But I'm also not a fan of cars on the sidewalk. When I'm running with the double and constantly going into the street (our streets are busy), it's a pain.
Your neighborhood doesn't allow street parking though? I think street parking looks better than that arrangement!
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@photojane: in my neighborhood, when people block the sidewalk, it's often *not* possible to just walk around the car because people have shrubs, flower beds, etc in the planting strip and the driveways are too narrow to pass between the car and landscaping (it's mainly 1950s houses with single-car garages). So you need to go over the curb or down the previous house's driveway, walk in the street past the offending house, and then get back onto the sidewalk afterward. It's really annoying.
@mediagirl: I wouldn't be in favor of the parking arrangement proposed here, it seems highly inconvenient and I think it would cause more problems than it solves (increased vehicle traffic/blocking the road when people try to get in or out or shuffle the positions of the cars, torn-up landscaping, cars that don't park well and block the sidewalk anyway, etc).
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That arrangement would annoy the crap out of me. It looks very odd, but also seems impractical (honestly HOW does car 3 get in there?) What's the problem with parking on the street/curb? I'm not a huge fan of blocking the sidewalk & we have a handful of people in our neighborhood that do that, but it's a minor annoyance. But, also, I'm the kind of person that can't stand HOAs & their rules anyway, so maybe I'm biased somehow.
@agold: just a different perspective, but not everyone can afford the extra expense to rent a storage unit for things when they have a free space available. Also, our garage is full right now because our basement flooded & we are working on repairs and refinishing. So you never really know what another person's reason are. -
Who has 4 cars? Visitors can just park on the street...
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We have to park like this. We get tickets for being on our suburban street past 11pm. Sucks.
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Looks like a terrible idea, lots of wheels in the grass and bumper bumps...
Just a personal aesthetic preference.
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48 comments