Advanced Driving Hub

crr003 wrote:

akirk wrote:

Strangely Brown wrote:How can it be illegal to drive on the pavement yet legal to park on it? How can you park the car on the pavement unless you drive on it to get there? Does it not stand to reason that if the car is parked on the pavement then it must have been driven on it and is therefore eligible for a ticket?

you can drive onto to park, but not drive along, so two wheels up to avoid blocking full road / full pavement is generally legal... all four wheels and using the pavement as a road, not legal... easy distinction

Alasdair

Merseyside Police don't agree:
https://www.merseyside.police.uk/advice ... t-parking/

I thought you could drive over a pavement to gain access to a property.

As mentioned above, I believe that this is not the de facto position in law, other than London it is up to councils to write byelaws to prevent it, maybe that is what has happened in the Wirral?

Alasdair

From the Merseyside link: "Vehicles causing obstruction may be "

An 'if' and a 'maybe'. And, of course, you can still be done for obstruction even with the vehicle completely on the road.

It's the 'pramfire' test: can a pram get along the pavement and Trumpton get along the road? There was an incident in Reading when a TV news crew were covering complaints by residents of poor parking. One local suffered a heart attack while being interviewed on camera - the ambo couldn't get through!

akirk wrote:As mentioned above, I believe that this is not the de facto position in law, other than London it is up to councils to write byelaws to prevent it, maybe that is what has happened in the Wirral?

Alasdair

More interesting stuff........

"However, it is an offence to drive onto the pavement, whether with intention to park or
not. Because this is a criminal offence, as opposed to the vast majority of civil parking
offences, it is enforceable by the police, not the local authority. There have long been
concerns about the extent to which this is enforced."

http://researchbriefings.files.parliame ... N01170.pdf

Strangely Brown wrote:How can it be illegal to drive on the pavement yet legal to park on it? How can you park the car on the pavement unless you drive on it to get there? Does it not stand to reason that if the car is parked on the pavement then it must have been driven on it and is therefore eligible for a ticket?

The internet tells me the issue is the offence (driving on the pavement) has to be witnessed by Plod. A bit like an ASL offence.
One might have parked legally on the road and some little scamp with a couple of trolley jacks or a rugby team comes along and moves you onto said pavement.
It would be a tad harsh to get penalised by some keen passing copper.

Concerning the use of garages - maybe we could have something like the old TV Licence Detector people knock on doors and if the garage is not being used (by a car), a small fine, say £1,000, could be applied.

I know of a couple of garage doors that don't have garages behind them

Most garages where I live are now too small for the increasing waistline of modern cars. The houses were built in the early 1970s, and up to about 25 years ago it was possible to get an average sized family car (Peugeot 405) in, all be it a bit tight. There is no way that my wifes Octavia estate would fit in. We bricked the front down five years ago to accomodate the childrens cars. Previously one car had to be parked in the cul-de-sac.

Nigel.