Would you buy a house that doesn’t have enough bedrooms for your family? If your family outgrew your home would your solution be setting up a tent in your neighbor’s yard? Likely not to both questions, you would get a house big enough for your family or renovate or rearrange your home to accomodate.
So why is it acceptable for people to take over the street in front of their home when their cars won’t fit in their garage or driveway (or when they simply decide not to park on their own property).
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a strong advocate for free street parking but that is for temporary use, you know, like when you visit someone or are going shopping.
In my neighborhood, the same vehicles are in the same spots day after day, week after week, year after year. Typically, the driveways are empty and all the houses have garages. In some cases, the vehicles (read RVs and trailers) are semi-permanent installations with water and power being run to them.
Why should I care? Several reasons. When they park on both sides of the street, it is then narrowed to one lane and, it seems that if there are only two vehicles parked on the street, they park right across from each other. Don’t they realize the congestion they are causing? Likely they just don’t care. What is most important is that they don’t have to walk any further than necesary. So this is a congestion issue.
Next, in the winter, the street can’t be plowed properly and the plow has to veer around the parked vehicles, further narrowing the driveable portion of the road. Too, when the offending vehicle does move, the snowbank around them remains as a hazard to traffic. If they won’t walk a few extra steps to avoid congesting the road, why would they be expected to clean up the mess they have caused. This is a safety issue.
Finally, they don’t own the road, why are they allowed to use it like they do. They don’t pay any extra but they capitalize in casual parking opportunities that everyone else has paid for through their taxes but cannot benefit from because a parking squater has laid claim to that piece of real estate .
If you can’t or won’t accommodate your own vehicle on your own property, perhaps you shouldn’t own it.
I have been in big cities that do not permit overnight street parking. I would like to see that instituted in my neighborhood.
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