We made quite the entry into our neighborhood when we first moved here. Some old car was parked right in front of our house with the front end blocking our drive way. Could we get in and out? Yes. But wtf right?
So I called the police and reported it as an abandoned car. They were there in 10mins and had it towed in 30mins.
Turns out it was a neighbors car. Whoops. But guess who never parks near our house now?
If the weather isn't bsd and you don't want a sign, back your car into the driveway and leave it at the end, near the street.
I wouldn't take this route, but it sounds like you want a more passive approach. I'd figure out how to rig something with a motion sensor that goes off with lights and air horns when someone stops there.
I would call non emergency police next time to see if they can get it taken care of faster than parking enforcement.
Also, it's dark in the picture but it looks like there's a ton of space in either side of the driveway where this person could park and not be in your way.
If someone is going to park there on purpose when there's tons of space elsewhere, I wouldn't hesitate and I would not feel like a bad person.
You need to just buy it. Ask H what his plan would be if you had an emergency and needed to leave the house immediately and someone was blocking your driveway like that? He may not want a sign but you guys need one.
I know this wasn't a gym person causing today's issue but I'd call the gym. Tell them that their patrons are blocking people's driveways when they park on your street. Ask them to communicate to their members to be courteous and aware of where they are parking. It probably won't help, but for such little effort it's worth a try.
CurlyQ284, That's my plan for next time. I've always hesitated to do that because honestly, it's never actually impacted my ability to leave. For whatever reason, it always seems to happen at times when I'm not going anywhere. But I'll just call the police next time.
I'm not legitimately concerned about this, but I do have a nagging thought when this happens about going into labor and not being able to get out of the driveway. So, yeah.
bonnie, I have called and talked to the gym manager. He assured me they would send out a reminder in the next member newsletter and post some signs around the gym. They are in the process of building a parking lot and it should be open this spring, which I think will help alleviate a lot of issues. Though it wouldn't have impacted this particular situation.
I'm going to buy the sign today. H thought it was fine. It just really pisses me off that I have to have a sign in my yard.
IT'S WHEN THE WISE MEN COME, AND IT'S ALSO MY BIRTHDAY. AND *ALL* CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE THEIR LIGHTS UP UNTIL THEN SO THAT THE WISE MEN DON'T SHOW UP AND BE ALL LIKE "Wait, where's Jesus??" BECAUSE YOU ALREADY PUT HIM IN THE ATTIC ALREADY.
IT'S WHEN THE WISE MEN COME, AND IT'S ALSO MY BIRTHDAY. AND *ALL* CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE THEIR LIGHTS UP UNTIL THEN SO THAT THE WISE MEN DON'T SHOW UP AND BE ALL LIKE "Wait, where's Jesus??" BECAUSE YOU ALREADY PUT HIM IN THE ATTIC ALREADY.
NOW YOU KNOW.
This. Is. Amazing. Nobody puts Jesus in the attic. Or the corner. The corner of the attic.
My ILs have a manger in their yard for christmas. They don't put out baby Jesus until Christmas Eve. All through December people knock on the door to tell them someone stole baby Jesus and they get exasperated because he wasn't born yet. Gosh people!
My ILs have a manger in their yard for christmas. They don't put out baby Jesus until Christmas Eve. All through December people knock on the door to tell them someone stole baby Jesus and they get exasperated because he wasn't born yet. Gosh people!
Our development does a mulch sale, it gets delivered on multiple semis, each semi carries about 80 pallets of 44 bags per pallet. (I ran our athletic booster mulch sale for years so I know the quantities).
Civic association didn't realize the house was sold so they had all of the mulch off-loaded along the street right in front of our house, including the driveway. It was block the entire street lane on that side of the street. Insane. We pulled up with a moving van full of stuff with no place to park.
Rage doesn't come close. The lender forgot to have the appraisal done, we're ready to walk out the door for closing when they called. Then at closing seller & his agent jerked us around and had lost the keys to the house. We had to have a lock smith (amid all the mulch) meet us at the house, show him the closing papers to prove we owned it, and have him re-key the entire house right then. We'd planned to re-key but not that day.
Fast forward to next year, we'd been living there ALL year. They did it again. I really went off on them.
After that they started having the semi come in, park on the cross street (where there aren't any driveways) and a forklift picks up the pallet and delivers it to your home instead ..of delivering it basically to my home for you to pick up.
Our number one priority when we bought a house was a two-car garage. It was basically the most important thing to us.
I just put the order in for that sign and will go straight to the police next time, but I'm not ready to park in my driveway instead of my garage.
You also can't park over the sidewalk, so unless you have a tiny car, parking at the end of the driveway is going to then put you at risk for a ticket, isn't it?
Our number one priority when we bought a house was a two-car garage. It was basically the most important thing to us.
I just put the order in for that sign and will go straight to the police next time, but I'm not ready to park in my driveway instead of my garage.
You also can't park over the sidewalk, so unless you have a tiny car, parking at the end of the driveway is going to then put you at risk for a ticket, isn't it?
Yes, that's correct. There's really not a good way to prevent someone from doing this aside from a sign. Parking my car at the edge of the driveway, just short of the sidewalk, might trigger someone to realize they shouldn't park there, but I don't want to do that. I bought a house with a garage because I didn't want to park in the driveway.
CurlyQ284, That's my plan for next time. I've always hesitated to do that because honestly, it's never actually impacted my ability to leave. For whatever reason, it always seems to happen at times when I'm not going anywhere. But I'll just call the police next time.
Just because you have no plans to go anywhere doesn't mean it doesn't impact your ability to leave.
Our development does a mulch sale, it gets delivered on multiple semis, each semi carries about 80 pallets of 44 bags per pallet. (I ran our athletic booster mulch sale for years so I know the quantities).
Civic association didn't realize the house was sold so they had all of the mulch off-loaded along the street right in front of our house, including the driveway. It was block the entire street lane on that side of the street. Insane. We pulled up with a moving van full of stuff with no place to park.
Rage doesn't come close. The lender forgot to have the appraisal done, we're ready to walk out the door for closing when they called. Then at closing seller & his agent jerked us around and had lost the keys to the house. We had to have a lock smith (amid all the mulch) meet us at the house, show him the closing papers to prove we owned it, and have him re-key the entire house right then. We'd planned to re-key but not that day.
Fast forward to next year, we'd been living there ALL year. They did it again. I really went off on them.
After that they started having the semi come in, park on the cross street (where there aren't any driveways) and a forklift picks up the pallet and delivers it to your home instead ..of delivering it basically to my home for you to pick up.
I'm still scratching my head that the lady said it was a tiny driveway.
Isn't that....MORE reason not to block it?! It's not like she was covering a foot but you still had yards where you could get around it.
Which would still not be okay!
Hope the sign helps. I wish one would work on our neighbors. When they're wanting to move something around, one of their 5 cars ends up either in OUR driveway or parked in front of our house. Drives me nuts.
isabel, can you guys plant something along one of the sides of the driveway to draw the eye up toward your property? It might alert people to "D'oh! There's a house there! Better scootch the car forward!" when they are parking. Also, your sign might look nice in a flower or shrub bed.
Sadly, even though I'm a glass-half-full person I think these people are intentionally doing it, not to get at YOU, but just because they just don't care about other people.
I thought of you this morning isabel. Today as I tried to leave my condo not one, not two but three cars were parked in a line in front of my driveway/the driveway next to mine. They were swapping kids or some such but hello pull forwards 50 feet and there are zero driveways to block! Fortunately as soon as they saw me sitting in my car ready to leave my driveway they all moved forward 50 feet. How is there so much stupid in the world?
You also can't park over the sidewalk, so unless you have a tiny car, parking at the end of the driveway is going to then put you at risk for a ticket, isn't it?
Yes, that's correct. There's really not a good way to prevent someone from doing this aside from a sign. Parking my car at the edge of the driveway, just short of the sidewalk, might trigger someone to realize they shouldn't park there, but I don't want to do that. I bought a house with a garage because I didn't want to park in the driveway.
Don't park in the sidewalk. Parking at the end of the driveway will let them know, without a doubt, that there is a driveway there.