Pavement parking and children cycling

[Hebe]

My 4 year old has ridden her bike (with stabilisers) to school and back every day this week. She loves it, and on the whole the journey isn't too bad (crossings at the two roads, fairly wide pavements, flat etc). We started out at 25minutes on Monday and she's already down to 15 (with a red-faced mother running after her).

Poor thing went into a lamp-post today though. There's a huge bit of pavement frontage outside a local house, and a car was parked fully on the pavement, in between the lamp-post and a property fence at the back of the pavement. There was just under 2 feet left between the post and the kerb, and she didn't get it right. It was just around a corner too, so she didn't have enought time. In retrospect I should probably have slowed her down a bit more, but she wasn't going faster than I was walking. Anyway, all fine, but it got me wondering. If a child cyclist goes into an illegally parked car, are the parents technically liable for any damage to the car? Personally, I think that if you park on the pavement without leaving room for buggies/mobility scooters/children on scooters or bikes, then you shouldn't really complain about the odd scratch.

Thoughts? Experience?

 

[Andy_R]

My 4 year old has ridden her bike (with stabilisers) to school and back every day this week. She loves it, and on the whole the journey isn't too bad (crossings at the two roads, fairly wide pavements, flat etc). We started out at 25minutes on Monday and she's already down to 15 (with a red-faced mother running after her).

Poor thing went into a lamp-post today though. There's a huge bit of pavement frontage outside a local house, and a car was parked fully on the pavement, in between the lamp-post and a property fence at the back of the pavement. There was just under 2 feet left between the post and the kerb, and she didn't get it right. It was just around a corner too, so she didn't have enought time. In retrospect I should probably have slowed her down a bit more, but she wasn't going faster than I was walking. Anyway, all fine, but it got me wondering. If a child cyclist goes into an illegally parked car, are the parents technically liable for any damage to the car? Personally, I think that if you park on the pavement without leaving room for buggies/mobility scooters/children on scooters or bikes, then you shouldn't really complain about the odd scratch.

Thoughts? Experience?

......or broken wing mirror, dented wing, bashed in door panel.........pavements are for peds, not parking. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who parks on the footpath either a) is incapable of judging distances and has real problems parking next to the footpath, or b) is just plain lazy.

 

[djb1971]

I can honestly say that if I walk past anything illegally parked on the pavement I don't care wether I scratch it, knock it or dent it. It shouldn't be there. I don't intentionally do damage to vehicles but if I'm walking along a pavement next to my wife I couldn't care less if anything I'm carrying knocks them.

Theyre just inconsiderate lazy b******s. Why should you risk going out onto a busy road to get around a chunk of metal.

 

[summerdays]

When mine were that age I did used to shout loudly .... "Try not to scratch that car as you squeeze past". I doubt it changed anything. I have also reported cars to the police where insufficient room was left on the pavement for a buggy or wheelchair to get by.

And if I did need to go in the road to get by then I used to take up almost a car width in the road - tough if a car wanted to get by at the same time. (The road it used to happen on was very narrow so they would have to wait behind.)

 

[Hitchington]

At work I sometimes support a disabled man in a wheelchair to access the community and cars/vans/lorries parked up on the pavement are a blooming nuisance, or even have been know to prevent some wheelchair users from getting to where they need to be. Trouble is the kind of person that parks on the pavement isn't really bothered about getting their vehicle (old banger or company van) scratched. Sometimes I wish I had super-strength to push them off into the road!

 

[Hebe]

Thanks, all. That's interesting about reporting to the police, do they do anything? I wondered if parking infringements came under the council rather than the police.

I'm wondering if it might be someone who's just moved in there, as there were a couple of white vans blocking the same bit of pavement a week or so back. It was a very new looking car with a book-keeping logo, I think it's a small business.

 

[summerdays]

The police didn't always do anything - though in one case I re-reported the incident as the police came and looked and declared there was enough space left (6 inches!!!), the second police officer did agree that the pavement was blocked. It took a while getting them to first put notices on the cars, then they started ticketing them and occasionally towing them away (only the worst cases). And when I was back that way during the school holidays I noticed they have put in double yellow lines in places!

(I used to have the telephone number in my mobile so that I could ring them to report it there and then if I wanted to - it got to the point that I could only be bothered to report the worst cases).

 

[growingvegetables]

Trouble is the kind of person that parks on the pavement isn't really bothered about getting their vehicle ... scratched.

I wish that were true - there's a numpty of the "don't-you-****ing-touch-my-car" idiot brigade whose ownership of a large black BMW "entitles" him to park on the pavement just along the road from my kids. I'm told he reduced a mum with a double buggy to tears. B@st@rd.

 

[Herr-B]

I believe the requisite space is 36", the police used to come round our village and ticket people when they'd received enough complaints and this is the figure they quoted on a poster in the local shop.

 

[summerdays]

Parking can come under both the council and the police, depends on the area and what they are actually doing. I think Parking Services do the yellow line enforcement and police do the obstructions - but I could be completely wrong about that. Just know I used to report it to the police and it was them that used to come along and put on tickets.

Another problem with parking on the pavement was that if the cars parked up on the pavement then they could park on both sides of the road, leaving both footpaths unusable, and leaving a narrow chicane down the middle with no where for cars to pull in properly to pass.

 

[mcshroom]

Let their tyres down every time you pass until they get the message

 

[wiggydiggy]

I wouldn't suggest what this chap does to cars parked on the pavement, well maybe a little....

 

[skudupnorth]

Don't get me started !!! The school run is a nightmare where i live because of inconsiderate @r$eholes parking on the pavement.It's even more anoying when they have a perfectly empty driveway !
As already said previously i do not have an issue with my youngest buggy or my other kids bags ect adding new "go-faster" stripes down the side of anything in my way or shoving mirrors nice and flat.I even drove the whole herd across a front garden one time because one tosser had parked their car across the path and partly in their drive....oh joy !

 

[Hitchington]

I wish that were true - there's a numpty of the "don't-you-****ing-touch-my-car" idiot brigade whose ownership of a large black BMW "entitles" him to park on the pavement just along the road from my kids. I'm told he reduced a mum with a double buggy to tears. B@st@rd.

I think that mum should fit Boudica style chariot wheel blades to the buggy next time she passes said BMW

 

[trampyjoe]

I think that mum should fit Boudica style chariot wheel blades to the buggy next time she passes said BMW

On my trailer there's attachment points that protrude, it's for some bars that cover the wheels but I never put the bars on due to bollard clearance round here. I think I may have accidently passed a brand new shiny BMW a tad too close the other day because he was taking up most of the pavement/cyclepath.