Obnoxious Parking on Residential Street

[wintonyk]

I checked a few of the other parking in residential threads and couldn't find anyone that has encountered a similar situation.

I don't have room to park on the driveway where I am staying so I park on the residential street. The past 2 nights I have parked across the way (i live in a bay).

The neighbour whose house I park directly between 2 houses has taken to parking 2 inches off my bumper. Leaving about 10 feet from their car to their driveway.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-bMwDCjBUFBA/Tn_kBGuSxCI/AAAAAAAAAHE/nk4h_mkBWrM/s800/2011-09-25_19-32-06_347.jpg https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-UlHfkc3bNQk/Tn_k2B1u1zI/AAAAAAAAAHM/2HAMbr7555s/s512/2011-09-25_19-31-49_323.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-GGts6h_cf70/Tn_kUhzMMZI/AAAAAAAAAHI/7wntVIx9fdU/s800/2011-09-25_19-32-00_262.jpg

This has now occurred twice. I confronted the owner of the house earlier this evening and he was a true asshole. I asked to speak with the owner of the CRV but the homeowner refused to get him. He kept asking if my car was hit. It hasn't been hit yet. I tried mostly out of respect. I was kinda hoping he would swing at me, it really felt that way.

It is my understanding that we can park anywhere on the street we would like. This is the closest reasonable to my place. Is there anything I can do with regards to ticketing/towing them? City of Calgary bylaw site is useless for finding info on that.

I will start parking in a way that will make it it illegal for them to obstruct me, parking exactly 1.5 m from their driveway. Any other tips?

[chkolny541]

if he is able to do that without bumping you, and without a spotter, its actually kinda impressive:rofl:


dont think there is anything illegal he is doing, so i dont think the law can help you here, but i could be wrong

[Rat Fink]

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[wintonyk]

I do agree i thought it was pretty impressive too. Unfortunately the little kids riding their bikes around the street said that he had help.

Rat, what you said is exactly what I plan on doing.

[M.alex]

To be fair, if I lived in the city and you parked your car infront of my property, even though it is a public street, I'd set it on fire :)

[Cos]

You say you cant park on your driveway, fine, but why cant you park on your side of the street? If it was packed I could understand but it seems like there are other places you could park.

[FraserB]

The same right that lets you park in front of his house allows him to park as close to your car so long as he does not damage it.

At the same time, if you do park closer to his driveway and end up going closer than 1.5m, there is nothing stopping him from boxing you in and calling the CPA. He will not get a ticket for blocking his own driveway but you will for parking too close. I would just find a better place to park.

[roll_over]

Originally posted by FraserB

At the same time, if you do park closer to his driveway and end up going closer than 1.5m, there is nothing stopping him from boxing you in and calling the CPA.

right now my neighbour is parked less then that from my drive so i can have it towed???

[dj_rice]

Originally posted by M.alex
To be fair, if I lived in the city and you parked your car infront of my property, even though it is a public street, I'd set it on fire :)


+2

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by FraserB

He will not get a ticket for blocking his own driveway

Depends how much you bribe the CPA :rofl: Really, the bylaw says no parking within 1.5M of a driveway... it doesn't say the owner of the property is exempt from that bylaw.

[rage2]

Probably have parking proximity sensors on their car. Those allow you to park within an inch of objects without hitting it.

[FraserB]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


Depends how much you bribe the CPA :rofl: Really, the bylaw says no parking within 1.5M of a driveway... it doesn't say the owner of the property is exempt from that bylaw.

They tried to hit me once for it and it didn't work. I was parked dead smack in front of my driveway.

[J-hop]

damn that pisses me off. The neighbor at my parents place used to do that to me. If the nose of my car poked past his property line he would take his car (which is ALWAYS parked in his double garage) and back it up as close as he could to my car. My brother would park close behind mine as we were tight for space so I would have to move his car to get out.

As I said in another thread, it is pretty messed up that people still hold on to this archaic, cave man/meat head attitude that what they see when they look out their window, they own. Some people don't understand they live in a city which means coexisting with 1,230,248 people (2009 est wiki). You want to own everything you see outside your window and control it?? go buy an acreage outside of town and you can let your meat head attitudes run free...

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Nismorphed]

Park another car infront and see how much fun he has getting out. Film it in case he hits it.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak

The city needs to start giving home owners some parking rights over their own street frontage.

Can you imagine the problems that would cause. The city would have to go to every house and spray paint the bounds of the home owners parking area. Then they would be called out several thousand times a week to settle disputes because so and so's bumper was overhanging into a persons parking area. Beyond would be plagued with " yo my effin neighbor dun infringe on my parking area yo".

The simple solution is to educate the ignorant that the asphalt in front of their house is in fact a roadway (including the "parking" lane), and is public and up for free use by all of their 1 million + neighbors so they can't claim ownership of it. You chose to buy in a city so you made the decision to live somewhere where people are allowed to use the road in front of your house as they see fit as long as they stay within the law. No one else made that decision for you....

[Type_S1]

why don't you just park close enough to his driveway so that he has to park within 1.5 meters of his own driveway, then call CPS at like 9PM to come give a ticket so they will just leave it on his window? Fuck him...

On a side note...it completely pisses me off when people park in front of my house. I think you should never park directly in front of anyone else's house but from what I can see you are doing nothing wrong.

[sevewone]

Boo-Hoo! You should see the parking in front of my college, everyone's parked that close! unless he hits you, Whats the real harm of him parking that close? Nothing.
You also say this has happened only twice as well....chill out brah

[Tik-Tok]

Originally posted by J-hop


Can you imagine the problems that would cause. The city would have to go to every house and spray paint the bounds of the home owners parking area. Then they would be called out several thousand times a week to settle disputes because so and so's bumper was overhanging into a persons parking area.


Actually, that sounds like something the city would jump on board with. Imagine the revenue from parking fines!

[wintonyk]

Originally posted by rage2
Probably have parking proximity sensors on their car. Those allow you to park within an inch of objects without hitting it.

No sensors or camera on this guys crv.



Originally posted by Sugarphreak


+3

If you pay a couple hundred grand for a house, then spend the time and invest the cash into having a nice front yard while keeping the sidewalk clean in the winter... it sure sucks ass when people start parking in front of it.


The city needs to start giving home owners some parking rights over their own street frontage.

I did my best to not park directly in front of their house. I live on a circle where this isn't a place to park in front of. Technically i could be a dick and park directly in the middle of the circle, but would rather not piss off all the neighbours.

The sense of entitlement for the streets is ridiculous. If there was no other way to park then who gives a shit. But when it's an intentional dick move thats what bugs me.

I will be parking 1.5m from their driveway from now on and will call CPA at night next time this happens.

But Karma is a bitch. The guy left his lights on when I left for hockey at 9:30. Just got home and they are still on.

[Scat E46]

I had this problem with a neighbour once, some of you may remember it - I parked my car in front of his house, no where else to park, so he makes sure his truck is parked so close to my rear bumper.

On trying to get out, he said I hit his car (roll back, standard)

The douchebag black truck with the tapout sticker had a camera in front of his house and he wouldn't let me see the tape before the incident (I could just tell he had someone wave him forward to get as close as he can)

Stupid idiots.

Good luck with your neighbour.

[cde1966]

Originally posted by Tik-Tok


Depends how much you bribe the CPA :rofl: Really, the bylaw says no parking within 1.5M of a driveway... it doesn't say the owner of the property is exempt from that bylaw.

I asked the Parking Authority and part of the reply I got was the following. Basically a car can park closer than 1.5m from the driveway, but if the home owner complains then the car will get a ticket. So the owner of the home can park as close as he wants.

So if you park 1.6m from my driveway, I can park a car on both sides of you and leave them there for three years if I want and you're not going anywhere.

"All vehicles found to be parked obstructing access to private property or alleys are ticketed and may be towed, in the former case normally when a request for assistance complaint call is received from the property owner indicating that a driveway access to private property is actively in use. No restrictive signs are required for enforcement.

Note that in a single-family residential area, our position is that it would not make sense for a Parking Enforcement Peace Officer to enforce with respect to vehicles parked too close to driveways in the absence of a complaint call from the property owner. After all, no useful purpose would be served by penalizing a property owner for parking in front of or directly adjacent to his or her own driveway, or by penalizing a vehicle the driver of which had been given permission to park there by the property owner.
"

[cde1966]

Clearly his argument to the parking Authority would be he was there first. I actually had a guy once park real close beside me, crawl out the passenger side and tried to claim I parked too close to him. Parking Authority told him I was parked between the two lines so too bad for him. In your case he's parked perfectly legal so too bad for you.
These days I always make sure one of my cars are always parked on the street in front of my house so none of the neighbours "visitors" can park in front of my house and leave it there for a week like they have done in the past… Nothing worse then some dick that doesn't live on the street empty his ash tray, or throw all his garbage on the street in front of my house. Not to mention I'm the one that has to clean the sidewalk after it snows, just to have some dick clean his car off onto the sidewalk.
And watch out for the "set-up" He'll park a car where you are, then you'll think you pulling a fast one by parking in front of him and he calls CPA and you get a ticket. Remember it's 1.5m from the driveway and the driveway is not always what it appears to be. So my driveway is actually .75m larger then it appears because I have patio blocks running up one side. My driveway is inline with the house not where the patio blocks run. And one day when I choose I'll use my little "trap" and BAM the little fucker will get what he deserves. :whipped:

[Rat Fink]

.

[SCHIDER23]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak


+3

If you pay a couple hundred grand for a house, then spend the time and invest the cash into having a nice front yard while keeping the sidewalk clean in the winter... it sure sucks ass when people start parking in front of it.


The city needs to start giving home owners some parking rights over their own street frontage.

:werd:

In Summer we don't have anywhere to park in the middle of the day, cause all the parking area in front of the house and around is usually taken by students, even though they can park in the back by the park.

Winter is a pain in the ass, students get even more lazy and like to block driveways, it has happened to us and a few neighbours, we usually keep a car length area cleaned in front of the house, so passengers can get out of the car without scrapping the doors, well we don't get to use it cause is always taken by one them, this is from 7am to 5pm..:banghead:

I'm not saying they shouldn't park there, but at least leave us a spot open so we can park when we come home early, op i don't see anything wrong in your picture, so I'm not sure why the guy is getting irritated.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Cos]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak



It is pretty stupid that if you want to have more vehicles than your residence can accommodate all your neighbors have to suffer for it.

:werd:

[Mar]

Before moving to Calgary I've never heard of anyone getting upset about someone else parking in front of their property. Move to another province, nobody cares about this.

[CompletelyNumb]

You'd care if you suddenly had nowhere to park.

[CompletelyNumb]

Originally posted by SCHIDER23


:werd:

In Summer we don't have anywhere to park in the middle of the day, cause all the parking area in front of the house and around is usually taken by students, even though they can park in the back by the park.

Winter is a pain in the ass, students get even more lazy and like to block driveways, it has happened to us and a few neighbours, we usually keep a car length area cleaned in front of the house, so passengers can get out of the car without scrapping the doors, well we don't get to use it cause is always taken by one them, this is from 7am to 5pm..:banghead:

I'm not saying they shouldn't park there, but at least leave us a spot open so we can park when we come home early, op i don't see anything wrong in your picture, so I'm not sure why the guy is getting irritated.


Truck + tow rope :guns:

[88CRX]

Originally posted by Mar
Before moving to Calgary I've never heard of anyone getting upset about someone else parking in front of their property. Move to another province, nobody cares about this.

:werd:

As long as you're parking in front of your house when you can then I see no problem.

[max_boost]

Originally posted by Mar
Before moving to Calgary I've never heard of anyone getting upset about someone else parking in front of their property. Move to another province, nobody cares about this.

I live in Crescent Heights where all the garages are in the alley so there is a lot of street parking. My neighbors and I take turns parking in front of each others houses and not once in the 6 years has there been any disputes whatsoever.

[SCHIDER23]

Originally posted by 88CRX


:werd:

As long as you're parking in front of your house when you can then I see no problem.

I agree with your comment, but imagine you want to go home just to change and get paperwork, etc, and you are not able to park for 5 minutes cause you can't get into your driveway or have to park a block away, it is extremelly irritating believe me. :(

[Mar]

Originally posted by max_boost
I live in Crescent Heights where all the garages are in the alley so there is a lot of street parking. My neighbors and I take turns parking in front of each others houses and not once in the 6 years has there been any disputes whatsoever.
I'm sure he doesn't mind have NSX and Mercedes parked in front of his house! You make your neighbour look like a baller. :rofl:


Originally posted by SCHIDER23
I agree with your comment, but imagine you want to go home just to change and get paperwork, etc, and you are not able to park for 5 minutes cause you can't get into your driveway or have to park a block away, it is extremelly irritating believe me. :(
I don't get it, you didn't realize this when you bought it? If you don't have a driveway to put your car, nor a garage, you risk street parking. :dunno: (This is in reference to in front of your house, not your driveway)

[Xtrema]

The City want to increase number of secondary suites and implement snow routes.

The parking on street dispute is going to get WAY worse.

To OP, don't get bent out of shape over this. As long as you are not blocked in or hit, it's just the norm for street parking. You should have seen what DT looked like after they implemented Park Plus. People will squeeze in wherever they can.

I'm sure the asshole neighbor is the one to tell the CRV to park as close to the property line as possible to leave a guest parking spot in front of it.


Originally posted by Mar
Before moving to Calgary I've never heard of anyone getting upset about someone else parking in front of their property. Move to another province, nobody cares about this.

I think most major urban centers are already used to this. All the small cities never had this problem because space is cheap and abundant. Calgary is in an unique situation of growing from a small suburban city to a urban one and people is having problem to adjust.

Go to Europe or Asia. Everyone got fucked up bumpers because space is so tight.

[88CRX]

Originally posted by SCHIDER23


I agree with your comment, but imagine you want to go home just to change and get paperwork, etc, and you are not able to park for 5 minutes cause you can't get into your driveway or have to park a block away, it is extremelly irritating believe me. :(

Blocking a driveway is one thing.... complaining cause someone is legal parked on the street in front of your house in another thing.

I live in a condo/townhouse.... so parking is 1000x worse. I understand the frustration.

[Type_S1]

I should take a picture of the guy that live in the corner house on my street. There is 2 individuals living in the house and the owner has 2 trucks, 2 SUV's and 2 cars. He only ever parks 1 car in the Garage(because it does not run) and everything else he parks on the street infront of everyone else houses because he does not use his driveway. On top of this he is always having work done to his house(as it is a new neighborhood) and has the people working on his house parked infront of people driveways, in the middle of the road etc.

I came home one day and there was a pile of rock literally 1-2 feet behind the back bumper of a brand new truck of a family member. You could see where the truck backed in and dumped gravel literally inches away from hitting the truck. I asked the people working what the hell they thought they were doing and they said the owner of the corner house wouldn't allow them to drop it infront of his driveway so this was the only place they could, then they wheelbarrowed it to his house. Even if you called the city what would they come and do in this situation?

I have never been more frustrated from a person in my life. :banghead: I have about 20 other stories I could tell about this guy within the last 6 month's while he is finishing his fence, sandblasting his driveway without any barriers but there is too many.

[Xtrema]

^ that's a really common problem in new neighborhoods.

No back lanes, big driveways and every house only have 1/2 to 1 street parking spot.

[dirtsniffer]

i used to live in a 4 plex next to a condo complex, so of course there is 50 condos in the building and no street parking. having to fight to not park away was a big PITA. but before i moved out i signed some sheet from people on the block get by permit only zone put in. it was also a commercial area which did not help. hopefully now they all have somewhere to park

[SCHIDER23]

Originally posted by Mar



I don't get it, you didn't realize this when you bought it? If you don't have a driveway to put your car, nor a garage, you risk street parking. :dunno: (This is in reference to in front of your house, not your driveway)

well the school was not present at the time of purchase, the building was been used as a training facility for the RCMP so parking was limited, than they decided to upgrade it to a school, I have a garage, and a pad that you can park two cars/trucks right outside the garage, but the driveway to it gets blocked usually in the winter, so if the entrance to the garage/pad is blocked how would I be able to park?.:banghead:

[max_boost]

If they are blocking the driveway, then I'm sure you can get them towed right?

[SCHIDER23]

Yes I could have gotten the vehicle towed, but is not that easy, the only time I ever called the CPA, the officer was pretty useless, he kept saying that it was pointless to get the car towed, because by the time the tow truck showed up, the vehicle would have been long gone, and kept giving me a hard time saying I should have cleaned my driveway better, even though you can clearly see the gates, anyway we agreed on just giving the owner a ticket, thankfully my brothers finally answered his phone and he gave me a ride to work that day, oh well some of the neighbours were talking about applying for a zone parking permit, but I'm not sure how far the talks have gotten.:dunno:

[J-hop]

Yea this thread has completely diverged and people are arguing about 2 different problems and not realizing it. The issue isnt that there was a lack of parking space in front of the persons home and the OP made it so the guy didn't have anywhere to park in front of his own house. I mean look at the house, it spans a huge length of street, has a double garage and a large driveway, there is no lack of parking space!!!! The problem is le douche home owner thinks all his eyes can see is his which is completely unreasonable regardless of if he spent 200k, 500k or 1 mill on his house.

[baygirl]

Try living on my street. The #3 bus stop is within walking distance and every morning there's a group of people who park here to catch the bus downtown. The annoying part? They park in front of the houses even though there is an empty church parking lot right there......

[speedog]

Originally posted by baygirl
Try living on my street. The #3 bus stop is within walking distance and every morning there's a group of people who park here to catch the bus downtown. The annoying part? They park in front of the houses even though there is an empty church parking lot right there...... Church could tow them as their lot would be considered private property. Maybe set up your sprinkler so as to accidentally water part of the road in front of your house - most people won't park where they're going get wet getting out of their vehicle.

[J-hop]

Originally posted by baygirl
Try living on my street. The #3 bus stop is within walking distance and every morning there's a group of people who park here to catch the bus downtown. The annoying part? They park in front of the houses even though there is an empty church parking lot right there......

Petition the city for permit parking. When the lrt went to pay parking, people flooded my gfs parents street to avoid paying. Someone on the street started a petition and just had to get a certain percent of the people on the street to sign the petition. Within a couple months the street was on 2 hr or by permit parking. It was a fun day watching a line of about 50 cars get ticketed because they didn't realize it had changed.

[bignerd]

Nothing will piss him off more than if you just keep parking there.