TIL: the Brits call the sidewalk “pavement”. I thought this was completely unreasonable at first…
That threw me off too. I’m still struggling with it tbh.
This is great, but let’s be honest it should be Scotland wide. Where I live this is ridiculously common, they get half the car or more on the pavement, stick on their hazard lights and seem to think that’s OK.
One more thing, the fine isn’t high enough in my opinion. There will still be people that’ll carry on parking like this because they justify it somehow. Looking at you Aberdeen Range Rover mob.
Where do you see people only half on? They alway appear to me to take as much of the pavement as they can. Wouldn’t want pedestrians to be able to use it.
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About time, pavement parking a menace in the city with the best bus service in the UK
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Parking is a civic matter rather than criminal. So there were loopholes in enforcement essentially. Lots of roads very tight in urban environments in Scotland too, we never planned for the car! Unclear what they’re going to do for about delivery drivers still also
It’s mentioned in the article
although there will be an exemption for delivery drivers.
They can use sack barrows and pallet jacks.
Across the UK, parking on the pavement is only currently illegal in London
Wat?
Blocking the pavement and driving onto the pavement are illegal everywhere in the UK. Gotta catch someone driving up the kerb though.
I think one of the first think I thought when I arrived in the UK is “how are so many people parking randomly on the street?”. Glad Edinburgh is taking steps, now let’s hope the rest of the UK follows…
It’s already banned in London, but it would be great if the other cities joined in and made it more widely unacceptable
Well, except in London there are quite few marked parking bays that straddle road and pavement. It’s a reasonable solution where there is a wide pavement and you, for example - want to add a marked cycle lane
The enforcement isn’t great in London either honestly
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Across the UK, parking on the pavement is only currently illegal in London, although police can take action if a driver is causing an obstruction.
The Scottish government passed a law in 2021 that gives local authorities the power to stop pavement parking.
The legislation will receive ministerial approval in December - meaning all councils are free to enforce the ban.
Niall Foley, lead external affairs manager at Guide Dogs Scotland, said: "Parking on pavements is a nuisance for everyone, but potentially dangerous if you are a wheelchair user forced onto the road, pushing a buggy, or have sight loss and can’t see traffic coming towards you.
Stuart Hay, director of Living Streets Scotland, a charity which promotes everyday walking, also backed the plans.
If it goes ahead, the council said it would adopt a low key “soft approach” to ensure that any enforcement action considers the impact on drivers.
The original article contains 452 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I wish this was everywhere in the UK, you can’t go anywhere without seeing cars littered everywhere
Genuine question — how does this work on residential that are less than three cars wide? The street I live on forces pavement parking due to this.
I guess you just found out that your street has no parking…
Time to build a driveway and park on your own property.
They found out that you can only park on one side.
You would be right about roads that are less than two car wide though.
I can’t remember ever seeing people park on the pavement in Edinburgh.
How are roads made over there if not paved?
often tarred instead. Paving being slabs of brick/concrete over here
They mean parking in the sidewalk.
Right but their sidewalks are called pavement, so how are their roads made?
Bitumen over gravel at varying ratios, mostly. It’s not very hot here (for now)
Some Brit terms may seem unusual to us in the US, but in cases like this, you could argue they’re more accurate. Why do we use pavers to build sidewalks and patios, but asphalt to build “pavement”?
Why do we drive on the parkway, but park in a driveway?
Why do ships have cargo and cars have shipments?
And I get annoyed about people leaving rental bicycles scattered on the footpath where I live. Jesus Christ. Does this not run afoul of public infrastructure accessibility laws in Scotland or are there just none that cover the topic?
