As far as I know it is an offence to park on the footpath. However, this does not seem to deter some drivers and sure why would it when anything rarely happens them when they do park there.
Imaging the situation… you are walking along a busy street, pushing a buggy when you are forced onto the street because some idiot has parked their car on the footpath completely blocking any chance to getting past.
What can you do? I have tried to say it to the drivers if they are in the car and they usually ignore me and continue to lick their ice cream or whatever else they are engorged in doing. I have gone into the garda station to ask them to do something about it when it is right outside their door but they say they will look into it and wait about 5-10 mins until the car is gone and then come out.
It is driving me mad… why should I be forced onto the road into the path of danger when pushing a buggy because of these inconsiderate ignorant people.
Is there anything that can be done?
20 Comments
Check out Hawkins st, Corn Exchange place and Pearse st for Garda cars themselves on footpaths.
The thing about buggies is that they can have sharp edges, and if you are forced to walk on the road to get past an illegally parked car, the safest thing to do is keep as close as you can to the side of the road and, therefore, the parked car. If one of those sharp edges should accidentally scratch the side of the car, well… meh.
There’s a good reason for parking on the footpath – you will never be clamped there. I talked to a Van driver buddy of mine about this. Notice how a van is never parked to load in the ‘normal’ parking areas – if they park there to make deliveries they will be clamped in seconds. The clampers don’t clamp on footpaths or any other place that the car is parked dangerously e.g. on pedestrian lights (see outside Mortons in Ranelagh for daily examples of this). A fine example of this is the pedestrian island at the top of Harcourt St within sight of Garda HQ (who also park on the pavement, on a junction, outside their gate.
Don’t despair – there is a cure – up the clamping fine on parking on double yellow lines, pedestrian areas to €130 + €65 per hour after and pay a bonus to the clampers – problem solved in 10 days at most!
Absolute ignorance. This is what Ireland has become. A nation of inconsiderate, unthinking thugs. In every town and city these brain dead gombeens park on footpaths, double yellow lines and on corners – preferably all three if they can find a spot. Ignorance and gobshite personality is one thing but the serious issue here is the lack of enforcement. This is a FIVE POINT offence. It is the traffic offence to end all traffic offences – the one the highest penalty on conviction. Three footpaths and you loose your licence. But there is NOT ENFORCEMENT. A friend of mine in a town in the southwest told me of seeing Garda cars wend their merry way past totally obstructed footpaths and ignore the situation. Too much trouble? Too much paperwork? Why do the Gardai ignore some offences and obsess about others. Are there no footpaths in Tullamore on which to train?
What you do is this. Photograph the vehicle on the path – preferably with a camera that shows the date and time. Post it to the local Garda station and ask for a response when the prosecution is underway. If you don’t get a reply, make four copies and send them to 1/ the Minister for Justice 2/the Garda complaintssystem 3/this site and 4/ your local newspaper. In each case point out that you sent the photograph ( evidence) and got no response.
see also http://irelandireland.wordpress.com for more driving related blogs.
to try to balance the argument here and before Ceanna Claar tars the nation as thugs, i would like to present you with this argument, in certain areas of the city the houses do not have driveways in whihc to park a car. A prime example of this is in Cabra, where for 9 years i have now parked on the footpath outside the house. And even though i do leave space for both buggies and other mobile assistance devices you still think this is a 5 point offence. If a car was to park on either side of the road as there are no double yellows, there would barely be enough room for a bike to squeeze through. After 8 years of parking here i received a parking ticket one day, so i wrote a detailed letter explaining the situation and received an apology and notificaion that the fine was cancelled from the Garda. I think the Garda could better spend time on serious offences, although i can understand if a vehicle completly blocks the path as this should not be acceptable.
Dave – I can appreciate what you are saying but an offence is still an offence. If you could justify your reason for drink driving would it still be an offence?
Would it be possible for you to park on the next street legally?
Hi Dave. Sorry for upsetting you. But just as JustTheOne said – an offence is an offence.
The Garda should not have cancelled the ticket. Sorry but the law is for everybody. Making exceptions is just another aspect of the lack of enforcement in Ireland. The making of exceptions does not save lives – and that’s what it’s all about.
There is a very good reason why this is a very very serious offence. There have been two deaths in 2006 arising from pedestrians being forced into traffic by thugs [not you of course ] parking and obstructing footpaths.
Your problem is one Dublin City Council ( or is it Fingal ) needs to tackle. They need to provide space for resident parking.
In Germany there is a partial solution. In areas like yours the path is marked to allow vehicles some parking space – leaving an adequate space for wheelchairs and buggies. If you encroach there – God help you!!
I’m amazed that this thread is so poorly commented upon. It’s the most seriousof all the offences on the site.
Nobody cares!!
I believe there should be exceptions to this rule, for example in Daves case. If the car is not causing an obstruction then what’s the problem? Only drivers who cause an obstruction or use the path when the road is wide enough to park on should be punished.
As for Rollin Robbin, yes you can be clamped for parking on the footpath. Once saw a row of 5-10 vehicles on the footpath, ALL CLAMPED.
I think Dave has every right to park outside his house wether it is on the path or not. I know Cabra very well
sorry my pc is acting up… to continue with my say….I know cabra very well and you have no other option but to park like this, I lived in crumlin for a spell and had to park on the path as well and if it’s a residential area and it’s your house you have every right to park there and backing up my claim here is the fact that he got the ticket squashed. It is the law that you can’t park on the foot path and I believe anyone who parks on one that causes an obstruction should be fined but were else can he park ?? some estates in dublin were designed badly so why should he be punished for this and there is no room in these estates for parking. Should he park in a car park miles away and pay for it…no I don’t think so and even if there was a place to park I’m sure the lads in cabra would have a field day with the cars so why should he be subjected to this. I can bet that all of the people that are blasting this lad for this “parking on the path” all have places to park their cars and are no angles themselves. Futher more ceanna clarr if you think that this is the “most serious offence” on this site I think you should have a look around the site..talk about picking on someone. And 2 people killed on the roads because there were cars on the path, for some reason I think there is more to that story than the little bit you wrote. And JustTheOne made a good point about parking on the next street but I’m afraid he probably couldn’t and wouldn’t because I’m sure the next street is the same.
::safety1st:: FACT. It is the most serious offence on the site BECAUSE it attracts the most points on conviction. The facts. Maybe you should stick to them.
So two people killed is alright then is it?
These people came across cars parked on footpaths on busy roads, stepped out to pass along and were killed. Very simple stories. You can understand I hope. I’m sure the wiseguys who obstructed these people had some excuse too.
Everybody has an excuse.
I think some people are missing the point… just because there is nowhere else to park does not give you the right to park on the footpath.
It would be like saying… There were no taxis available so I had no choice but to drive home from the pub your Honour.
Parking on the footpath is a problem in every town & city in Ireland, due to the fact that their are simply not enough public parking spaces available. There are 1 million more cars on the roads than there were in 1995, but there are certainly not 1 million more parking spaces ! Also, when considering buying/renting a house, would it not make sense to ensure there is adequate parking available instead of just deciding you’re going to park on the footpath? Finally, in Roscommon where I live, we recently had a problem where wing mirrors were being kicked off cars by local knobheads. Funnily, it was only happening to cars that were parked on footpaths !
Justtheone, i can give no credence to your argument that ‘because there are no taxis it was ok to drive home druck’ that is one of the most childish comparisons i have ever read, of course it is be no means ever ok to drink drive, and i for one belive me should have a zero tolerance limit, however, if you read my original comments you will see that i did and do continue to park on the footpath in carbra as there is NOWHERE to park, the footpath is not obstructed, and there is room for both buggies/bikes and wheelchairs to pass. However, i would agree with safety1st that this is NOT the most serious offence, and the justification that it clocks up the most fines/points is not justified as it is easy for Gardai to hand out parking fines, but more serious than this would be speeding/drink driving/driving while suing a phone or applying makeup. As usual due to bad planning the city is in chaos, but should i be expected to park my private vehicle away from the home i pay good money for, no, which is why my ticket was correctly recinded by the Supt. of Fitgibbon st.
Hi Dave,
I think you should read again what Justtheone wrote.
jd
Hey JD,
I have re-read it and my points stand, maybe you should reread the mail chain
I have! read the thread again ( on the web site). I think Justtheone agress with you.
in some respects ( I was going to say..but these two comments should be deleted..
The problem with an absolute 0 alcohol limit is that your mouthwash, the christmas cake and even orange juice can put you over. Non alcoholic beer certainly can, since it still contains some small quantity of alcohol. It’s the like drug tests used in american companies that test for narcotics and have been proven to test positive on people who ate food containing poppy seeds.
This leads into dangerous territory where there is a persecution of people who did not drink as such, but merely inadvertently ingested very small quantities of alcohol. The legal limit should reflect that and take trace elements of alcohol into account. It is probably to high as it is, at 80mg, since virtually every country in Europe has a 50mg limit, but a total 0 limit would put everyone who even takes cough syrup or other medication based on alcohol off the road.