Plan B Forum

I presume we’re considered “fascist savages” in the South, but at least our society is more disciplined than this. I don’t know how things work in Massachusetts or similar places, but here, if your car is blocking a street or driveway, it gets towed, the tow company makes a profit, and the driver pays a penalty.

This story is from Britain, but I imagine your cultures are fairly similar in terms of politics and social norms. What happens in your area if drivers decide to double‑park in the street?

https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=We+F ... &FORM=EWRE
We face hostility and car damage from those blocking us in with their cars'

Cars blocking in other cars, obstructing pavements or parking on double-yellow lines, have become the norm in some neighbourhoods.

It's a "terrible situation" that is getting "worse every year" in some parts of Birmingham, residents say.
The densely populated streets surrounded by businesses, schools and places of worship, add to the congestion.

Birmingham City Council said it would "keep reviewing enforcement presence in areas where problems persist".

Every morning feels like a lottery for Yousef Hassan, who lives in the Small Heath area of Birmingham.
"If someone has double parked next to my car, blocking me in, I have to go door-to-door asking neighbours if it's their car," he said.

"It's horrendous."
Pam – not her real name – lives next to a mosque.

"We are the minority on our road, so when we have spoken to those blocking our car in, we've faced hostility and damage to our car," she said.

The school run is one of the worst times of the day.

Shahista Zamir, head teacher at Regents Park Community School, says the "double parking is hazardous" because many pupils "aren't tall enough to be spotted by drivers".

The village idiot doesn't believe double parking is a thing in the U.S.

I'm someone who drives often in Britain, and it wasn't built for the motor car. Much of the UK's housing stock was built between the wars, and even into the 60s car ownership was just not the norm. As public transport has deteriorated in some cities, it has become necessary for some households to own multiple cars, and parking in city streets is just horrendous. Almost everywhere you go in the US, except some city centers (I've been in NYC and DC and Baltimore in the last few months and did not take the car) parking is easy and assumed.

On many residential streets in Manhattan, overnight double parking is pretty much a necessity. I have no idea whether parking enforcement turns a blind eye to, or makes a mint from, the practice. Nor was I around at a time of day when I would have seen how folks managed to extract their cars from the morass of vehicles parked up and down the block.

My brother in law lived in Newark awhile back and the neighborhood was routinely double parked at night--the people in the neighborhood got together and basically set spaces so those leaving first were on the outside... The authorities ignored it so long as the cars were moved in the early morning (and as it was residential area, there really was no reason for anyone else to park there overnight). Once in a while someone would come on with a "I'll park where I want" attitude, but those cars were towed if they were illegally parked. Sometimes etiquette and cooperation make a lot more sense (of course it was a real problem when it snowed).

South Philly has been notorious for double parking forever, but it's the local residents not random strangers doing it. It's just the way things are. I don't think it's ever been more than a minor inconvenience. (When I lived down there I didn't have a car so it wasn't ever a problem for me.)

ETA:

Back then (late '70s), it was generally known/assumed that most of the double-parked cars belonged to "connected" members of the community, so you didn't want to fuck with them anyway.

SH. what can I say? In the immortal words of that great American philosopher, Bugs Bunny: “What a maroon.”

This post isn’t really about double‑parking. It’s about the local government’s tolerance of people doing whatever they want, in broad daylight, in highly congested areas. The level of inconsideration is astonishing, and the authorities mostly just look the other way. That’s a recipe for anarchy.

According to the story, some drivers even get angry and hostile when they’re asked to move their cars. Sooner or later, that kind of self‑centeredness and lack of consideration is going to cause real problems. When everyone decides, the rules don’t apply to them, the whole system starts to break down.

Andy, I don’t disagree with anything you said, but there has to be a better answer than anarchy.
People could park farther away and walk, or they could take public transportation.

Another possibility is that Parliament could mandate, except for taxis and buses, that only very small cars be allowed in inner cities. A Mini Cooper, or even the tiny three‑wheeled cars the British used to make, would take up far less space.

liberty wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 11, 2026 4:34 am

This post isn’t really about double‑parking. It’s about the local government’s tolerance of people doing whatever they want, in broad daylight, in highly congested areas. The level of inconsideration is astonishing, and the authorities mostly just look the other way. That’s a recipe for anarchy.

Us Yankees ain't like them English Birminghammers. But we, the people above the Mason-Dixon line and over here yonder out west do tend to experience more parking difficulties than you Confederates do. That's probably because, unlike you rednecks, we got more vee-hickles than our big cities can accommodate.

Down in Dixie y'all still got designated horse parking and wide open spaces for your jalopies. Up here we got electric vee-hickles that we gotta plug in and people are tripping all over the place on them cables. It's just plain crazy up hereabouts.

But it ain't an anarchy yet. We got tow trucks up here too.

Adios fer now.....

The Village Idiot wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 11, 2026 4:34 am

This post isn’t really about double‑parking.

You posted an article about double parking, but it wasn't actually about double parking. Gotcha, thanks for clearing that up.

It’s about the local government’s tolerance of people doing whatever they want, in broad daylight, in highly congested areas.

Which, as several people pointed out, is the way double parking is handled in many U.S. cities. Intelligent human beings learn to adapt in order make a situation work for them.