Neighbors constantly (slightly) block my driveway-- how to respond

[Anonymous]

I live in NW DC and I am fortunate enough to have off-street parking. (Driveway would be a generous description-- it's just the back part of my backyard paved over.) There is a legal but small street parking spot that directly abuts my driveway. My neighbors consistently park their cars such that the front part of their cars extends into the front of my driveway. Yes, I can still get out of my driveway, but it is tougher because the street overall is very narrow.

I am not social with these neighbors-- different ones park there, and obviously they do not do it on purpose; they are just sloppy in their parking and don't bother to look to see if they are blocking my driveway. (As an aside, these neighbors are all very friendly with each other, but due to whatever dynamics, do not include the people on my part of the street.).

I have tried passive aggressive things like leaving my garbage bins in the parking spot or directly in front of their cars so they have to drive around them to get out. (I do this on garbage days so this is naturally where I would be putting my cans anyway). I could leave a note, but I doubt it would be well received-- and as I said, it's many cars.

I've thought about calling parking enforcement to get one of them a ticket, and then word would spread quickly, I'm sure.

Thoughts? It drives DH crazy. He wants to petition the city to make parking in that spot illegal since it's pretty small anyway (which is why cars are always extending into our driveway).

[Anonymous]

I think going through the city is the way to go. If its that small that they shouldn't be parking there, that is the only way to address it. It is not your space to regulate otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Can you put a cone at the end of your driveway for a short time?

[Anonymous]

I posted about something similar! I live in a residential area that happens to have a medical care facility in it. Their staff and patients park us in - sometimes slightly and sometimes completely - ALL OF THE TIME.

I leave notes because I have no way of knowing who is doing it. But if it were my neighbors, I'd take a walk over and have a friendly talk. No need to get rude, but I'd say hey, I'm not sure if you've ever noticed it, but you are parking me into my driveway pretty frequently. Perhpas it looks like there's more room than there is to get out, but I really have a tough time getting out when a car is over the driveway. I just wanted to let you know, because maybe it wasn't obvious.

I'd say most people would apologize immediately and stop doing it. If they say oh come on, you have room to get out, you say, you know, I am not going to argue about whether or not I have room to get out. I'm telling you that I don't. And I didn't want to go here, but legally, you're actually not allowed to park over any part of my driveway. This happens all of the time, so we're going to start asking the city to ticket there. I wanted to give you a heads up before we do that.

End of discussion. Keep it friendly. Bonus points if you take cookies over. Repeat as needed with all of the neighbors.

And, if you're passive aggressive, you could leave the cookies on the doorstep with a note that says "hi, we are your neighbors at 1803. We're getting parked into our driveway fairly often and wanted to ask people to be careful not to block us in. Thank you so much and sorry to be a pain! I'm sure you didn't realize it was making it hard for us to get out." But I'd do it in person, though I understand not everyone has an appetite for that discussion.

Sucks that they do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think going through the city is the way to go. If its that small that they shouldn't be parking there, that is the only way to address it. It is not your space to regulate otherwise.

Yes it is, there are already city ordinances about how far from a drivway cars may park. In DC I believe it is 2 feet from the edge of a driveway but I actually forget.

[Anonymous]

Call the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think going through the city is the way to go. If its that small that they shouldn't be parking there, that is the only way to address it. It is not your space to regulate otherwise.

Yes it is, there are already city ordinances about how far from a drivway cars may park. In DC I believe it is 2 feet from the edge of a driveway but I actually forget.

Wow, does anyone have a cite? Should I call my Councilmember's office? I have thought about taking pictures when there are the worst offenders.

[Anonymous]

I had this problem. I knocked on their door one day and told them I thought maybe I was going to hit their car because it was so close to my driveway and I'm not that great a driver and backing out was especially hard for me (not, but I played up the hapless driver angle). Solved the problem.

[Anonymous]

Agree that you should just call the city and request some monitoring of that spot. They can ticket and/or paint the curb so that it's more clear where the spot ends. It's not at all unreasonable to expect people, neighbors or strangers, not to overhang your driveway.

[Anonymous]

Call the city AND talk with your neighbors.

And put something at the end of your driveway in the street part so they CAN'T cover that spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted about something similar! I live in a residential area that happens to have a medical care facility in it. Their staff and patients park us in - sometimes slightly and sometimes completely - ALL OF THE TIME.

I leave notes because I have no way of knowing who is doing it. But if it were my neighbors, I'd take a walk over and have a friendly talk. No need to get rude, but I'd say hey, I'm not sure if you've ever noticed it, but you are parking me into my driveway pretty frequently. Perhpas it looks like there's more room than there is to get out, but I really have a tough time getting out when a car is over the driveway. I just wanted to let you know, because maybe it wasn't obvious.

I'd say most people would apologize immediately and stop doing it. If they say oh come on, you have room to get out, you say, you know, I am not going to argue about whether or not I have room to get out. I'm telling you that I don't. And I didn't want to go here, but legally, you're actually not allowed to park over any part of my driveway. This happens all of the time, so we're going to start asking the city to ticket there. I wanted to give you a heads up before we do that.

End of discussion. Keep it friendly. Bonus points if you take cookies over. Repeat as needed with all of the neighbors.

And, if you're passive aggressive, you could leave the cookies on the doorstep with a note that says "hi, we are your neighbors at 1803. We're getting parked into our driveway fairly often and wanted to ask people to be careful not to block us in. Thank you so much and sorry to be a pain! I'm sure you didn't realize it was making it hard for us to get out." But I'd do it in person, though I understand not everyone has an appetite for that discussion.


Sucks that they do this.

There is a difference between "passive" and "passive aggressive."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think going through the city is the way to go. If its that small that they shouldn't be parking there, that is the only way to address it. It is not your space to regulate otherwise.

Yes it is, there are already city ordinances about how far from a drivway cars may park. In DC I believe it is 2 feet from the edge of a driveway but I actually forget.

Wow, does anyone have a cite? Should I call my Councilmember's office? I have thought about taking pictures when there are the worst offenders.

OP, this is the person you quoted. I was wrong, it is actually FIVE feet. In your shoes, I'd print this link out and take it with you when you have the conversation. When we were really battling this issue, I printed no parking signs and laminated them and hung them on our fence. I also put the text of this ordinance. It didn't fully solve the problem and eventually I did press my councilmember's office who got signage posted. But, you should not need signage.

I found that consistently calling 311 was helpful. It's a big ticket (200 bucks!) so the city can make good revenue off of it. Once we started calling a lot, 311 figured out it was a good place to get ticket quotas filled and started coming around daily, which was AWESOME.

Keep pursuing this, but if you know that it is your neighbors, it's probably fair to give a heads up.

http://dpw.dc.gov/DC/DPW/Publication%20Files/1210_Parking_Codes.pdf

[Anonymous]

PP here again. If you want my fulll commiseration, here's my initial post on the matter. For a while we actually had to start parking on the street. But like I said, persistence won the day. I wish I could say it never happens, but it's gone from being a daily thing to happening maybe once a month.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/61355.page

[Anonymous]

Slash their tires and have your dog or child poop near/on their car?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know what the rule is in Arlington? I have a private school nearby and this ALWAYS happens with their drop off when I'm trying to leave. It makes it hard to see and today I almost got hit as I was pulling out of my driveway.