Hogging sidewalks and neighbors' driveways

 A couple of years ago, someone wrote to Miss Manners about standing in their own driveway, waiting for a package delivery, when a neighbor, driving his pickup truck, waved at them to move out of the way so he could use their driveway as an impromptu rotary.  One correspondent wrote in with an even bigger complaint: cars and vans parked on the sidewalk in her (Toronto) neighborhood.  I'm putting the resulting "convo" below: 

👩: "Drivers should be encouraged to use driveways in this manner - to promote public safety!

"Instead, they are so afraid of infringing on private property rights - they routinely block and drive on public sidewalks to avoid the need.

"It's rare I can walk my kids to school without having to go around a car on the sidewalk - wish they'd just use the available driveway, which is right there and empty!"

      😑: "Spoken like someone who doesn't own property and never will."

 

                               👩:  "Except I do, oh anonymous one."

 

                                Jennifer A. Nolan: "Whatever she owns or doesn't own, she and her children are forced to either tippy-toe on the street or prance on other people's front yards, just to make it to school every morning. The whole point of sidewalks is to keep schoolchildren and other pedestrians off the road and those private properties. They're not parking lots."

Obviously, what delivery drivers are supposed to do with their vehicles in the course of their job duties is a bit complicated, and many renters and homeowners understandably don't like their driveways invaded by strangers doing the bidding of others.  But my deepest sympathy is with the woman forced to skirt these sidewalk-parked vehicles: she and her children cannot get where they're going without stepping into speedy traffic, or intruding on other homeowners' properties.  Que faire?

Posted by Jennifer A. Nolan