I thought about posting this in uk legal but this group seems much more friendly! Anyway what is the legal position if you paint your own yellow lines on the street to 'stop' people parking in frount of your drive.
Now I know that anyone parking there will not get a ticket or any such thing due to the line, but what would happen to me if I DIY my own line like that?
Richard
I suspect that putting down your own lines might leave you open to a charge of criminal damage to the road.
What you can quite legally do, is to ask the Local Authority to put the approved marking, a white line with end markers, across your drive. There will be a charge, (IIRC it was about £60) but it is surprisingly effective.
Colin Bignell
You don't own the right to park outside your own home on the street' in most cases. However other people shouldn't obstruct your drive.
Painting yellow lines would probably get you a stiff warning, maybe even a charge of criminal damage or whatever graffitti comes under.
If people park to obstruct access to your property over a dropped kerb, ie a legal access way, then you could get them ticketed for causing an obstruction (if anyone official can be arsed to turn up).
Aside from any other issues, most people don't realise that unless they are inside a defined parking zone (big ZONE signs at entry and exit) yellow lines have NO MEANING WHATSOEVER unless there are road signs stating when they are in operation. All that a double yellow means is " no waiting except for loading and unloading for longer than the working day." There are double yellows outside Bradford Cathedral that are operative 7-19 Mon-Sat only.
They are only causing an obstruction if they stop you leaving the drive, not if they stop you entering. You have a right to enter the highway, but there is no corresponding right in law to enter a private drive.
Colin Bignell
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In which case, they should be replaced by a single yellow line. Since January 1999, double yellow lines have meant waiting prohibited 24 hours a day, seven days a week for at least four consecutive months each year. Single yellow lines show any lesser restriction.
Colin Bignell
Double yellow lines with solid yellow end bars and sectional line markers up onto the kerb, mean no parking whatsoever at any time on any day of the year. This type of marking is placed around corners to keep a certain amount of kerb area free and outside fire / ambulance stations and other emergency service vehicle access points. A set of double yellow lines without end point and kerb markings means that it is a timed (peripheral with parking meters) controlled zone.
Single yellow lines with end markers and sectional kerb markers is a waiting / loading kerbside area. This type of marking is usually placed along shopping streets and some industrial areas to limit loading / unloading times. Single yellow lines without end and kerb markers is an area which must be kept clear at peak rush hour times. This is normally between 8 : 00 am and 9 : 15 am and then again between 4 : 30 pm and 6 : 00 pm.
I think all you drivers should go back to the highway code book and brush up a little. :-))
Single yellow lines means "no parking at all" Double yellow lines means "no parking at all at all"
:-)
Brendan
Two lines of "not very original" content and 86 lines of crap. Do you not have a delete key on your keyboard?
Hi Richard, I did something similar. My driveway and my neighbour's (across the street) are slightly staggered - if you looked down the right side of my drive way across the street your view would be down the left side of the neighbours, if you see what I mean). People visiting us would not park across our driveway but would park across our neighbours (but on our side of the street), making it difficult for the neighbour to enter/exit his own drive. This bugged me to the extent that one sunny day (when the council road sweeping machine had made its annual pilgrimage to our cul-de-sac) I got a big lump of cardboard and my can of yellow Screwfix line-marking paint and got to work. I cut a slot out from the cardboard approximately one metre long by 100mm wide, about 200mm from the straight edge of the large lump of cardboard. Placing the template on the tarmac, I sprayed the first line on MY side of the road. When I moved the template to continue the line, I realised that the underside of the template would foul (and smudge) the just-painted metre-long line, so I moved the template further to create the effect of a line with 200mm gaps in it. Four sprayings later, I now have a line of four segments. I stood back to admire my handiwork, and then the realisation of what I'd just done washed over me... gulp!
My wife came home that night and enquired as to why the council had painted the lines - she went ballistic at my illegal action.
Beyond the grafitti (sp?) I see no problems with my lines: I get no benefit myself from them (but my neighbour does) and they are there to warn parkers not to block the neighbour's drive. I even watched the traffic cops (who park up in our road to do speed traps) about to stop on my lines and then roll forward to clear the driveways! :-)
Unless people take gross dislike to humble lines, I can't see the authorities getting too bothered about you painting some lines (unlike the guy in Edinburgh that got grief for unpainting yellow lines).
Painting lines that are not the same as the authorities (gaps in them) could also work in your favour: you're not conflicting with statutory symbols.
Just my experience
Mungo
P.S. When the neighbour saw the lines he asked if I would be installing a parking meter! ;-)
I was surprised when this happened to us, so we carefully moved the car out of the way using trolley jacks, pulled into the drive, moved the offending car back and got the Police to slap a ticket on it for obstruction.
The neighbours thought it was hilarious, but no one grassed us up :-)
Lee
as I do not have a copy of the previous post on my server can you tell me what you are talking about
Any vehicle that is parked on a road in an area not designated for parking (e.g. parking meter, blue and white parking sign, etc) is causing an obstruction in law. Believe it or not, police try not to be heavy handed over this and normally only take action when there is evidence of a specific obstruction (e.g. road reduced to single alternate lane of traffic, dangerous obstruction, obstruction to an entrance, etc). There is no difference between you entering or exiting a drive.
Howard Neil
You have the right to use the highway, but not stop on it.
So, if someone parks across your drive, you can get the police to move them?
Interesting thread. The lines themselves mean nothing, but usually indicate there is a parking restriction there. However, this is not always the case. Some friends were notified the council was going to introduce a no parking restriction along their road. The residents complained and the council backed down. However, the contractor still came along and painted the double yellow lines, which AFAIK, are still there. The residents happily park in the road knowing it has no parking restriction, but non-locals wouldn't know this and seeing the double yellow lines, avoid it. Seems to have worked very well.
Actually the same thing happened in my road too, but a week later, some chap turned up with a giant blowlamp, and took the lines up again.
What can you do about people parking on double yellows anyway? A local car dealership regularly gets deliveries of cars at 8 in the morning and the transporter parks on the road on double yellow lines. The other side of the road isn't controlled but residents park their cars there so somewhat of an obstruction is caused.
Are double yellows with a sign "No waiting at any time" loading/unloading friendly? I would have thought not.
Yes. It rather depends on where you live as to how quickly this will take place, though. The way this is done may vary from police force to police force. In London, the offending vehicle would usually be removed to a car pound and a removal fee would also be charged on top of any ticket or summons.
Howard Neil
I think you should get a copy of the HMSO publication, Know Your Traffic Signs, which gives much more detail than the Highway Code and from which I took the restrictions given above.
Colin Bignell
They are quite welcome to their opinion. I am a retired police officer and I dealt with such issues for 30 years. Unless, of course, there has been a change in the law over the last four years (in other words, since I retired).
Howard Neil
On Tue, 12 Aug 2003 22:24:41 GMT, Richard wrote
I am, as the disclaimers invariably say, not a lawyer -- but my guess is that if it was reported to (or spotted by) the highways department, you'd be done for at least the cost of burning the paint off.
There's also likely to be a clause in some statute somewhere that bans you from disfiguring the public highway, with fines and injunctions and that sort of thing.
(In my experience, council highways departments are *very* protective of their right to control all road markings and signage.)
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