Driving on the pavement is banned by the same law that bans cyclists from riding on it. Needless to say, every car that is parked on the pavement was driven on it first, but that is another story. This post is about people to consider the pavement as a valid alternative to the carriageway when the road is blocked by a bin lorry, traffic or other obstructions.
Many cars evidently do this to get past bin lorries on the Isle of White. Good to see the Hampshire Police at least highlighting the issue.
It not just a Hampshire issue though. Here is video taken by a cyclist of a motorist doing the same thing to get past another bin lorry
And a whole line of vehicles using the pavement to get past roadworks in Swindon.
And trying to escape the traffic chaos outside a school in Folkstone
And in Bristol where a car is seen being driven along the pavement towards a pedestrian.
In this one the driver of a car in this one decides accelerates past a cyclist, with two wheels up on the pavement.
Even the Royal Mail are at it. Here is a van being driven some long distance along the pavement (and no, the hazard warning lights don’t make it OK!)
Also report here of motorists driving on the pavement outside a primary school in Bolton and to get pass roadworks in West London. All of the above have been chosen to show what appear to be ordinary people driving on the pavement in ordinary circumstances, not whilst in a rage, drunk or when speeding or being chased by the police (which also happens).
Is this issue a nationally significant one? Have you experienced it yourself? Do let us know in the comments field below.
Pedestrian Liberation 
Certainly an issue in Germany: I’ve bee pushed out of the way by a bus, followed along a pavement by an HGV and seen untold numbers of cars using the pavement as an overflow when traffic got serious. I even saw one driver honking his horn at a mother anc child to ‘get out of the way’ on one occasion, which seems to be the height of arrogance and antisocial behaviour.
Here’s one I took on my Fly6 rear light/cam http://youtu.be/wvgVi1OUjVw
Thanks for that. Great to have more evidence. I fixed the link in your first comment as requested.
Saw someone take to the whole width of footway while “held up” by a queue of motors in Hillingdon yesterday, nearly missed a mum and teenager, who were not pleased.
So many of these people appear to be in such a hurry. Why? They don’t arrive any quicker and if they had a little more patience they would find that the obstruction cleared reasonably quickly.
I do wonder what action the local police forces have taken in these places, some of these videos are so clear it would be easy to prosecute. I’m not going to hold my breath though.
A couple of weeks ago, here in sunny Bexhill I was walking into town when a car in front of me put his front wheel up onto the pavement, obviously expecting me to move to the side so that they could park on the pavement. Imagine his surprise when I walked up to the car, looking straight at him, and just stood there in his way. I refused to move and he had to go back onto the road to allow his passenger to get out. Guess what, by stopping on the road as he was meant to do, he didn’t hold up the traffic at all! That’s the main point about pavement parking, so often it’s totally unnecessary.
Thanks for that Graham, twice in as many weeks I have had vehicle pull up onto the pavement a meters in front of me and park. Not sure that they even noticed that we were there. In both cases I let them know that I found it very rude indeed to do that, but it was news to them. We still have a long way to go on this!
Down my way, a new deveopment got rid of the pavement and replaced it with what, in effect, is one long dropped kerb of about 200m. Each house is raised up and three spaces built into a retaining wall, two for residents, one for visitors. But where do more visitors park?, yes, the pavement…er sorry, former pavement. It’s now just a driveway. Walking down to the shops once I saw a car come up behind a truck turning right. The truck was waiting for a car to pass before it could turn. The driver behind the truck made no attempt to slow down, just drove about 50m along the former pavement to get past the truck. On my way to the local shops, I always now walk on the right hand side pavement- at least it has a kerb.
They drive down a steep hill on the pavement constantly near my house in Gateshead. I reported a bus earlier this year for driving a metre on the pavement down this his. I was walking my 4 year old twins to school and we had to squeeze past. I always walk right on the edge of the pavement in order to discourage others mounting it. On Monday I got in front of a car on the pavement and refused to move.
Thank you for that. Some time back I was driving down a road lined on one side with cars and a tesco delivery driver approached with the clear expectation that I would continue towards him with two wheels on the pavement. This seems to be a fast growing trend. Do report to the papers and to anyone else who will listen. Can you get some video of this ?
My local council took away as many yellow lines as they could so as to make more on-street parking in our street. It meant though that vehicles now had to take turns to go through the bits that were narrower due to the parked cars. Those who couldn’t wait drove through with their wheels on the pavement for about 25 yards.
I reported this to the council and they came and put bollards in pretty quickly, just a couple of weeks.
School Rd in Moseley Birmingham is a serious accident waiting to happen. Cars regularly drive along the pavement because of drivers overtaking parked vehicles causing oncoming drivers to take to the pavement. This is most serious in the rush hour when the pavement is heavily used by children from the local primary school. Requests over many years to the council and/or police for bollards etc have fallen on deaf ears. It will take a death or serious injury for the problem to be addressed. Too late for the victim though!!
My neighbour thinks it is his right to turn off the carriageway via the dropped kerb to my property, then turn onto the footpath and drive to his property as his own drive is too steep for his sports car. He has dug up the verge and trashed decorative planters that are on my private property, not adopted highway in order to do this. Highways and police are not interested. I expect that they will be when there is a collision with a pedestrian, as it is a well worn route for children and young mums with prams.