"T i m" wrote in message
...
We have two cars but we also have a crossover that no one else should
obstruct / park on that we park on ourselves so at least aren't
'wasting' that space.

And wasting space also seems to be part of the problem with people
parking miles away from the end of a bay ( be it in-line or at 90 deg
to the road) or just less than one reasonable space to the next car
(when you actually see them parking yourself).

But then they say England is a nation of individuals so that would
make sense. ;-(

Cheers, T i m

p.s. Whilst I realise we don't generally have any right over the space
in front of our houses, we (along this terrace) had, for a long time
(I've been here 40 years) 'an understanding' where we, not allow any
of our visitors to park outside anyone else's houses. There were
generally plenty of other 'unclaimed' spaced very close by that they
could use. Slowly though as people died or moved on and the houses
were bought / rented by people looking to move out of London, were no
longer interested in (or even aware there might be) any existing
'agreement' and some (for reasons I've yet to be given or understand)
park 'the wrong way round'? In many cases, I'm the only one showing
'red reflectors to the rear' and possibly therefore, given I'm often
on the end, protecting the other cars.

My previous house was part of a small development built in 2000. Each house
was allocated one under-cover space (garage or car-port) and one open-air
space. The open-air ones were not numbered with markings on the ground, but
they were shown on a map that came with the deeds. Everyone used their own
space apart from occasionally, with prior arrangement, when there was a
party etc.

Most of the under-cover garages and car-ports were fine, but my garage was
part of a block of five that were narrower than everyone else's. The width
between walls was barely wide enough to squeeze your body between the car
and the partly-opened door, but the width of the *door* was much less. My
car (a Peugeot 306, so not a wide car) would just fit between the door
pillars, with a couple of inches to spare either side, but it was necessary
to line up exactly perpendicular and not at a slight angle. It was such a
hassle that none of those five houses used their garage for keeping a car
in. One guy had an old-style (non-BMW) Mini, and even he found it a hassle.
So effectively those five houses only had one (usable) parking space. As it
happens, I think all five of us in those houses were single, so each had
only one car, but when I met my wife, and we were originally planning to
live there rather than (as it later turned out) at my wife's house, we were
worried about where she would park her car. There was a small amount of
unallocated parking along one of the access roads, but that got taken by
people who chose to park there rather than further away in either of their
allocated spaces.

We really should have kicked up a stink and got the builders to rebuild that
garage block so the garages were actually a usable width. There was space on
the land either side of the block to have widened each garage by two feet
(which would only have made the block 10 feet wider). Even a foot wider
(total 5 feet) would have been an improvement.