Watch For Motorcycles, Park On Sidewalk
A lot of space in St. Louis is designated for vehicles, with a little for pedestrians. As a result, I get upset when a vehicle reduces the sidewalk space further.
If your vehicle can’t be parked without being part way on the sidewalk I suggest you find a different parking spot. If you’re a motorist do please watch for motorcycles, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
— Steve Patterson
Common in NOLA as well. Drivers think they own everything. Respond by lobbying government for enforcement as this is illegal.
Three observations. One, this, like many other violations we see every day, is an enforcement issue – this continues to happen because people continue to get away with it. If we had the (much higher) level of enforcement seen in other cities (aka parking Nazis), this would be happening much less frequently.
Two, everyone needs to watch out for everyone else, not just motorists, and everyone needs to follow the rules of the road. The cyclist that was killed last week apparently blew through the stop sign before he was hit. The motorist was wrong for leaving the scene, and was wrong if they were speeding, but there’s blame on both sides.
And three, in this case, there’s still plenty of the sidewalk left for the few pedestrians using the sidewalk, here, including you – chill! Is the van “wrong”? Absolutely! But just like “A lot of space in St. Louis is designated for vehicles”, a lot of space is designated for pedestrians, as well. Urban life is messy – we all need to pick our battles, and on a scale of 1-10, this rates a 1!
It’s also a design issue. New parking lots are required to have a physical separation between the lot and sidewalk. Physical separation eliminates the enforcement issue entirely!
Agree that physical separation would be one good solution, moving forward, but enforcement is the answer, now (since a retrofit requirement is highly unlikely). Still, it’s a 1 out of 10 – let’s focus on bigger issues, like missing curb ramps, missing sidewalk segments and sidewalks made inaccessible by other users (sidewalk dining, motorcycles, random street furniture, dumpsters, changeable message signs) and lack of snow removal in the winter!
Way I understand it, in residential areas at least, the sidewalk property is part of the homeowners property. The homeowner is responsible for the up keep, even snow and ice removal. If you dont remove it and someone falls, you can be sued. Not the city.The square footage where the sidewalk resides is included in the valuation of your property for tax purposes as well. So a normal person might wonder if you have to maintain it, pay taxes on it, and your liable for accidents on it , why cant you park on it if you want too, as long as you leave at least a wheel chair width path clear for pedestrians. Its kind of a raw deal if you think about it though..
You’re mistaken, in both residential & commercial areas the public sidewalk is part of the Public Right-of-Way (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Right-of-way_%28transportation%29), not on private property. The City of St. Louis attempts to force adjacent property owners to stare in the maintenance of the sidewalk. Make no mistake, it’s public property just like the road.