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Parking on an unlit road at night?
nick205 - 19/2/07 at 09:44 AM

As above - can anyone clarify the rules/law on parking on an unlit road at night? Spped limit is 40mph and there are no yellow lines.

Reason for asking is a guy down the road has taken to dumping his car on the road outside his house (with perfectly good drive space). It's really starting to wee everyone else off and there have been several near misses already.

macnab - 19/2/07 at 09:53 AM

Is he not meant to have his side lights on if it not lit?

personally I'd give his car a shunt just to pi$$ him off.


[Edited on 19/2/07 by macnab]

smart51 - 19/2/07 at 10:00 AM

AFAIK you only need parking lights if you are parked facing the direction of traffic. If you are parked with the direction of traffic then your rear reflectors will be showing. Oncoming traffic will be on the other side of the road.

Whilst annoying neighbours are annoying, there isn't a law against it.

iank - 19/2/07 at 10:20 AM

Unless it's close to a corner I doubt there is much that you can do.

Why are there close misses? should be pretty visible in headlights I'd have thought. Maybe a quick diagram of why it's awkward would help.

One avenue (though I have no idea how you'd find out/do anything) is most people with a drive get (slightly) cheaper insurance by ticking the 'off road parking' box. If he's parking consistently on the road then 'theoretically' he might not be insured.

nick205 - 19/2/07 at 10:24 AM

quote:
Originally posted by smart51
AFAIK you only need parking lights if you are parked facing the direction of traffic. If you are parked with the direction of traffic then your rear reflectors will be showing. Oncoming traffic will be on the other side of the road.

Whilst annoying neighbours are annoying, there isn't a law against it.



He parks facing either way, depending on which way he's come home

nick205 - 19/2/07 at 10:43 AM

quote:
Originally posted by iank
Unless it's close to a corner I doubt there is much that you can do.

Why are there close misses? should be pretty visible in headlights I'd have thought. Maybe a quick diagram of why it's awkward would help.

One avenue (though I have no idea how you'd find out/do anything) is most people with a drive get (slightly) cheaper insurance by ticking the 'off road parking' box. If he's parking consistently on the road then 'theoretically' he might not be insured.



To give a wider picture...there is aT junction 50 yards before his house on the opposite side of the road and another T junction 50 yards after his hous on the same side of the road. There is also a bus stop outside a Tesco Express between the 2 T juntions.

I can see that he may not be parking illegally, but it's a fairly busy piece of road. It just annoys me that he can't be arsed to think about what he's doing

matt_claydon - 19/2/07 at 10:54 AM

Highway code:

222: You MUST NOT park on a road at night facing against the direction of the traffic flow unless in a recognised parking space.
Laws CUR reg 101 & RVLR reg 24

223: All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph.
Law RVLR reg 24

Benzine - 19/2/07 at 11:03 AM

quote:
Originally posted by nick205
there have been several near misses already.


"When two planes almost collide, they call it a near miss. It's a near hit. A collision is a near miss!"

nick205 - 19/2/07 at 02:06 PM

Cheers Matt - that's what I was looking for

Benzine - I stand corrected

britishtrident - 19/2/07 at 03:55 PM

istr it is illegal to park facing the wrong way at night irespective of street lighting or speed limit.

Really get bugged by this a tricky junction on a near me has a very busy chip shop adjacent, and the merkins sit facing the wrong way and leave thier headlights on.