Discussions

Why do drivers think it is okay to block a private driveway? Getting mighty sick of people blocking my driveway!  
 
The worst offenders? Cabbies! Do the drivers not know the bylaws of our city?

I work near the hospital. You won't believe how many people block the driveways or back lanes.

Hear ya on this one sadly, cabbies for the most part don't give a crap and then there's the morons who are going to the local drug houses that park where ever as well. As for the pickup looping front of the hospital, they seriously need to get the tims customers out of there! Gets mighty annoying trying to pick up outpatients and there's no way to do it because some inconsiderate went to timmies? Come on people have some respect!

Johnbisonbear said "Why do drivers think it is okay to block a private driveway? Getting mighty sick of people blocking my driveway!     The worst offenders? Cabbies! Do the drivers not know the bylaws of our city? "

Had the same issue a lot of times with the city buses blocking mine.  
 
All it took was for me to get out of my car and talk to the bus driver. I have not had a problem in a long time.  
 
I don't think people are always aware they are plugging up or drive ways. Taking to the cab driver is worth a shot.

If this is a common occurrence you can have the vehicle ticketed or towed .  
Brandon's traffic by-law Section 35 Item B states ...  
it is an offence for a vehicle to be stopped or parked on or within 3 meters ( 9.84 feet ) of the entrance to a lane or to a Driveway .  
It sounds a little extreme , but in an emergency you may need to get out in a hurry .

How many taxis would block your driveway and be in your way on a regular basis? Once every other month? Weekly? Daily? And always be during that exact moment when you need to use it? I just don't understand on how can this be a huge problem for many. Or is it the fact a taxi driver has the gall to stop in front of and/or pull into your driveway for pickups and drop offs? How dare he pull his vehicle out of the road lane and not block traffic for a minute! ...Sounds a little petty to me.  
 
Now if it was something like what I had endured in Winnipeg when I lived near a school. That's truly a example of "blocking a driveway". It was daily turmoil for me because I left for school or work during the weekdays when parents would either park and leave their vehicles or be sitting there waiting. Not moving an inch until they pick up their precious child who can't walk home the two blocks because there's a chill in the air, or a child snatching pedophile behind every tree, or drugs being handed out like 'free samples', or bullies that would be waiting to chase them home! Just exaggerating, it was a good school area in an older Northwest neighbourhood with narrow streets. (the pedophiles had the internet by then, only one free sample would be given out per student and the real bullies were the ones sitting in their cars with a coffee. ...being annoyed that others don't think their child is special and that no one else seems to understand that they are more entitled to do whatever they want. LOL) What I put up with was aggravating. Backing down a driveway to find unoccupied cars sitting there at 8:00 or 8:30 am and waiting/looking for the driver returning after walking their child across the street, wondering if I'm going to be late for school or work. And it never seemed to matter if I gave them $h!+ or what, the outcome of course was the justification that there was now other place to stop and wait (or park) for blocks with maybe a 'sorry' added to it.  
 
Look, I understand that some are annoyed with the fact that it's "your driveway" and that only you and your visitors should be the only ones on it or even near it. But, unless they happen to be there every time you are actually having to arrive or leave... let it go. Or you'll end up like those hyper little dogs that jump up at the window and start yapping at every sign of movement in front of your home. "What, what, what!!!!!????? ...THAT CAB JUST PULLED INTO MY DRIVEWAY TO TURN AROUND! ...HOW DARE HE!!! ...THAT'S MINE! ...MINE, I TELL YOU! ...MINE!!!! Oh good, he's gone. He must of saw and heard me at the window. I've chased him away ...time for a nap, so I can chase away someone else from my territory.  
 
...So unless it truly hampers with daily life, stop getting annoyed. And if it really bothers you... resolve it by moving away from living near that apartment block with no loading zone, that overcrowded elementary school, that business with not enough parking, that narrow street that you can only park on one side and from that neighbour with too many vehicles. Because nothing ever changes when the circumstances outside of your control that causes your grief can never change. That's how I dealt with the problem with my driveway. I parked on the street until I sold my house to live on a better street. ...Problem solved.  
 
Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

ZEEKE said "If this is a common occurrence you can have the vehicle ticketed or towed .   Brandon's traffic by-law Section 35 Item B states ...   it is an offence for a vehicle to be stopped or parked on or within 3 meters ( 9.84 feet ) of the entrance to a lane or to a Driveway .   It sounds a little extreme , but in an emergency you may need to get out in a hurry . "

I had an issue with one certain cab company blocking my two parking spots multiple times EACH DAY. Problem is, you have to call in and quite often by the time police of by law get there (if they do at all) the offenders have left.  
 
We tried speaking to the owners - they actually thumbed their nose at our complaints - they were incredibly ignorant about it. The landlord spoke to them, they still did not care. My car was blocked in numerous times, one time I had a sick kid that I had to get out to go and pick up and I had to go down to the cab company and make them move so I could get out.  
 
It got to the point I called multiple times and finally bylaw had some signs put up, but cabs still would park between the no stopping signs. I would go out and try to stop them from parking there when they would drive up, and they always gave the me garbage attitude "oh, I am only going to be five minutes" and stay there anyway. At that point I began walking out so they could see me with my camera, and taking pictures of their license plate and making sure I got physical landmarks in the photos so that a ticket could be issued from the picture - AT THE REQUEST of by law officers. Though I highly doubt tickets were issued because if they had been ticketed as often as I sent in pictures it would have hit the pocket books pretty badly. I have literally hundreds of photos amassed from the time frame this company was in my building.  
 
I seriously think by law enforcement needs to be revamped in this city. It cannot exist on a "by complaint" basis, especially if they refuse to actually enforce the laws. What is the point of these people having jobs if they are not going to enforce the laws they were hired to protect?

snowman5 said "How many taxis would block your driveway and be in your way on a regular basis? Once every other month? Weekly? Daily? And always be during that exact moment when you need to use it? I just don't understand on how can this be a huge problem for many. Or is it the fact a taxi driver has the gall to stop in front of and/or pull into your driveway for pickups and drop offs? How dare he pull his vehicle out of the road lane and not block traffic for a minute! ...Sounds a little petty to me.     Now if it was something like what I had endured in Winnipeg when I lived near a school. That's truly a example of "blocking a driveway". It was daily turmoil for me because I left for school or work during the weekdays when parents would either park and leave their vehicles or be sitting there waiting. Not moving an inch until they pick up their precious child who can't walk home the two blocks because there's a chill in the air, or a child snatching pedophile behind every tree, or drugs being handed out like 'free samples', or bullies that would be waiting to chase them home! Just exaggerating, it was a good school area in an older Northwest neighbourhood with narrow streets. (the pedophiles had the internet by then, only one free sample would be given out per student and the real bullies were the ones sitting in their cars with a coffee. ...being annoyed that others don't think their child is special and that no one else seems to understand that they are more entitled to do whatever they want. LOL) What I put up with was aggravating. Backing down a driveway to find unoccupied cars sitting there at 8:00 or 8:30 am and waiting/looking for the driver returning after walking their child across the street, wondering if I'm going to be late for school or work. And it never seemed to matter if I gave them $h!+ or what, the outcome of course was the justification that there was now other place to stop and wait (or park) for blocks with maybe a 'sorry' added to it.     Look, I understand that some are annoyed with the fact that it's "your driveway" and that only you and your visitors should be the only ones on it or even near it. But, unless they happen to be there every time you are actually having to arrive or leave... let it go. Or you'll end up like those hyper little dogs that jump up at the window and start yapping at every sign of movement in front of your home. "What, what, what!!!!!????? ...THAT CAB JUST PULLED INTO MY DRIVEWAY TO TURN AROUND! ...HOW DARE HE!!! ...THAT'S MINE! ...MINE, I TELL YOU! ...MINE!!!! Oh good, he's gone. He must of saw and heard me at the window. I've chased him away ...time for a nap, so I can chase away someone else from my territory.     ...So unless it truly hampers with daily life, stop getting annoyed. And if it really bothers you... resolve it by moving away from living near that apartment block with no loading zone, that overcrowded elementary school, that business with not enough parking, that narrow street that you can only park on one side and from that neighbour with too many vehicles. Because nothing ever changes when the circumstances outside of your control that causes your grief can never change. That's how I dealt with the problem with my driveway. I parked on the street until I sold my house to live on a better street. ...Problem solved.     Just my opinion, I could be wrong. "

but now that you aren`t living in Winnipeg and not having your driveway blocked you don`t give two poops about anyone else having the same issue?

Ultimately the problem is, people parking where they shouldn't. Obviously if there were more parking near by, the problem would not exist, at least not to the extent it does today. The driver that is rude enough to knowingly block someone's driveway is inconsiderate and probably only cares about how things affect him / her, but I guess they have a need to park somewhere.  
 
All that aside, nearly every time the city is asked to grant a parking variance (allowing a housing complex or business to locate in an area without the parking spots required by Brandon's by-laws), they grant these variations. Every time they do that, street parking in the area becomes a bigger issue than before. I work in an area where not less than 5 parking variations have been allowed for local properties. The street parking in that area has gone from acceptable to no where near enough street parking, and often people park where they shouldn't. These parking violations last anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.  
 
My suggestion to prevent further parking congestion is to not only contact by-law, but if the problem persists contact your city councilor (every time it reoccurs) to keep them aware of just how congested parking is in your area. Maybe they'll think twice before granting so many parking variations.  
 
I don't think a person should have to move to avoid this sort of parking issues. Part of city council's job is to ensure quality of life remains at a reasonable level in all community areas of our city.  
 
edit: typo  
 
Edited by fargobob, 2016-11-19 15:35:36

what if you started to document the day and time of each time your driveway is blocked,the name of the cab company and maybe even the cab number, incidents on a monthly basis and take it down to the bylaw office....maybe they would do something then?

socialmom said "what if you started to document the day and time of each time your driveway is blocked,the name of the cab company and maybe even the cab number, incidents on a monthly basis and take it down to the bylaw office....maybe they would do something then? "

I have had a chance to speak to a police officer and he suggested almost the same as you did just now! I will try to get license plate number and pass on to bylaw.

Johnbisonbear said "    socialmom said "what if you started to document the day and time of each time your driveway is blocked,the name of the cab company and maybe even the cab number, incidents on a monthly basis and take it down to the bylaw office....maybe they would do something then? " I have had a chance to speak to a police officer and he suggested almost the same as you did just now! I will try to get license plate number and pass on to bylaw. "

I guess if the cops didn't suggest a spike belt, your best bet is to document incidents  
 
Having your driveway blocked and used by others is annoying, inconsiderate and I hope "they" are reading this so they wise up.

Take a picture of their vehicle including their license plate, post it up on your favorite social media site with the hashtag #bdnmb or Brandon. You can also forward your picture to the police.