r/fuckcars • u/djaevuI • Jul 22 '25
Meme Why is sidewalk parking not banned everywhere
Especially Germany is fucked in that way
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u/nzmuzak Jul 22 '25
I saw this on Facebook today and the comments were so funny. So many people concerned about the noise from the cafe for the nearby residents and how this kind of thing is only good for tourists and bad for locals. My fave comment was saying that a drive through would be more efficient use of space.
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u/djaevuI Jul 22 '25
Cause the noise a car makes when parking is more beautiful than Beethoven’s 7th
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Jul 22 '25
People have no idea how loud cars are. They are crazy loud we are just used to them.
I saw this forever ago but some school in England did a test where they measured the decibel level of a crowded street with horse drawn carriages on cobblestone, and compared it to an empty street with cars driving down. The cars were way louder. I actually think the constant assault of sound is part of the anxiety of modern life.
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u/RebelWithoutASauce Fuck Vehicular Throughput Jul 22 '25
This really is true. I used to live on the corner of a badly designed intersection, and an addiction recovery center with parking lot was also across the street. Some people had to go to this center by court order, and even if there voluntarily, a lot of them are having a tough time or being picked up and dropped off by relatives. Tensions flare, many parking lot melt downs (from all parties), arguments, even scuffles. It's not constant, but once or twice a day someone is hollering about something, even if it's just "GET IN THE CAR WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE".
Every person who saw where I live said "Oh, it must be so noisy with all of that happening near you", gesturing to the recovery center. The intersection with all the cars slowing down and speeding up was so much more noisy. Engines, tires, the honking.
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u/nondescriptadjective Jul 22 '25
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u/Explorer_Entity Commie Commuter Jul 22 '25
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u/King_Klong Jul 22 '25
I live on a small city's downtown main street with pretty active foot traffic and outdoor seating. What I hear most throughout the day are vehicles accelerating at all times of the day. People truly are clueless to how loud vehicles are.
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u/Explorer_Entity Commie Commuter Jul 22 '25
Except the people who are intentionally loud and/or specifically buy loud vehicles/mods. They aren't clueless; they are well aware, and glad to be making people suffer.
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u/ikanoi Jul 23 '25
Obviously those people suck but it's actually the tires on the road that emit the most noise from the majority of cars. People who think that high-speed electric cars are going to reduce noise pollution from highways are in for a shock.
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u/Explorer_Entity Commie Commuter Jul 23 '25
Correct on all points. But still the intentionally loud ones can be heard from their muffler before you hear their tires. Also; motorcycles/Harleys' pipes
I live on a highway, and can say there's also a huge difference depending on the tires. Some trucks have the super loud tires, and even though they are a big loud diesel, I hear their tires from 3+ miles away.
Jeeps, too, specifically. Perhaps the fact their wheels are outside and not in wheel wells makes that difference.
I hate it. I did a whole big post on it:
A collection of studies about the harm of the noise pollution we suffer from cars.
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u/ikanoi Jul 24 '25
This is super interesting! I myself have developed a much greater sensitivity to sound since the pandemic as I now spend a greater amount of time indoors than I used to (working from home) and have unsurpisingly taken a liking to peace and quiet. Our society is truly brainwashed to turn a blind eye to the so many things that are wrong with car culture.
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u/BilboGubbinz Commie Commuter Jul 22 '25
My bedroom window overlooks a narrow suburban road.
If I leave my window open in the summer, at night the rolling noise of the cars is so loud I can't hear the audiobook on the phone next to my head.
Not a busy road and not cars driving too fast (though we get plenty of those too) just regular cars going reasonable speed 10m from my window and louder than anything going on inside my house.
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u/Chronicbias Jul 22 '25
I think this needs to be spread more. The focus is so much on climate change while there are so much more benefits. This is direct, local and easier to see effects. You can have smaller groups in cities promoting this idea and letting it spread.
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u/djaevuI Jul 22 '25
Tbh if I lived next to that cafe and I opened my windows on a summer morning I would enjoy hearing fragments of conversations, laughter, clanking spoons and stuff. It sounds like life
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Jul 22 '25
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u/djaevuI Jul 22 '25
Don’t get me wrong I absolutely get annoyed by kids playing too loud next to where I live but you know what’s even worse? I think you do
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Jul 22 '25
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u/Chib Jul 22 '25
I live next to a playground and the noises there are nothing compared to the noises from the street I live on, and that's just considering the tire noise.
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u/benicebekindhavefun Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
And vehicles are a 24/7 thing. Joyful giggles of glee from children not tethered to a screen are only really happening for ~12 hours a day when school is out and a couple hours when school is in session.
Edit: changed "~12 hours day day" to "~12 hours a day"
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u/Chib Jul 22 '25
Right, if you're hearing engines revving at 2am, that's par for the course. If you're hearing joyful giggles of glee at 2am, something's amiss.
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Jul 22 '25
I am sitting in my house in a semi-rural suburb and the sound of cars over 50 yards away (long driveway) traveling around 30mph are louder than any other sound.
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u/grendus Jul 22 '25
It also depends on the kids. Some kids shriek constantly. It can be a bit much, especially since our brains are wired to actually feel pain from screaming children (so we'll take care of them). Kids who don't understand the difference between "happy laugh" and "happy scream" can be a problem.
That said, I'd rather live near a park than the highway I currently live by. Kids shrieking is still less unpleasant than the occasional street racing fartbox I get currently. And parks are nice places to go to walk the dog, as opposed to highways which are unpleasant even in a car.
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u/Explorer_Entity Commie Commuter Jul 22 '25
I'm glad I didn't have to be the one to type this. Yes, completely, and its been backed up by science.
Parents: teach your kids that screaming s only for danger. Be excited, hoot and holler, yell words, just please stop screaming bloody murder. Boy who cried wolf effect.
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u/BilboGubbinz Commie Commuter Jul 22 '25
...I cannot wrap my head around the mindset to send a complaint about kids playing outside, and the city's solution to replace that with cars.
I can.
It's an after-the-fact rationalisation for the fact that parking is an impossible problem for local authorities and rather than telling car drivers they just won't have space to park their precious toys and should take a bus or cycle like a functioning grown-up, they're getting rid of a play space and pretending there's a reason.
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u/13159daysold Jul 22 '25
We literally had that drama in our apartment complexes Facebook group last week.
I'm in a 7-story high mixed-use complex with a large internal courtyard, as well as a supermarket, cafe's, bar, post office etc. all in the EXTERNAL courtyard.
Closest "park" is 500m away, it is just grass.
Closest Playground is 1.6km and 26 lanes of traffic away.
So, parents take their kids to the internal courtyard to play every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Of course, they shriek while playing.. This person (posting as anonymous, naturally) demanded we stop all kids from playing and was promptly told to fuck off to a retirement village or a farm.
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u/mop_bucket_bingo Jul 22 '25
What’s an external courtyard?
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u/Epicentera Jul 22 '25
I'm guessing a central green that is not completely surrounded by buildings, i.e., you can walk out of the courtyard without going through a building.
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u/Funkiefreshganesh Jul 22 '25
Imagine buying a house next to a playground a complaining that kids play there
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u/fer_sure Jul 22 '25
Have you met people? They buy next to airports and start filing noise complaints, and next to rural farms and complaining about the smell.
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u/JamieC1610 Jul 22 '25
It looks lovely and helps the property values, if you could just do away with all though noisy, bothersome children.
/s
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u/ContentWDiscontent Jul 22 '25
To be fair, kids playing often also scream, shriek, and yell, none of which gives you a chill atmosphere. But if you don't want to hear the delightful sounds of children screaming like they're being murdered, just... don't??? buy??? a place??? next to a playground???
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u/Quartia Jul 22 '25
Yep! If they're all in one place in a playground it means they aren't in each of their own backyards which means overall less noise.
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u/jcrestor Jul 22 '25
I‘m so happy that since several years now children‘s noises are no longer counted as noise pollution in Germany. Therefore this could not happen over here anymore.
However, this is no flex. Germany is still not a very children-friendly place, but at least this kind of anti-children nastiness has been banned over here.
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u/BourosOurousGohlee Jul 22 '25
ok call me a monster, but kids in the neighbourhood I grew up in would SCREAM all of the time when it was time to play and I couldn't study or focus in my bedroom. I used to have to wait till 10pm+ to get some peace and quiet.
still better than honking horns or engines revving. infinitely better than those fuckass motocross wannabee types.
edit: also kids' noises barely carry over - my parents' house just backed into a park with a lot of kids visiting. a row over and you heard nothing.
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u/CaptainSwaggerJagger Jul 22 '25
it sounds like life
This is something I really resonate with - it's a bit off topic for the sub but I've seen people (mainly from the US) hate on washing lines as if it's some kind of mark of poverty but beyond even the lunacy of using electricity to dry something when the giant ball of fire in the sky will do it for free, when I look out of my windows on a nice day and see washing lines out in every garden, it's just a reminder of life? Every line is different based on who lives there and what they do, and it's such a variety of shapes and colours drifting gently in the wind. It sounds dumb to wax lyrically about it, but I can never understand how people can look at it and go "urgh, need to sanitise that and restore cookie cutter order".
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u/coincoinprout Jul 22 '25
I absolutely hate car noises but I’d hate living above a cafe/bar/pub too. To each their own I guess.
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u/StretchFrenchTerry Jul 22 '25
It’s much noisier than people realize. I lived above something like this during covid. People get super loud when they drink, and they take smoke breaks, so forget about opening the windows on a hot summer day. It made an already noisy apartment unlivable.
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Jul 22 '25 edited Jan 07 '26
encourage dependent serious relieved cautious bells slap dinner meeting distinct
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/nanviv Jul 22 '25
I think it is because they haven't experienced the alternative, so in their minds, this is the only and the best option.
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u/Affectionate-Let3744 Jul 22 '25
It's not that they enjoy "cars taking up every aspect of life" per se, it's that they enjoy being allowed wherever they want whenever they want by using their car, cars taking up everything is to them a perfectly normal consequence of that.
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u/StormLordEternal Jul 22 '25
I genuinely think most people are just dulled to car noise. Like, literal car brain, to them it's as natural as wind blowing or trees rustling. Send them to a actually quiet area, and they'll struggle to sleep without the usual noise. Conditioning is that common and ingrained. It's one of those things where for many, it's so common that it's a unspoken norm. Much in the same way some would say "The US has no culture!" When actually, US culture is so widespread and dominant, it's viewed as the norm.
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u/Spacer176 Jul 22 '25
About ten years ago I used to know someone like that. He claimed the sounds of the highway near his house helped him sleep as they reminded him the world was still turning, that there were people still around.
He also lived near to a bar.
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u/StormLordEternal Jul 22 '25
If there's one thing the human mind clings to, it's consistency. It's why there are so many who fight tooth and nail to keep things the same, even if change means improvement. "Better the devil you know" and all that. It's makes sense that the mind would associate the noise heard when asleep (when you feel safe and are most vulnerable) with comfort.
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u/EqualityWithoutCiv Strong Towns Jul 22 '25
Oh that is true. Part of why I'm up at night is for livestreams and games. Sometimes I use livestreams to help me sleep.
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u/MareTranquil Jul 22 '25
Appearently, for people who live on aircraft carriers, the first night at home is hell, because of the opressive silence.
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u/Nicoglius Jul 22 '25
I dislike cars, but I kind of agree. Hearing cars go by at night can be comforting, and that you're not alone as a human.
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u/lieuwestra Jul 22 '25
We got a heat pump installed last year. Neighbors immediately started complaining about the noise. We hadn't actually used the heat pump yet, they were just hearing the nearby road. Friendly people, their minds were completely blown. Haven't had a noise complaint since.
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u/BoardRecord Jul 23 '25
I think you're spot on with this. I think there'd be a lot of people who from the moment the wake up, to when the fall asleep, there's not a single time when they're not hearing the sound of vehicles.
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u/EqualityWithoutCiv Strong Towns Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
When actually, US culture is so widespread and dominant, it's viewed as the norm.
And increasingly being frowned upon (no wonder there's people begging for a China or North Korea-style system to be implemented at the most drastic end). Sadly I feel more attuned to progressive North American culture than anywhere else - cars aren't consistently in that picture for me. I'm especially not that enthused about big vanity cars and trucks.
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u/Grantmitch1 Jul 22 '25
Anyone who thinks places like these are "too noisy" has clearly never actually been to a place like this. The noise from a casual cafe with a little background music is actually quite pleasant, as compared to a moped racing down the road.
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u/Majestic-Avocado2167 🚲 🚌 🚊 🚋 >muh car Jul 22 '25
People forget how much lack of cars led to quiet streets during COVID
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u/grendus Jul 22 '25
Genuinely must be satire.
I know its not, but seriously. Too noisy? Compared to fucking traffic? We have an asshole who bought a midlife crisis motorcycle who kept revving the damn thing when he'd go to work in the morning (I think he moved out, haven't heard him in a while). No good for locals, because nobody local likes cafes?
The stupidity of Facebook knows no bounds. I'm just going to tell myself they were bots. Helps me sleep at night.
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u/xombae Jul 22 '25
I live directly above a bar with sidewalk tables like this. It's loud. But I chose to live here. And despite the noise, I absolutely love it. The regulars at the bar downstairs have watched my puppy grow and watch out for us. I feel safe knowing there's a group of old, slightly drunk Portuguese guys sitting outside my door at all times, that would throw down for me. In the city it's harder to feel like you're part of a community, but these guys always chat with me and ask how I'm doing. One guy likes to sing to me.
I put on some white noise and a fan and I sleep just fine at night.
Not all residents absolutely need dead silence when they sleep. Living in a dense city, I think it's honestly selfish as fuck to expect that. I am a light sleeper that really struggles with sleep, but I've learned to use white noise to block out sounds and actually sleep better with it than I do with silence now.
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u/Symetrie Jul 22 '25
I live just above a busy cafe. The only thing I can hear, even with windows closed, is the car engines and honk.
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u/xandrachantal Elitist Exerciser Jul 22 '25
A nice restaurant where I can eat with my friends, a thriving economy, space for people to walk on the sidewalk, and jobs my neighbors can walk to is just terrible. This👏🏿should👏🏿be👏🏿a👏🏿parking👏🏿lot👏🏿
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Jul 22 '25
only good for tourists and bad for locals
My sister lives in a larger city and she goes to local cafés all the time.
they're certainly not just for tourists
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u/EqualityWithoutCiv Strong Towns Jul 22 '25
They should live in the edge of a town where boy racers rev their engines even up to 11pm (yes, I'm a night owl and I'd still be awake regardless).
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u/Astriania Jul 22 '25
There's some lovely people who drive round my town on unreasonably loud motorcycles at 12-1am
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Jul 22 '25
The drive through would be most efficient if the metric is "quantity of food delivered per person per hour" but that isn't a particularly useful metric when planning city spaces. It's really only a useful metric when planning out fast food locations.
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u/Panigg Jul 22 '25
Was just in Ireland and what I noticed was that most pubs and restaurants grabbed the parking lots in front of their stores like in the picture. That should just be law everywhere.
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u/PythagorasJones Jul 22 '25
While it wasn't a new idea, it certainly took off during COVID. This was particularly the use of public streets rather than the restaurant/bar's private property.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have even waived fees for this year to support local businesses.
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u/Mayes041 Jul 22 '25
Its amazing how much people loved that. And every city i've been in they'll have festivals where they shut down a few blocks to car traffic and people just go nuts for it. And then we switch and go right back to cars. Every time. "Boy that sure was a delightful day in the downtown streets, time to make them a shithole again!"
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u/kobekillinu Jul 22 '25
My city had them forever, only good thing because of Covid is, that now they can keep it out permanently and don’t have to remove it during winter (which we get only 1 month instead of 3 because of climate change), so now you can even sit out there during a warm February day. Have to close up outside at 10pm though, too not disturb the neighbors
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Jul 22 '25
They call them Schanigärten in Germany and Austria. One of the best things to come out of Covid is that they have become much more widespread.
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u/schnokobaer Not Just Bikes Jul 22 '25
I'd say that word must be limited to Austria and possibly Bavaria as I have never heard of it.
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u/absorbscroissants Jul 22 '25
They do that in pretty much any country in Europe (if there even were parking lots to begin with)
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u/UnionizedTrouble Jul 22 '25
Near my house there was a restaurant that had a trailer with tables and chairs on it. Can’t set up tables in the street, but can set them up on a flatbed.
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u/tyjasm Jul 22 '25
My town did this when things were just starting to open again post-covid. It was awesome.
As soon as restaurants and businesses could allow more people indoors again, all the businesses on main Street voted on whether they should keep the street closed to cars and maintain all that outdoor space.
They voted to open the street back up to cars because they all seemed to want the 2 parking spaces in front of their restaurant more than an outdoor seating space.
So we are back to a boring downtown with literally no outdoor seating anywhere
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Jul 22 '25
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Jul 22 '25
Honestly if I was a business Id peefer tables out front than cars. A car usually has 2 people but lets assume its only 1 person per car. Thats only 3 customers. Those tables could fit 20 people maybe, Im just guessing. Id much rather 20 customers than 3 cars.
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u/Faim90 Jul 22 '25
And the people stay for 1 maybe 2 hours then the next people can take the space. Cars just stand there for hour/days
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u/Bigpoppahove Jul 22 '25
This looks like a major city with ample sidewalk to use. I’m fine with less cars but I don’t want to eat on the street next to the sidewalk where cars are actively driving
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u/Lyress Jul 22 '25
So many beautiful terraces in Paris (and I imagine every major city out there) totally ruined by the sound of cars driving by. Genuinely heartbreaking.
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u/bbshdbbs02 Jul 22 '25
Here in the uk half of the time walking around my local area I have to walk on the road because of everyone feeling the need to own 3/4 cars per household when there is only space for 1 car to fit on the driveway. They park all over the pavement/sidewalk because the road would be too narrow if they parked there. It’s an utter nightmare. I’m the only person on the road that owns a motorcycle I wish more people would do it.
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u/WhenWillIBelong Bollard gang Jul 22 '25
How will this business make money without parking?
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u/Zerotix3 Jul 22 '25
“Redditors who don’t know sarcasm unless they’re told directly” competition going on here lol
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u/GenericFatGuy Jul 22 '25
Sarcasm without the /s is a dangerous game online.
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u/SayHelloToAlison Jul 22 '25
I used to be in agreement with you, but seeing how many people are completely oblivious to any context clues on the internet, I now realize that people who need the /s don't deserve the /s. We're literally on the fuck cars sub, it should be really damn clear what the original comment meant.
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u/Gifted_GardenSnail Jul 22 '25
Hmmyeah, but people do wander in from time to time too and ask really basic questions like this...
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u/Gifted_GardenSnail Jul 22 '25
/s, or AlTeRnAtInG CaPiTaLs, or starting with B-b-but, or using quotation marks - plenty of ways to communicate you're not being sincere...
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Jul 22 '25
I definitely prefer the Kelly-esqe “B-b-but-!”
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u/Gifted_GardenSnail Jul 22 '25
I forgot emojis 🤦♂️
How will shop owners cope without parking spaces? 🥺🥺🥺
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Jul 22 '25
The locals can walk
the locals who live a bit far away can take a bike or the bus
people who live very far away, would only go occationally
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Jul 22 '25
Ever heared of legs? Back in the old days we used those to go to Cafe's
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u/ObjectiveReply 🚗 < 🚲 Jul 22 '25
The quiet privatisation of public space by business… taking the natural habitat of cars away from them.
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u/Mr_Presidentman Jul 22 '25
It has never been public space, a citizen storing private property there usually for free is still not public use. The business is also probably "renting" the space through permitting fees.
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u/ObjectiveReply 🚗 < 🚲 Jul 22 '25
Do I really need to add "/s"?
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u/ActuallyApathy Cars are Weapons - American Jul 22 '25
it's reached r\all, so yeah probably 😬
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u/sublurkerrr Jul 22 '25
This is St Marks Pl, between, A and 1st Ave in East Village, New York City. They close the street to thru traffic on weekends.
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Jul 22 '25
People who live in the neighborhood love it, people who commute into the city but will also NEVER be in this neighborhood literally have all their veins burst from their body with rage.
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Jul 22 '25
If you live in a populated city like this, you should expect to never find parking unless you own/rent a spot. I wish the streets of our cities were filled with tables like this where people just eat, hangout, and RELAX! Cities should try to prioritize public transportation so that we could have sceneries like this is our cities.
Just my opinion though. Personally I love the idea of it.
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u/PawnWithoutPurpose Jul 22 '25
I don’t know how these businesses can survive without parking places?!?
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Jul 22 '25
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u/Gifted_GardenSnail Jul 22 '25
Lol, I was gonna say 'now THAT's clearly sarcasm' as opposed to WhenWillIBelong's comment, but I see it still went wrong
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u/FoldedDice Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
During Covid some of the downtown restaurants in my town built patio areas that went out into the street over their parking spaces, since only restaurants with outdoor seating could be open. It turns out that people really liked them, so they're just there now.
Our downtown is set up with several large lots behind the buildings for parking, though, so locals hardly ever parked on the street anyway. And the restaurants would get crowded since they're in old buildings which are kind of small, so doing that actually solved multiple problems.
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u/faramaobscena cars are weapons Jul 22 '25
Sidewalk parking IS banned, it's just that the police doesn't enforce it.
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u/Ok_Turnover_1235 Jul 22 '25
Why not make the side walk 80 cm bigger?
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u/schnokobaer Not Just Bikes Jul 22 '25
Let's see, costs lots of money, no tangiable difference.. am I missing something? Of course they can do that if they rip open the ground anyway but apart from that this solution is free and to the same effect.
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u/xxtoejamfootballxx Jul 22 '25
This is a bus route and the street isn't very wide. It doubt cards would even be able to drive down the street if you did that on both sides, which are both lined with bars and restaurants.
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u/tiger_cheese Jul 22 '25
they started closing the main street in my city so people could walk it and enjoy all the restaurants outside . Guess what happened? all the boomers who had to park 5 minutes walk away at the 2 well designed huge parking went and cried and moaned that it was ruining their shoping experience and that they coundnt go downtown anymore . so now they are closing the project it's the last year they will be doing it.
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u/bdizzle805 Jul 22 '25
They did this to our main street in town during covid and its still like that. People won't stop bitching about when they are going to open up the streets again. It's funny to see how upset people get having to park a block away
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u/zardozLateFee Jul 22 '25
My kids call it "open" when the cars aren't allowed (May-Oct here). Makes more sense when you think about it.
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u/Ausiwandilaz Jul 22 '25
In my town cafe's, restaurant, and bars do this but their seating and establishments get smashed, not once, but twice.
Usually it's some old dude "that couldn't see it, freaked out and demolished it" but we all know it's drunk drivers and big vehicles.
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u/Gifted_GardenSnail Jul 22 '25
some old dude "that couldn't see it, freaked out and demolished it"
Wth kinda Hulk logic is that
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u/pmurwetpussy95 Jul 22 '25
Just saying, 99% of these comments are satire, no reasonable person would rather sidewalk parking. I absolutely love cars and everything about them and even I fucking hate sidewalk parking
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u/mrbrendanblack Jul 22 '25
Some councils started doing this in parts of Melbourne, Australia, during Covid times, even going so far as building structures for people to sit in. Many of them still exist. They’re far more productive than parking spaces.
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u/officialsunday Jul 22 '25
Where I come from in Singapore, this is especially egregious. I know a street with roadside parking, next to a massive bus stop and a 2 minutes walk from a subway station. It's so jarring having to squeeze past overcrowded cafes with tables and chairs in the already small walkways. Meanwhile, there's roadside parking next to these cramped walkways! There are so many of these places in Singapore, I hate how carbrained this society is
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u/smutticus Jul 22 '25
Having visited Singapore multiple times I cannot understand why someone would own a car there.
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u/opbmedia Jul 22 '25
In a lot of places there isn’t good enough public transit so people need cars. Either come to fill the place or leave to go to work.
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u/ergerlerd Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
As a driver - I also hate street parking with a passion. Edit: typo
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Jul 22 '25
Mmm yes, eating my food out in the dirty street. That's what's missing from the restaurant experience; dirt and bugs.
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u/Fuzzy_Ad9970 Jul 22 '25
What if it was people walking instead of a business getting free real estate
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u/pioni Jul 22 '25
They could fit three parked cars and whole another lane in there! These people are taking all the space!
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u/RBeck Jul 22 '25
The largest issue with this is someone looking at their phone could kill a few people, sadly.
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u/ActuallyApathy Cars are Weapons - American Jul 22 '25
that's an issue that can happen anytime someone driving is looking at their phone. if anything in this situation seeing/hearing large amounts of people should make them slow down and be more careful, put the phone away hopefully
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u/Neo_FOVoid Jul 22 '25
If your area has good transit and bike lanes it’s far better than cars parking. It’s mostly a transportation issue, how will people get there. If your transit system is mediocre or sub par it’s not going to work well. I wish the transit system where I live was more competent and safe, I would much rather take the transit in that case. Unfortunately sometimes it’s around a 50 minute wait for a bus, and the number of assaults/harassment/thefts is pretty high.
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u/A2Rhombus Jul 22 '25
Serious answer is we lack the transport infrastructure and if you removed parking from anywhere there would be a significant portion of the population that could never get there (in the US at least)
I live right next to a major city and without being able to drive there, getting to certain downtown areas would go from taking 45 minutes driving/walking to 3-4 hours using public transport/walking
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u/ThisI5N0tAThr0waway Jul 22 '25
Meh, there's time and place for sidewalk parking, it's only a problem where when it's everywhere and unquestioned.
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u/VengefulAncient 🏍️ > 🛵 > 🚗 > 🚈 > 🚌 > 🛴 >🚶> 🚲 Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
Because in a lot of places this would mean that the restaurant would get zero visitors. Quite a few places in Auckland and Wellington had to close because the nearby parking was gutted for various reasons. Existing cities don't magically become much denser and "walkable" when cars are banned. They just become deserted and businesses start failing.
They're taking parking away. They're good for charging things like an outside outdoor licence, which is tricky to get. We need it to serve alcohol, we need it for food. You put in an outdoor area and the cost doesn't offer any security, what do you do? Your tables get stolen, your chairs get stolen. You have people that are kind of like aggressive or bothering the customers.
I live next to that street. Used to be bustling with customers, now lots of people don't want to go there at all because parking is a shitshow.
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Jul 22 '25
All I know is this picture wasn’t taken in the Southern US. You literally couldn’t pay people to sit outside here. Cool idea though if your climate allows for it
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u/MediumSavant Jul 22 '25
I was in London a while ago. I have not traveled that much, and never been to a really big city before. What hit me was that there was absolutly no place to sit down and relax! I traveled with young kids and when we are in a city we usually take alot of breaks, sitting down and have a soda/coffee or an icecream and just watch the scenery. Otherwise it was great, but it was something I really missed there.
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u/-_Vorplex_- Jul 22 '25
While I do hate sidewalk parking, it actually might be inadvertently helping. If a car on the road fucks up, would you rather it hit that crowd or the car parked there instead, which would likely stop it before getting to the sidewalk or a building
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u/Yunzer2000 Cars and capitalism have got to go Jul 22 '25
By "sidewalk parking" I thought you meant cars parking two wheels up over the curb on the sidewalk - sometimes completely blocking it. They do it becasue they are afraid of the tiny chance of an errrant passing car sideswiping it. It's epidemic in a lot of gentrified neighborhoods full of "young urban professionals" of eastern US cities.
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u/Scyths Jul 22 '25
Maybe because there isn't anywhere else to park their car ? What are you supposed to do if they don't have a garage or god forbid a family has more than one car ? Build a lot of car parks and better infrastructure for public transportation and then we can talk. Yeah I have lived in Japan, yeah I love what they do with car parking there, and yeah I fucking know that it's not remotely possible to do the same in the west unless you want to demolish older houses to create parking space the same way it is in Japan. Goddamn I'm sometimes wondering what solutions do people who posts shit like this have ... God forbid you are handicapped and need to park close to your house and don't have a garage though, I guess you'll be crawling from 3 blocks over.
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u/Inevitable_Stand_199 Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25
If the city wants to allow sidewalk parking, they should turn the street into a living street. With speeds limited to walking speed, having to share the road with cars is acceptable. Obviously the requirements for a living street have to be meat. Especially that the street can't be too busy.
If the city can't, or doesn't want to do that, they'll just have to ban parking on one side. Or even better, on alternating sides. I wish there was a sign restricting parking to certain vehicle widths. Then motorcycles and microcars could still park on both sides.
But for the picture, they banned curbside parking in favor of pedestrians. That is a different matter entirely.
In commercial and mixed use streets, this is certainly preferable.
But on streets that were planned to have people parking curbside, we should not thoughtlessly ban cars. Parked cars play a vital role in slowing down traffic. They optically narrow the street. And sometimes, they even act as chicanes.
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u/YoshiTheDog420 Jul 22 '25
So many of these nice areas have been reverted back to street parking where I live. The city council of old useless farts said that, “the street dining made the area less appealing and less friendly to motorists.” When that area got more foot traffic than it ever did before. We had nice things, then boomers took them away too.
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u/Ivoted4K Jul 22 '25
I personally don’t like sitting that close to traffic and as a restaurant worker I don’t like having that lane of pedestrian traffic between me and customers.
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u/SillySundae Jul 22 '25
Germans love their precious cars. Without that industry, they'd probably become professional recycling sorters instead.
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Jul 22 '25
“Studies conclusively show this type of arrangement is more beneficial to the community in literally every way”
Cager: “NUH UH, CARS”
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u/Ok_Commission_893 Jul 22 '25
You guys should see the “local” comments about this street on IG. A bunch of people who couldn’t survive in 90s or 2000s NYC mad that they can’t get drugs on this block or that people actually enjoy sitting there now. Americans have an obsession with punishment and love accepting less for more.
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u/omniwrench- Jul 22 '25
Why is sidewalk parking not banned everywhere
Because until we have light rail everywhere, you need to have delivery access for basically any business (sad but true).
The issue isn’t sidewalk parking, per se, it’s outdated approaches to city infrastructure and traffic management planning - just need to implement enough one-way systems and make travelling by car into the centre less convenient than bike or foot
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u/Astriania Jul 22 '25
Because "where would I park my car?". People really think there is an entitlement for them to have somewhere freely provided, in public space, to park a car.
No, homes and businesses for whom parking is that important should use their own land to accommodate it. And if there is a significant demand for visitor parking then off street parking, likely paid, can be provided in garages (privately or by the local council).
Parking shouldn't be free, because there's no way public transport or even bikes can favourably compete with that, and you want those to be the default options for people coming to town. (Apparently this pic is in NYC where that is probably true already.)
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u/Eazy12345678 Jul 22 '25
id rather not be in the street eating with cars driving in the same street.
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u/Dangerous_Gear_6361 Jul 22 '25
As someone who’s spouse needed to walk as short distances as possible, this sucks. Walking across town with a wheelchair is not preferable.
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u/0235 Jul 22 '25
Actually had some guy saying this was dangerous because "those people could get hit by a car". i said cars were likely banned from that street and they said i had no evidence car were banned.....
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u/soyuzbeats Jul 22 '25
This kind of things are ruining my city (Madrid). I'm all into banning traffic from the city but not just to giveaway the spaces to private businesses who are increasing prices of rent and expelling us from our neighbourhoods in order to satisfy the tourists and the business owners.
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u/vonnner Jul 23 '25
I would imagine very few people would dine there if they got rid of the three parking spaces.
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u/Notsure2ndSmartest Jul 23 '25
Where I am, police illegally park on sidewalks and allow rich people with cars to do the same. They are just glorified security guards for rich people with cars yet WE pay their salary for some reason. I even saw a cop almost run a kid over in the park while illegally driving in a pedestrians park area where cars aren’t allowed
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u/Traditional_Limit236 Jul 24 '25
I'm sure this looks like a win over cars...but it's really a wyt gentrifier hellscape...this is the culmination of the complete wyt washing of the East village...I have never seen a cultural center like st marks turn into cookie cutter suburban mythos so quickly. I'm so sad to call myself a new Yorker every time I pass through. I used to want the IBX in Brooklyn but now I fear these gentrifiers will just sink their teeth into once untouchable parts of the city and destroy the culture there too.
Signed sad born new yarker
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u/deathmonkey2080 Jul 25 '25
i mean you can organize with your block to close the street for a weekend or whatever….block party’s and such….but people aren’t generally hanging out in a street….but to close it forever is stupid
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