Why drivers are losing it over this car park
A frustrated Sydneysider has taken a swipe at a Sydney council for establishing parking spots that pose a safety risk to pedestrians.
Some car spaces found on narrow streets in Sydney’s Inner West completely obstruct footpaths, leading to a terrifying experience for one community member.
“Two parking spaces take up the entire footpath, sending pedestrians into the middle of the street,” Rebecca Clements wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“My partner was nearly hit by a big SUV not giving way at all.”
Ms Clements shared a series of images taken in the Balmain area demonstrating the extent to which the car spaces are infringing on footpaths in the area.
In these pictures the markings of the bays can be seen to cover significant areas of the footpath.
“This is appalling, cars should never be allowed to park on a footpath,” one X user wrote.
“I understand some people may have more cars than can fit in their driveway, but in that case, don’t live on these narrow streets,” wrote another.
“The bloody irony of completely blocking the footpath and painting ‘give way to pedestrians’ on the road.”
Others questioned if there was even a point in having a footpath in such conditions.
Inner West Council told NCA NewsWire the area is a 10km/h shared zone where pedestrians and cars both use the roadway.
“These (shared zones) were implemented as some streets are very constrained and there were issues such as insufficient footpath width, informal footpath parking, pedestrians walking on the road and insufficient road width for emergency vehicle access,” a spokesperson said.
“This resulted in Council seeking to treat streets with linemarked parking bays and 10km/h restrictions to make it safe to use the roadway for all road users.
“These facilities are approved through TfNSW, Traffic Committee and Council and have been rolled out over the last 20 years in our Council area.”
NCA NewsWire understands similar car spaces are in use throughout some other council areas across Sydney.
