Pavement parking is the bane of blind people’s lives – so charity Guide Dogs has introduced an interactive map to shame drivers into keeping on the road.
And the map, which allows users to post pictures of inconsiderate parking, has caught out several drivers around Huddersfield.
Users snapped offending parking on Inge Mill Drive, Clayton West together with Ravenshouse Road, Burgh Mill Road and Cemetery Road, in Dewsbury.
You can post your photos of pavement parking here.
So why is pavement parking a serious hazard for blind people?
Guide Dogs explains: “Where cars are parked on pavements people who are blind and partially sighted may have to risk their lives by walking into the road just to get by. This is an issue that also impacts parents with prams, wheelchair users, older people and many others.
“A survey by Guide Dogs showed 97% of blind or partially sighted people encounter problems with street obstructions, and 90% of those had experienced trouble with a pavement parked car.
“A YouGov survey from January 2013, showed over half of motorists had considered the problems pavement parking would cause to pedestrians, but had chosen to do so regardless.
“It is clear change needs to happen.”
Pavement parking is outlawed in London and Guide Dogs is campaigning for an Act of Parliament to ban it across the country.
Blind people’s campaigner Sam Heaton, from Dewsbury, said: “The map is a brilliant idea. It shows on what scale it’s happening.”
Sam, 37, has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative condition which causes ‘tunnel vision.’
She and her dog Tango are regularly forced into the road by cars parked on pavements.
Sam said: “It’s frustrating because you know it could have been avoided. It’s because people aren’t aware of it or general laziness.
“There needs to be greater awareness of the danger that it is putting not just blind people in, but people with pushchairs and wheelchairs.”
Kirklees Council is debating a ban on pavement parking following a call from the Local Government Association to make the practice illegal.
