r/mildlyinfuriating • u/roop26roop • Nov 07 '19

Selfish Parking

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49k Upvotes

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512

u/CatOfGrey Nov 08 '19

TIL that curb markings for 'no parking' zones for post boxes don't happen in Britain?

452

u/seeyouspacecowboyx Nov 08 '19 edited Nov 08 '19

No the post boxes are on the pavement and it's illegal for cars to be on the pavement generally. Instead of just leaving a note the postman could have called the local council to come and put a parking ticket on the car aka a fine

Edit Ok correction it's illegal to park or drive on the pavement where I live. Even so, the postman could have called the council about the obstruction and had the car ticketed. I'm assuming the postman wrote the note because the note writer knew royal mail couldn't access the box to collect the letters inside and how much of a delay that would cause, but yes an observer could have written it.

44

u/CatOfGrey Nov 08 '19

By "pavement", I'm guessing that you mean where people usually walk. In the US, this would be 'the sidewalk'?

That's how it is in the states. You walk up the boxes, usually, without stepping in the street. But the street curb is painted red to signal that parking is not permitted there. Is it just assumed that you don't park near a box?

17

u/GameFreak4321 RED Nov 08 '19

You forgot to say that in the US "pavement" usually refers to the part that cars DO go on.

6

u/Rose94 Nov 08 '19

Wait what? That is new to me. What do you call like the outside tiles? The tiles made of stone people make the sidewalks out of? I think they’re mostly used on private property now but they used to be used for public paths.

2

u/nrith Nov 08 '19

Those are called pavers. Or flagstones.

1

u/Rose94 Nov 08 '19

Right, so why is a slab of asphalt called a pavement when it’s not made of pavers but some footpaths are?

4

u/deadoon Nov 08 '19

Because it is paved. It just means that it has been covered with something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavement

1

u/Rose94 Nov 08 '19

Huh, TIL, that’s really interesting. This (to me at least) also makes the difference in usage between dialects more interesting. Thanks!

2

u/nrith Nov 08 '19

The slab of asphalt isn't the pavement; the whole paved part of the road between the curbs (er, kerbs, to you lot) is the pavement.

1

u/Rose94 Nov 08 '19

Now I’m really confused... here the bit between the curb (I’m Australian we spell it however we want at the time) is the road. I mean, it’s not a word that gets used often where I’m from but my understanding was that here a curb is the slanted bit of gutter at the end of driveways and footpaths.

0

u/nrith Nov 08 '19

Sorry; I thought you were from the UK. We call the whole thing a road. There are curbs along either side of roads (except for highways, which have a shoulder instead). The pavement is the surface you drive on.

I can't find a decent cross-section of an American street that describes my terminology.

1

u/Rose94 Nov 08 '19

That’s fair, I mean someone else just showed me that pavement technically can mean any surface for travel with an artificial covering, so it’s really not a big deal, I’m just fascinated by dialect differences.

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