Path Parking

I just want to talk about path parking. There has been a lot of chat about banning parking on paths and giving out heavy fines for those caught out. I actually believe there should also be a ban on leaving your wheelie bin in the middle of the path too, but that's a different story....so, yes banning parking on paths, before I began to loss my sight cars that were left parked on paths didn't really concern me, if I had the girls in the pushchair, I would simply cross the road and if I was on my own I would maybe just nip round them on the road.
Until everything changed and now I get why parking on paths is so dangerous and ignorant. A few years ago when I had my training to help me regain as much independence as possible, one of the most valuable things taught to me was how to cross the road when there isn't a crossing. The safest place for a blind person to cross is by a parked car at the kerb of the road. Whether I have my cane or not I still follow what I have been taught. You find a parked car, and you use it as a marker and boundary. I tend to find the front of the car, just in case the bloody thing drives off while I am trying to cross the road, then I slowly move forward until I am at the headlight of the car which is furthest into the road. The width of the car already brings me close to the middle of the road, it gives me better visibility and there are no other distractions like there would be if I was trying to cross from the path, and I am nearer to the other side of the road than I would be if I was crossing from the path. The car being parked at the side of the kerb also tells me exactly where the kerb is, if the car is parked on the path, how am I supposed to know where the kerb starts and the width of the car doesn't put me in the right place in the road for crossing safely.
Then of course you get the very obvious problems with objects being left on paths that shouldn't be there. If a vehicle is parked on the path, its dangerous to step into the road to walk around it, especially with the invention of electric cars which don't make any sound. Scotland have announced a ban and I cant wait for it to happen here, and it should be 24 hours a day, as navigating our way around in the dark is hard enough without having great lumps of metal in the way,  and while they are at it, there should be a rule that when you park up your vehicle, you put the wheels straight, I cant tell you how many turned out wheels I have walked into and tripped over, and they hurt like hell when you collide with them. So, if you are a path parker or wheel turnerouterer, then please take a moment to consider the people using the path, not just people like me but wheelchair users and pushchair pushers all struggle when people park on the path. It doesn't help that there seems to be more cars on the roads and less places to park these days, and new housing estates are the worst for cramming in as many houses as possible with tiny paths and no where to park cars. Just today I was taken to a tea room in a little village, its in a house with a massive front garden, the garden is all set up with tables and chairs and the garden is beautiful. but there is no where to park except outside the tearoom, and there is no path. The folks going to the tearoom had parked as close as they could to the flower beds of the garden making it impossible to walk on the inside of the cars safely. What's that saying....'as you are now, so once was I'...I was that person that would have parked on the paths, left my wheels turned out and abandoned wheelie bins in the middle of the path, not because I am a hateful human, but because I really didn't know! I ploughed on with my busy world, unintentionally ignorant. Please try and get into the habit of not using the paths as a car park before the ban arrives here and you end up with a £70 fine slapped on your windscreen.
Wheelie bins are a different matter, partly because Ralph thinks he needs to take a pee up each and every one we pass, but mainly because on my very worst days, or when the sun is shinning brightly, I just don't see them, once the bin men (bin persons) have emptied them they are scattered all over the paths making a walking even a short distance an obstacle course.
I will be happy if I have made just one of you re think your parking habits, and I will have saved you seventy quid!!
Speak soon xx