Our roads are public, and parking, where it is legal, should be available to all. But our vehicle users and and homeowners both seem to think that the parking space is something they have ownership of.

Many buildings display notices outside which say, “Parking for XYZ customers only”.

Many homes (private ones, not clinics) have signs outside that say, “Ambulance may come at any time, no parking”….a patently false declaration. I can understand signs that say, “Don’t park in front of the gate”, but privatising the road in front of a residence is surely unethical if not actually illegal.

Some buildings have watchmen who oversee such usurping of public space by telling car drivers not to park at the spot in front of the building. If the car driver parks in spite of such harassment, many of them let the air out of the car tyres. (I know this, because it happened to me.)

This post was brought about by my seeing, every single day, up to eight school buses belong to St.Paul’s School in J P Nagar 3rd Phase, being blatantly parked on the road. This has several bad effects; it becomes difficult for other motorists to navigate this road when the school is being let off; the children are put at risk in climbing into the bus, or going around it to their waiting parents; the aforesaid parents who are not using the school bus are hard put to find parking, as are other motorists who would like to park there.

Is there any way we can prevent such misuse of public parking spaces? No one person should earmark such spaces for constant use at the expense of other motorists or vehicles.