Street parking showdown: Vancouver driver fed up over neighbour's note

Vancouver drivers are fed up with parking in the city, and the anger is only fuelled when folks leave notes, which could be interpreted as a little passive-aggressive. 

Reddit users were enraged this week after someone shared a photo of a letter they seemingly received after parking their vehicle in a Vancouver neighbourhood. 

Considering how difficult it is to find parking in the city, finding a note on your windshield seems to be a pretty common experience for locals now. 

“Can finally cross this one off the Vancouver bingo list,” the Redditor wrote in a now-deleted post.

Can finally cross this one off the Vancouver bingo list
byu/Moo-stick invancouver

The letter, which was typed out and printed minus a section where someone manually entered the date, pleaded with the driver not to park in front of their house. 

“Growing up in Vancouver, we would not think of parking in front of our neighbours house out of respect for the people living in [our]… neighbourhood. We would try and park in front of the residence we are living in. If visiting we would park around the corner [if] not available,” the letter reads. 

“If renting a place nearby and don’t have parking we could assist and send a notice to your landlord,” the letter continues. 

The letter reads they have a family of five with two elderly parents living in their home. They added that access to their home through the front of their house was essential for drop-offs, pick-ups and errands. 

In the Reddit post, the user who shared the image said they and their family had lived in their home for more than 30 years “longer than these people.”

“Out of neighbourly courtesy, I’ll avoid this, but literally no other spot yesterday,” they wrote. “Will call bs on their family’s parking etiquette claims though.”

The letter references a Vancouver bylaw, which refers to parking in front of residential or commercial properties you do not live, own or work at. 

City of Vancouver

According to the City of Vancouver website, non-residents are restricted to a maximum of 3 hours of parking to allow access for residents to their homes and business owners and employees to their workplaces. 

The vehicles exempt from this three-hour time limit are carshare, emergency and consular vehicles. 

In response to the note, Redditors were divided on who they found was right, but many seemed to agree that they were sick of the city’s constant parking debates. 

One person suggested the person who received the note simply write back, “nah” and slip the letter into their neighbour’s mailbox. Another added that the letter recipient should write, “Please never touch my car again.” 

One person expressed that they’ve experienced a similar incident. 

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“Someone tried to do the same to me on my block. Eventually I woke up and there was a ticket on my dash. I disputed it with the city, they sided with me as I also live on that block and even made a note on my account per license plate so I cannot be ticketed in that area again,” the Redditor said. “So in a way my very Karen neighbour sort of set me up with free street parking on my block for life😄🤙”

Meanwhile, others found the person who parked near their neighbour’s home to be in the wrong for parking there in the first place.

“I grew up in Vancouver and it was always common courtesy for everyone to park in front of their own houses,” someone wrote. 

What do you think? Do you think you know enough about the parking regulations in your city? Tell us in the comments below.