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-   -   Ideas to keep idiots from blocking my gates? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/258001-ideas-keep-idiots-blocking-my-gates-5.html)

I am using the scooter option. It works. Or sometimes I just place 2 empty flower pots. (Small ones which are easy to move).

Another good idea is an angle iron welded, multiple wheeled, folding, flatbed trolley with a steel navigating rod, fully loaded with potted plants. The trolley with length and also the width (if OK ) of your gate, lined up with healthy potted plants can be shifted every evening and kept outside the gate. While exiting with your car, the trolley can be pulled aside.

Whenever space is desired in your compound, the trolley could be folded after dislodging every pot and arrayed in a single row.

Solution 1 : Let the air out! Legal grey area. Too cumbersome and only works for repeat offenders.

Solution 2 : Sign board with "No of cars towed last week "x" nos." Cars towed can be collected by paying a fine at xyz location and collecting from xyx compound. Hint: Not really getting towed.

Solution 3 : Paid parking. Illegal.

Solution 4 : Watchman. Works 10% of the time. Every watchman knows he will not lose his job even if the car was parked inside your house. So they do the bare minimum for the bare minimum we pay them.

Solution 5 : Sign board - Tyre theft prone area. If your tyres get stolen, contact xyx number.

Solution 6 : Pre paid towing service. Ask towing people to come from say 6pm to 9pm and tow any cars they see blocking the gate. Pay for it and then ask them to collect the next payments themselves. This way the first guy will be paying for the second tow, the second for the third. You will only be paying for the first one and a decade later when you move you can tell them to return the 1000 bucks that you paid in 1998 for the first tow, if you really want that money back.

Solution 7 : Stick flyers on the car promoting the local businesses. Legal grey area.

Tough one for anyone who wants to be law abiding. In an ideal world, you could photograph the cars parked in front of your gate, upload on the MTP App, and ensure the guys get fined. Not sure how effective that is practically - but as the founder of India’s premier auto forum, hopefully you can reach out to the powers that be (not just for yourself but for all those in similar situations).

In the real world, threatening to and perhaps actually deflating tyres a few times may lead to people being more reluctant to park in front of your gate. Don’t think you can do anything that leads to permanent damage to other’s cars. And leaving a scooter or traffic cones on a public road is as illegal as what the guys who park there are doing.

It was a major pain for me. Simply nothing worked. People have a sense of entitlement and I've met all sorts who park and blocked the gate in my old building. Your current solution is your best bet, even if it's an eyesore. One guy had left the key in the ignition and the car open and gone to eat. I simply parked his car in the middle of the road. If you have a strong vehicle with a tow hook, get your driver to simply tow that vehicle to the middle of some major road and leave it there.

Don't mean to derail the thread but wanted to highlight the other very real and prevalent issue in the image.

Just look at that scooter sandwiched between those two cars. Now I don't know how this situation developed, as in who got where first, but am willing to bet one of the hatches came first, then the second hatchback respecting the first parked with about 3 feet of space between them and finally the great man/woman in his/her scooter decided to just sneak it in. Thankfully there aren't any two wheelers behind the hatches to box them in, but we all know it happens all the time. Have seen so many cars stuck between two wheelers.

Is there a way to prevent this behavior? :disappointed

A friend of mine has the same problem except that he lives on a busy street in Bangalore.

He has a “STRICTLY NO PARKING IN FRONT OF THE GATE” board but still, people used to park anything from a car to a two-wheeler in front of the gate.

Subsequently, he started deflating the tyres of the vehicles parked in front of the gate. This completely stopped people from parking in front of the gate. He is a happy man today.

This may sound rude, but sometimes tit-for-tat is the only language people in public understand. 😊

Best way is to inconvenience them, if these are regular offenders

Option1:
Involves additional vehicles is to park up very close and not give any room for them to get out and move the car much later. Issues - you might get inconvenienced yourself and involves other vehicles unless you can work with your neighbours.

Option 2:
Print something like this on an A4 paper

Use paper glues and paste two on the windscreen and one on drivers window. Grab some popcorn and watch them remove it, messy and no damage.

Option 3:

Many not be legal. Requires manpower. Invest in a trolley jack and car dollies

Jack up and place dollies and wheel the car into either an impossible spot like a narrow passage or onto the main road where is will be towed off. Not sure of the legality of this

And all these days, I still considered myself an average social citizen by not parking in front of anybody's gate.

Kitana badal gaya insaan.. (How much has the human race changed)!?

There is a major temple near my house so the parking extends to near my house at times.

I have used cones. That was the best deterrent. However couple of them got crushed by unknown vehicles so was not a long term solution.

I tried educating people by pasting print out of the traffic rule number and associated fines. It is illegal to block the movement of a person so parking in front of a house is illegal. Not worked since it's not the same people who park in front every time.

Scratch the other vehicle. Have done that, but my heart aches having to scratch a car just because the owner is an idiot.

Phycology is working at the moment. My gate was painted dull grey earlier so people who come early in the morning to the temple may not notice the gate. Repainted to a silky cream colour with a nice no parking board. This improved the situation a lot. I still have an odd one parking on extremely busy days at the temple. Not a deal breaker for me since my beater car is parked at in laws which is on an adjacent road.

In my experience, I've had my car spat on with bright red guthka on a few occasions. I haven't blocked anyone's gate but have parked in spaces near someone's home which are on public roadsides, but considered their own to accommodate the sheer number of vehicles they own.
It is a huge frustration to see the driver's window, door and handle covered in it.

Construct a small brick hump between you and neighbors gate right where the road starts. So someone like that polo guy cannot parallel park and cars can only enter and leave the gates this way. It will be illegal since it will be on public road, but that will make it impossible for cars to park. For scooters simply use a board " Jammers will put and fine applied" Try to put a fake camera near that parking spot. Other really extreme idea would be to give the space between two gates to a thelawalla( A known thelawalla i mean like a regular fruit/vegetable vendor ) , he can move his cart as per cars coming from both the gates and also secure access to your gates.

GTO, you have used the ideal adjective to describe these individuals- "Idiots". Around our place in Indiranagar, Bangalore, many said idiots prowl, parking their mostly expensive cars with abandon, without the scantest regard for the gates/access of residents. The residents have now resorted to placing heavy pots with nice plants/trees in them to aesthetically deter these idiots.

These pots are used to stop public from parking outside the compound. And yes, many have resorted to fixing stones sometimes with a mini-garden/wire fencing around this.

However, GTO is asking about the space in front of the gate - the entry/access point.

What if we could install a metallic road hump along the width of the gate, with the extreme ends of the hump left exposed? This will discourage parallel parking while allowing vehicles in and out of the gate to move smoothly.

Refer images here: https://www.materialshandling.com.au...l-speed-humps/

It would have to be right outside the gate and depending on the slope underneath the gate, thickness will have to be determined. Whether placing this on the slope will be on personal or public property is unclear.

First, this would remind them that there is a gate. Second, this would make many people get deterred by the sharp edges. Some SUV owners may still not give a damn about it but many hatch and sedans will think twice.