I can only see it becoming more prevalent.
Parking in general has become THE major topic of "conversation in passing" in our street.
If you get home from work after about 8pm, there's pretty much nowhere to park for anyone. May the parking gods be with you if you finish work any later than that. I've timed it. A good five minute "I'm late for work and have a connection to make" brisk walk away. Often in the pouring rain so you spend all day at work wet. How far can you walk at a brisk pace in five minutes? That's how far away from their houses people 'round here have to park if they work late.
Fairly soon it's going to get so bad that those of us who finish work at ungodly hours will find ourselves encroaching into restricted areas and having to get up after not enough sleep, to walk half a mile in order to move our bloody cars.
I already know of someone who gets home at about 2am, parks on the double-yellows and then stays up/gets up before seven 'cause that's when the parkies start to appear. From observation they're far from the only one. Sod that. I need my sleep (and barely get enough time off between shifts for that anyway).
Seriously! I can't see it being that long before I get home from work at two in the morning and there are no parking spaces anywhere in Dover that aren't "move your car by x o'clock or else" spaces. And then what am I supposed to do? Pay a fine everyday? Get up at (what is to me) the middle of the night to move my car? Pay for parking at the nearest pay car park (a good mile from me I reckon)? Give up/change my job? Public transport is not an option at that time of the day.
The causes are easy to spot. Hardly anybody lives near where they work any more. Increased multiple occupancy households. The ridiculously stupid size that cars have become these days (I think I may be with Freud on that one
)
The Powers That Be seem to think that the solution to the problem of nowhere to park, is to increase the radius where there is restricted, limited time parking. Where I'm sitting that is very much
part of the problem.
Sorry for the rant. I was already running late for work today, only to get to my car (only four minutes away today, I got lucky this morning) to find a tyre half deflated. Cue me missing work and a whole ton of issues regarding weekend hours missed that I'll have to make up. Or a days leave I may have to use instead. Never mind the cost and hassle of sorting out a flat tyre on a Sunday. Now, I may have clipped a kerb or something, but, the paranoid bit of me can't help wondering whether some spiteful sod decided to punish me for having to park a bit awkwardly (though perfectly legally [and considerately I thought]) in the early hours of this morning.
[/rant]
Tl;dr: There's nowhere to park 'round 'ere at night. It's only going to get worse. It makes Shift-workers constantly cross. I got a flat tyre today, possibly because of the parking issue. I'm really, really cross.