We have a lot of new subdivisions being built in Surrey. They all have narrow streets. If someone parks in front of houses on opposite sides of the street, there is barely room for vehicles to pass. And only one vehicle at a time, so if you see someone coming the opposite direction, one car will have to wait for the other to pass before proceeding.
Compounding the problem is these new houses are built with basement suites and carriage houses for rent. So instead of being one family dwellings with a couple of cars, they now become 3 family dwellings, with multiple vehicles. They have 2 car garages, that are generally full of stuff in storage, therefore no room for cars. So everyone parks on the street. Good luck finding a place to park. These houses are built on narrow lots a few feet apart. That's a lot of people in a small area.
A couple of days ago I was at a house that Kerry is working on. The truck delivering the molding and baseboard had arrived so I was standing on the front porch holding aside a piece of netting that was drooping down from the roof above. Don't ask me what it is or why it was dropping.
The streets are narrow and there are a lot of tradespersons parked along here. This street has only one way in and out, though there are several lane accesses, there is no way back to the main street except on the one street that I was standing on the porch watching the action.
A huge truck with a crane showed up to deliver roof trusses to a house a couple of lots up. He humped it up partially on the sidewalk, but was still blocking the road. Directly across the street a trademan was parked with his truck and trailer. For all extents and purposes he had probably been parked there for a few hours working on the house across the street. Behind the truss truck a tandem dump truck/gravel truck pulls onto the street. Now, this is near the top of the street where the main road is. He can't go anywhere due to the truss truck and the tradesperson's parked truck and trailer. I daresay only a motorbike could have got through that gap.
Now it gets interesting. Some of the tradepeople from other houses are trying to leave. They drive up the street but can't get past due to the truss truck and the gravel truck not leaving a wide enough gap for vehicles to pass through. So the people wanting to leave start driving up and down alleys. I get a good view of this because not all the lots have started construction yet. Up and down and no way out and they all come back.
Meanwhile, the man in the tandem gravel truck keeps honking. He backs up a bit, he tries going forward a bit, he's doing a lot of honking. The man delivering the molding to the house Kerry is working on is also checking out the action. He thinks the truss truck has a good 20 minutes before he's done.
Now the man in the gravel truck is done honking and he gets out of his truck and starts yelling. He's East Indian and I'm not sure which language he speaks but he's getting responses from some of the other East Indian tradespeople. So this is getting pretty entertaining for me standing out there on the porch holding up the webbing.
But all the honking and yelling worked. The man who owns the truck and trailer parked across the street gets into it and pulls it down the back alley of the house he's working on. Now Mr Honker can finally drive his truck down the street and everybody else who wants to leave can do so.
End of show.
And this is just when the trades are working here. Wait till families start moving in.....
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