Why do houses have driveways in Berlin when they are infrequently used

You see, the thing is, many houses here in Berlin have driveways. I’d guess that most of them do. Yet most people park their cars on the road and this habit has baffled me where coming from Ontario, Canada a car parked overnight on the road will be gone by morning - towed away to the car pound. A car just cannot park on the street overnight in most towns in Ontario, or elsewhere in Canada. So it came as a culture shock that most people prefer to use public land to park their car to leave their private land that includes a driveway free for some other use.

Cars parked on the road are to me just visual clutter. Not the worse thing I admit but it makes driving in these small streets challenging to say the least. Its a game of chicken or roulette as I wind my way down streets hoping for a spot to tuck my car in to let another car pass by. Then I continue on doing the same thing over and over again until I finally end up at my destination.

Now I have a big car. I am Canadian after all. Streets here are narrow as I just mentioned. I suppose they were built when few people owned their own car and most people walked. But parking rules have not changed, it seems, since the roads were built. Maybe it is a fascination with slalom skiing because driving roads here is like driving a slalom course down a hill - that is, until another car comes directly at you. Then its a game of chicken or in my case “I dare you to make me back up in my big car!”. As I do have a big car drivers in little cars defer to me as they can usually slip into small openings to let me pass. Heaven-forbid two moving vehicles heading directly at each other or as is usual those DHL trucks delivering Amazon packages. How they manage it is beyond my comprehension.

And should I mention this? Kids can run out between these parked cars and if the driver of an oncoming car is a bit dopey, you will end up with some very, very sad parents. And on my street kids do that. They are taught not do run out between parked cars, at least I think they are but I see them doing it anyway. Drivers having to dodge oncoming vehicles have little attention capacity left for a child darting out from between to large parked cars. It is a terrible thought, but something I worry about as a father of two children.

Why park on the road when you have a driveway anyway?

Yet, I have wondered why if someone has a driveway built into their property, why would they still prefer to park their car on the road?

Imagine someone buying a donut from Tim’s Donuts. They forked out hard earned cash for that sweet treat. Now that they have the donut, they prefer to just keep it in the bag. They don’t want to eat it as it would be too much trouble to open the bag, reach in to grab the donut and raise it up to their mouth to eat it. They would rather just leave it in the bag.

That is how I see people here who have driveways. They would rather not get out of their car, open the gate, get back in the car, drive the car in the driveway and then close the gate.

Maybe I hit upon the reason why driveways are not used here. It is too much trouble. And the trouble is the result of every house surrounded by a prison-grade fence to, in this case, keep out the baddies. Fences are signs of fear and the best way to feel protected it by putting a fence around the house. It’s like a gated community in miniature.

But this sense of false security leads to lots of other unintended consequences and one of them is abandoning that prized piece of real estate set apart for a driveway in favour of using public land to park that expensive car. Apparently, the house and residents need protecting by a fence but the car, that one item most likely to be stolen, gets left out on the street like a sorry cat unable to come in to the warm comforts of the home.

Very odd indeed.

I like donuts. And if I bought one, well I am not about to let it sit in the bag while it turns to mush. I am going to eat it. In Berlin, that donut will turn to mush.