awkward driveway curve has cars nearly colliding with house, how to mitigate?

Question

Bellow is an arial photo and a road-side photo of my new house.

As you can see the driveway is an awkward curve especially when backing out of the car port to the side of the garage - you have to do a slight "double S curve" to avoid the house and a parked car/truck. Worse yet, it come dangerously close to the house! [more info about the vehicle and parking at the end of this post]

I'm sure that after a few weeks of practice it will become second nature to navigate it in reverse, but for guests and for those rough mornings without coffee, I'm worried that a car could graze the edge of the house and cause damage to the car and the house.

So I'm wondering what my options are. What would you do? Thanks!

[edit] here's some more info for those interested: I drive a truck and the lady drives a car. She will park in the car port as shown, and I will park my truck in the driveway. The outbuilding is actually a workshop with a wooden floor and cellar underneath it, not a garage, so no parking in there. The car is a compact Toyota, the "truck" is not a truck at all but a Jeep Cherokee so not too large either (I only wrote truck because that's whats parked there now but I'm selling it soon. It's a short bed full-size '83 chevy)

Answer 1

My suggestion is to add to the size of the concrete drive way in the following manner:

This gives you the option of backing up out of the car port in the new area toward the rear yard. Then you can drive in a forward direction which would be far easier to navigate by the truck and the corner of the house.

Additionally the part added onto the side nearer to the street view will allow the truck parking area to be moved over a little to alleviate the congestion posed by the parked vehicle in its current spot.

Adding onto existing concrete like this is certainly doable but there can be some downsides including looks and joining the new to the old slabs. If those are of concern to you then you would be looking at taking out a good portion of the existing slab and replacing with all new. Cost factors can be a good aid in the decision path.

Answer 2

I'd leave the driveway as it is. I'm not a fan of half-acre concrete slabs. I'd install some "rumble strip" edging pavers or small boulders (partially embedded in the ground) to give drivers a haptic warning that they're in danger of encroaching on the architecture.

Answer 3

I would go the other way from Michael Karas. I'd eliminate the double S-curve, and make the entry to the carport a steady curve of same radius. That would cause it to miss the house entirely, and move "where the driveway meets the highway" west a bit. And get the ugly driveway away from the front of the house. Add a curb and you shouldn't have any house hits, it also gives you a place to throw snow.

Excuse my terrible photoshop skills.

Or, since 2 people duplicated my answer while I was drawing it, how about this novel minimum-pavement approach that puts your daily life more "in the green". Also improves sight-lines backing out (though I wouldn't back out; I'd back in.)

Answer 4

Whether you add on extra concrete or add rumble strips - both really good ideas - I would protect that corner of the house.

My neighbor has very very similar rebar sunflower lawn art in their yard as the picture below.

You station 4-5 of these around that edge and your house is well protected. If someone is backing on - they will actually hit something that will give them a bump so that they know not to keep going. Also if a car hit one of these there should be little to no damage on the car or the sunflowers.

Answer 5

I'll throw an answer out there, answering my own question but not necessarilly the correct answer.

Remove the existing driveway and build a new one that makes more sense:

This has the upside of removing the driveway entrance from right in front of the house which I hate. Now I would be able to plant a big tree here! Downside is I will need to hire a crew with heavy machinery to dig out the old concrete and haul it away at the very least. I could replace it myself with turfstone pavers which I'm fond of, or just gravel which is just fine with me. Oh yeah and the 220v power going to the workshop from the house is going underneath the driveway somewhere and I don't trust that it's been burried with conduit or warning sand or anything.

And just becuase, I illistrated @MichaelKaras answer a little more to my liking, and add a paver curb at the driveway near the house, and this might be the best option:

Answer 6

Move the driveway like this, plant some trees and shrubs in front of the house

Answer 7

I see the ridge of the garage roof toward the street, suggesting the gable faces the street. So the street-side wall is not load bearing. How about opening that wall, closing the old garage doorway, and moving the driveway entrance to the new doorway?

Guest parking could be a new drive going straight between the garage and the house, after removing the old driveway entrance.

Answer 8

Well, the whole thing was designed very stupidly. You have two fundamental options: shoehorn some more driveway in place as @MichaelKaras suggests, or tear down the garage and build one more sensibly oriented, -- and preferable attached to the house! For example, draw a plan with the existing garage rotated 90 degrees and attached to the house roughly at that close corner. Use the area where the garage is now as your turnout space.

Or I suppose there's a third option: pave/gravel all along the front, parallel to the road and opposite the existing garage, and use that for your turnout space. That won't help with backing out of -- or into-- the garage, but it'll get you pointing forward to enter the street at least.

Answer 9

A less radical solution, perhaps temporary.

Answer 10

Based on your picture, I have an answer for you.

Drive in a straight line instead of randomly turning for no reason

Put a ruler on your picture. You will find there is an absolute straight line from the corner of the truck, along the driveway (and well away from the house), to the left-hand side of the entrance. The only reason you have an S bend is because for no reason whatsoever you've drawn the car as entering the driveway on the extreme right of the entrance. Unless the concrete on the left of the entrance is so damaged that you can't drive over it, there is no reason to be doing that. And if it is, fix it and you're done.

Answer 11

Assuming that the car is smaller than the Cherokee, switch parking spots.

By parking the smaller (shorter and narrower, I'm assuming) car closer to the street, the Jeep will have less vehicle to avoid, and can start the turn to miss the house sooner.

If weather is an issue, a simple steel car port over the current "truck parking" spot will provide some weather protection for the car, and will likely be much less expensive than concrete work. Even a fully enclosed all steel car port (which is what the existing one looks like from here), should be much less expensive than concrete work.

If some sort of marker is necessary, a few very inexpensive driveway markers like this
_{(source: homedepot.com)}

^{Image courtesy of Home Depot. No particular brand or vendor recommendation expressed or implied}
should do the trick for finding that edge, especially when leaving before dawn. It may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but if that's an issue, someone with some craft skills could dress it up while still being visible (especially the reflector). Hitting it would cause no damage to the vehicle, but would cause enough noise and motion to be noticed, and allow for a second chance attempt.

Finally, unless you have a house full, guests should be able to pull straight into the driveway and not even have to start the turn, yet still be able to get (all but the largest trucks) completely off the road. It looks like there may even be enough room for two vehicles to park side-by-side there.