Please think about where you leave your vehicle

If you're reading this and you don't know anyone who's blind or partially sighted, or you don't work or volunteer for Guide Dogs, you may think there's nothing you personally can do to help someone with sight loss. But you'd be wrong. If you drive, there's something really, really simple you can do to make the lives of others that little bit easier and best of all, it's free. Stop parking on the pavement.

'How would that help?' you may ask. Well, if you leave any part of your vehicle up on the pavement, you reduce the amount of room left for pedestrians. Someone with a guide dog could be forced out into the road, as could people with pushchairs and wheelchair users – three groups which really shouldn't have to play chicken with cars.

Last week, we published the results of our latest survey on drivers' attitudes to parking, as part of our Streets Ahead campaign. We've found that nearly half of drivers admit they park on pavements but haven't thought about the danger they pose to people with sight loss. We all get pressed for time, and the parking spaces seem to get fewer and farther between, but thoughtlessness can cause huge problems for others. There's a guide dog owner in my own village who's had to be re-trained on one of their routes to negotiate past thoughtless parkers – even though the police have tried to resolve the problem, it's still happening.

And for the motorists who can't be persuaded not to park on pavements, we're urging local councils in England to use the powers given to them by the Department for Transport in 2011 to ban this blight. Local authorities in London should ensure that the ban is being enforced. In Scotland, we want MSPs to make sure that Sandra White MSP's Responsible Parking (Scotland) Bill leads to a law which will help councils take action against inconsiderate parking. Please do your bit and write to your local decision makers.

Our parking attitudes survey isn't the only snapshot we've had of people's thoughtlessness recently. At the end of October, we released the results of our street clutter survey. Our volunteers surveyed 65 towns and cities for obstacles such as A-boards, bins and vehicles parked on pavements, and found that Camden High Street in London was the worst.

Just as we do with pavement parking, we want councils to take action to clean up our streets right away. We want licensing systems introduced for A-boards, so guidance is given as to how they should be positioned, and enforcement can be used for those who don't adhere to that guidance. It is possible – some local authorities do this already. Again it's a case of a little more thought, this time on the part of the businesses that put out A-boards and the street designers, which will mean that blind and partially sighted people can enjoy the same freedom of movement as everyone else.