We we going to see larger parking spaces?

[TWPC]

sjg said:

GravelMachineGun said:

What if I wanted a range rover?

What if I wanted a Unimog?

I want a tank.

http://swns.com/news/military-nut-infuriates-neigh...

[silverfoxcc]

Herringbone parking is the way to go
Easier to get in and out, and no nutters coming the other way cutting across you to get in a space.

Might lose 3/4 spaces per row but how often does a car park get really crammed?

[Swampy1982]

never mind bigger cars, the average person seems to be ballooning in size also, that alone should be justification for bigger spaces.

i see the need for three types -

Parent and child - so i can use them (yes i have a child)
Disabled - obvious
Fat Spots for fat cars and fat people (just because your a lard arse, doesn't mean you can dent my car when wheezing yourself out of your motor)

[austinsmirk]

as swampy says, its not necessarily about cars being bigger, its about our horrifically fat and wobbly population.

people really are getting so big that even on some tiny bmw 1 series or A1, they need the doors wide open to get their blubbery mass out.

[GroundEffect]

This was very obvious when I was working in Canada. I had a Ford Fusion hire car and still, I could open the doors wide without even going near the car/truck next to me. The bays must be 0.50-0.75m wider than they are here!

Cars have dramatically got bigger since the 70s therefore the bays should accommodate.

[battered]

Swampy1982 said:

never mind bigger cars, the average person seems to be ballooning in size also, that alone should be justification for bigger spaces.

i see the need for three types -

Parent and child - so i can use them (yes i have a child)
Disabled - obvious
Fat Spots for fat cars and fat people (just because your a lard arse, doesn't mean you can dent my car when wheezing yourself out of your motor)

I sympathise. I didn't sympathise with the fat ba*d who backed into a space next to me at Warwick Services and then biffed his door into mine while he levered his fat aris out of his *new* Insignia. I was sitting in the car drinking tea at the time and talking on the phone. I was all set to go out and have a row but a 12yo Mondeo with a dent on every panel is no big deal. If he doesn't give a sh*t about his own(/company), new, car, then he's hardly likely to give a sh*t about my ols shed.

[Swampy1982]

battered said:

I sympathise. I didn't sympathise with the fat ba*d who backed into a space next to me at Warwick Services and then biffed his door into mine while he levered his fat aris out of his *new* Insignia. I was sitting in the car drinking tea at the time and talking on the phone. I was all set to go out and have a row but a 12yo Mondeo with a dent on every panel is no big deal. If he doesn't give a sh*t about his own(/company), new, car, then he's hardly likely to give a sh*t about my ols shed.

Technically I deserve double sympathy, I also drive a hateful brown company insignia (not my fault, someone left and I inherited it), roll on the end of the year when I can change it for something equally as hateful but without the need of two new gearbox's in 50k miles.

[anonymous-user]

battered said:

I sympathise. I didn't sympathise with the fat ba*d who backed into a space next to me at Warwick Services and then biffed his door into mine while he levered his fat aris out of his *new* Insignia. I was sitting in the car drinking tea at the time and talking on the phone. I was all set to go out and have a row but a 12yo Mondeo with a dent on every panel is no big deal. If he doesn't give a sh*t about his own(/company), new, car, then he's hardly likely to give a sh*t about my ols shed.

This is why I quite like the Cactus!

[Jagmanv12]

sjg said:

Why should spaces get bigger? Why can't people buy smaller cars again? Why should every public car park be able to accommodate a row of 2m wide, 5m long oversized cars?

Quite simply because cars are getting bigger. Small cars are bigger than years ago.

Take a normal small car - Ford Fiesta 1978 width 1567mm, 2015 1978mm. That's 400mm or 16 inches wider!!

The council/car park engineers that are using 1970's measurements need a kick up the backside.

One council may have some sense. I was parked in Broad St Portsmouth and in the chevron parking area the parking bay white lines had been changed. In the area of seven spaces there were now six.

[Nedzilla]

I always park in parent and child or the disabled bays providing there is plenty available which there is always about 20 spare at my local sainsburys.
The doors on my car are very long and it is just about impossible to get out if there is someone next to me in a regular parking space......that and there's less chance of careless fkers damaging my car and before anyone starts I honestly couldn't give a fk!

[sjg]

Jagmanv12 said:

Quite simply because cars are getting bigger. Small cars are bigger than years ago.

Take a normal small car - Ford Fiesta 1978 width 1567mm, 2015 1978mm. That's 400mm or 16 inches wider!!

1722mm if you're not counting mirrors (the 1567mm measurement isn't). So just over 6 inches.

Ultimately bigger parking spaces would mean fewer of them. So those bellyaching about their oversize cars not fitting in a space will then be moaning about there being no spaces left.

[GroundEffect]

Nedzilla said:

I always park in parent and child or the disabled bays providing there is plenty available which there is always about 20 spare at my local sainsburys.
The doors on my car are very long and it is just about impossible to get out if there is someone next to me in a regular parking space......that and there's less chance of careless fkers damaging my car and before anyone starts I honestly couldn't give a fk!

Parent/Child I don't care about but disabled? Utter ery.

[Crush]

I'm happy to have my vehicle over four spaces if they're too small.

We can usually get the pickup in a space, but some of the older car parks leave us with the option of covering four or six spaces depending on whether we park in the centre or to the edge of a space.

[alpha channel]

In some case we already are. My local multi-storey (Bishop Auckland) had a bit of a refresh a year or two ago which resulted in what was once a three car area between supports reduced to two and huge amounts of space coupled with a 60p charge for up to two hours parking. Unlike the council run parking in Darlington though which charge a £1 for an hour and the bays haven't changed in size since I started driving (a Metro in the dim and distant past of 1995).

[Roger Irrelevant]

Coming to the PH forum soon:

'I'm finding it more difficult to find a parking spot - why are there fewer spaces in car parks these days?'

and

'Why have parking charges increased?'

[oyster]

Nedzilla said:

I always park in parent and child or the disabled bays providing there is plenty available which there is always about 20 spare at my local sainsburys.
The doors on my car are very long and it is just about impossible to get out if there is someone next to me in a regular parking space......that and there's less chance of careless fkers damaging my car and before anyone starts I honestly couldn't give a fk!

I'd happily let my 2 year old have a play with a trolley near your car in such a scenario.... oooops.

[RB Will]

jmorgan said:

think they have had to limit the number of cars for structural reasons so there are a few extra feet all around.

That is an interesting thought.

with modern cars being a lot heavier than their older counterparts I wonder if a lot of the multi storey car parks are a bit close to design limits.
Say a 250 space car park designed in 1990. Average car must have been 900-1300kg (so call it 1100kg). Now the average car must be 1400-2400kg so 1900kg

I know it wont work exactly but say an extra 800kg per car that is an extra 200ton, before we include fatter people and their shopping

Another need for wider spaces is that you need more room to get out of a modern car. The doors on my 1989 E30 were about 2 inches wide the ones on my current car are 5-6 inches so I need that much extra space before I even try to get myself out of my wider car.

I think using diagonal spaces would greatly improve parking.

[Swampy1982]

RB Will said:

so I need that much extra space before I even try to get myself out of my wider car.

Are you sure this isn't a pie intake related issue?

[RB Will]

Swampy1982 said:

RB Will said:

so I need that much extra space before I even try to get myself out of my wider car.

Are you sure this isn't a pie intake related issue?

yeah cos I'm 5 stone lighter than I used to be!

[kambites]

Jagmanv12 said:

Take a normal small car - Ford Fiesta 1978 width 1567mm, 2015 1978mm. That's 400mm or 16 inches wider!!

But the current equivalent to the 1978 Fiesta is the 2015 Ka; the current Fiesta is a class above. I'm sure the Ka is still bigger than the old Fiesta, but not by that much.

The only thing the current Fiesta shares with the original one is a name. Same with the Golf, etc.; someone who would have bought a Golf in the 80s could get by with a Polo now. Cars at the top end of the market have grown but the bottom end hasn't changed anywhere near as much.

Edited by kambites on Wednesday 29th July 15:56