Disabled/Parent Child parking spaces
Discussion
I'm all for disabled spots, but their numbers seem to be far in excess of the demand. Our local leisure centre has about 20% of the spaces allocated for the disabled. Firstly, do the disabled make up 20% of the population, and secondly, if they do, how many use a leisure centre? Obviously some do, and they should have disabled parking facilities, but you can spend 15 mins waiting for a space to become free whilst the disabled parking spots are 90% empty.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I'm all for disabled spots, but their numbers seem to be far in excess of the demand. Our local leisure centre has about 20% of the spaces allocated for the disabled. Firstly, do the disabled make up 20% of the population, and secondly, if they do, how many use a leisure centre? Obviously some do, and they should have disabled parking facilities, but you can spend 15 mins waiting for a space to become free whilst the disabled parking spots are 90% empty.
Yep. Mine also has 'Brown Badge' bays, for over 65s, again always empty. Oh and three 'Electric Vehicle only bays', again always empty. megaphone said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I'm all for disabled spots, but their numbers seem to be far in excess of the demand. Our local leisure centre has about 20% of the spaces allocated for the disabled. Firstly, do the disabled make up 20% of the population, and secondly, if they do, how many use a leisure centre? Obviously some do, and they should have disabled parking facilities, but you can spend 15 mins waiting for a space to become free whilst the disabled parking spots are 90% empty.
Yep. Mine also has 'Brown Badge' bays, for over 65s, again always empty. Oh and three 'Electric Vehicle only bays', again always empty. I have an idea to solve the misuse of the parent/child spaces. Parents don't actually need to be close to the entrance, they just need a wide enough space to park and open the rear door fully to access the infant and take out child seats, etc. Why not put them at the back of the car park? Abusers only park in them because they are close to the entrance. I have a baby and a big 4x4 but wouldn't mind walking with the pram from the back of the car park.
[rant mode]
We were at the supermarket last month and the amount of lazy f
ktards taking up spaces they didn't need was truly annoying. I never park in them when I don't have my baby with me. Luckily for me, there was a spot free but when I came back to the car there was a young lass in a C1 struggling with her young daughter in a normal spot where the car next to her had parked a bit close. All while the lovely middle aged couple with no kids looked on from their parent/child spot. The woman even tried to coo over the kid but the mother went into semi rant mode. I piped up in support hoping the shaming might alter their behaviour. I doubt it will but hey. Parents toghether, go parents...
[/rant mode]
[rant mode]
We were at the supermarket last month and the amount of lazy f
ktards taking up spaces they didn't need was truly annoying. I never park in them when I don't have my baby with me. Luckily for me, there was a spot free but when I came back to the car there was a young lass in a C1 struggling with her young daughter in a normal spot where the car next to her had parked a bit close. All while the lovely middle aged couple with no kids looked on from their parent/child spot. The woman even tried to coo over the kid but the mother went into semi rant mode. I piped up in support hoping the shaming might alter their behaviour. I doubt it will but hey. Parents toghether, go parents...[/rant mode]
OldGermanHeaps said:
Costco does pretty well with massive spaces.
Really?I haven't seen the UK financials broken out from their US parent.
In any case, they have 27 out-of-town stores, rather than say the >3,500 stores that Tesco has all over the place.
Big Box out of town traditionally has terrible returns compared to a mid-sized store closer to a high street with a combination of destination shoppers (those parking) and others visiting more than one store.
At peak times, I have seen plenty of stores run out of parking capacity, why on earth would they seek to make the situation worse?
Wrt to disabled bays adjacent to gyms, quite a lot of disabled use gyms for rehab purposes.
Disabled doesn't mean you are in a wheelchair, my MIL has her blue badge as she can't walk far, she can walk but not more than 50ft without undue pain. Simples.
Likewise for anyone else with a debilitating condition or illness they are struggling with
Disabled doesn't mean you are in a wheelchair, my MIL has her blue badge as she can't walk far, she can walk but not more than 50ft without undue pain. Simples.
Likewise for anyone else with a debilitating condition or illness they are struggling with
toon10 said:
Why not put them at the back of the car park?
Parents feeding families tend to be very good customers.You want them to have the best experience possible in the visit to your store.
For obvious reasons EVERYONE wants to be as close as possible to the store.
Hence if Tescos has P&C close to the store - EVERYONE else will soon follow otherwise Tesco will end up taking the lion's share of the best customers.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I'm all for disabled spots, but their numbers seem to be far in excess of the demand. Our local leisure centre has about 20% of the spaces allocated for the disabled. Firstly, do the disabled make up 20% of the population, and secondly, if they do, how many use a leisure centre? Obviously some do, and they should have disabled parking facilities, but you can spend 15 mins waiting for a space to become free whilst the disabled parking spots are 90% empty.
I wonder if the increase in availability of home delivery has lead to a reduction in use of disabled bays.toon10 said:
I have an idea to solve the misuse of the parent/child spaces. Parents don't actually need to be close to the entrance, they just need a wide enough space to park and open the rear door fully to access the infant and take out child seats, etc. Why not put them at the back of the car park? Abusers only park in them because they are close to the entrance. I have a baby and a big 4x4 but wouldn't mind walking with the pram from the back of the car park.
Safely wrangling two toddlers from one end of the carpark to the other with a trolley full of shopping can be a a challenge though. If a decent pedestrian walkway is provided though then your idea is a good one.kapiteinlangzaam said:
walm said:
kapiteinlangzaam said:
Supermarkets should just make every space 20% bigger, then there would be no problems with banging doors etc.
I am guessing you aren't familiar with capitalism?I cant remember the last time I saw a full supermarket carpark.
Just make every space a bit bigger. Then theres no mummy rage, no pissed off singletons who choose not to breed etc etc.
Like I say, its a peculiar UK thing. Very strange.
The US specifically downsized a bunch of their spaces and label them "Compact Cars" in order to fit more in.
Just because you haven't seen a full car park it doesn't mean they don't exist. I have seen plenty.
Do you honestly believe that these companies don't do a huge amount of analysis on the exact size of car park they need???
Even if they end up being wrong and need fewer spaces (which is what you imply) then they would leave the spaces the same size and just rent less space!!
In regions where the cost of real estate isn't much of an issue there are much bigger spaces for sure.
I have been mall shopping in Vegas, Arizona and Virginia for example and they are far more generous there.
But in NYC or San Fran - fricking TINY.
Likewise UK has some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Hence the spaces are as small as they can get away with.
P&C though is indeed an oddity.
Echo66 said:
Wrt to disabled bays adjacent to gyms, quite a lot of disabled use gyms for rehab purposes.
Disabled doesn't mean you are in a wheelchair, my MIL has her blue badge as she can't walk far, she can walk but not more than 50ft without undue pain. Simples.
Likewise for anyone else with a debilitating condition or illness they are struggling with
I don't disagree with any of that. But the fact is, there's far too many disabled spots at our gym. I know this because I use it every day, and they are always 90% unused.Disabled doesn't mean you are in a wheelchair, my MIL has her blue badge as she can't walk far, she can walk but not more than 50ft without undue pain. Simples.
Likewise for anyone else with a debilitating condition or illness they are struggling with
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I don't disagree with any of that. But the fact is, there's far too many disabled spots at our gym. I know this because I use it every day, and they are always 90% unused.
I think gym planning permission requires a certain number of disabled spots.They certainly aren't demand driven.
I'm able bodied so why would I park in a space close to the entrance that would actually be of practical benefit to a parent with children or a disabled person?
I tend to park over the opposite side of the car park due to fear of dings and even then it takes less than a couple of minutes to walk to and from the entrance.
I tend to park over the opposite side of the car park due to fear of dings and even then it takes less than a couple of minutes to walk to and from the entrance.
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