When to use family parking bays?
Discussion
I was just wondering when it appropriate to use them.
I often have my son in the back of my 3 door car which can be difficult to get in again if people park close as it has huge doors but because he is not always with me I don't even consider parking in family spaces and park in a regular space even when he is in the car. Clearly I could make use of them when he is with me but I don't.
However, if ones wife is pregnant - there comes a time when she may not want to walk a long way but I personally don't see that I should use the family spaces prior to a baby being born but chatting about it with my wife, she feels when she is quite large, we could legitimately use them.
I personally feel that they are not really for those with a regular car/hatchback but for those who need larger spaces for their MPV's and larger numbers of children.
What's your opinion?
I often have my son in the back of my 3 door car which can be difficult to get in again if people park close as it has huge doors but because he is not always with me I don't even consider parking in family spaces and park in a regular space even when he is in the car. Clearly I could make use of them when he is with me but I don't.
However, if ones wife is pregnant - there comes a time when she may not want to walk a long way but I personally don't see that I should use the family spaces prior to a baby being born but chatting about it with my wife, she feels when she is quite large, we could legitimately use them.
I personally feel that they are not really for those with a regular car/hatchback but for those who need larger spaces for their MPV's and larger numbers of children.
What's your opinion?
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
Hip2Bsquare said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
not this s
t again.......
esp this late at night.
Link?t again.......esp this late at night.
Purely IMHO - for what it is worth - the argument of walking distance is wrong.
And P&C parking when Child is 'on' board, not 'in' board
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
... but from what I gather it brings out the 'Right on Parents' and the 'Kid Loathers' every time.....
Many of us are in the third camp, which is believing in the rights of the land owner to decide how their land is used.In the last couple of weeks of my wife's pregnancy, we used the spaces as it's in the spirit of what the space is for. Doors needed opening fully and the person needing help to get out.
Good point parapaul. P&c spaces should only be used while children are too small to buckle their own seatbelt - so to about 3 or 4 years. Leaning into the car and doing someone else's seatbelt up requires the door to be open more than if you're getting in to sit down. Even more so with babies in carry car seats. The purpose of the space has nothing to do with how close it is to the shop - that's marketing to try and encourage parents to choose one shop over another. I'd still use them if they were on the far side! Pregnant women are fine, too - there comes a point where moving can get very difficult, my wife was wheelchair bound for nigh 6 months, shopping was one of her few trips out the house each week as she knew the supermarket had chairs and scooters available; but she was not allowed a blue badge as it was classed as a temporary affliction. If they're struggling to walk then fine to use p&c spaces in my opinion. Taking your mum shopping is not clever or funny & merely inconveniences others for your personal amusement. Much like faking a limp to park in a disabled space.
OwenK said:
Good point parapaul. P&c spaces should only be used while children are too small to buckle their own seatbelt - so to about 3 or 4 years. Leaning into the car and doing someone else's seatbelt up requires the door to be open more than if you're getting in to sit down. Even more so with babies in carry car seats. The purpose of the space has nothing to do with how close it is to the shop - that's marketing to try and encourage parents to choose one shop over another. I'd still use them if they were on the far side! Pregnant women are fine, too - there comes a point where moving can get very difficult, my wife was wheelchair bound for nigh 6 months, shopping was one of her few trips out the house each week as she knew the supermarket had chairs and scooters available; but she was not allowed a blue badge as it was classed as a temporary affliction. If they're struggling to walk then fine to use p&c spaces in my opinion. Taking your mum shopping is not clever or funny & merely inconveniences others for your personal amusement. Much like faking a limp to park in a disabled space.
change that to 5 or 6 tbh.however on the other hand. people walk a bloody long way around a supermarket.If you can do that, then you can walk an extra 50 meters across a car-park. I thought the idea of having parking for parents&children and disabled right next to the entrance, is firstly to allow for door opening, but more importantly, because its difficult and dangerous to wheel a wheelchair or have a 4year old walk across a car park.
I use them all the time, they're really handy as they're always near the supermarket door so you get less wet if it's raining, and they're really wide so there's loads of room so you don't need to bother too much about how you park, and there's room to leave the trolley inbetween the cars when you're finished so you don't need to get wet taking it back to the trolley bay....
...or at least that's how it appears most people appear to use them
...or at least that's how it appears most people appear to use them
what a load of crap.
my other half has just had our first child and she is far more mobile with a 2 week old baby than she was when she was pregnant, not all woman get little bumps and get out of breath most have ligiment and tendan problems and can hardle walk! as for not going out the house you can't expect people to stay in door because they are pregnant they still need to get out and fresh air but can't do to much walking.
as for only having parking for people who have mpv's and massive cars thats stupid, most mpv, 4x4's have one kid in anyway.
what should be stopped is people just using them for no reason and have no kids!
my other half has just had our first child and she is far more mobile with a 2 week old baby than she was when she was pregnant, not all woman get little bumps and get out of breath most have ligiment and tendan problems and can hardle walk! as for not going out the house you can't expect people to stay in door because they are pregnant they still need to get out and fresh air but can't do to much walking.
as for only having parking for people who have mpv's and massive cars thats stupid, most mpv, 4x4's have one kid in anyway.
what should be stopped is people just using them for no reason and have no kids!
We never used them until the kids were born, even when my wife was pregnant with twins. If we're in the camper we don't use them as access isn't a problem with the sliding doors. In a regular car we use them to avoid dinging other cars. My main gripe is that our local supermarket puts the trolleys with kids seats in at the other end of the car park to the P&C spaces. WTF?
The problem as I see it is that standard parking spaces in the UK are still designed around the average family car of the '60s. I recently had to help someone push their car (only a Peugeot 206) out of its' bay in a new multistory car park because the bay was so tight they couldn't get in through the doors (and they were parked slap bang in the middle of the bay). Fortunately it was a convertible, so we were able to release the handbrake by lowering the roof.
At least in countries like the US, a standard space at least affords you the space to get the friggin' doors open!
At least in countries like the US, a standard space at least affords you the space to get the friggin' doors open!
Well here's my 20p worth. If I'm in the Disco I will inevitably have my dog on-board in the back. So if I have a trolley load of shopping it has to go on the back seat or floor. To do this I need to open the rear door fully. To avoid making contact with someone else's car I either park strategically at an end of row or take up two bays or I use a parent & child space. The supermarkets don't make the spaces wide enough. If anyone gets upset by this, well too bad.
colonel c said:
Well here's my 20p worth. If I'm in the Disco I will inevitably have my dog on-board in the back. So if I have a trolley load of shopping it has to go on the back seat or floor. To do this I need to open the rear door fully. To avoid making contact with someone else's car I either park strategically at an end of row or take up two bays or I use a parent & child space. The supermarkets don't make the spaces wide enough. If anyone gets upset by this, well too bad.
I bet a wriggling 2 year old takes up significantly more door space than a carrier bag....colonel c said:
Well here's my 20p worth. If I'm in the Disco I will inevitably have my dog on-board in the back. So if I have a trolley load of shopping it has to go on the back seat or floor. To do this I need to open the rear door fully. To avoid making contact with someone else's car I either park strategically at an end of row or take up two bays or I use a parent & child space. The supermarkets don't make the spaces wide enough. If anyone gets upset by this, well too bad.
I avoid making contact with other people's cars by a far simpler method - I don't open the doors far enough to hit the other car. Apparently that sort of thing is rocket science these days.I'll happily use parent and child spaces when I'm on my own. Reason? Typically, if I'm going shopping, it'll be around 20-30 minutes before closing time when I get there (I don't do big shops) and the car park is always practically empty.
They're the nearest spaces and there's so many of them that I find it hard to imagine THAT many parents turning up at once that close to closing time to do their weekly shops.
They're the nearest spaces and there's so many of them that I find it hard to imagine THAT many parents turning up at once that close to closing time to do their weekly shops.
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