I noticed a thread on bad parking in the jokes section which led me to post this.
What's your opinion/view on the size of car parking spaces and layouts? I want to give you two extreme examples. We have a smallish drop-in Coop in our town. Only has circa 12 spaces configured into what's a relatively tight overall piece of tarmac. However, compared to many car parks, the spaces are massive width wise! Ok maybe not massive, however I reckon they're easily 60cm/24in wider than a typical space. It makes parking a breeze and no concerns about door dings! They could no doubt have created another 2-3 spaces but obviously made a conscious decision to have wider spaces so well done them.
Compare that to the local retail park. Very tight spaces unless you drive a supermini and lack of cordoned off sections at row ends making it VERY difficult to pull out into the traffic flow especially if it's an SUV parked at the ends! This isn't just a legacy issue as they recently carried out remedial work at one section, however no increase in space size and no cordoned off row ends!
I get that retailers want/need to ensure maximum parking, however given the average size of a vehicle today, surely the regulations around the creation of parking should have kept pace over the past 20+ years? It can even be argued there's a risk to public safety. Ok, just now places are a lot quieter for obvious reasons, however venture into a retail park on a busy weekend and it's rare not to see at least one or two near misses, whether cars or cars almost hitting people!
And let's face it, throw into the mix the fact that many people can't park properly and you have a recipe for disaster.
What's your opinion/view on the size of car parking spaces and layouts? I want to give you two extreme examples. We have a smallish drop-in Coop in our town. Only has circa 12 spaces configured into what's a relatively tight overall piece of tarmac. However, compared to many car parks, the spaces are massive width wise! Ok maybe not massive, however I reckon they're easily 60cm/24in wider than a typical space. It makes parking a breeze and no concerns about door dings! They could no doubt have created another 2-3 spaces but obviously made a conscious decision to have wider spaces so well done them.
Compare that to the local retail park. Very tight spaces unless you drive a supermini and lack of cordoned off sections at row ends making it VERY difficult to pull out into the traffic flow especially if it's an SUV parked at the ends! This isn't just a legacy issue as they recently carried out remedial work at one section, however no increase in space size and no cordoned off row ends!
I get that retailers want/need to ensure maximum parking, however given the average size of a vehicle today, surely the regulations around the creation of parking should have kept pace over the past 20+ years? It can even be argued there's a risk to public safety. Ok, just now places are a lot quieter for obvious reasons, however venture into a retail park on a busy weekend and it's rare not to see at least one or two near misses, whether cars or cars almost hitting people!
And let's face it, throw into the mix the fact that many people can't park properly and you have a recipe for disaster.