BBC site - Parking space sizes

[andy18s]

Just playing devils advocate but don't a lot of the 'modern shiney bumpers' have a bit of give in them so most parking taps pop straight back out? I know Ford didn't get their heads round this idea for a while but my old Megane fended off a few taps without noticable damage.

 

Obviously they are not so great if you scrape them down a concrete wall but even a metal bumper will bear the scars of that treatment.

Trouble is that most manufacturers put vunerable systems just behind those bendy bumpers

We had someone touch park into the front of our Outlander, punching a neat hole in it

However it also took out both the rad and air con cooler/condenser

Not cheap and not happy

[spike60]

There's a marvelous old LWB Land Rover with flared arches, huge wheels and tyres,  matt black paint and grab handles on the roof lives near me. Yesterday I was amused to he was Billy No Mates in Tesco's car park, no one parked within 2 spaces either side! I wanted to post a pic but it was too dark for my phone.

[brickwall]

Range Rover classic bumpers are the best. Steel and arrow shaped specially designed  the snap you at the pelvis.

 

[Pillock]

I was in Nottingham working last week, and I always have to check the retail park parking notices (you know, the ones 20ft up a pole in tiny print) to see if I can park all day, I tend to do 9 hours in a store so don't like getting arsey parking "fines" in the post. I'm currently waiting for one from Milton Keynes, I gave me registration to the store so they could tippy-tap it into the computer, as did all the managers I was meeting. They've all got fines, I was in a hire car so no doubt it'll be three more weeks and I'll already have a CCJ against my name.

 

Anyway, I digress. It did actually state on there that the Parent and Child spaces were for use by anyone with one or more children in the car up to the age of 11. At 11, you don't need a child seat - or most likely, even a booster seat. So there is no evidence for them to collect - even if you came back to the car solo, you could say you met a family member and the child went off with them. They'd need bloody good cameras to prove otherwise, especially in this particular park where there's only one pole so they get a rear facing image on the way in, and a front facing one as you leave.

 

On the subject of sizes, our head office car park is so tightly packed they have arrows on them - because only the driver needs to be in the car when it parks, by alternating nose-in, tail-in you can push passenger doors closer together, more spaces. However, because some people are incompetent enough to not even attempt the reverse park, it just knackers it because they straddle the line, pushes everyone else down, turns to shit. Good idea, but only if everyone can park well.

[UmBongo]

Russell the wanker Brand

 

[HillmanImp]

Just playing devils advocate but don't a lot of the 'modern shiney bumpers' have a bit of give in them so most parking taps pop straight back out?  I know Ford didn't get their heads round this idea for a while but my old Megane fended off a few taps without noticable damage.

 

Obviously they are not so great if you scrape them down a concrete wall but even a metal bumper will bear the scars of that treatment.

 

I do agree. When we were taking my neighbours satanic Polo to WBAC I drove into the back of it for a laugh at some traffic lights whilst sticking my fingers up at them. I only bumped it slightly but it put a right big indent in the back of it as they drove off. Thankfully by the time we got to WBAC it had popped back to its normal shape.

 

However, what this article is alluding to is that 'Bad parking is causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to cars' so these things must be getting knacked with parking dings *.

 

The problem nowadays is people opening their doors right into the side of your door. 

 

Again true, whats the problem about using these?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Pcs-Car-Door-Protecting-Self-Adhesive-Bumper-Guard-Bar-Stickers-Black-/400580718278

 

 

 

wonderful ornament for your car

 

 

 

 

 

*I am sure that the BBC would not just print a story to sensationalise a non issue.......

[PhilA]

What we really need is a 1977 US style downsizing. Today's behemoths should come with a postcode, instead of a numberplate.

To reduce the cars back to actual car size would also solve a lot more problems, than merely parking issues.

 

As usual, the BBC has put the cart before the horse.

Parking spaces can't become bigger, since the earth's land surface can't be increased, but cars can be made smaller.

It's interesting, how the simple solution (as always) completely escapes the country's biggest opinion maker.

 

Yes and no- the cars got smaller but the bumpers stayed the same size- in the name of pedestrian safety or somesuch. Look at my car, it has a proper Jimmy Hill of a bumper on the front and the back, both of which are made from rubbery plastic with foam behind. I've already driven it gently into a pole at the mother in law's and it didn't mark either the car or the pole

 

On the flip side it's ugly

 

 

My truck has proper metal bumpers on it that will inflict damage onto something soft and plastic, and that's from the factory. My mk2 Transit has practically girders for bumpers by today's standards. I accidentally reversed into a sign pole many years ago. The pole came off worse. I hammerd the bumper and bracket straight again. The paint didn't even flake off, despite being Dulux applied with a brush.

 

Probably lose EuroNCAP stars for that way of thinking alone.

 

Car parking spaces here are designed to get big vehicles into. I can park the truck in most in town and not have issues.. parking the Renault in them I can usually open the doors without having to worry about the vehicle next to me because the door opens far enough that I can see the edge of it easily and easily judge if I'm too close.

 

--Phil

[chrisjvm]

 

As usual, the BBC has put the cart before the horse.

Parking spaces can't become bigger, since the earth's land surface can't be increased, but cars can be made smaller.

It's interesting, how the simple solution (as always) completely escapes the country's biggest opinion maker.

 

You really do talk a load of old Farage ....

[brickwall]

I find it's the bulbousness (is that a word) that makes parking difficult. In the monty or the rangie you know where the sides, back and front ends and you can shoot straight into a space in reverse. I can't do that in the C70. I'm always hitting the curb with the front trim and reversing is difficult to say the least.

[Alan_Green]

• Can someone explain to me why supermarket bays can't be angled?  

OK, so you would lose one bay at the end of the row. But think of the advantages of being able to drive straight in and straight out without having to make lots of little manoeuvres so that you are at 90 degrees. 

[chaseracer]

^ Simple, yet brilliant.  Access would need to be one-way, but that would be an advantage too.

[mat_the_cat]

 

• Can someone explain to me why supermarket bays can't be angled?  
• OK, so you would lose one bay at the end of the row. But think of the advantages of being able to drive straight in and straight out without having to make lots of little manoeuvres so that you are at 90 degrees. 

 

You might loose one bay, but you'd possibly gain an extra row from the cars taking up less space lengthways.

[barefoot]

And idiots wouldn't reverse into them to find that they couldn't get their trolley to the boot when they came back.

I always park in the parent n child spaces and if anyone asks, I tell them I brought my mother with me.

Finally plastic bumpers started with the 78 Porsche 928...

...unless you know different.

[chaseracer]

...plastic bumpers started with the 78 Porsche 928... unless you know different.

 

Urethane front bumper on the '73 Corvette, plus rear in 1974.

[PhilA]

 

• Can someone explain to me why supermarket bays can't be angled?  
• OK, so you would lose one bay at the end of the row. But think of the advantages of being able to drive straight in and straight out without having to make lots of little manoeuvres so that you are at 90 degrees. 

That's common here. The cars in those pictures were not put there by regular members of society. If the space is at 30 degrees, faces another space in the next row, expect people to drive in at the laziest angle then completely mis-judge the front of the vehicle and park in the adjacent space also.

 

One thing I've found does kinda work is diagonal spaces with TWO lines between each, about a foot and a half apart. Automatic extra spacing where the lines are easy to see in something with poor visibility and gives that extra door-mashing space that the average punter seems to be incapable of working out.

 

Phil

[twosmoke300]

Angled parking is much better and usually the "wasted" space is usually used for push bikes or motorbikes

[Alan_Green]

With respect, those objections apply equally to right angled bays.  I still don't get it. There must be a reason.

[fordperv]

Remember, these bays are courtesy bays, there's no law in place to prevent you from using them. It all depends how much of a dick you want society to view you as.

Today I still laugh at when I once parked in a disabled space at the far end away from the store, i got out of my car and got verbally abused by a midget who had done her shopping and was leaving, she was being a right gobshite because I parked in the space, so my reply was simple "my disability isn't obvious like yours is, who are you to try and speak down to me, I'm going to be the bigger person and walk away without raising my voice" how I didn't fall on the floor laughing as I said this I don't know

[Ronnie L]

Talking of urethane, let's not forget the much-maligned 'rubber bumper' MGBs and Midgets of the late 70s. OK they looked bad but they were VERY good at being bumpers. Some years ago I dismantled an MGB and was amazed at the weight and solidity of these structures. It wasn't really rubber - they were made from some kind of dense urethane foam stuff - and reinforced with steel. They were bolted to properly strong body mounts too. Admittedly they made the B even slower due to the weight but you wouldn't get a better buffer for touch-parking.

[Tartan58]

I have to say that having recently become the father of twins, I have come to see parent and child spaces in a very different light and it really pisses me off when people who don't need them use them. I'm not bothered about them being close to the store - in fact put them at the farthest point to discourage folk from wrongly using them - but having twins means needing to get the doors on both sides of the car pretty much fully open to get them in and out, something which is impossible in normal width spaces.

 

However having said all that I would take all necessary measures to avoid having to take the kids to the supermarket in the first place as that's just cruelty to everyone, me, kids, other shoppers...

[John F]

Junkman, on 28 Nov 2014 - 2:40 PM, said:

Ovlov bumpers, pah...

 

 

Imagine woolarding this.

 

That nasty belming seppo wankermobile would probably drop to bits if subjected to a proper woollarding.

[Micrashed]

but having twins means needing to get the doors on both sides of the car pretty much fully open to get them in and out, something which is impossible in normal width spaces.

Citroen Berlingo / C8 Sir...

 

Fooking brilliant if like me you cant keep your love truncheon in your strides and have more saucepan lids than you can shake a stick at.

Sliding rear doors mean no issues in parking spaces and lots of access for strapping the little bastards dears down in their seats.

 

 

 

You can even use them to make more children in,...

[HH-R]

The bays at an angle are OK as long as they're put at a sensible angle. There's some I can think of that you can see precisely bollocks all behind when reversing. That's with my car with windows too, can only imagine what an Evoque or Astra GT Coupe or whatever they're called can see.

[Tartan58]

Citroen Berlingo / C8 Sir...

 

 

 

I was just saying the other day that sliding doors would be very handy (as well as being extremely cool) however I refuse to go down the people carrier route (I'd do a rubber bumpered Ph1 Espace but that's as far as I'd go - no sliding doors though).

Wife and I are both agreed that 2 is quite enough (and definitely not risking another set of twins!) - besides after the first 6 months we're both so knackered that there's little chance of the necessary being done anyway!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

For me it's the complete bell ends that park over two spaces so no one scratches their pristine and totally unique* audi a4 diesel

 

I usually don't give a shit but if it's a busy car park it boils my piss. Once when I had my rover metro i was taking my good lady to the cinema. There were no spaces left in the carpark, and some wankfest had parked their saab cabrio in such a fashion.

 

I folded the mirrors in and squeezed into the half space on the drivers side. Had to clamber out the boot but amused me enough to do it

[Micrashed]

 besides after the first 6 months we're both so knackered that there's little chance of the necessary being done anyway!

Wife got preggers with number three the week after number two was born.

 

Tired? Tired? Naaah. You run on autopilot after a while.