The UK’s worst cities for parking
London and Birmingham were found to have the most parking space wastage, at 20% each. The study found that drivers in these cities left the greatest distance between their cars. Conversely, Brighton was found to have the most efficient parkers, with just 11% of space left unused on “full” streets. Out of 2,000 drivers who were questioned as part of the research, 47% said that poor parking has caused them major frustration over the past year. Furthermore, 40% avoid going to the shops because they’re concerned about parking. This is bad news for the UK’s businesses. When it comes to bad parking habits, 13% of drivers admitted to parking across two spaces in order to save a space for someone else. Meanwhile, 11% said they had put a bin in a parking space to secure it, while 38% had deliberately left space to protect their car. A guilty 10% of motorists had parked in a space so small that others couldn’t move. By contrast, a whopping 73% had left space so that they could easily manoeuvre. The study also found that 31% of motorists had chosen a space based on the quality of the cars parked on either side of it.
Parking with confidence
Looking at people’s parking confidence also uncovered a few surprising details. A fifth of people had parked away from home to avoid parking in a difficult space. Around the same number had asked a friend or relative to park for them. In addition to this, 18% of drivers had given up on trying to park in a space because someone was watching them. Inrix has calculated that Brits spend an average of 44 hours per year looking for parking spaces. That adds up to £733 per driver in wasted fuel, time, and emissions. The situation is even worse in London, where people spend as many as 67 hours per year trying to park, at a cost of £1,104. Belfast, Leeds and Bristol also score highly when it comes to time spent searching for a parking spot. On a UK-wide basis, it has been suggested that a total of £30 billion is wasted on this time-consuming exercise every year.
The worst parking in the UK?
One of the worst cases of parking that was reported on earlier in the year was that of a driver who had parked their Seat over four parking spaces. The motorist was concerned about another driver hitting their vehicle. The selfishness involved caused uproar. By parking inefficiently, drivers are wasting valuable space that could be used by other motorists. Bad parking habits mean that people are spending an unreasonable amount of time and money searching for somewhere to park. With this in mind, it may be that parking assist technology should be on everyone’s car wish-list in the future. This could make parking a more efficient and less stressful task for drivers up and down the UK. Do you ever park across two spaces in order to protect your car? Is doing so common sense or pure selfishness? Leave a comment to share your views.
Re Parking – big big talking point surely!
I’m referring to trying to get a parking space here in the estate we live in. Apparently, we’re entitled to A car parking space, but some greedy gits take 2 spaces. The reason being is that most of our neighbours know we only hire cars and don’t own one – yet! One neighbour in particular gets really agitated and it’s come to an argument before now, so we know to steer clear (sorry) from him. A solution, I guess, is monoblocking the front garden, and might have to consider it if we ever do buy a car, but that’s expensive! Someone up the road here has done it – yet, so far as we can see, still parks in communal parking spaces just opposite. I reckon it’s laziness – AND selfishness.
No, I have not gone out of my way to park over any more than, maybe, 2 spaces, but do try not to hem myself in. I dislike too large a car for this very reason – manoeuvrability – but for packing a lot of stuff in the boot and sheer roominess inside, makes a larger car more desirable certainly.
For parking on a ferry for example, small is best, but of course it can make the difference of getting on the boat in the first place, especially if you come along just as the tailgate goes up! Do they let you on or not?!
I have watched someone literally bump the cars in front of and behind him in a parking space to make more space for himself. Yes bumping several times. On a public street. Outer London
They do that in Spain and France but I’ve never noticed anyone ‘bumping” here. In France, sometimes they leave the handbrake off to make it less damaging!
A website for photos bad parking might shame and name the culprits
Look on Facebook, there are several pages based on bad driving / parking etc.. There is always the Google if you want to find a website dedicated but what good does it do ? I have been a member of these web pages but all it does is wind me up so I don’t bother anymore. If the Councils would allow reporting by the public using pictures taken showing the location and registrations that would be better but there are a lot of pitfalls from the Councils point of view legally and setting this up would cost money which is something they don’t have. Sadly…
Make parking spaces bigger so you can park without worry of damage from the twat next to you, and you can get in and out without being a contortionist.
Parked in our local supermarket for 20 minutes and came back to find dents and scratches from the front wing of my car to the drivers’ door, obviously caused by a white car whose white paint was also on my front tyres. Noboby owned up and it cost me over £400.00 for repairs. Agree with the point about parking forward as most rear windows on modern cars are too small to see through efficiently for reversing out of a parking place. Many a time have I almost been pranged by people reversing blind in my path.
I disagree in the main. If people want bigger cars they should be able to drive and park them.
Constantly being fined would provide an effective deterrent for those who want something bigger but don’t possess the skill or consideration to have such responsibly.
Der! …I need a bigger car because of my job!…..I’m quite happy to walk from across the car park if they put had larger spaces further away.
Does not matter how big you make the spaces. I used to work for a Superstore with a super size car park. We had closed for the day so the car park was empty, except for one car. A few of us members of staff were just standing, having a chat, before heading off for home. Suddenly we heard a loud bang and scrapping sound as a car entered the car park and tried to park next to the only already there.
Too many Brits think they can drive, but few are able to reverse park, most even cannot park a car forwards into a parking space. Time to review the driving test and raise the age limit for drivers.
You are generally supposed to reverse park unless it is a designated car park or you have a similar large space available
I’m amused by all this, if I need to go into Manchester or Chester there is always plenty of space at either of my local stations, yes that’s right I go by train.
Parked like a pratt? Break off the end of a wooden coffee stirer and put it down the key hole. They will get the message when they can’t get in
Key hole! How old is your car??
Good idea, but you will be responsible for criminal damage. Is bad parking worth this?
also, the offending driver will be parked there a lot longer if he/she can’t move their vehicle.
How many still use a key to open the door ?
Most cars don’t even have keyholes now like mine, remote control only.
And if that fails , then block up the hole in the middle of the front bumper for the starting-handle !!
I live in a small dead end road with only one area where vehicles can turn round and cars deliberately park so others cannot use the turning area. Even emergency vehicles have had to park at the end and someone was moved by stretcher the length of the street to get into an ambulance. Local councillors don’t want to know and the local council staff have not even bothered to reply about our problem. The major problem seems to be that people believe they and their cars have total rights because of the fact that, somehow, they managed to obtain a driving licence. Requests not to park like that are met with insults and threats. Lots and lots of photos for when someone actually does bother.
We have a similar street in Plymouth. It is clearly marked as a fire lane all along its length in 6 foot high letters painted on the road. If an emergency vehicles access is blocked by a vehicle they are allowed to ‘push it out of the way’
I agree Dave I live in a cul de sac and we have neighbors who leave their drive empty and park in the limited spaces we have. It’s a nightmare for bin men I don’t want to think about if any of us had a fire or needed ambulance.
Ban all SUV’s from car parks designed to accommodate normal sized cars, driven by normal, non road war contributing, keeping my kids safe blah blah blah muppets
I’m a perfectly able driver, but I’m disabled and need to get the door of my medium sized hatchback wide open to get in and out. This means the too-narrow spaces in my local Tesco car park are often useless to me, even if I let my passenger out before I park. All the disabled spaces are nowhere near the shop entrance, far too far for me to hobble.
FED UP TO THE TEETH WITH DAMAGE TO MY CAR IN SUPERMARKET CAR PARKS ! usually passengers just throwing doors open! if caught say “its only a small scratch/dent (costing hundreds of pounds to repair)
Yes, I’ve been known to drive away because someone was watching me. But once, someone came and complimented me on getting such a big car into such a small space. Not preventing people getting out by the way.
I should say that it can look a bit strange if a big car leaves and a small car arrives in the same space, it looks bad for the small car, even if they have only left reasonable space in front to get out. I’ve been known to allow a bit more space to drive out in case the car behind hasn’t left me any backing room.
I often remember the line from Manhattan. “We can walk to the kerb from here!”
Large work vans should not be parking overnight in residential areas. I have 2 minibus size ones that park together on a corner on my street. It makes it extremely difficult to see oncoming traffic because of them so it is dangerous.
I have 5 drive in parking spaces outside my flat. There are no lines dividing the spaces. One selfish neighbour with a tiny car frequently takes up 2 spaces. It means that others have to park a distance away. She should be fined each time she does this, which is the only way to stop bad, inconsiderate parking.
Speak to her
I always reverse park unless I’m going to need access to the boot and where reverse parking would make that difficult or impossible eg. supermarkets. I actually don’t like driving into spaces, harder to judge where your car is in relation to the bay lines, prefer reversing for that reason too. Also safer and easier when leaving the bay as you can see better by driving out. I also correct the car position if I need to, most people just seem to dump their car however it ends up in the bay on the first attempt and leave it at that with no consideration for others.
That’s what this whole country is lacking I think, consideration for others. Too few people have that quality it seems. It’s got to the point where I always park my car well away from other vehicles next to empty bays for added peace of mind, I don’t mind walking a little further.
Reverse parking is standard practice on sites these days, purely because of the safety aspect when exiting a parking bay. Reversing out means you exiting blindly which is asking for trouble.
I avoid taking my car to central Southampton and use my bus pass on my infrequent visits. Also I get my groceries when my nearest Lidl is less busy in the early afternoon, when the car has plenty of empty spaces so I can park my large car easily.
The size of cars has increased dramatically over the years but the size of the space hasn’t, no wonder there are problems. Costco is a pleasure to park in, other stores should adopt their size of space. However, people should learn to park properly when using on street parking and park up to the line, and not leave large gaps between cars. I’d like technology that ensure you line up to the road markings and then allows the appropriate space between cars. So often you could get another vehicle in a row, but bad parking means you can’t.
If you have a row of cars parked correctly and a Jag leaves its space and a original mini takes the parking space, are the others supposed to re park to take up the excess space, this is not going to happen, so larger gaps are going to appear.
I only use two spaces if I really need to as a disabled driver and seen people using blue badges knowing they don’t need them and even a man in soft top BMW park in disabled and run off to shops I mean run. It leaves us no choice when we need to open our door wide to get in and out of our car. I never done it before my disability wouldn’t dream of it but I need to get to shops too, and spaces aren’t as big as today’s cars in some areas. We all need to use the roads and park so think (do I really need to park the way I do)
Living in Brighton (the most efficient car parking according to the report) I would say the council have taken away all of the free spaces within the city and only the outskirts 3 miles out of town are free parking nowadays, and with the highest parking charges outside of London.
This has impacted terribly upon the city with footfall in shopping areas decreasing and most of us not even going into town unless absolutely necessary. Only 2 roads into the city plus the coast road, all single lane with bus and cycle lanes and 20 miles an hour almost throughout.
The cost of parking in car parks is astronomical – the highest rates outside of London, with £1 per 15 minutes in a central car park.
In a city of 300,000 people all crammed into an area 2 x 3 miles square, parking is at a premium and this is why we have come top of the cities for valuing our parking spaces!
This shocked me, as I thought we would have been bottom of the table, as spaces are so hard to find! Perhaps being a micro city of 2 x 3 miles square built upon 7 high hills of the South Downs, has taught us good driving skills and hill starts up almost vertical hillslopes!
Do you ever park across two spaces in order to protect your car? Is doing so common sense or pure selfishness?My thought on this question is that parking spaces on retail parks as well as NCP and council carparks are the spaces have got smaller plus the fact that people don’t park squarely in the marked area and as for street parking I have a neighbour that runs up the pavement with the front n/s wheel and drops off the kerb when they feel they would be straight on the road, which most times they are not
The last line says it all Geoff, most people are not competent drivers. Hardly surprising seeing the low standard of the UK driving test.
In many European countries you ‘make’ space by bumping the cars in front of you and behind you. Because this is normal practice, people are expected to leave the parking break off.
Unfortunately, no one told me about leaving the parking break off, and I’d just fitted extra-heavy-duty French bumpers on my Volvo tank. A big head fast-track young manager was showing off and thought he’d nudge the English guy’s car — the Volvo didn’t move. Oops!
So many have driveways and garages and yet prefer to park on the road or kerb. I have sent pictures to the Council who responded they could see nothing wrong. Very frustrating,
Garages are used to store worthless junk while tens of thousand of pounds worth of vehicles are left in the driveway or the street..
I recognise all the statistics and all the situations you describe. I live on a High Street where parking is always in demand, so I have become aware of how people park. In places like that reverse “parallel” parking is usually necessary, and no, that isn’t an easy skill to master. BUT, the sad fact is that that a lot of people are either very selfish or very lazy, or both. Simple as that.
Also, we have double lines outside our house to give access to a street opposite. Some even park on those doubles, because they get away with it. Shame about the chap up the street opposite having to wait for his ambulance or the fire brigade. (Yes I have seen that happen).
Having driven a lot in the USA I far prefer their method of angled parking lanes – rather than our 90 degree version. It is far less difficult to drive into and out of, and means you can often open one door without worrying about denting the car beside you. Worth some thought?
Agree in part, but unless the spaces are wider the door opening issue will remain but it just means the door opens to a more forward part of the neighbours car.
Very good point Dave.
Many drivers do not park ! They abandon their cars as near as possible to where they need to be so that they do not have to walk at all Many have forgotten they can walk having driven everywhere for years
especially annoying is the increasing practice of ‘I’m only going to be a few minutes so I’ll leave my car here & block everyone else syndrome’
This will all be a thing-of-the-past in a few years, when nobody owns cars and we all rent driverless electric cars for each journey at a tenth the price of a current taxi.
Agreed but will that be a good thing?
If people had more respect for other people’s property then people wouldn’t hog parking spaces. There is nothing worse than comming back to your 20k car and find a mother putting the baby in a rear seat knocking seven bells out of your car with her rear door.
I can say with certainty that the six scratches and dents now on my car were caused by other people whilst my car was parked. I don’t use more space than necessary. My solution is not to buy a new car even though my car is now 10 years old and I would love to have a shiny new car. I live in London. That saves me getting angry when yet another plonker causes damage but doesn’t take time to say sorry or, god forbid, offer to pay for the repair. They just drive off.
It amazes me that people don’t realise that tactile paving is for the visually impaired to help them cross the road that car parked on the corner completely on the tactile paving should be towed away and they wouldn’t do it again
IN kerbside parking too many just leave their car in the middle of the space instead of thinking and moving to one end to allow another car in.
In supermarkets the main issue is the ‘swing in at an angle, that will do, I’m OK’ attitude, especially prevalent in the larger people carrier / 4×4 owners
Most parking spaces are way too narrow meaning that careless people put paint & even small dents when opening their doors hard. I am guilty of using mother & baby spaces at times as they ARE given enough room to open the doors without difficulty.
You should see my street.People too lazy to park on their drives and using pavement/road causing chaos for service vehicles.Police just turn a blind eye to it.
Same here.Cul-de-sac and people believe space outside their house is theirs to block road while their drives are empty.Council not interested,told me to see police who don’t care.Laugh when their house is on fire and fire engine can’t get near.
Walthamstow in London, selfish drivers at the End of parking bays not going to the lines at the END then 1 extra space could be available in the centre, people should be informed of the parking.
Why don’t drivers park on the driveway instead of the road. Are they that paranoid that someone is going to park in front of there house
Make a law to say you must park on your driveway overnight if you have a driveway
You can often find either my, or my wife’s car parked in the road and a vacant driveway. That is because one of us is out in one of the cars and we need somewhere that we can be sure that we can park when we get back because all the bad parkers take up any spare spaces. You can park ten cars adjacent to our house, this is usually reduced to eight or even six due to bad parking, all by people who bought a house down the road without a parking space and own more than one car.
My wife and I are disabled and both think driving standards have slipped badly. Part of it is the “instant gratification” prevailing, they expect to stop where they want, no fuss (like actually parking straight). We quite often see disabled spaces obstructed by the “I’ll only be a minute” club.We live in a small disabled adapted bungalow in a dead end street, not designed even for one car per house. We tried to get out one night and found a local priest/vicar (didn’t ask) parked sideways across our front porch, preventing us leaving the house. he was quite offended when we told him off and said next time we’d have him towed, he actually said “I’m a man of God on a parishioner emergency, the law doesn’t apply”
No-one has the time or common courtesy these days – and yes, car parking spaces are getting smaller, in an attempt to fit more cars in I suppose. We lost a dozen spaces, set at an angle a few years back, the local council sold the cobblestones there and reduced the spaces to 5, which with an ATM, taxi firm and take away there rarely leaves any.
can’t say I’ve seen 20% of spaces wasted, mind you, I’m in civilised surrey……
What a lot of wimps on this site, you all have the advantage in your hands, if someone blocked my access and they are aggressive towards me I have the advantage it is called a carving knife, they are very useful in letting air out of the tyres of selfish car owners who block my access, I have used this cheap and fast useful tool it always works and I have never ever had a repeat offender. So get aggressive you people and protect you rights.
Once I challenged a driver who had blocked the entire pavement forcing pedestrians to walk on the road. His response “I can’t block the road can I ?”. As a driver my self I found this belief that blocking paths for pedestrians was not a problem so long as you are not blocking the road for other vehicles ridiculous but unfortunately commonplace. Where is the sense in it – after all we are all pedestrians once we get out of our cars.
I used to live in a city residential area and as a consequence learned to get into the smallest of spaces – if you couldn’t park, you would just be driving around all evening looking for a space. However, I never blocked/tapped other cars – one of my bug bears. These days, I’m absolutely fed up with taking my car to the supermarket, only to come and find it scratched and dented – some drivers seem to think it’s ok to leave trolleys against your car, or cut across your bumper etc. Then you have the expense of bodyshop repairs and inconvenience of being without a car.
So is it selfish to take up 2 spaces when they are in short supply? Probably yes. I don’t do it myself, but I can understand why some people do.
We have the same in Preston
Lancasire County Council do not care less and this is ongoing over 15 years.
LOADING BAY AND THE TRUCKS IS ALWAYS PARKED PERMANTLEY. THERE IS NO TIME PLATE AND TIME IS ALWAYS TAKEN OFF.
DOMINES TRUCK AND OTHER DELIVERY DRIVERS HAS TO PARK ON THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.
LIMITED BAY IS NEVER FREE, OCCUPIED BY DISABLED BADGE HOLDER AND THERE IS NOT MUCH MOVEMENT BY THESE DISABLED BADGE HOLDERS.
THIS NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT URGENLTY !!!
LOADING BAY IS NEVER FREE, THE TRUCKS IS ALWAYS PARKED PERMANTLEY AND THIS LOADING BAY IS RESERVED BY THE LOCAL RESIDENTS AND BEEN TOLD BY NUMBER OF TIMES AND IT DOES NTO SEEM TO BE MOVED.
THERE IS NO TIME PLATE AND TIME IS ALWAYS TAKEN OFF AND PARKING SERVICES OR POLICE CAN NOT DO ANYHTING ABOUT IT. SO WHO DO WE CONTACT, AS YOU ARE THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE THIS CHANGES, THEN YOU NEED TO LOOK INTO THIS URGENLTY.
OUR DOMINES TRUCK AND OUR OTHER DELIVERY DRIVERS HAS TO PARK ON THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD AND CAUSING LOT OF PROBLEM TO HIGHWAY USER AND THE RESIDENTS.
LIMITED BAY IS NEVER FREE, OCCUPIED BY DISABLED BADGE HOLDER AND THERE IS NOT MUCH MOVEMENT BY THESE DISABLED BADGE HOLDERS TO GIVE SHORT TERM PARKING FOR DLEIVERY DRIVERS AND CUSTOMERS.
THIS LIMITED BAY IS JUST BEING NEGLECTED AND ABUSED BY THE DISABLED BADGE HOLDER, BY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF PARKIGN AS LONG THEY WANT. THIS IS TOTALLY UNFAIR. IT NEED TO HAVE TIMING FOR ALL USER TO MAKE THE LIMITED BAY FREE, SO EVERY ONE CAN PARK FOR SHORT TERM.
1 HOUR NEEDS TO BE REDCUED TO MAXIMUM 20MIN AND NO RETURN 3 HOURS.
THIS NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT URGENLTY !!!
Car parking sizes in the UK do not reflect the fact that cars are bigger than ever (Minis for instance…BMW Should be fined under trade descriptions – but it proves a point) Add to this the ignorant people who just throw their doors open without thinking, and that is why some people (who value what their hard earned cash has bought) park in what seems to be an inconsiderate way. If somebody opened a City Centre Car Park with bays 20% bigger than normal, they could charge more – and fill it.
One of my major bugbears is people parking selfishly. I always take care to park in a way that leaves maximum room for others, for example, if I am at the end of a parking bay I make sure my wheels are on the line which denotes the end of the bay. So often I see cars parking 4 or 5 feet in from the end of the bay. I watch cars zoom into a double space and park right in the middle, leap out of their cars without any consideration of other people or to the fact that they have just taken up two car parking spaces. I agree that sometimes are parking spaces in supermarkets or car parks are too narrow so that it is impossible sometimes to open your car door and get out if the car that you are parked next to has thoughtlessly parked too close to the line, usually in an effort to leave themselves enough space on the drivers side to get out. If car parking bays could be made a little wider and car drivers spend 2 or 3 minutes taking more care to ensure that they don’t take any more space than they need, I am sure the situation would improve dramatically. Selfishness only breeds irritation and more selfishness. Would it be possible for us all to take those few minutes extra and be more considerate when we park? We might find that we end up as a community and society all finding our day a little bit more pleasant and less stressed. 🙂
Quote ” So often I see cars parking 4 or 5 feet in from the end of the bay. I watch cars zoom into a double space and park right in the middle, leap out of their cars without any consideration of other people or to the fact that they have just taken up two car parking spaces.”
Do this round here and you get a ticket!!
We have a particular parking problem on our estate. People who use it as a park and ride. They take advantage of the lower house prices out of town but do not want to put up with the once an hour bus service. They do not want to pay the inflated parking fees in town or where they work so they park their cars on our exit roads as near to the frequent
buses stop as possible. This reduces our exits to one lane with cars leaving and entering every minute. The lazy people living on the main road make visibility even worse by parking on their grass verge instead of their drives. JUST SELFISH.
I’m not disabled but I need space to get out of the car. Parking spaces are too narrow and SUVs are too big for them. Sometimes I reverse into an end-on parking space with my passenger side closer to the next car’s passenger side so that both drivers can get in and then move the car for the passenger – I make no friends like this but what do you do?
yesterday I saw a lady parked across 2 disabled bays and didn’t even display a blue badge, took photo and posted it on social media
Re Parking – big big talking point surely!
I’m referring to trying to get a parking space here in the estate we live in. Apparently, we’re entitled to A car parking space, but some greedy gits take 2 spaces. The reason being is that most of our neighbours know we only hire cars and don’t own one – yet! One neighbour in particular gets really agitated and it’s come to an argument before now, so we know to steer clear (sorry) from him. A solution, I guess, is monoblocking the front garden, and might have to consider it if we ever do buy a car, but that’s expensive! Someone up the road here has done it – yet, so far as we can see, still parks in communal parking spaces just opposite. I reckon it’s laziness – AND selfishness.
No, I have not gone out of my way to park over any more than, maybe, 2 spaces, but do try not to hem myself in. I dislike too large a car for this very reason – manoeuvrability – but for packing a lot of stuff in the boot and sheer roominess inside, makes a larger car more desirable certainly.
For parking on a ferry for example, small is best, but of course it can make the difference of getting on the boat in the first place, especially if you come along just as the tailgate goes up! Do they let you on or not?!
I have watched someone literally bump the cars in front of and behind him in a parking space to make more space for himself. Yes bumping several times. On a public street. Outer London
They do that in Spain and France but I’ve never noticed anyone ‘bumping” here. In France, sometimes they leave the handbrake off to make it less damaging!
A website for photos bad parking might shame and name the culprits
Look on Facebook, there are several pages based on bad driving / parking etc.. There is always the Google if you want to find a website dedicated but what good does it do ? I have been a member of these web pages but all it does is wind me up so I don’t bother anymore. If the Councils would allow reporting by the public using pictures taken showing the location and registrations that would be better but there are a lot of pitfalls from the Councils point of view legally and setting this up would cost money which is something they don’t have. Sadly…
Make parking spaces bigger so you can park without worry of damage from the twat next to you, and you can get in and out without being a contortionist.
Parked in our local supermarket for 20 minutes and came back to find dents and scratches from the front wing of my car to the drivers’ door, obviously caused by a white car whose white paint was also on my front tyres. Noboby owned up and it cost me over £400.00 for repairs. Agree with the point about parking forward as most rear windows on modern cars are too small to see through efficiently for reversing out of a parking place. Many a time have I almost been pranged by people reversing blind in my path.
I disagree in the main. If people want bigger cars they should be able to drive and park them.
Constantly being fined would provide an effective deterrent for those who want something bigger but don’t possess the skill or consideration to have such responsibly.
Der! …I need a bigger car because of my job!…..I’m quite happy to walk from across the car park if they put had larger spaces further away.
Does not matter how big you make the spaces. I used to work for a Superstore with a super size car park. We had closed for the day so the car park was empty, except for one car. A few of us members of staff were just standing, having a chat, before heading off for home. Suddenly we heard a loud bang and scrapping sound as a car entered the car park and tried to park next to the only already there.
Too many Brits think they can drive, but few are able to reverse park, most even cannot park a car forwards into a parking space. Time to review the driving test and raise the age limit for drivers.
You are generally supposed to reverse park unless it is a designated car park or you have a similar large space available
I’m amused by all this, if I need to go into Manchester or Chester there is always plenty of space at either of my local stations, yes that’s right I go by train.
Parked like a pratt? Break off the end of a wooden coffee stirer and put it down the key hole. They will get the message when they can’t get in
Key hole! How old is your car??
Good idea, but you will be responsible for criminal damage. Is bad parking worth this?
also, the offending driver will be parked there a lot longer if he/she can’t move their vehicle.
How many still use a key to open the door ?
Most cars don’t even have keyholes now like mine, remote control only.
And if that fails , then block up the hole in the middle of the front bumper for the starting-handle !!
I live in a small dead end road with only one area where vehicles can turn round and cars deliberately park so others cannot use the turning area. Even emergency vehicles have had to park at the end and someone was moved by stretcher the length of the street to get into an ambulance. Local councillors don’t want to know and the local council staff have not even bothered to reply about our problem. The major problem seems to be that people believe they and their cars have total rights because of the fact that, somehow, they managed to obtain a driving licence. Requests not to park like that are met with insults and threats. Lots and lots of photos for when someone actually does bother.
We have a similar street in Plymouth. It is clearly marked as a fire lane all along its length in 6 foot high letters painted on the road. If an emergency vehicles access is blocked by a vehicle they are allowed to ‘push it out of the way’
I agree Dave I live in a cul de sac and we have neighbors who leave their drive empty and park in the limited spaces we have. It’s a nightmare for bin men I don’t want to think about if any of us had a fire or needed ambulance.
Ban all SUV’s from car parks designed to accommodate normal sized cars, driven by normal, non road war contributing, keeping my kids safe blah blah blah muppets