Are car parks getting smaller these days??

[foss]

Both my cars are over 5 metres in length and over the last few years I've noticed that when I park into a newly built car park, (like I did yesterday) that my cars have no chance at all of fitting in the spot. I realise the more spots they build the more money they make but it's bloody annoying.
I used to drive a huge 69 ford Galaxie back about 10 years ago and I remember taking up two car spots long ways in Eroll street Nth Melbourne, a low life parking officer came up and said you better put money in both meters, I told him to get stuffed and said I'd bought a car that is and can be registered in Australia and you should be able to provide me with a big enough car park to fit it. He turned around and walked off.

[KenM]

Car parks have been getting smaller for years, I used to drive a '68 Chev Impala, which is about 18 feet or 6 metres long, even 20 years ago I would struggle to find a park, forget all about taking it into the

city centre there was just no way it would fit anywhere. Parking at the supermarket required 2 spaces, which used to earn me foul looks from laser drivers when the place was full.  Peasants.

I'd guess that new carparks are even smaller, some of them the 116 is a tight fit and it has a pretty good turning circle too.

[Tony66_au]

Try a 1970 Chrysler Newport on for size an inch short of 20 feet long and nearly 7 feet wide, They had Land Yacht in mind when they penned this thing lol

A convertible we stuffed in a container to make up space I drove the thing LHD for 5 months we ended up chopping the thing up for the Driveline.

The size itself wasn't really the issue as it was the shape that defied you any chance of parking the thing, Even driving it through the CBD was a nightmare and one of the scariest trips I ever did was Sydney road one Friday evening on my way to Wangaratta dodging Trams and cars in clearways.

I have noticed the supermarket spaces shrunk one weekend but as mist of us are in Landcruisers, Patrols, jacked up HiLux's and the like we all pretty much make our own space.

The 450 is actually a nice thing in tight spaces.

[Kjhall65]

I have a mate that drives a '62 impala ss.  I can tell when he brings it to work as a third of the car sticks out beyond most others.

I don't find the SE too bad as it has a really good turning circle and you can see all the corners. The ML is worse, it has a great turning circle but its bigger than an SE and you can't see the front of it.

[scraf]

Not really on topic, but I live like 15 paces from where the parking becomes free in my city.

Where there's free parking, is jam packed, it would cost about 10 minutes on average to find and wedge into a space.

Whereas in front of my door and close by I could park 10 SEL's with ease.

Permission to park where I do costs € 60 a year.

[Tony66_au]

I remember being in Utrecht years ago wondering how the hell anyone parked in the city, even in the smaller city type cars it looked like a nightmare.

[Tony66_au]

Actually thinking back the Cyclists were a major pain in the bum more than anything, Not so much their behavior although there were issues but the sheer number of the buggers was astounding.

Fine when they stuck to their lanes but when they decided to go on the main part of the already smallish roads they cause something id never seen before, Bike traffic jams lol

Amsterdam was pretty much the same but with worse attitudes.

[JasonP]

Note from the U.S.A -

We just got a roundabout installed on one of the busy intersections that I use to get to work. I understand the concept of the roundabout, but you cannot put one in a town full of full-stop 4-way intersections and expect people to use it correctly. Everybody stops at it. I am talking about a town that will not even merge when the sign says "Merge"; people stop at merges! So why the heck would they use a roundabout correctly?

Every time I go through the damn thing, I get honked at. But then again, I realized - I used to drive a Toyota Corolla. My car is almost twice as long now. I don't realize how long my car is when I pull in front of someone.

Damn economy size. Economy size this!

[oversize]

Yes they have been getting smaller!  And there's less of them!  I wish councils would stop allowing dispensations to planning applications!  In Sunbury they have micro shops with reduced numbers of micro spaces....  Some of the new shopping centre (Chadstone and Highpoint) have carpark monitors that sense when there's carparks available and even direct you to their location!  Pity that the sensors are at the entrance of the bay and the smaller cars aren't even detected!  So empty bays are actually full....  Talk about false advertising!!

Heven help me when my Buick's on the road!   

[ptashek]

There are a good few car parks in Dublin city centre where I am unable to get in with my car, just because I can't clear the turn from the ramp onto the car park floor
There is also one at a local hospital, where I was able to park just fine, but the back of the car was occupying the pedestrian path and a small part of the parking lane beside it...

Yes, car parks definitely are small these days.

[WrightSounds]

Very different here in Portland, OR. The city redid all the parking spots downtown a few years back, and to deter driving and to promote public transport, the city made the spots BIGGER so there'd be less total spots. Makes me SO MAD when on an entire block there's only 4 spots to park (instead of 6 or 7). Between each spot is a 3-4' NO PARKING section which allows people (nincompoops) to pull into the spot, front-end first, instead of having to back in and parallel park. Am I the only person that thinks it's actually harder to pull front-end first instead of parallel parking?!

[nathan]

Foss, that was a good reply re that the car was registrable so they should build bigger spots. i know these guys are doing their jobs but i still get irritated by them. like at one of the hospitals i work at and the guy was writing me up when i came back (a hospital i provide a lot of good will to) after a 5 minute park (you know how annoying it is when they give you only one sticker and you have 5 cars!). i politely asked the guy "really?". stone cold told me yes.  got in the Gwagen as he was writing the ticket, burnt off before he could put it on my window, never got it!
melbourne parking is worse than perth. as OS said, i like the malls like chadstone, much bigger spots. i reckon though that the 116 is smaller than most modern medium or large cars? what do you think
nathan

[TJ 450]

Yes, I agree, I'm pretty sure that the 116 is actually smaller than a Camry for instance.

Tim

[littlefin]

I don't think that the 116 is particularly large compared to say modern 4x4s and MPVs which are very popular here. The 116 does have the advantage of being pretty manoeuvrable for a big car - my 116 has a better turning circle than my daily drivers (VWs). My 116 is however the widest of my vehicles IIRC. Some parking spaces here are not particularly wide - and traffic wardens have been known to issue tickets if the car is over the markings width-wise 

I remember noticing this phenomenon first in California    many years ago, where they started to differentiate between 'compact' parking spaces and normal spaces, but I suspect that was to fit as many spaces into car parks as possible. Very frustrating if you are driving a van though!