Hospital parking

[Shopkinsdoll]

So been waiting since March for this hospital appointment for my two children. Left nice and early for app. Got to hospital, not one space. I must have circled round for at least half an hour. At last I spotted a car just about to leave, so I put my indicators on that I was going in when the parked car left. Suddenly this women appeared waving. I waved back, but realised she was waving at the bmw driver behind me. She walked up to me saying this was her friends space as she had been looking for ages. I said no it’s mine and I’m late for an appointment. Then I drove in. She then took a picture of my car?? I saw the space and went for it. Since when do people stand in spaces hogging it for people??

Not sure what she was trying to achieve by taking a picture of your car

YWNU

I really don’t know, I certainly never done anything wrong. You can’t just stand in a parking space and claim it. I was by that point 10 min late for my appointment.

Hospital parking is a fucking nightmare and honestly nothing surprises me with it

Ha! She’s a cheeky fucker. Hope your appointment went ok, that must’ve been super stressful

She was just trying to intimidate you silly woman, of course she can't reserve a parking space for her friend, maybe she and her feiend should have shared then they wouldnt need two spaces. hospitals and surgeries need to sort their parking out, it causes so much friction and stress when people just don't need it.

Hospital parking is a nightmare and people loose all their manners. Did she honestly think that's acceptable. There are some very strange people, you definitely were not the unreasonable one. You can drive around for ages and then be charged for the privilege, as at our hospital the VNPR is on the entrance and charges until it sees you leave.

It's more likely they brought a friend to stand in the parking space

Hospital parking can be difficult but the woman knew she was being a chancer.

This reminded of the thread where a woman was doing jumping jacks in a car park space she was saving for her husband. [https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3364008-parking-oneself-in-a-parking-space-without-a-car]]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3364008-parking-oneself-in-a-parking-space-without-a-car
Click link

I've given up with hospital parking. Park a few minutes walk away because at least then I know how long it'll take me to get there, unlike driving around for 20 minutes waiting for a space and being late (with a full bladder all prepared for an ultrasound!)

YANBU - you can't bagsy spaces like that. There's no telling how long someone has been circling around the car park. Nearest person gets the space.

Our local hospital says to leave at least an hour to find a parking space. The queues whenever I go are ridiculous. It's far better to get public transport (or we often walk) but too many people who don't need to drive take their cars and that causes chaos for all. I wish people would think a little more before automatically hopping in their car.

Hospitals often serve a very wide area and walking and public transport won't be possible for everyone. Hospital transport is only for the beggars who can't be choosers and is pretty crap.

Due to a lack of sensible connections it's a 3 hour bus journey, or a 30 minute drive to our local hospital. Parking within a reasonable (15 minute) walk is all resident permits. Walking the 20 odd miles is clearly even less possible.

Have had several nightmares with parking - but usually leave about 45 minutes to find a place so not missed any appointments yet.

Our local cottage hospitals are being killed off so parking at the main ones will only get worse!

I did say people who don't need to drive. You'll find for every person coming from a tricky location or with mobility issues, there's another person driving a couple of miles because it's "easier".

Cf woman, no you can't bag spaces

This happened to me once except the cheeky cunt sped the wrong way up the car park and got into the space before me. I have never felt such rage.

The problem is I live in a smallish town, about 20k inhabitants - but still can't get to the hospital by public transport- my town has a cottage hospital but that is being run down. I am not in a rural location with no transport, just the transport that exists is not fit for purpose - hence parking problems!

Wasn't the Maelor hospital was it? I saw this occur when we were leaving and a lady indicated ( from a queue of traffic) that she was intending to enter our soon to be vacated space. Some cheeky person nipped up the inside of her and tried to bag the space bypassing the queue. She didn't succeed however.
I often park about 15 minute walk away as you can waste half an hour trying to park. ( I'm the other MN offender who parks outside someone's house in a road with no restrictions).

I think park and rides might be the only solution for big hospitals. I used to get loads of frantic phone calls from patients saying they have arrived for their appointment but can't park, it's not right.

The thing that annoys me the most about parking at the 2 hospitals in my area is that there are lots of little car parks, instead of one big one. You take a ticket on entering and have to pay to get out.

Once you've entered one of the car parks, you're trapped in it, as you have to pay at a machine in the main building, so you can't bugger off and try and find a space in one of the others.

As for public transport, one hospital is a longish walk and then two buses, or bus/train/bus, the other is a very infrequent bus service (hourly or two-hourly, depending on the time of day) or bus/train/bus. The infrequent bus is £6.50 return, but is still the cheapest public transport option. Both are approx 10 miles away, so even if you spend £3 on parking, it's still cheaper to drive.

Count yourself lucky you have a car park. Our big hospital has just one small car park and parking is already a nightmare. They're shutting it for 2 years in order to add an upper level, so for 2 years, there's no public parking provision at all. A classic poor planning foul up - the hospital has been growing for about 20 years and is now about four times it's original size, so why the didn't they extend the car park a decade or two ago before it was enlarged. Parking was bad back then and it's ridiculous now - it's nothing new - didn't the hospital bosses realise that making it much bigger (and closing down hospitals in nearby towns) would increase traffic and parking needs? Clueless!

Hospital parking is a nightmare that you the have to pay for.
I really wish there was more accessible public transport to our main one 30 miles away. But it's miles from a train station and several bus/train changes away. It's a complete nightmare to get to if you don't drive/don't live close to it.

lakielady all the car parks I've ever been in that are ticket on entry and pay to leave, have a 15 minute grace period. So if you insert your ticket into the barrier less than 15 minutes after you entered you can get out for free. It's designed for scenarios like that where there aren't any spaces.

Since when do people stand in spaces hogging it for people??

I do it all the time. Sometimes it's the only way to get a space. If a car parked outside our house moves, one of us will stand in it while the other one goes to fetch the car from whichever far-flung road we've had to park it in. If we didn't do that, by the time we had fetched the car, the space would have gone. I can't see a problem with it. It's the first person to physically claim a space that gets it, not the nearest car.

The carpark at our local hosp is chaos and everyone parks on the grass banking or on double yellows when there are no spaces. Luckily the wardens don't issue tickets as they know it's the only option. It is one of the take a ticket to get in set up though so you're on the timer to get in. The amount of times I've seen the exit barrier out of order because someone has rammed through it (which then makes it free for all until it's fixed 😁)