If you buy a massive 4×4 SUV...

[bravefox]

... to ask you to practise parking it in a single space? Saturday afternoon in the town multistorey and the number of huge cars parked half in a second space is 🤯

Also the majority of these people don’t actually own the car because they cannot afford it! 😂

Agree!

The issue is large 4x4s in overcrowded metropolitan areas, especially in the South of England, not 4x4s per se.

If you are regularly driving through deep surface water or engaging your diff lock to get out of your drive when it is icy, they are entirely appropriate.

You probably shouldn’t write stuff like this online. 😂

Not necessaily. There's lots of double-sided car-backing-onto-car rows of bays. This single row is closest to the supermarket (apart from the disabled/family bays) and they clearly couldn't fit another double sided bay in. For people who aren't ready/able to get a disabled sticker, and can't load their cars from the side, they'd work well. Drive in forwards, drive out the other side. Works well.

They’re bad ass? The vantage point is good and high? They’re loud and chuntery? They tow? They fit lots? I can fit a sheep in it? They bounce nicely across fields? You can drive through closed gates?

Angled spots are much safer because they're easier to get into and out of. That's why they're the norm in the US, where a lot of design of spaces used by the public is based on the cost of insurance.

They're easier to back out of because they give you a better view of traffic as you're backing out. They're easier to get into because you don't have to make a wide turn to line up your vehicle, and your risk of hitting a vehicle parked alongside as you drive in is also greatly reduced. They discourage backing in (which comes with the risk of hitting other parked cars depending on camera availability in the car). They reduce the turning distance needed in a car park - cars need more space to enter and back out and do the necessary turns in a perpendicular car park. They cut down on delays to other traffic in the carpark (and exhaust emissions) - there's less sitting there watching someone back out and then do multiple maneuvers trying to get themselves pointed in the right direction to drive away.

• I live in the US, where car parks are properly designed (wider spaces, more often than not angled).*

Were in the us last year and the kids nearly fell over in shock at the size of the cars there, so many absolute tanks!! The emissions on them must be nuts!!!

It kinds of puts our efforts to lower our emissions into perspective.

IMHO most people in the UK park like shit. I am disabled but badgeless and need a decent space when getting out, so when I park I park to one side, ensuring that the driver (like myself) next to me can get in and out. If that means me going in front first rather than my preferred reverse, then so be it. All it takes is a little thought. If I can find an end space, then great, but if not, then it's one-sided for me. I believe in some countries that's how everyone parks, and it works for me, apart from the inevitable occasional twat.

I would ask them not to park outside school while dropping off on the zigzag lines. Knobhead.

This is a great post. As I've said up thread, I actually own an SUV myself.

I don't have a problem with the vehicles themselves, just people who buy them and aren't able to park in a single space.

Lots of posts saying 'but average 1970s space is 240cm etc'. Please show me the cars that are wider than 240cm then.

Just learn to park properly!

I complain, they're way too long and also they poke out of side roads because the driver cant see without putting the car right out into the road

Space standards are still 2.4m wide for parking.
The problem is not necessarily that cars can’t fit in but that people are much larger now so many will park not central in order to give themselves room to get out.
Ive noticed if someone is badly parked they’ve usually given more room on the drivers side.

Back in the day Rolls Royce took back a motor from a farmer who was using it that way for breach of branding

Cross posted wrt the many benefits of angled parking spaces.

Each municipality sets its own rules about backing into spaces. Stores with carparks can also set their own rules. Before the advent of rearview cameras in cars, the local ground level municipal carparks and carparks in big box stores nearby all had signs forbidding backing into parking spots. You could get ticketed in the municipal carparks, and fines were steep. That rule no longer applies because so many cars now have cameras that a nine year old child could probably park a car today. The backing in rules only applied in perpendicular car parks - its impossible and very inadvisable to try backing into an angled spot.

Not all of the US has lots of space - the urban east coast is very densely populated and landlocked. I live in a landlocked suburb in the midwest where the only option for building is up, or demolition and repurposing of existing sites.

But even in rural areas, angled parking is preferable because many people have trucks as their primary vehicle (Ford F150 style).

I always reverse in spaces but my favourite thing to do is let DH run in the supermarket while I sit and watch everyone park 😂the amount of people who can't park even in tiny cars is enough entertainment for me instead of going shopping

The opposite is held to be true in the US in perpendicular car parks. The potential damage to cars parked alongside from buggies or supermarket trollies pushed to the back of the car to enable loading of the boot at the back of the parking spot is a major consideration.

Perpendicular car parks where backing in is possible also require more space in the aisle for reversing maneuvers, so nobody is coming out ahead, space wise.

@mathanxiety

Thanks for your latest input on angled parking spaces. Fascinating. I clearly need to investigate further. If this thread is still running. I'll post again.

Hopefully I'll also visit the US this year and I'll pay close attention to the parking design. I don't suppose you (or anyone onthread) lives near Phoenix, Arizona?

@bravefox
Which? magazine reported in 2023 that there are 161 car models on British roads that are wider than the average puny British parking space of 2.4m.

In the same way as the majority of people don’t actually own their houses because they can’t afford it?

If they can afford to pay the finance, they can afford the car.

I always try to make sure to knock over as many children as I can with my SUV before I park in the disabled space outside my local hospital.

Thank you. It just seemed like common sense to learn how to properly manoeuvre and park my RR. My instructor gave me so much confidence, I would recommend their courses so much.

Thanks for reversing in! There should be a loyalty programme/DVLA sticker for this. 5 consecutive reverse parks and you get a free cup of coffee. 😀

However, may I ask if you leave the car lights on and the engine running so nobody knows if you're going to pull out in 5 seconds or 30 minutes? (Other DH's shopping mileage may vary.)

Houses are appreciating assets, cars are depreciating assets.

Plenty of wealthy people don't spend lots on their cars for that reason.