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 🤯

Shhhh. You are ruining their rage filled fun

Thank you!

My little Oxfordshire market town is increasingly surrounded by new estates, apparently entirely bought by SUV-type and/or van owners. Parking in our older supermarket is now a complete nightmare. FWIW the newer Lidl has much better sized parking bays, albeit NO direction markings on the lanes... exciting times.

Unless you are a farmer, there is no need to own one. For city dwellers, they are very useful if you want to make sure you deffo kill anyone you accidentally bump into while driving... cant' think any other reason to own one.

@VivaVictoria

MN seems to have a high percentage of people with horse boxes.
Yah.
Once you are out in the countryside of course you will come across a disproportionate number of people with horses. Just as you will come across a disproportionate number of people by the coast who own boats. It's not rocket science.

The people who need them can park them. The people who can actually afford them and aren't financed to the hilt don't worry about them being dinged accidentally in a car park.

I drive a wide vehicle (2.2m wide inc mirrors) only in very old car parks with narrow spaces do I struggle to park. Everywhere else I manage to park absolutely fine in one space. I'm aware I'm in a wide, long vehicle and I always park respectfully. I rarely squeeze in between 2 cars unless I have to, not because I can't park but because I'm aware I make it difficult for them to see if they are front in.

Another major part of the problem is people are larger now so whilst size 6 me can squeeze in and out of my doors in a small space other people can't as they are too big to sort 2 spaces are required to ensure they can actually get in and out of their vehicle.

I have to admit that I quite enjoy watching people in their Chelsea Tractors trying to squeeze into driving spaces..especially since I have a little mini so have no problems whatsoever! I bloody love my mini ♥️

Agree
The safest thing to do is to reverse into a parking space.
Irrespective of personal convenience
Reversing in obviously means it’s safer to move away afterwards and particularly important if pedestrians are walking in the car park and if you have passengers in the back seat.

Most town centre multi-storey car parks were built in the 1960s/1970s when cars were a lot smaller. Councils COULD repaint all the parking bays and make them bigger but you would still have the problem of lack of space on the ramps and turning areas. Perhaps stick to surface car parks?

IMO those bloody enormous cars like tanks should pay double road tax. They take up too much space and the extra weight must surely cause more wear and tear on the roads than normal cars.

Not all farmers own horses ! ( if you were referring to pp re needed to horse boxes )
Not just farmers need 4x4s. If you use country roads all the time you’ll see they are not regularly, in fact never, upgraded. The back country roads are very difficult to navigate in lower slung cars.
People need those big tires to get over the constant pot holes and unmade dirt roads.

Ah, the frothing rage is strong on here I see.

I drive a RR, not one of the toy ones, one of the proper sized ones. My previous 2 cars were little city go-carts and I got sick to death of being road-bullied by larger cars.

Yes, I'm very good at manoeuvring it and parking it because I've enjoyed 2 separate Range Rover training courses. I never park across spaces because I don't need to.

I don't care about the size of the boot. I love that it glides along, as though it runs on double cream and has velvet tyres.

It isn't financed, but when I buy my next one in 3 years time I will definitely finance it because I've realised it's madness not to. My money works far harder for me by being sensibly invested, not tied up in a car chassis.

I'm not remotely precious about it. If it gets grubby then I get it valeted. If it gets a ding or a scratch then I get it repaired, it's no big deal.

So, it doesn't bother me in the slightest if someone in an angry little Corsa refuses to let me pull out, because I'm contentedly sitting in my own little 5* hotel on wheels.

@VivaVictoria it's not my car, it's a work car

Usually I'm driving a VW up, and even with that like I said those spaces are insanely tight
Anywhere else I don't have an issue in either car

Large SUVs in cities are selfish choices.

I used to teach at a private school in a very affluent area in central London. The amount of SUVs who drove about one mile and then attempted to park while leaving their engines running was ridiculous.

Despite letter after letter from the head and environmental campaign after environmental campaign, the same Range Rovers and huge Porsche 4x4s would be there day after day.

They did have one use though, they were a great indicator of difficult parents at parents’ evenings!

The issue is that they should be both stigmatised and taxed by the damage they do to the roads, which is a function of their mass, instead of revered and thought of as status symbols.

Once upon a time, sitting next to someone smoking a smart brand of cigarettes and blowing smoke in people’s faces was considered cool. Things do eventually change.

I always find these complaints weird. No one complains about estate or sedan cars even though they can easily be wider and longer than SUV. Some SUVs are not even much taller than some estates.

Interesting. My (old small) supermarket car park has a row of single ordinary (non-disabled) spaces with a driving lane on either side so people can load their boots. Perhaps suggest this to yours?

Interesting about the slanted spaces. We have these in a nearby farm shop and I hate them. I'd love some stats on why they're designed like that and the relative safety rates for different styles of parking.

mocktheorytest.com/resources/is-it-safer-to-reverse-into-a-car-parking-space/

My god, the comments and judgements on here are insane. Why can’t people drive an SUV if they want to, much safer for a driver. I agree that Range Rovers are huge but a lot are not. My VW T -Roc is an amazing car, does not feel huge but is a lot easier to park than my old Mini and a lot safer for me. Also has beepers everywhere just in case some unsupervised child wanders behind me when I have reversing lights on, just like most modern cars.

Why the hate, it makes no sense…live and let live! Most bad parking is drivers and not cars.

It's hard to fit three car seats into the back seat of the average small car. Sometimes the choice is dictated by safety legislation. Children have to be in a car seat or booster until age 12, and everyone needs a seat belt these days.

I live in the US, where car parks are properly designed (wider spaces, more often than not angled). Spaces are on average 8 feet 6 inches wide and 18 feet long, with a bit of variation on the smaller side. ADA compliant spaces are the average size with a no parking zone alongside to allow room to maneuver a wheelchair, set down a ramp or extend a lift.

The average UK parking space is 7 feet 9 inches wide and about 16 feet long. Cars are bigger now by a considerable amount and parking designers should take that into account.

When I do see a car occupying two spaces, it's usually an older rustmobile of small to average proportions, often with fuzzy dice or some other gaudy decoration hanging from the rearview mirror.

Agree then there’s the white van man/women/ person.

Agree.

Well said.

I must admit, this baffles me too. Large, luxe 4x4s usually come with myriad parking sensors, cameras etc and have great visibility due to higher driving position. It’s one of the reasons I have one (along with needing four wheel drive due to floods, farmers leaving god-knows-what on the road and other rural driving nightmares). There’s no excuse.

That cuts down avaiable parking spaces
2 to 1 v
1 to 1

Don’t think my two dogs would fit in a mini! Moving to a rural area, scouting it out this weekend, every driveway is covered with 4x4s, even driving in the streaming rain which has caused stupid amounts of red clay mud to slide into the lanes, is tricky. I dread to think how you’re expected to drive round these areas in a non 4x4. We had a short walk today up Garway Hill, the last few hundred yards of the ‘road’ is a mud track. A non 4x4 wouldn’t have made it up (no parking til the top and two houses en route , so leaving the car would have been extremely inconvenient for the owners)

@mathanxiety

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

That's interesting. (Obvs you lot have more space generally than we do. 😀)

1. What are the rules/recommendations of your Highway Code equivalent about reversing into parking spaces?
2. Why are your spaces often angled? Is there a provable/perceived benefit?

Yes, quite. My RR has umpty hundred cameras and sensors, and it can basically park itself of required. While manoeuvring it constantly scans dozens of times a second before it will move an inch.

Far, far safer than Maureen parking her Peugeot 206.

Love this 👆