To welcome Cardiff Council's proposed higher parking charges for larger/heavier cars

[LlynTegid]

Cardiff council are planning to have higher parking charges for larger/heavier vehicles (so including most SUVs). I welcome this, wish it was the case everywhere, though a second best option to the separate driving test I would prefer.

AIBU to welcome this?

What do you drive?

I’ve got a Sportage. It feels giant to me, but we couldn’t fit two ERF seats in the Polo, nor my work equipment with a travel pram in the boot anything intermediate.

I’d not mind paying more to park it, but I’m not sure a Land Rover for 2 kids and a sizeable dog is that unusual or outlandishly big.

Bigger car absolutely does not equal "better off" these days. This policy is largely focused on permits anyway, so residential rather than visitor parking.

Why make it a no go area just because you’re being charged a fee to park your massive car?

Well, if this change is agreed on and enacted, people would be forgiven for thinking that the only car everyone will be allowed to own is a Lada Riva. Let's face it.

Until they improve public transport in Wales it’s a stupid idea. At least give people another option that’s reliable and frequent, unlike the trains and buses we have now.

No, people would not be forgiven for thinking that because only absolute dribbling idiots would think that.

It's not envy, it's practicality. Most people don't need giant cars, and they're a pain in the ass for other road users. They don't fit into standard size parking spaces, their higher headlights blind everyone in a regular size car, they take up way too much room on narrow country lanes and force other cars into hedges to avoid them, they're bigger and heavier so their increased velocity means they are far more likely to cause serious injuries or fatalies in the case of collisions and as pps have said, your visibility of smaller humans like children is hugely reduced, bumping the risk factors up even higher.

I don't think it's nice to mock people who are unable to keep from dribbling.

Because standard sized parking and roads in the UK have not kept up with vehicles getting larger. Don't forget the infrastructure was designed for horse and carriage. In contrast, America has just a couple of hundred years of history and went straight to larger roads and parking spaces. They didn't need to adapt because they're already a huge country compared to our tiny, overpopulated little island with crumbling infrastructure.

Exactly it’s not envy. If that’s people’s comeback to the long list of very real and valid concerns about their dangerous vehicle then it just shows how in denial they are and how full of self importance they are. Nowhere near jealous.

Yes and what a combination that is. Massive car taking up loads of room, right on the lines of the parking space but then the person in it, is too fat to squeeze through the door opening so they need even more space.

We need to get people back to using their legs a bit more. We live 1 mile from the town centre and neighbours drive to the multi storey for shopping. Carrying it and walking is healthier and free.

Agree completely.

Make public transport an attractive and cheap option then people will naturally leave cars at home. See Europe- France, Italy for example.

Just an idea but instead of taxing ordinary people more/by a different method, maybe we look up at the capitalist classes that cause financial misery and struggle we find ourselves in.

Good point. We’ve moved to a city centre and I’m looking for a shopping trolley 😄

@sleeppleasesoon umm have you ever tried to get public transport in rural France or even in some of the smaller cities? I was in Narbonne in the summer and getting a bus to a village just 15km away was an exercise in disappointment and kafkaesque timetables.

Yes we have a house in rural France, near Vire.

Rural France is a somewhat different geographically to a capital city in Wales. The discussion is in relation to the latter.

You know there are other disabilities other than wheelchair user….? 🙄

I drive a Nissan Leaf, my kids aren’t in car seats anymore though.

When the kids were smaller we had estate cars for the extra stuff - my main issue with SUVs is that they are much more dangerous for pedestrians/other vulnerable road users, and most people who drive them do so because they like the higher driving position rather than because they need the space (which an estate car can provide) or off road capabilities.

@sleeppleasesoon well Cardiff and Narbonne are pretty much the same size population wise. My point being contrary to you post France and Italy don't have amazing public transport in many places - it is more the city centres are more walkable but travel outside of those and you find the same issues and generally the same attitudes as the UK.

anyway I am not sure rural and suburban Wales would ever get the level of public transport that would satisfy the kind of people who like to drive large cars and SUVs in to Cardiff centre. I live in zone 3 London with four bus routes at the end of my road (two of which are 24 hours), trains every 10 minutes and many services in walking distance and locally people still object to any measures to shift costs on to motorists using exactly the same argument "well if public transport was better first ....". It will never be good enough for some people to accept motorists have to pay more.

Yes I have personally tried to get rural French public transport and agree about the strange timetables.

That does not justify driving an SUV one bit.

The Cardiff proposal I support as a second choice option. My first choice would be for large cars to have a separate category of car licence, for which you have to take some form of extra test in. Perhaps also have to hold a standard car licence without any bans or points for a given period of time. Car number plates could identify a large car in some way.

I'll flip that question.

You drive a big car and drive to a car park built 20 years ago. Where do you park it? Between two other big cars or next to a smaller vehicle? The smaller vehicle, because you obviously recognise that you will benefit from being able to open your car door into a greater space.

But do you think a small car ever looks to park between two large vehicles?

No, because often it means parking and then pulling forward so DH can get out and let the kids out before I reverse back into the space, or pulling out before I can get the kids in, which (a) is inconvenient and (b) an unnecessary risk that we wouldn't be exposed to if parked next to another smaller car. Its a nightmare if I'm alone and sandwiched in with the kids and I'm sick of it.

Pay more for a bigger space.

@BaconCheeses I don’t really want a bigger space in a car park. Keeping the smaller spaces is easier and I just won’t go into Cardiff.

This - the reports on how dangerous SUVs are to pedestrians compared to more traditional designs is frightening. I’m sure I can remember news reports on how car designs were becoming safer in collisions when I was growing up - it’s really sad now that car manufacturers know how to make cars safer, but are choosing not to do so.

There also seems to be an issue that older car parks aren’t designed to bear the weight of modern SUVs which are much heavier than say a Ford Cortina. Potentially that could be quite an issue for city centres.

As for the size of vehicles - the dimensions of car parking spaces are fairly standard. I get that modern cars will be a bit wider than older ones due to modern safety features, but they still should be able to fit within spaces - it’s a fairly basic part of the design specification and something that car manufacturers really ought to be able to get right.

The problem is that these large cars fill the space right up to the line smaller ones. Two huge cars with a space in between, that space will be too small for a smaller car because there will be no room for the doors to open, you see?

I used to work in an office building that was built in the late 80s/early 90s. It had an underground car park. When people started driving the behemoths in it made it impossible for those with smaller cars.

EVs are the heaviest not necessarily the biggest so how does this work?!

happy to pay for a bigger space for a bigger car. If spaces stay the same then that’s discrimination