Poorly designed car parks

Mudball

Mudball

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Had the joy of picking up family from Gatwick South Terminal. The bleeping car park is a joke.. too many options, too little signage and the turning radius due to the high pavement is bloody narrow to take an SUV around. Little wonder the place is full of paint from all the cars that kindly donated it.
Another one is one of the old car parks in the town centre which is now being demolished
 
The majority of car parks in Britain to be fair

Costco the one exception.. well the one near me anyways

If they took 1 or 2 car spaces away per row of the car park and made the spaces have a bit more room either side like those at Costco it’s perfect for almost all cars and everyone in general.

Could say modern cars are too big but what’s the excuse for car parks built in the last 10-15 years?
 
pauljames87 said:
The majority of car parks in Britain to be fair

Costco the one exception.. well the one near me anyways

If they took 1 or 2 car spaces away per row of the car park and made the spaces have a bit more room either side like those at Costco it’s perfect for almost all cars and everyone in general.

Could say modern cars are too big but what’s the excuse for car parks built in the last 10-15 years?
Click to expand...


Because the space available for parking dictates the distance between structural columns. Increase the width of a space and you make significant increase in the span of the ceiling/floor above. How thick that floor needs to be to support the loads on it from above is a squared function of the span between columns. So the ceiling /floor slab gets thicker quickly. The thicker the slab, the more it weighs, so the bigger the force on the columns which then makes them bigger and hence the gap between them gets smaller again. Wider the span therefore the heavier and expensive the building gets.
The column spacings have been optimised over many years and it’s has historically been convenient that you could get 3 cars in between adjacent columns
You could just put 2 cars in between, but then you get less cars paying fees.
You can then try parking the cars diagonally which gives some benefits, but then you can only turn one way out of the space, and therefore you find you need extra space elsewhere to create routes through / up / down.
So it is always easier just to do what has always been done and let the people buying big cars work it out :(
 
sev112 said:
Because the space available for parking dictates the distance between structural columns. Increase the width of a space and you make significant increase in the span of the ceiling/floor above. How thick that floor needs to be to support the loads on it from above is a squared function of the span between columns. So the ceiling /floor slab gets thicker quickly. The thicker the slab, the more it weighs, so the bigger the force on the columns which then makes them bigger and hence the gap between them gets smaller again. Wider the span therefore the heavier and expensive the building gets.
The column spacings have been optimised over many years and it’s has historically been convenient that you could get 3 cars in between adjacent columns
You could just put 2 cars in between, but then you get less cars paying fees.
You can then try parking the cars diagonally which gives some benefits, but then you can only turn one way out of the space, and therefore you find you need extra space elsewhere to create routes through / up / down.
So it is always easier just to do what has always been done and let the people buying big cars work it out :(
Click to expand...

Explain the non multi story tesco car parks then?
 
There's one in Aylesbury that can only have been designed by someone who doesn't drive.
To go in you have to turn to early and sharp as the lines of spaces are set approximately 120° from the road in.
Coming out and you can't make the turn of there's any cars coming in s you need to whole road to get round.
Designed by a Peasant
 
Oh, yeah, Northwick Park hospital. Terrible car park. I get the arguements above, sure, but in an already tight car park, don't run the down pipes for the drainage on the inside of the pillars. Front, back, fine, but reducing the car parking space? Bonkers. On pretty much every pillar. How much drainage does a multi storey need?
 
Modern cars are just a lot bigger than cars were when some of these car parks were designed or played out. The new Mini is nearly as big as an older estate car, the SUVs weren't even thought about back then.
Our Sainsburies has double lines between parking slots and everyone has enough space, but that is the only place I see those. Of course, once you add stories and structure you limit yourself. That's probably why you usually see an SUV parking in disabled or parent spots ;-(
 
British Parking Association - Off-street bays
When assessing the area needed for staff and customer parking, it should be noted that the current UK norm for parking spaces is 2.4 metres wide by 4.8 metres long. The space for manoeuvring (roadways) between bays is six metres.
These dimensions are neither minimum nor written in tablets of stone, and may be revised to suit particular needs.
 
rulefan said:
British Parking Association - Off-street bays
When assessing the area needed for staff and customer parking, it should be noted that the current UK norm for parking spaces is 2.4 metres wide by 4.8 metres long. The space for manoeuvring (roadways) between bays is six metres.
These dimensions are neither minimum nor written in tablets of stone, and may be revised to suit particular needs.
Click to expand...
Well if so many want to drive such big cars...;)
 
sev112 said:
Because the space available for parking dictates the distance between structural columns. Increase the width of a space and you make significant increase in the span of the ceiling/floor above. How thick that floor needs to be to support the loads on it from above is a squared function of the span between columns. So the ceiling /floor slab gets thicker quickly. The thicker the slab, the more it weighs, so the bigger the force on the columns which then makes them bigger and hence the gap between them gets smaller again. Wider the span therefore the heavier and expensive the building gets.
The column spacings have been optimised over many years and it’s has historically been convenient that you could get 3 cars in between adjacent columns
You could just put 2 cars in between, but then you get less cars paying fees.
You can then try parking the cars diagonally which gives some benefits, but then you can only turn one way out of the space, and therefore you find you need extra space elsewhere to create routes through / up / down.
So it is always easier just to do what has always been done and let the people buying big cars work it out :(
Click to expand...

True that new cars are bigger.. but it can be done.. the Heathrow T5 parking is excellent and it had been designed for MPVs and taxis
Another thing that is good about the T5 car park is the little green light above available car space. No more hunting around for spaces.. drive to the closest green light
 
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Gatwick is horrendous for parking the longstay is no better just wedge you and ferry you off.

Most supermarkets are garbage as well, even the parent and child ones at asda are normal small width they just happen to be closer to the door that doesn't help getting a kid in and out.

That being said though if car park designers were to take a look at Bluewater or even the new multistory in Lincoln they'd find a car park with very good size spaces even for a big wagon and plenty of them.
 
Tashyboy said:
I would suggest that if anyone has a problem with car parking spaces they should buy a BMW. Apparantly it gives you the right to park in the middle of two spaces like the twazzock in asda did last week..
Click to expand...

And double yellow lines don’t apply either
 
Imurg said:
In fact, hardly any rules of the road need apply..
Goes for Mercs, Audis and Women in their husband bought Range Rovers too.
1st page of the handbook,right at the top in big bold letters.
"You do own the road so you can do whatever you damn well like"(y):whistle:
Click to expand...
Audi could be right I seem to drive my Mrs one so much more like an *** than I drive my own car 😂

As for Range Rovers had to correct that bit you missed a few words out 😂
 
not helped my every other person on the road believing they need a big 4x4 even though they live in a town, never go offroad or tow anything;)
 
Wolf said:
That being said though if car park designers were to take a look at Bluewater they'd find a car park with very good size spaces even for a big wagon and plenty of them.
Click to expand...
It's just a shame they didnt create enough spaces as they intended people to spend only a short time there giving a big turnover in space, as well as staff not allowed to park there. Thats works doesn't it:cautious:
 
Bunkermagnet said:
It's just a shame they didnt create enough spaces as they intended people to spend only a short time there giving a big turnover in space, as well as staff not allowed to park there. Thats works doesn't it:cautious:
Click to expand...
Since when can staff not park there? All the people I know that work there park there 🤔

I'd guess that when they built it they expected the 13000 spaces was enough, however things have grown since then and they do have a lack of space for expansion,. Though could go upwards outside House of Fraser, John Lewis and M&S to created more multi story
 
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