Parking in Britain takes us far too long

ee, I like that Christophe!
I suppose it is possible to use park and ride, but unless the bus takes you somewhere near your destination it is a time waster.
So many of our cities are short of space for new car parks – so the answer to new parking space is to go up or down; Many European car parks are underground and we have a very few in this country. They are expensive – but what is the alternative?
As for parking neatly – well, my house overlooks a car park and the antics of some people is ludicrous. Perhaps the test should be tightened up in this respect.

I’m always amazed by the number of people who sit in queues going INTO a supermarket car park just to be a few yards closer to the main entrance. So satisfying parking in an easy to enter space slightly further out, walking past them in their queue and even better on my return when I’m nearer the exit and don’t have to sit in a queue to get out.

However, nothing irritates me more than the dreaded ‘parent and child’ spaces right outside said front door. Appreciate that extra wide spaces maybe needed but why right by the door? All empty when I do my weekly shop at an off-peak, push-chair-free time. My local Tesco, like most, even has a wide, safe, bollard-protected walkway running through the heart of the car park. Why not make the little blighters walk for a few minutes and shed some of that obesity they build up on all the fat-filled ready meals their idiot parents are about to purchase for them?

Can you tell I’m not a parent (yet)? May all change soon and then I’ll also join the brain-cell-shedded millions 🙂

I think inadequate parking provision, particularly in London is quite deliberate. There is a school of thought that if you remove the parking space, you remove the car journey. I suppose it might be good for the environment but not particularly good for business, or just the hope of getting things done relatively painlessly.

I think there is also a hefty degree of parking regulation bloat. Many roads which used to be free of yellow lines without much issue now have restrictions applying 7 days a week. It’s just daft really. CPZ’s are also ill thought out – roads overflowing with vehicles next to half deserted roads. Surely there’s a better solution – we pay the planners enough after all. Plus the applicable times seem to be totally arbitrary varying from street to street/borough to borough which just causes confusion.

That’s it…I’m going to buy a moped tomorrow!. But wait…you have to pay to park those as well now.

Anyway, I’m glad to have got THAT off my chest! As for the Garmin device is that the one linked to Parkopedia? You know you can get an App for that? Quite useful as it also gives you all the pricing info. So many car park owners display their prices on the approach lanes that by the time you read them it’s too late to turn round and they’ve got you hooked. I’m sure this could only happen in Britain.

All we need is an app to tell you where all the free parking is – or do we just want to keep that info secret?!

Why on earth aren’t car parks arranged on a slant park system. It’s easier to drive into, easier to reverse out and much less likely that someone else will reverse into your car. That would speed things up and possibly mean that car parks could be more logically designed.

It would be easier but it also takes up more space and car park owners don’t care about your car they just want to charge as many vehicles as possible.

Most parking problems are deliberately planned by councils, they’re all told to come up with a ‘green measure’ and the cheapest one is to put down a yellow line to say ‘we’ve done it now’ and then they get some money. Buses pollute more than cars anyway so i dont buy any green nonsense. They think if they make it harder to park then everyone will instantly leave the car at home, buy a bicycle and use public transport in a socialist utopia and that business and growth will never be affected adversely. What actually happens is people then spend 20 minutes circling the town, wasting fuel, waiting for a space, how can that be environmentally friendly?

I was in Felixstowe, Suffolk a few weeks ago and they now have one of those frighteningly ill thought out ‘shared place schemes’ or whatever, i remember the last time i went there you could park in the town, three yards from the shop. That was the only reason to go there, now theres nowhere to park and when you do park, theres no shops to buy anything from, because people do it online instead, too much hassle. Councils keep thinking they can kick the motorist in the face without any ill effects, its like they think cars are there for no reason? They view it all as ‘clutter’ and dont realise that by making it easier and more convenient to park, more people will go to these places. Its like they’ve decided they dont want motorists as customers, only pedestrians and cyclists.