[Closed] How many car parking spaces/people in your office?

We're much smaller but have the same issue of insufficient to go around. There are roads nearby (within 100yards) that are non residential and with no parking restrictions. Apparently I need to provide more parking on site. I could do, but would involve knocking down either the factory or offices...
I have put in decent bike sheds and there is a shower. There was zero additional cycling uptake!

Well, if you work at the Council building on the same industrial estate as me, you just park all the way up the entrance road for the estate so everybody else has negotiate it single file all day long, as well as park in the car parks for Sainsbury's and B&Q and ignore the fact there's a train station less than 10 mins walk away or a bus stop 5 minutes. Obviously don't even consider letting anyone else into your car to share the journey either.

Depends where you are located. Obviously requirements will differ between a business based in the centre of London, and one out on an industrial estate in the wilds.

I had a client who had a very large site some considerable miles outside a major city. They funded a bus service for staff to use, which was very popular.

should there be a car parking space for every single employee is that what your saying ?

Around local to me permission is granted based on them not giving a space to every employee to encourage other ways of traveling to work - be it by employers bus, local bus , car share , cycling etc etc .

12 people in our office and 5 spaces, although we can fit another 4 cars in the car park blocking each other in.

We're rarely all in on the same day and a couple of us ride sometimes so it's not really a problem.

Of 14 people in our business, 9 drive, 2 use the bus and 3 cycle at least some of the time. I try and cycle in at least twice a week, and have the furthest commute of anyone that works here (23 miles one way, over a largeish hill). Unless someone is already a keen cyclist, distances of more than a few miles are not considered feasible it would seem.

What are your Christmas parties like?

Erm we have 1.5 - 2 spaces each which is just as well because some folk find it really difficult to park between the lines

3 spaces and 8 in the office. It's not really a problem as three of us use the train (and/or cycle in my case) and two walk to work. One of the remaining three, one sometimes uses the train.

No, I'm saying that at some point it should no longer be the companies problem. They have bike facilities/showers, bus services, car share schemes. We are within 2 miles of the town centre with good rail links. And yet people will go out of their way to not use any of this.

I think the figure is that 80% of employees live within 2miles. I've cycled past people leaving their house 1 mile away who then spend 20minutes driving around the car park complaining how busy it is.

Almost none. City centre premises with some visitor parking but only the very top dog partners get parking.

We have 18 staff and a car park with 9 spaces. Apparently even though around 50% of the staff all come from one town they all need their own cars so have just taken to parking on the grass at the side of the building and half on the kerb round the corner.

A cycle commute for me would be 13 miles, quite a bit of it on fairly busy roads plus I'm unfit so I would have to get out the house at about 6am for a 7:30am start.

At one place I worked there were two people living in the same property and who both worked for the company in the same building who drove to work in their own cars. It wasn't as if either worked late or went anywhere different after work. 🙄

Loads. Which is just as well, because according to Google:

Driving: 52m (and that's proved to be pretty accurate IME)
Public transport: 2h 46m. Involving three buses, two trains and a decent amount of walking.

I'm not going to sell up & relocate my family for a contract job that could end at short notice, and the whiney smartarses who say "[i]well, you should just get a job that's five minutes from home, that's what I did[/i]" must either live in a big city or don't have a specialist job. Or are incredibly lucky.

I work in the largest insurance claims office in Europe (apparently) about 1200 people, but with parking for 300. So they spend an absolute fortune on paying people to park in the local park and ride, and laying on a double decker bus to ferry them, in addition, you can get the bus for free from centre of town out. Each space at the park and ride costs them £1200 a year.

Yet despite having 8 locked bikes nicked outside, they thought we were being funny when we asked for better security for our bikes and have downgraded from having the use of four different cycle-to-work schemes to just the Halfords one to save money and they don't see the irony...

My wife works at large hospital, for 9am there isn't enough parking for the staff by 40%, so they park all over the grass and elsewhere, if you want a parking space for 9am be there for 7.30!

A cycle commute for me would be 13 miles, quite a bit of it on fairly busy roads plus I'm unfit so I would have to get out the house at about 6am for a 7:30am start.

6 spaces, 19 people - our "parking solution" is the road or the pub next door (they don't mind).

I'm fully awake, yet can't work out how to get 2 kids from home to two different schools and 6 miles further to work can be done without a 'parking solution' especially as I need to go places during the day for work.

People need to wake up to the idea that their circumstances may not be identical to their own.

500+ in the City. Quite rightly, zero parking spaces.

What are your Christmas parties like?

Ours are great, we have 2 other offices, with 10 and 20 ish people in them, who all come to the Christmas do which is usually in a big hotel near Hull, and we get bed and breakfast included and can bring partners at no extra expense if we want as well!

25 staff and about 40 parking spaces. Office leased from council on a business/industrial park at the edge of a small town.
I am the only person who cycles (15 miles each way) or uses public transport although some people live less than a mile away.

My currently place has about 500 on site with parking a bit tight but manageable. There is no public transport. Not even bad public transport, just none. Cycling, even for people that live <1mile away involves negotiating dual carriage way and a roundabout over the A19. I've done it - even for a serious cyclist it's terrifying. So in our case it really is the companies role to sort it out which they mostly did by leasing another car park.

My previous company had a difficult parking situation. It was a first come first served with anyone after 8.20am having real issues (start time was anything before 9). It was pretty unfair on anyone who had commitments in the morning, such as kids. There was viable public transport and cycling but for most people driving was quicker. IMO it would have been fairer to charge for parking to create a level playing field. The parking spaces cost the business money in any case.

City centre office, 30 ish people at my firm with 1 parking space which is reserved. 6 or 8 drive in and spend £8 per day to park, the rest use a combination of bikes, trains and buses. Office as a whole likely has 1000 or so people in and 100 spaces max. Lots of very secure bike parking though, always busy too, good showers, lockers and a drying room help encourage it.

That's pretty normal for a city centre office in my experience.

400 or so, around 10 parking spaces (one was converted into bike parking a few years ago).
Happily, the number of bikes has increased from about 4-5 in the previous area to 20-30 in the larger area now available (combined with showers). I think this is partly due to increased general cycling though, as the increase was gradual.
I would suggest that if they complain and some are driving a mile, you put in restrictions on who can park at work (those that need the company car for business first, then those 10+ miles away, 5+ miles away etc. until you have no spaces left). That'll learn 'em.

50-60 people, 2 spaces (mainly for visitors)

Like Sundayjumper the public transport to get to work involves a lengthy walk to get a bus, then another to get closer to my work and then another walk. It's nearly 2 hours of travelling and I'm only 8 miles from work. The buses are the main problem as they take such convoluted routes to ensure they go the newly built interchange.
I would cycle but we have no shower facilities and the wet wipe cleanup after still leaves me feeling dirty all day. I don't tend to cool down for a while either so just sweaty again which isn't fair on my colleagues either and not very professional when meeting clients.
It would be easier to do a steady walk to work but I don't have a spare 4 hours a day to go to and from work.

City as well. We don't have all the floors in the building, but at a guess, 1,500 - 2,000 total.

4 car spaces 30 odd for mo'bikes. 70 ish for push bikes.

Reading the comments about awkward public transport I realise I'm pretty lucky. If I use the train then I can get dropped off by my wife on her way to her workplace which is in the opposite direction to mine (assuming she's not biking in). Then at the other end it's a five minute walk to the office.

Surprisingly it's only about five minutes quicker than biking the whole way (21Km).

I've been invited to apply for jobs elsewhere in the area but as soon as I looked at the time involved in getting there I'd decline. An hour and a half at either end of the day isn't worth it IMO.

@philjunior - A financial institution near us did that. What a palaver! You'd think they'd been asked to sacrifice their first born. They are so lazy that they drive into town at lunch time despite the offices being less than 400m from the town centre.

410 people/3 car parks. Council PPP building, part of the deal is they promote green transport options.

About 9000 people, not sure about the number of car parking spaces but enough that anyone you talk to there will recognise it as a problem - not enough desks either!

Schemes that are in place to try and alleviate the problem
Train station 5 mins walk
2+ only parking spaces nearest the buildings
Limited parking permits for people who live inside 3 miles (limited means only after midmorning, by which point the car parks are full)
Cycle parking aplenty - no cycle to work scheme though, unless you count the option of an advance in salary
Segregated cycle paths

Personally I cycle every day so it's not a huge problem for me, but when people are turning up at work at quarter to 7 to ensure they get a space and a desk it's a bit bonkers.

No prizes for guessing where I work by the way..

I work in the cushy public sector. they've found that charging your staff for a parking permit seems to motivate them onto their bikes quite well.

Large Pharma manufacturing site, it's absolutely awful for car sharing, I only know of a few that share. Lots of folks on flexi/different start times doesn't help, and we're also out of town in brown belt area of a new town, which isn't really served by public transport.

A hell of a lot more folks could cycle, but are just too bastard lazy to be honest, as most people out of nearly 400 will live within 10-15 miles, and as it's a new town, there's great cycle paths everywhere.

Our HQ in Brentford pay their staff £1 a day to cycle to work, which gets credited onto a card that they can use in the onsite Evans shop.... The buggers.

I've just bought a motorbike due to parking constraints around our workshop.

about 300 folk, around 15 -20 spaces. I have one of them 🙂

Its not luck that gives you a public transport / cycle commute. Its about setting your priorities and building your life around not needing a car.

4,000 people - around 1,500 parking spaces.

Allocated on length of service

tjagain - Member
Its not luck that gives you a public transport / cycle commute. Its about setting your priorities and building your life around not needing a car.

Large Pharma

Our HQ in Brentford

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Lol @ned!

Its not luck that gives you a public transport / cycle commute. Its about setting your priorities and building your life around not needing a car.

Do you decide every morning to be holier than thou, or just most days?.

Its not luck that gives you a public transport / cycle commute. Its about setting your priorities and building your life around not needing a car.

Not really - unless I want to move house nearer my job - which considering I have very little job security beyond a rolling 12 months isn't going to happen.
There isn't a great deal of work in my industry in bike-commute distance from home.

My place has 24 employees and enough parking spaces for everyone -which is good considering pretty much everyone drives.
We're on an out-of-town industrial park with poor public transport.
For me to commute via public transport from Bromley to Laindon would be Bus-Train-Tube-Train-Bus and 3 hours+
Cycling not an option - 29 miles with the Dartford crossing in between.
Driving - 35-40 mins.

tjagain - Member

Its not luck that gives you a public transport / cycle commute. Its about setting your priorities and building your life around not needing a car

That's you humped for the District Nurse job then.

Nobeer - no - just pointing out there are other ways of living your life with different priorities.

One of mine is that work must be within muscle power of home. Another is I have to live within easy distance of a main line train station.

Its all about the priorities you set for living yo9ur life. I made my choices, you make yours but don't pretend there is no alternative. There are - just ones you chose not to take.

Your life, your choice but don't confuse "want" with "need"

PP - I hated driving a car around for the DN job I had briefly - but I still cycled to work - the car was kept at work not at home.

Approximately 300 people in our office and maybe 25 spaces.. City centre location and only the top brass get a space plus visitors.

We have a deal where we can park in a local multi-storey for £4/day which is a ten minute walk away..

I try to cycle most days as there is secure bike storage and good showers etc. You still get people saying stuff like:

"What's up? Is your car in the garage?"
"You cycle 6 miles to work, no way!"
"Surely you didn't ride your bike in that?! (rain)"

Mental. I realise I'm lucky in that I can cycle to work because it's only a short distance and the facilities are good - Having been at my current place for 7 years don't think I could take a job somewhere where I relied purely on my car.

About 100 employees. 100 spaces. Everyone car commutes. 0700 start is before public transport.
I salute the mobility given by the car.

don't pretend there is no alternative.

I don't recall saying that? I'm quite happy to cycle to work, 3 days as I do, the other 2 I have to be home to get the wee yin.

Not aimed at you specifically.

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research institute/uni in central london

quite close to the tube and plenty of bike racks, and a big track pump next to them

36 people and no parking spaces - nearest unpaid spaces are about a mile away.
I cycle in, and bring my Brompton into the office and put it under my desk which I think upsets some people - but I don't care.

Scud - Bishopbriggs?

Typically the County Councils will require 1 parking space for every 25m² of office floor space.

I live 12 miles away - train would take two and a half hours! I'd cycle but we have no showers and its up a dirty great hill so wet wipes wouldn't do the job.. I often need my car to visit sites at short notice so its not really doable.

2 spaces (directors) and 80+ employees in Manchester city centre.

I can see the train station from my window and we've got a good few that cycle in. New building doesn't have any though.

3 in office... about 10 spaces in our car park.

I cant think of any reason why I would want to work in a city center.

Potential for 4500 people, several thousand parking spaces

about 14000 people on site, maybe 7000 spaces.

Loads of public transport links (30-40 buses per hour at peak times/shift changes/etc) 15km from the city centre, effectively on our own site.

Loads of people cycle/motorbike, 20+ bike parks/motorbike parks, mostly full most of the summer, 2/3rds full through the winter. (motorbike parks are empty, only the hard of thinking would ride a motorbike in the winter over here). Loads of lift sharing going on too, think theres even a few shift/building based websites to support it.

Unfortunately, due to a load of bus route changes, i've gone from a 75-90 minute public tranpsort journey to 2:30 minimum. So i drive 50 minutes each way.

No, i'm not moving.

6000+ employees over a combination of office staff, 2+3+4 shift workers. Loads of people lift share not sure how many spaces. Only a problem days to lates. The biggest pain is trying to get of the car park at the end of a shift. Bike sheds but I wouldn't leave my bike in one, bikes continually go missing.

We pay for parking here, but it's a wage realted scale, but it stops meaning that the majority of staff have the worst deal. it's cheaper to get a parking ticket a month than pay.

Also no discount for cycling - so i'd have to pay full price when i normally ride 4 days per week.

Its not luck that gives you a public transport / cycle commute. Its about setting your priorities and building your life around not needing a car.

until they cancel the bus service from your suburb.

3 people, 2 spaces. One drives, one cycles and I walk. Works for us.

What amazes me is places like Chandlers Ford near Southampton.

They say 1 parking space per 2 workers (or whatever it is) and afaik there is no regular and reliable bus route to most of it from the nearby residential areas or Southampton city centre. The roads are too narrow to cycle safely on, they've not put proper cycle infrastructure in and the nearest rail station (which incidentally is poorly served for coming in from the east so it's only any use from Southampton central or Bournemouth) is at least a mile away and probably more.

By 800 in the morning every side street is rammed with cars to the point that coming out of a car park is a lottery as every exit has seriously obscured sight lines.

It's not isolated either. The development at Whiteley is just as bad.

I'm all for trying to encourage people to use sustainable options but the point is they need to actually exist before you create a culture of I'll just drive anyway and dump it here on the kerb/grass/zebra crossing. Once people become accustomed to the crap facilities you have totally lost all chance imo.

Shame there's some great office property out that way!

About forty of us and enough spaces for all plus visitors. Quite a few car share, one or two cycle and I walk, cycle or drive depending if I need to travel to visit customers or suppliers. This week I walked Monday, Tuesday, car today as I had to visit a customer DC, car tomorrow to visit our HQ and a customer's shops. Nice canal walk in and home on Friday.

Another spoilt public sector employee here in a rundown northern industrial town.400ish staff,10 spaces,2 reserved for disabled the rest for the managers but it's my turn to have our command's space tomorrow as our manager is off 🙂
TJ our office is due to close sometime between now and 2020,though noone can actually give us a definitive date.Most staff here live locally and that's why they work here.There are decent local buses and trams but no train station now because we got the trams.Lots of other staff were at other local offices but due to their local office closures and centralisation of work had to move here and have to drive,it was either that or no job.Our "cushy" public sector condidtions have been changed so that we can be moved anywhere in the UK as long as it's "reasonable".
We will all be in the same boat in the next two years.

30 odd people, everybody drives. We are on a private site, the company that owns the site forbids us walking to the canteen on the misguided basis of h&s

bamboo - how would you get to the canteen if you didn't have a car?

57 people in my work, space for 60 cars plus the works vans in a barrier controlled yard at the rear. Was all fine until a kid's gym opened up next door, they now use our car park and park all over the place! I'm the only one to cycle in, two walk, 3 motorbikers (2 when it's sunny only) and the rest drive. Not too bad considering we start and finish at all hours of the day and night.

If I lived further out than I do now I would drive to the north of Cardiff, park in Forest Drive and bike in from there. Plenty do already as it saves the city centre traffic chaos and it's traffic-free along the Taff Trail into the city centre. I am noticing a lot more commuting cyclists this year, even before the weather got good.

Tj- the only other option is bike/motorbike. Everybody drives. Funnily enough the site owners built a load of bike sheds and purchased a load of boris style bikes over 12 months ago, but their health and safety people have prevented them being introduced.

You can get to the front of the site via bus, but if you work at the back of the site you aren't allowed to walk to your office.

This is one of the government enterprise zones.

1, 10 employees. I park for free 100m away in the local market square.

I do think TJ has a point. Long term a population all commuting daft distances by individual fossil fuelled vehicle is not sustainable. Those working in A and living in B and vice versa in a web of shuffling us all around twice a day.

My wife used to work for an employer with 4000 staff on the site and about 1000 car park spots - a maximum the local authority would allow them to have when they expanded to minimise traffic on/off site. There was a lot of car sharing with the matches arranged by the employer. Also a shuttle bus to the nearest railway station. There was a system where locals could shop employees trying to park in local residential streets with disciplinary consequences (bringing into disrepute). It kind of worked but there were plenty of folk grumpy about it.

I like the idea of paid for staff parking with the cost varying by wage but only if you used the funds raised to subsidise alternative transport costs or facilities or the mother of all christmas parties. And charged by the day to promote part time public transport/cycling use and discounting cars carrying more than one employee.

I do wonder if the employer could/should take into account how their potential employees would get to work when taking them on if they are not able to park them on site - the candidate needs to provide a transport to work plan when they apply or they restrict their 'catchment' to provable possible locations. Business rates could also include the commuting impact of your employees to encourage keeping their commuting to a minimum or pay more if you don't care.

16k employees, not all in the office at the same time (because there ain't enough desk space) and 2 parking spaces.