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You know the sort..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38048793
Richard Ansell, who owns an Audi Q5, says "virtually all spaces are too small" for his car.
"If I park over the white line because another driver has struggled to fit in a bay I risk getting a parking ticket for parking illegally.
What a ****ing prick. Get a normal sized car then you utter bellend.
Get a normal sized car then you utter bellend.
Yup
Thought this was going to be about oysters and prawns and that.
Is disappoint.
Have 2 sizes of bay in car parks and charge more for the larger bays, simples
Problem with UK is that the space is quickly running out.
Either people just have to drive smaller or narrower cars or the parking space needs to be redefined.
Look at the stupid parking space below.
[img] 
[/img][url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38048793 ]From BBC[/url]
What a **** prick. Get a normal sized car then you utter bellend.
No need to get jealous just because Richard's done well for himself.
You should have tried harder at school, then you wouldn't be stuck with a shitty supermini that'll happily fit into cortina-sized spaces.
😀
Sorry Richard 😉
I'd wager it's this sort of knobber who dings and scratches other cars as he attempts to get his fat 'arris out of the car.
Q5 isn't even particularly big is it? Bloke needs to learn to drive.
To be fair, a Q5 isn't actually that big. And he's saying that other people can't park, not that he can't, in the OPs quote.
He's obviously a smaller bellend than a Q7 owner.....
(Skoda Fabia here, btw. And a sufficiently large penis that I don't need to compensate for)
No need to get jealous just because Richard's done well for himself.
how do you know he's done well for himself, could be on some sort of PCP deal, could be all sorts of things. Either way it is an innappropriate car for urban living, as are all the other 4x4s listed on that web page.
Next Chris Eubank will be complaining that he can't park his truck cab in Brighton town centre, and people will think he has a justified complaint.
Either way it is an innappropriate car for urban living
I thought it must have been a Q7, well maybe a Q5 is less bad.
how do you know he's done well for himself
He's rockin' a Q5. No matter how he's running it, he's got one. I'd guess the chap's winning in life.
So people park big cars in small spaces because they cant be bothered to go and find somewhere they can park? Reminds me of all the bikes locked to lamp posts and railings directly outside the place that person wants to go to, blocking the path with their half fallen over bike, instead of locking it to the (good quality) mostly empty bike rack 25m away where mine is locked. Most people are selfish in some way, its a fact of life.
The point that everyone seems to be missing is that all parking space dimensions are set according to specifications laid down around forty years ago. Cars, on the other hand, are significantly bigger*, I give you the Mini, a name that should be investigated by Trading Standards.
Most cars are around six to ten inches longer than a standard parking space, and roughly the same width' making getting in and out without damaging the next door car almost impossible.
It's got bugger-all to do with whether this bloke drives an X5, and everything to do with councils will do their dampest to get the maximum number of parking spaces into a given area, and making the spaces smaller than an average car is the ideal way to do it.
*Just compare a modern Golf with a Mk1 Golf, or a Polo, a Fiat 500...
Just park in the parent and toddler space and be done with it...... 😆
I'd guess the chap's winning in life.
If driving an Audi 4x4 is your definition of "winning in life" then I am very, very glad to say I'm losing 😀
Pig parker
Well being provocative I think the Q5 is big. When we had the BMW convertible I could clean it myself, now we have a Q5 I have to get some foreign chaps to do it for me as I feel using my own step ladders is too dangerous.
Just park in the parent and toddler space and be done with it......
This is good advice as if we are going to avoid an obesity epidemic the kids could do with the extra exercise, however I use the disabled bays as they need it more as some of them still fail the fitness to work tests.
I just throw mine in on an angle across two spaces
*Just compare a modern Golf with a Mk1 Golf, or a Polo, a Fiat 500...
Exactly. I haven't taken a tape measure to one recently but the last Polo I saw seemed about the same size as a MkI Golf. And have you seen the size of a Mondeo estate? Pretty sure that's way longer and wider than a 1974 Cortina Estate
And while we're at it, what about those twonks who think it's ok to drive diagonally across all the spaces just because there's nothing parked there?
Dumb thread. How much bigger do you think the footprint of a Q5 is than a focus? Bet a Mondeo footprint is bigger, but unlikely to get criticised in the same way. Usual mix of jealousy and ignorance (and a few people trying to lighten it up, thank God).
Bad parking is independent of the car.
the issigonis mini was 3m long by 1.3m wide
the Q5 is 4.7m long by 1.9m wide
but before everyone gives the yah-boo about how the issigonis mini isn't safe anymore, consider that Gordon Murray's T25 is the same width and even shorter than the mini so it can be done with modern engineering and the will to choose better options
or of course we could all ride our bikes a bit more, quick everyone buy a cargo bike
Do you think that if parking spaces were made smaller, fewer folk would buy big cars knowing they couldn't park up anywhere? Seems like a winner to me.
If we must, 2 rows of "big" spaces at the back of the car park furthest away from everywhere. Having happily driven a LWB transit most days it fitted between the lines in my local sainsburys but over on the length.
On the same note was riding down a small road and the amount of bigger SUV ( 🙄 ) type things that couldn't drive past each other was embarrassing.
Roads are not getting bigger in towns and cities, parking is not going to get bigger as bigger spaces means less spaces so time to think of some options?
If we must, 2 rows of "big" spaces at the back of the car park furthest away from everywhere. Having happily driven a LWB transit most days it fitted between the lines in my local sainsburys but over on the length.
Supermarket spaces a more than likely bigger than municipal parking spaces. I could get the Focus in most spaces, but the Kuga wouldn't fit in municipal car parks but would at supermarkets.
Cars have got bigger and alot of that is driven by safety. Do you think you can make a car as small as the original mini and it meet all the requirements for 5 star NCAP rating? The further you are away from the actual crash the safer you are.
I have a mondeo estate, not such an outrageous thing to drive but it's physically bigger than some parking spaces. Usually newer parking spaces, and often at supermarkets and the like- suggesting it's not about spaces needing to be made bigger, it's about people making spaces smaller. And it's an 11 year old car and 16 year old design so this is hardly a new development.
THe article mentions a standard parking space size, 4.8 x 2.4- my car would fit in that. I didn't know there was such a thing as a UK standard parking space but a lot of them out there aren't as big as that. A Q5 would fit fairly effortlessly in that.
If driving an Audi 4x4 is your definition of "winning in life" then I am very, very glad to say I'm losing
So true. Sadly some people have their priorities wrong.
Honda Jazz is 5 star, so it's not like everything has to be the size of a medium tank.
[i]Do you think you can make a car as small as the original mini and it meet all the requirements for 5 star NCAP rating?[/i]
Especially if it's to withstand being rammed by the likes of a Q7.
[img] 
[/img]
?
here we go - Gordon Murray designed the Maclaren P1 remember so not just some random chancer, not a problem with safety in small packages if you design them right
Euro Ncap
http://www.euroncap.com/en/ratings-rewards/latest-safety-ratings/?selectedClasses=1202&allProtocols=true&selectedMake=0&selectedMakeName=Select%20a%20make&selectedModel=0&includeFullSafetyPackage=true&includeStandardSafetyPackage=true&selectedModelName=All&selectedProtocols=24370,1472,5910,5931,-1,14999&allClasses=false#&allDriverAssistanceTechnologies=false&selectedDriverAssistanceTechnologies=
Possible to get a supermini with 5* so anything is possible...
Sorry, but for even modest/average sized cars, the typical NCP space is too small. You have to park so close to the car next to you even just to squeeze out that you leave at least one neighbor a pretty shit amount of space. The roadways are often far too tight, look at the scraches on most of the kerbs etc in any NCP.
I have to park in one when I work in the office, and the amount of people I see damaging their cars is crap.
I'd love a nice little coupe (wouldn't we all?), but I need a car to be practical for how I live so it's just not an option.
NCP is private no?
It's not the parking of "large" vehicles that boils my pi$$ , it's the fact that 75% of the people in them, in my area, insist on driving down the middle of a two way street in order to avoid scratching their wing mirror. aaagghh.
I'm with senor j on this one..
Living in Devon, anyone who insists on driving 2 feet away from the hedges to avoid scratching their paintwork, needs their car redistributing to someone with a little less money and a lot more sense
I can get a sodding massive works pickup truck into carparking spaces and still leave space for a normal sized person to get in and out. (The only problem is low roof heights in multi storey parks, but that's just a case of planning in advance) big cars aren't the problem, fat buggers that can't get in or out without having to swing a door fully open are the problem.....and those bloody old giffers...and people with young kids...Jesus just stop breeding and over eating and it would all rub along nicely
Tazzymtb you should have just gone for the fat kids for a more efficient criticism.
I kind of agree and disagree...
Yes, i think certain 'classes' of car are just getting too big - my sister drives a fancy new xc90 and is too scared to take it anywhere - in fairness it is massive! So this sort of negates the point of a vehicle for it's use..
In town there's one car park (council, but was NCP) that has small spaces - our octavia (which I accept isn't a small car, but it's our only car) will fit, but turning corners and the spaces are tight. I was in there in a mates Toureg and that WOULDN'T FIT UP THE 'UP SLOPE. Seriously! It had to mount the kerb it was too wide. Again, silly car!
RE the parent and child spaces - really these should be for babies, as the baby seat CANNOT squeeze out of a partially openend car door. If i'm with teh lad - 6, legs work fine, thin as a beanpole, then we park wherever and he plays frogger with the traffic...
SO in summary:
-super wide cars are silly
-people are allowed to have babies - they're hard, give them a break!
DrP
Cheers akira, I did think about it, but it would have missed the Gregg's scoffing morbidly obese folk and the old and infirm that smell of wee cabbage and lavender (all of which are equally in need of a napalm strafing run and a clean up team with Uzi 9mms just to make sure)
Iirc there are 3 standard parking space widths in the DMRB which are specced on the type of usage.
Those where the drivers will use the place on a regular basis such as an office car park are the smallest and then those for one off use such as a tourist attraction are the widest.
wrt cars getting wider, the VW UP! is wider than a mk1 Golf. And the Golf was considered one of the safest cars on the road in its day.
Nobody is forcing Richard to park his Q5 in a particular space. If I found I couldn't fit my car in a particular space without straddling the lines, I'd park it in one that I could fit in.
Keep the bays the same size.
Heavy fines for those who park across two bays.
If you buy a stupid car, park it somewhere else and walk to the shop.
Simple.
scotroutes - MemberHonda Jazz is 5 star, so it's not like everything has to be the size of a medium tank.
mikewsmith - MemberEuro Ncap
Possible to get a supermini with 5* so anything is possible...
Euro NCAP Safety ratings are not comparable between different classes, ie a 5* supermini will not be anywhere near as safe as a 5* large saloon.
Our local supermarket has spaces marked out like this:
[img] 
[/img]
(this isn't the same car park, but it is the same chain).
Makes parking much more civilised with the set gap between spaces.
If only they hadn't made a hash of tight roads and multiple zebra crossings next to the internal juntions then it would be a lot safer to move around both in car and on foot without fearing for your life because people can't process normal road manners while looking for a parking space!
Doesn't help that it's an odd-shaped car park in a small market town sized supermarket.
Pocpoc, my local Sainsburys (also with an odd shaped carpark in a small market town) has the same arrangement, the extra width afforded by the wider lines makes things significantly easier when getting in and out of the car (particularly as we're a rural area with a fair number of muddy farm 4x4 vehicles using the carparks).
I drive a standard car (albeit a fairly long one) and I find that leaving a liberal coating of mud over the outside of my vehicle tends to dissuade most people from trying to squeeze past on foot 😉