A few comments: first I'm sure it's just a ploy by supermarkets to try to attract people who they perceive are likely to spend more. (I have discussed with a Supermarket manager that it is me they are putting off because it's more difficult to get my case(s) of champagne into the car while in the "parents & kids" space loads up their people carrier with their kids, 75p sliced loaves and tins of value baked beans.) Second, clearly, parking spaces in British supermarkets are poorly designed using architect specifications that I guess have not changed in decades, from a time when cars were much less wide than they are today. Third, why not adopt the common US concept of having angled bays so that everyone gets more room around their car? (It seems that you can park the same number of cars in 7% less space using angled parking - or, obviously, give people more space - I think this is because the roadway needs to be less wide. But hardly anywhere seems to do it.)
Here's some layout measurements: Standard
US
Now it's easy to say well, American cars are bigger and that's true but they're really not that much different these days. Clearly 2.5m for a parking bay when most UK cars are at least around 2m wide gives an insufficient gap for most people let alone people who may have mobility issues but don't qualify for a blue badge. The problem is exacerbated if you have a coupe as two-door cars have larger doors which "hit" next doors car before giving enough room to get out. Even the massively overcrowded Hong Kong has larger standard parking bay sizes than we do!
It's also of note that the gap needed for the roadway is 6m in these diagrams whereas for a one-way system car park using angled parking you can get away with 3m or 5.4m for two-way.
So, in summary, if supermarkets designed their car parks properly, they wouldn't need special parking spaces and we'd all be much happier.
They're called parent and CHILD spaces. So if you are between the ages of birth and puberty, which judging by the opening statement I'm inclined to believe you are, as no adult would ask such a question, yes you can.
I expect some of the people who moan about this stuff are the same that give a hotel a bad rating on trip advisor because they had to queue at the airport check in for 6 minutes.
1. The wider area between cars not only gives you a safer, more able area to actually open a car door enough if you are carrying an infant at an angle to get them in a car seat, it also means if you have more than one kid you don't have to leave one of them in their buggy behind the car in the road, leaving them like a sitting duck ready for some arsehole who is dicking around on his mobile while looking forba parking space to make the biggest mistake of their life.
2. Why are they closer to the store? They're not always, but they should be. You can put an infant through an intensive 12hr a day road awareness course, but there will still be those horror moments when concentration goes, kid slips your hand / climbs out of buggy / runs off. The driver that accidently knocks over that kid will then wish every night when they close their eyes that that store had put them near the front.
My local supermarket has I think 11 P&C spaces in a 500 car park. Rarely got one though and normally its people who had no reason to park there other than selfishness. Not as bad as the absolute scum that park in disabled bays, but still something I can't for the life of me think how people can purposely abuse when they know they are specifically designated for others.
Yes, 'cos luckily the kid only ever runs towards the store and not away from it Dan...
(okay - I know you are narrowing the odds by 50% so it does make sense) ;-)
I used one whilst on my own at Asda a few weeks ago. As I got out my car, a woman approached me and started having a right go, saying if I didn't have a child with me I shouldn't park there just for convenience and she would promptly go back into the store to report me.
What make the whole scenario so laughable was it was about 11pm and the whole car park was almost empty. I just laughed at her and locked my car.................
If the car park was empty you could just have been less of a prick and not parked somewhere you weren't supposed to.
But the store was almost empty and I was doing a late shop. The parking spaces at the enterance are all disabled or these parent ones. As you could imagine, there wasn't any parents with small children out at that time of night, so where's the harm in it? I wouldn't use them during the daytime when they'd be needed.
The car park seems to be a regular haunt at night for all the little boy racers with their souped up Novas, so excuse me for being a selfish prick and not wanting to get run over walking back to my car, or my car being hit by these twats as they attempt their doughnuts.....................
disagree entirely with Parent and Child spaces. If you choose to have kids then surely you just find a space like everyone else. Why should you be treated any differently? I really don't get it.
This.
If there does have to be parent and child parking then locate them furthest away from the shop entrance and make the little buggers walk. Would help cut down on childhood obesity.
On that same basis fat adults should have to park on the top floor and not be able to use the lift
I used one whilst on my own at Asda a few weeks ago. As I got out my car, a woman approached me and started having a right go, saying if I didn't have a child with me I shouldn't park there just for convenience and she would promptly go back into the store to report me.
What make the whole scenario so laughable was it was about 11pm and the whole car park was almost empty. I just laughed at her and locked my car.................
If the car park was empty you could just have been less of a prick and not parked somewhere you weren't supposed to.
But the store was almost empty and I was doing a late shop. The parking spaces at the enterance are all disabled or these parent ones. As you could imagine, there wasn't any parents with small children out at that time of night, so where's the harm in it? I wouldn't use them during the daytime when they'd be needed.
The car park seems to be a regular haunt at night for all the little boy racers with their souped up Novas, so excuse me for being a selfish prick and not wanting to get run over walking back to my car, or my car being hit by these twats as they attempt their doughnuts.....................
With that logic, I should be able to park on people's private driveways when I go out as long as they are at work and not likely to be using it - what's the harm, right?
I expect some of the people who moan about this stuff are the same that give a hotel a bad rating on trip advisor because they had to queue at the airport check in for 6 minutes.
1. The wider area between cars not only gives you a safer, more able area to actually open a car door enough if you are carrying an infant at an angle to get them in a car seat, it also means if you have more than one kid you don't have to leave one of them in their buggy behind the car in the road, leaving them like a sitting duck ready for some arsehole who is dicking around on his mobile while looking forba parking space to make the biggest mistake of their life.
2. Why are they closer to the store? They're not always, but they should be. You can put an infant through an intensive 12hr a day road awareness course, but there will still be those horror moments when concentration goes, kid slips your hand / climbs out of buggy / runs off. The driver that accidently knocks over that kid will then wish every night when they close their eyes that that store had put them near the front.
My local supermarket has I think 11 P&C spaces in a 500 car park. Rarely got one though and normally its people who had no reason to park there other than selfishness. Not as bad as the absolute scum that park in disabled bays, but still something I can't for the life of me think how people can purposely abuse when they know they are specifically designated for others.
Spot on AFKA and I can see that even as someone who has not had children yet.
That's got nothing to do with getting a child out of the car, buggies go in the boot.
You just don't get it!
What am I not getting?
Sorry should have said, that come across as abrupt.
It's not a matter of where the pushchair is kept, although they're not always in the boot, it's the fact that when it is taken out it would need to be erected, when erect where would you safely put it? The child then as AFKA said may need to be left in pushchair as you remove another from the car. The narrow spaces make this a dangerous exercise. That's what I meant about the pushchair kept in boot comment and you not getting it. Sorry it was also aimed at Lancs.
Common sense & common courtesy ought to prevail if you're shopping without a young child:
- Don't park in a P&C space if other spaces are readily available - Don't park in a P&C space during daytime hours - Only use them outside of these times if you have a good reason to being closer to the store entrance (raining, picking someone up, just nipping in for some ciggies, in a rush, using the ATM) - If no other spaces are available then go ahead - no reason why someone else gets to go to the shops because they have a sprog - Don't confront people using P&C spaces - they might be being selfish but they also might be picking up a parent & child and it's none of your business anyway
The age of 12 mentioned in earlier threads may be linked to the law whereby children upto 12 years of age should be on booster seats, unless they have previously reached the height of 1.5m
That's got nothing to do with getting a child out of the car, buggies go in the boot.
You just don't get it!
What am I not getting?
Sorry should have said, that come across as abrupt.
It's not a matter of where the pushchair is kept, although they're not always in the boot, it's the fact that when it is taken out it would need to be erected, when erect where would you safely put it? The child then as AFKA said may need to be left in pushchair as you remove another from the car. The narrow spaces make this a dangerous exercise. That's what I meant about the pushchair kept in boot comment and you not getting it. Sorry it was also aimed at Lancs.
Oh wind it in! I have a child and I know what everyone is getting at, I was responding to someone who said get a smaller pushchair as if that solves the problem. I was trying to highlight to them the problem isn't the fact of a pushchair being massive, it's trying to get the child from the car.
So please keep the misinformed judgement to yourself, abrupt? Now I am yes. In the post I was pointing out that the buggy is generally not the issue for the space beside the car. This was a comment following on from other comments.
That's got nothing to do with getting a child out of the car, buggies go in the boot.
You just don't get it!
What am I not getting?
Sorry should have said, that come across as abrupt.
It's not a matter of where the pushchair is kept, although they're not always in the boot, it's the fact that when it is taken out it would need to be erected, when erect where would you safely put it? The child then as AFKA said may need to be left in pushchair as you remove another from the car. The narrow spaces make this a dangerous exercise. That's what I meant about the pushchair kept in boot comment and you not getting it. Sorry it was also aimed at Lancs.
Oh wind it in! I have a child and I know what everyone is getting at, I was responding to someone who said get a smaller pushchair as if that solves the problem. I was trying to highlight to them the problem isn't the fact of a pushchair being massive, it's trying to get the child from the car.
So please keep the misinformed judgement to yourself, abrupt? Now I am yes. In the post I was pointing out that the buggy is generally not the issue for the space beside the car. This was a comment following on from other comments.
I said sorry that I came across as abrupt, hence the apology,I then politely went on to explain the pushchair problem.
You're telling me to wind it in. Now you're acting like a total tosser.
I have a child and I have found the parent and child spaced to be very useful.
What most of those of you that are horrified that a section of society should be given any rewards for their custom forget, is that the greatest benefit of having more space, is that our children don't swing the car door open and dent your car!
Maybe 12 is the age that it stops, maybe not, but normally children will not be able to open the door carefully and hold on to it so they give it a big push and it stops when it hits something.
I am more than happy to walk half a dozen extra paces to give the little darlings room to open their parent's car door without denting my car, but that's just me!
If you are able bodied don't park in the disabled spaces If you don't have kids with you don't park in the adults and kids spaces.
Sorted - I think this thread can now be closed.
If you'd bothered to read the thread, most posts aren't about whether people without kids should be using the P&C space, it's where you draw the line in regards to what age the child should be before they should use the normal spaces, and also some posts about some people discussing if you can use them if you can't find another space or if it is at a time when one might reasonably expect all children of pushchair age to be asleep.
A few comments: first I'm sure it's just a ploy by supermarkets to try to attract people who they perceive are likely to spend more. (I have discussed with a Supermarket manager that it is me they are putting off because it's more difficult to get my case(s) of champagne into the car while in the "parents & kids" space loads up their people carrier with their kids, 75p sliced loaves and tins of value baked beans.)
You buy cases of champagne at the supermarket? Ye gods.
I have a blue badge and people often park in disabled spaces who have no badge or disabilities. So them I will park in parent and child spaces first because the spaces are close to the shop and don't want my car dinged
I have a blue badge and people often park in disabled spaces who have no badge or disabilities. So them I will park in parent and child spaces first because the spaces are close to the shop and don't want my car dinged
Let me get this right: some people park where they shouldn't, so you do too?
If I can't park in a disabled bay because able bodied lazy people park there, I then park in a parent and child space because my mobility is poor hence the blue badge. If that qualifies me for knob head status? Then I must mine one
Comments
Second, clearly, parking spaces in British supermarkets are poorly designed using architect specifications that I guess have not changed in decades, from a time when cars were much less wide than they are today.
Third, why not adopt the common US concept of having angled bays so that everyone gets more room around their car? (It seems that you can park the same number of cars in 7% less space using angled parking - or, obviously, give people more space - I think this is because the roadway needs to be less wide. But hardly anywhere seems to do it.)
Here's some layout measurements:
Standard
US
Now it's easy to say well, American cars are bigger and that's true but they're really not that much different these days. Clearly 2.5m for a parking bay when most UK cars are at least around 2m wide gives an insufficient gap for most people let alone people who may have mobility issues but don't qualify for a blue badge. The problem is exacerbated if you have a coupe as two-door cars have larger doors which "hit" next doors car before giving enough room to get out. Even the massively overcrowded Hong Kong has larger standard parking bay sizes than we do!
It's also of note that the gap needed for the roadway is 6m in these diagrams whereas for a one-way system car park using angled parking you can get away with 3m or 5.4m for two-way.
So, in summary, if supermarkets designed their car parks properly, they wouldn't need special parking spaces and we'd all be much happier.
If only:
(okay - I know you are narrowing the odds by 50% so it does make sense) ;-)
The car park seems to be a regular haunt at night for all the little boy racers with their souped up Novas, so excuse me for being a selfish prick and not wanting to get run over walking back to my car, or my car being hit by these twats as they attempt their doughnuts.....................
It's not a matter of where the pushchair is kept, although they're not always in the boot, it's the fact that when it is taken out it would need to be erected, when erect where would you safely put it? The child then as AFKA said may need to be left in pushchair as you remove another from the car. The narrow spaces make this a dangerous exercise. That's what I meant about the pushchair kept in boot comment and you not getting it. Sorry it was also aimed at Lancs.
- Don't park in a P&C space if other spaces are readily available
- Don't park in a P&C space during daytime hours
- Only use them outside of these times if you have a good reason to being closer to the store entrance (raining, picking someone up, just nipping in for some ciggies, in a rush, using the ATM)
- If no other spaces are available then go ahead - no reason why someone else gets to go to the shops because they have a sprog
- Don't confront people using P&C spaces - they might be being selfish but they also might be picking up a parent & child and it's none of your business anyway
So please keep the misinformed judgement to yourself, abrupt? Now I am yes. In the post I was pointing out that the buggy is generally not the issue for the space beside the car. This was a comment following on from other comments.
You're telling me to wind it in. Now you're acting like a total tosser.
What most of those of you that are horrified that a section of society should be given any rewards for their custom forget, is that the greatest benefit of having more space, is that our children don't swing the car door open and dent your car!
Maybe 12 is the age that it stops, maybe not, but normally children will not be able to open the door carefully and hold on to it so they give it a big push and it stops when it hits something.
I am more than happy to walk half a dozen extra paces to give the little darlings room to open their parent's car door without denting my car, but that's just me!
If you are able bodied don't park in the disabled spaces
If you don't have kids with you don't park in the adults and kids spaces.
Sorted - I think this thread can now be closed.
Well done