29 November 2011

Small car parking Canberra Centre style!

| johnboy
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small cars only

Damien has sent in this amusing shot from the Canberra Centre car park.

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Innovation said :

Introduce a new rego classification, similar to motorcycles, for under powered cars but also with a footprint below a certain size. Small car parking spots could be restricted to this rego classification group.

why? large cars already pay more tax in petrol, and the rego fees are higher. As for all these parking spot types, its turning into a farce, small cars, hybrid cars, parents with prams. imo just have disabled spots and leave it, everything else is a result of ‘choice’ not misfortune.

Innovation said :

Introduce a new rego classification, similar to motorcycles, for under powered cars but also with a footprint below a certain size. Small car parking spots could be restricted to this rego classification group. It would also have the benefit of providing a framework to require restricted drivers (eg P platers) to this type of car.

Yes!

Older cars traditionally have a lower footprint due to being less complex to manufacture and utilise less plastics, not to mention that smal cars already have a lower rego bracket.

I for one welcome paying less rego on my ’63 Ford, and am glad P Platers will be restricted to driving 427’s.

Introduce a new rego classification, similar to motorcycles, for under powered cars but also with a footprint below a certain size. Small car parking spots could be restricted to this rego classification group. It would also have the benefit of providing a framework to require restricted drivers (eg P platers) to this type of car.

The solution is simple, until they create a Mother-with-pram permit…

Mother-with-pram spots give you plenty of room to open your door and stretch your legs, dents arent a problem.

So what if i can’t fit children/prams into my little Japanese sports car…

😀

wildturkeycanoe6:01 am 01 Dec 11

qbngeek – just got into my mates car yesterday at the outdoor carpark, Canberra Centre. I could only open the door half a metre or so, squeezed in sideways carefully so as not to dent his new car’s paintwork. No-one was parked incorrectly, the spots are just too small. It was a Holden ute, so not a huge car by my standards, but this proves my point that spaces are too small. Either that or cars are built too big.
And no, I’m not an overweight fatty, barely bigger than my eldest son in fact.
Finding the outermost, vacant spot is not an option at the busiest times because the whole carpark is full, DUH. And no, I’m not going to go to Queanbeyan to go shopping, I might as well go to Paddy’s Markets in Sydney.
I think the answer to these woes is everybody has to have gull wing doors installed, then there is no problem in exiting in tight spots.

wildturkeycanoe said :

That spot is the same as any car park in any mall in Canberra. If you have kids, it is always a battle getting them out of the car somewhere like Belco Mall, Canberra Centre, Hyperdome and especially the carpark at Phillip KFC, fearful that the car’s owner next to you will be watching nearby. With only half a metre to spare in any situation [and that’s with a 98 Camry] it’s no wonder every car in the A.C.T has dents in their doors. My 4 y.o has to squeeze out through a gap like Nemo swimming through the filter pump, all because the spaces are too narrow. I blame the government for this, for letting the regulations get to the point where they try and fit as many cars into a lot without concern for the people trying to get in and out of them. It’s just another way of making us downsize by force. Pity you can’t fit 3 kids into the back of a Yaris. I think I’m going to go and buy a large 4 x 4 with bull bars, roo bars and a mighty big tow bar, then if anything ever happens in a parking spot I’ll just blame the Government for it’s inability to provide reasonable access to and from my vehicle.
By the way, I believe the rules in private car parks mean dents are 50/50 responsibility and can’t be taken up by the police as it’s not on public road, is this true?

As I have said before, I have 2 kids and I have no issues. Mind you I don’t park in the spot closest to the door, I park where there are bugger all cars and walk the extra 100m. I never struggle to find a spot, have heaps of room to put the kids, pram and shopping in the car and never have to be worried about denting my car.

I have owned everything from a Fiesta to a 4WD and never had an issue. I struggle to see why other parents feel they need special treatment or bigger spots. If it is an issue for you, don’t go to a shopping centre. If I can’t get it online or in Queanbeyan (preferably from a small business eg. home hardware), then I don’t really need it.

wildturkeycanoe6:06 am 30 Nov 11

That spot is the same as any car park in any mall in Canberra. If you have kids, it is always a battle getting them out of the car somewhere like Belco Mall, Canberra Centre, Hyperdome and especially the carpark at Phillip KFC, fearful that the car’s owner next to you will be watching nearby. With only half a metre to spare in any situation [and that’s with a 98 Camry] it’s no wonder every car in the A.C.T has dents in their doors. My 4 y.o has to squeeze out through a gap like Nemo swimming through the filter pump, all because the spaces are too narrow. I blame the government for this, for letting the regulations get to the point where they try and fit as many cars into a lot without concern for the people trying to get in and out of them. It’s just another way of making us downsize by force. Pity you can’t fit 3 kids into the back of a Yaris. I think I’m going to go and buy a large 4 x 4 with bull bars, roo bars and a mighty big tow bar, then if anything ever happens in a parking spot I’ll just blame the Government for it’s inability to provide reasonable access to and from my vehicle.
By the way, I believe the rules in private car parks mean dents are 50/50 responsibility and can’t be taken up by the police as it’s not on public road, is this true?

No problem with that!

what i find really funny is the perfectly normal sized carparks in the canberra centre that have second line around the inside along with the label “small car only” . like somehow some paint on the ground males the spot smaller.

GardeningGirl1:46 pm 29 Nov 11

It’s a little snug, but no worse than the genuinely small car parked crookedly in a normal space at the Hyperdome on the weekend. Just the most recent example I’ve encountered of small car drivers thinking their vehicle is so small they don’t have to pay any attention whatsoever to how they park. Someone in a small car once turned in too close beside me right after I had parked and walked away without a glance leaving me to crawl out the passenger side! Inconsiderate people come in all sizes.
Btw I noticed that the vacancy/occupied lights in the Belconnen Mall car park are not triggered by a Smart4two.

Maybe it was driven by an American, for whom it’d be considered a sub-compact.

Agreed on the ambiguity around “small car”. 20 years ago a small car was something like a Hyundai Excel or Ford Laser. These days a Mazda 3 or Holden Cruze is considered “small” and anything more diminutive is “subcompact” or “micro”.

Makes things confusing when you consider the current Cruze is larger than a 1988 Commodore.

VicePope said :

(It would help if there was some readily understood meaning for “small car”).

Without some sort of definition there probably isn’t anything they could be booked for. The panel van driver would probably just say they thought a two door two wheel drive was a small vehicle, and that big vehicles were land cruisers and hummers?

In this case, there’s a wall on one side, rather than a car that has to manoeuvre in and out and whose occupants have to use doors. On the other side, the van is on or over the line, reducing space for the next vehicle, which, presumably has had to move closer to to the other side of its space, affecting whatever is next to it. Selfish and inconsiderate, but I’m yet to see any consequences.
(It would help if there was some readily understood meaning for “small car”).

What’s the problem, it fits within the lines?

Peewee Slasher11:37 am 29 Nov 11

Damn it! I want big car spaces! And god help any little car that takes my space!

TheDancingDjinn11:33 am 29 Nov 11

VicePope said :

Glad someone’s noticed this one. The carpark I use in Civic has small car spaces which too often are occupied by a tractor size 4WD or van – meaning that the adjacent small car spaces are next to useless for anything larger than a Smart car. Clamp the mongrels!
There is, I think, a solution, but it would require thought, so it will never be adopted in this town and I won’t bother describing it.

While i agree totally – this guy seems to not be bothering anyone the person next to him has room i can see.

Glad someone’s noticed this one. The carpark I use in Civic has small car spaces which too often are occupied by a tractor size 4WD or van – meaning that the adjacent small car spaces are next to useless for anything larger than a Smart car. Clamp the mongrels!
There is, I think, a solution, but it would require thought, so it will never be adopted in this town and I won’t bother describing it.

Its a conspiracy I tell you, I can get my 4WD into those parks easliy……..

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