Parent and Baby Parking Spaces

[Zak33]

OK.....this is gonna cause a bit of a flame war...but WHY DO PARENTS NEED PARKING SPACES NEAR THE FRIKKIN SHOP?????

I hate it...it winds me up a treat.

Worse still, WHY oh WHY are there more of them than Disabled Spaces?

The front part of a shop is the BUSIEST...more cars drive past the front doors in all the carparks in Aylesbury than the furthest away parts. Now, while Mum and Dad unload the 13 bags of shopping and stack them into the car, the kid runs about....little evil being that it is, it is in danger.

So why not put the Parent and Kid parking in the CORNER.....

I mean, you CHOOSE to have kids...right? (normally) and you DO need a wider area to ppen your car, cos it stops the car next to you getting whacked. BUT these spaces should be FURTHER AWAY....so WHILE parent gets Tarquin and Archibald into the push chair, pram etc...if it DOES run away...its safe!

Not in the centre of a busy thoroughfare.

Wheel chairs and Old Dears...THEY need to be near the front. Not bleedin kids!!!!

I'll go now!

[Honoop]

Gotta say that I do agree with u - totally.... but then I havent any children so thats probably why.

I deffo dont see why there should be more Parent/Child spaces than disabled spaces, it just doesnt make sense!

[Stoo]

Bang on IMHO

[Lee H]

reason in my eyes is the kids are closer to the windows so they can load the displays with "must have" items such as toys, games etc and let pester power win the parents over.

[Agent]

What REALLY P'ees me off, is seeing somone park in a disabled space, get out, and run to the shop, when its obvious there is nothing wrong with them. They dont even have a disabled badge.

Makes me want to go and put there windows through everytime i see it.

[shiato storm]

What REALLY P'ees me off, is seeing somone park in a disabled space, get out, and run to the shop, when its obvious there is nothing wrong with them. They dont even have a disabled badge.

Makes me want to go and put there windows through everytime i see it.

I went to Asda the other day and saw some chavs blatently do this, they couldn't even park the damn thing straight! oh, and they really were chavs, mum of mid 30's looked as though she'd smoked 60-a-day and daughter late teens, pregnant, both wearing same style of white trainers, adidas track-bums and zip-up hoody...don't forget the baseball cap!
mind you asda is a bit of a chav shop though, but hey - its way cheaper than sainsburys or tescos...

[Nick]

Ok, to address your 'rant' in order of you spurious objections...

Parking spaces are placed near the shop for two reasons. First, if the parent has a small child, in our less than clement weather it means the child is exposed to the cold, wind and rain for less time. Second, most parents that use these spaces will go and get a trolley, take that to the car and then laod their child into it, more so if they have two small children, so the nearer the spaces are to the trolley bays (which are always at the shop's entrance), the better.

There are more parent and child spaces than disabled spaces purely becuase there are more people with children needing a parking space than disabled people needing a parking space. Just look around Tescos on a Saturday morning, there's a fair few more kids in trolleys than people in wheelchairs.

While there is a logic from the view that putting parent and child spaces in a remote and quiet corner of the car park, this is over ridden by the parent's wish to be able to get close to the store with little Tarquin and Jemima. Stores are driven by consumer needs and every parent assumes that a) they are ideal parents and b) the unthinkable won't happen to them, so the road saftey of Traquin and Jemima comes low down on their list of things to consider in a car park. Plus, most car parks are speed limited to 5 miles an hour, not that anyone bothers to stick to that one, ever.

Now, on the other hand, how about we start SHOOTING the goits in their overly huge BMWs, who only nip in to the store for a pint of milk and a packet of bacon once every three days.

These idiots see shopping as something trivial and lose patience straight away, they can't be bothered to find a legitimate parking space, so they nab a disabled space near the front of the store.

They sprint in, knocking over the old dear struggling to get past the front bumper of the goits BMW that sticks two feet onto the walkway, grab what they need and sprint out again.

Of course, they're sprinting because they know they're in the wrong and inconsiderately parked, but what the hell? They'll be gone in two minutes anyway.

They charged back out the shop, distracting Dad from tarquin as the goit brushes by him at speed, leaving dad cussing the idiot and cursing at where he's parked.

Goit BMW boy by now is settling his bum into his leather seat, flicking on the stereo, revving up and raring off, grinning smugly at the face of the car park attendant who is going to be too late to catch him again.

He slams it inot reverse, revs it up and off he goes, slipping smoothly into first before he's stopped rolling, revving it up to pop the clutch and squeal straight over little Tarquin who slipped away from dad when goit boy caused dad's attention to wander.

Yep, its the way of the world, innit?

[Iain]

^^ what he said. Parent child parking spaces near the store make it a lot easier. If you don't have kids you won't understand.

Also, since parent child spaces need more space to allow buggies to be retrieved, doors to be fully opened while you free said child from a car seat, then it means that the spaces nearest the store have more space in between the cars which makes it easier for everyone else to get past those cars to their own. If those spaces were in a corner then there would be no space between cars near the store so people would be forced to push their trolley laden with goods on a longer journey or take a chance and squeeze between the cars hence increasing the risk of damaging one.

[Swafe]

What REALLY P'ees me off, is seeing somone park in a disabled space, get out, and run to the shop, when its obvious there is nothing wrong with them. They dont even have a disabled badge.

Makes me want to go and put there windows through everytime i see it.

what i hate even more, is how there are no disabled people who drive to my uni

theres hardly any free spaces, so i end up paying 2 quid to park, when theres always a huge stack of diabled spaces that i cant park in wish theyd sort it out, they waste a load of space as there arnt many disabled people there....just to make us pay ! if there was a fair few disabled ppl who made use of them fair enuff, but its just a way to making them look disabled friendly, and getting extra cash, by changing the few free normal spaces there are into disabled makin us students pay 2 quid a day which we dont exactyly have goin spare..

[GAteKeeper]

Dont have a problem as such as my local sainsbury has 2 great normal parking spaces next the parent & child bits which are wider - makes lazy parking easier.

GK

[nichomach]

^Well said Az and Deck^

I'd also add a corollary to Deck's point about no-one sticking to the speed limit in car parks; the further from the front of the store they are, the faster people in car parks go. In front of the store, yes, it's busier, but most drivers recognize that there will be people, including children, milling about. Consequently, the vast majority drive more slowly and with greater attention to pedestrians; busier, therefore, != more dangerous.

[RVF500]

On the other hand, go around to Tesco or some other store open 24 hours. You're on a night shift. No one about. It's 3:00 in the morning, Whiz round because you're out out of fags, snacks, coffee (delete as applicable), drive across the wind and rain swept expanse of nothingness and park (in your BMW of course) in one of the dozen or so empty parking spaces that have disabled or parent and child markings. Watch the security guard whom you've just woken up lumber out and say 'yer can't park there'

'Silly me' 3:00 am is rush hour for wheel chairs and family shopping. Only they must be late today because there is NO ONE for f*ckin' MILES!!!!!!.

However, in normal hours I despise bad parking. The muppet that parks across 2 spaces cuz he/she is too stupid to park between two lines wider than their car and too ignorant to get back in and straighten up. My pet hate. The 'I'm only gonna be a second' brigade. Nuh uh, it isn't 3:00 am. The place is busy, You ain't special mate, pitch in with the rest of us.

I drive carefully in such places primarily because I don't want to be picking some random child out of the grill of my nice shiney beemer (3 series Deck, not ostentatious huge series). Selfish but the end result is the same. That and the fact the Supermarkets are like Airports. Magnets for morons. Some pillock in a 4x4 is likely to reverse out in a malicious attempt to despoil your paintwork while they are busy admiring themselves in the rearview mirror. Happily I am the owner of a small child so can legitimately use the wider spaces. Providing some chavscum hasn't parked their Vauxhall Chavette across two parent/child parking spaces.

[Cheryl]

[QUOTE=Az]^^ what he said. Parent child parking spaces near the store make it a lot easier. If you don't have kids you won't understand.

i agree with you being a parent myself. it really annoys me when you try and get one of those parent spaces and you see people with no children at all parking in them .

[Richie]

Ok, to address your 'rant' in order of you spurious objections...

Parking spaces are placed near the shop for two reasons. First, if the parent has a small child, in our less than clement weather it means the child is exposed to the cold, wind and rain for less time.

The cold and wet aint gonna harm them. Not getting at you Deck but its small things like this, not letting your kid get dirty, not letting them do "dangerous" things like climb trees that turns kids into fairies (and I dont mean in the gay sense)


Anyways, back to the post at hand -


Some parents think that these spaces are for the SOLE use of ppl with kids. Sorry but if its the only space left in the car park (sam with disabled) then I will park in it. If there were no P&C or disabled bays left then they would park in the normal bays so it works both ways.... Note I said if there were NO normal spaces left.


I drive a BMW BTW just to help you lot fit me into the stereotype

[Zak33]

I knew this would create a good debate.

For ME if the spaces are all taken I WILL use a Parent and Baby space and I WONT use a Disabled space. Parent with kids are priviedged to have them. They can come back. Disabled people of any kind have the hardest life...ever imaginable.

The reason I want the kids and parent over there *points* out of the way, is for another reason. Its very selfish. Its my car.

You see its not JUST kids opening doors wide. Its pushchairs, prams, and trolleys. They hurt my car.

Now...we DO NOT hjave enough room in the carpark near the shop for all the Parent/Kiddy spaces. 1 in 2 people visiting have kids. THEREFORE they need an entire space.....and its OVER THERE!!!!! -------> not here by the door.

Further.....I agree with Richie

The cold and wet aint gonna harm them. Not getting at you Deck but its small things like this, not letting your kid get dirty, not letting them do "dangerous" things like climb trees that turns kids into fairies (and I dont mean in the gay sense)

although ref: Deck, tho he doesnt need defending...his kids get plastered in mud/cack regularly so I thnik they'll grow up just fine. Bit wild maybe...but thats Uncle Zak's fault

Onward.....Az...Deck...Nicho....parents...all good parent. You must be. The way you post here indicates good character. BUT the simple fact is this: Whilst kids ARE our future, and YOU PARENTS do spend more money in the shop that we DINKY's do, the fact is we would like be treated EQUALLY.

And we cant be. We are second rate citizens. An old person gets the seat. A disabled person gets the parking space. A parent gets the bay near the door with extra room to open the door. If I want to get similar treatment before spending £100 on food and £50 on booze and £15 on a CD...I need to limp, give birth or cough up coal dust!

You get what I mean. I hope. Kids are NOT a status symbol. They are NOT a back stage pass. You choose to have them. And you take the consequences. That might involve car parks being a pain in the arse. I have 2 dogs, and the consequence is that I have to go out in all weathers, twice a day, to walk them. Every day.

But I DONT expect a seperate parking bay at Wendowver Woods, near the track, because I have two un-ruley dogs who might dash out into the road.

OK..bit OTT, but not a bad comparison

Best I can come up with now tho

[G4Z]

I have to say Zak, probably no surprise to anybody who knows me here, I agree with you mate.

I am sick of this kids are the centre of the universe attitude that seems to pervade every area of life now. Im sorry parents, but not every body has or even likes kids. I cannot for the life of me understand why unless you have no choice at all you would even take kids shopping! its a nightmare for you and its a nightmare for me having to navigtae round them as the randomly run around and stand directly behind you (because they are so short your likely to stand on em...). I actually had that happen in Ikea once, I stood on a child becuase it decided to stand directly behind me, The parents gave me a filthy look, but I thought "no, no way am I am gonna apologise, control your kid and keep an eye on it, and then it wont get stood on, not like I would do it deliberately I couldnt see it"


Parent and child spaces, I dont agree with at all, kids are just as able to walk across a car park as anybody else. The disabled bays as well, I dont think you see truly disabled people getting the stickers, my mate has a knackered spine and is in pain every single second and he doesnt get one. When I go shopping I see people fully capable of walking round the shops for 40 minutes, why cant they walk 2mins across a car park? Dont get me wrong here, I agree with disabled spaces but I am sure the criteria for getting an orange card is a bit sqiffy tbh.

Anyway, pointless rant over