Parent and toddler parking - taking it too far?

[madzone]

You hit the nail on the head here. If they laid-on "Big Wadge" spaces for those who spent above-average amounts in the store, at least that would be honest. Maybe they could give-out tickets/passes with your recipt like Sainsbury does with petrol discounts?

So it's the dishonesty of the supermarkets which bugs you, not the spaces per se?

 

[trashpony]

Nothing but to suggest that P&C is some sort of right or priority over other forms of able-bodied parking is quite wrong IMO.

Why? If you had to drag a screaming toddler halfway across a car park with a trolley full of shopping, I suspect you may feel differently.

 

[Chairman Meow]

I always thought that apart from making it (a lot) easier for parents who are often having to deal with shopping, pushchair, nappy bag, assorted sprogs etc, the wider parking bays also make it less likely that cars in neighbouring bays will get their doors walloped by the parents car door while wrestling with the above. For all those who think its unfair, believe me I'd rather park a mile away than have to pack the shopping, bend an unwilling toddler into its car seat, collapse a pushchair, prevent a car-crazed smallie from hurling itself into the traffic etc etc simultaneously any day of the week!

 

[pogofish]

Why? If you had to drag a screaming toddler halfway across a car park with a trolley full of shopping, I suspect you may feel differently.

I have, & not even one of mine. No change.

 

[pogofish]

So it's the dishonesty of the supermarkets which bugs you, not the spaces per se?

Partly, also the perception of something marketing-derived as some sort of "right" Not the spaces themselves. I agree that it is a sensible-enough idea to leave the most accessable spaces for those with encumberments but personally, I usually park well-away from the doors anyway.

 

[pogofish]

But if you look at supermarkets when they first introduced P&C spaces and supermarkets today they're completely different.They're bigger, they're busier etc etc etc. I was in a big supermaket the other day and I wouldn't want to have navigated the car park with small kids.It was fucking massive, with people driving no differently than they would on the road i.e at speed and with little awareness of other people/vehicles around them.

That says at least as much about how their typical customer profile has changed over the last decade or so & the planning/retail policies of the areas they site in tho? Also an indication of the general lack of respect fo each other in the general population?

Another part of me wonders if someone so encumbered by kids should even be on the road at all?

 

[madzone]

Partly, also the perception of something marketing-derived as some sort of "right" Not the spaces themselves. I agree that it is a sensible-enough idea to leave the most accessable spaces for those with encumberments but personally, I usually park well-away from the doors anyway.

So, how would you get around that? People don't drive to the supermarket and think, 'Oh I can manage from this far back. Let's leave the spaces near the front for people who need them' do they? Some people even feel justified in parking in disabled bays when they don't need them so they're hardly likely to altruistically volunteer to park further away are they?

 

[Funky_monks]

I don't quite do that, but both motorcycles and sidecars are narrow enough to get through the bollards so I can park right outside the supermarket entrance.

Whilst I was working as a Sainsbury's car-park attendant, someone in a Fiesta did exactly the same thing, only realising their mistake when they were unable to open the doors fully..........

 

[pogofish]

So, how would you get around that?

Dunno, again it says as much about the sort of selfish fuckwit who I don't have much time for anyway. Leaving them to stew for a while when it all goes wrong for them tends to make them think IME.

In a previous job, we used to get all sorts of eejit parking in our fire-zone to avoid paying pennies in a neighbouring public carpark, whenever it began to get out of hand, the owner used to park his ratty old Volvo estate right across the access & go to the pub for a few hours. We didn't see many of them come back after they had been caught-out once.

 

[rubbershoes]

IME the real issue is the widfth of the spaces. a wide spave makes it easy to haul the babyseat/toddlers out of the car. The siting of the spaces is secondary thoughif you are going to have them it makes sense for them to be close to the door. at my local tesco, the P &C spaces aren't the ones closest to the door - they are round the corner but you don't have to go over the main drag to get to the door so they are teh safest

 

[pogofish]

IME the real issue is the widfth of the spaces.

Also very true. The width of a typical parking bay has shrunk over the last 10-15 years. and no, it is not just because some people/cars have got bigger.

 

[Giles]

I think that parent & child spaces, like disabled spaces, are a good idea.

I sometimes question the sheer number of them compared to what gets used in soem car parks near me.

Almost any ttime I got the nearby shopping / leisure centre place (O2 in Finchley Road) you will see that over half the "reserved" spaces are empty, while the rest of the car park is jammed full. I have never ever seen anywhere near all of the disabled / P & C places in use.

Giles..

 

[detective-boy]

Has anyone ever seen any notice defining the age of the child? ....

*** Thinks of taking Mum out to wind up the locals! ***

I'd at least have a valid defence - such behaviour would certainly be childish ...

 

[mysterygirl]

I think I basically agree with them - supermarkets are getting bigger & busier, their car parks correspondingly so. 4 x 4 vehicles are more common & it would be harder to see a small person standing/wandering behind one while reversing (a small enough child would be hard to see behind any car ,im sure). The spaces are wider, so it's easier to open the doors wide for car seat/buggy/child removal, older children can be stood in the space behind the car rather than behind it.

The should/shouldn'ts/when I was a child's are (IMO) basically irrelevant - we live in a modern society with modern (bigger) cars and far busier roads and supermarkets and car parks and speaking personally I don't have a problem with parent & child spaces being provided.

 

[pogofish]

The should/shouldn'ts/when I was a child's are (IMO) basically irrelevant - we live in a modern society with modern (bigger) cars and far busier roads and supermarkets and car parks and speaking personally I don't have a problem with parent & child spaces being provided.

P&C parking in the UK is a pretty recent idea. Early-mid 90's IIRC & most of the big stores & car parks here were up long before it started.

 

[zenie]

Why not just drive round the shop then?

That is a very good idea MZ

Somehow I dont think they'll let me though

Someplaces do have 'mini parking only' spaces though

 

[Sean]

Thanks for the constructive criticism. I know I'm a deranged saddo to get worked up about this (the missus sighs and rolls her eyes like an SWPer on the P&P boards every time I go off on one about it) but I'm sick of seeing lazy, selfish, shit for brains fucknuggets showing no consideration for other people.

I've got 3 kids of 4 and under and usually do the weekly shop with them - we don't really have an alternative to using the car now our local, walking distance supermarket, has been closed down (bastard Morrisons ) and the market is ok for fruit and veg but little else (fake Stone Island on 4 year old twins is sooo last year).

Anyway, my campaign begins tomorrow. It may also end tomorrow when a burly youth in a Nova breaks my jaw while I grapple with a trolley full of shopping, a Farley's rusk in one hand and my usual copy of Razzle in the other.

 

[nogoodboyo]

Mixed messages with the 4x4 chat, especially as they're very popular family cars.

I can see where the sentiment comes from, but have to say: if someone parks there in the first place, will a leaflet even make them blush?

 

[_angel_]

Special parking places for the disabled - definitely. Parent and toddler... erm...


Maybe as a non driver who has to walk two small (disabled) kids across roads and thru car parks I am a little less than sympathetic here. I'd rather see improved pedestrian facilities (ie a pavement and some pedestrian crossings).

 

[Shirl]

I'm not the most child friendly person I know but I can see why people with kids need bigger/ nearer the entrance parking spaces.
I get fed up just pushing a sodding trolley across a car park, I can't imagine how bad it would be if I had to cope with a couple of kids as well.
Luckily, when my children were small, I couldn't afford to buy more than a basket full of shopping at a time.

 

[_angel_]

I'm not the most child friendly person I know but I can see why people with kids need bigger/ nearer the entrance parking spaces.
I get fed up just pushing a sodding trolley across a car park, I can't imagine how bad it would be if I had to cope with a couple of kids as well.
Luckily, when my children were small, I couldn't afford to buy more than a basket full of shopping at a time.

Actually you've just alerted me to the real problem which is trying to push a push chair, hold an older childs hand and carry a basket at the same time.

Forget parking spaces, we need trolleys you can drive!

 

[Shirl]

Actually you've just alerted me to the real problem which is trying to push a push chair, hold an older childs hand and carry a basket at the same time.

Forget parking spaces, we need trolleys you can drive!

Sinclair C5

 

[Sean]

Mixed messages with the 4x4 chat, especially as they're very popular family cars.

I can see where the sentiment comes from, but have to say: if someone parks there in the first place, will a leaflet even make them blush?

But why does someone need one in the city??? Are they gamekeepers or something? When was the last time you saw a pheasant in Bethnal Green?

But fair enough, the 4x4 thing was just an afterthought and probably could be removed. I do fucking hate them though , particularly because that whole family car thing is so hypocritical when you've got more chance of killing a child driving one, than protecting a child when you're driving them around in one (presumably to their pony club/exclusive private nursery/blah blah blah).

Anywya, if it reduces my blood pressure it's a good thing, regardless of the response of the fuck-knuckles who park in those spaces.

 

[pogofish]

Forget parking spaces, we need trolleys you can drive!

That is the latest innovation for most of the bigger stores here. Not just the regulated Shopmobility disability trollies but ones provided by the stores themselves which are not so heavilly regged.

Bloody lethal things, especially in the rather small city centre M&S!

 

[_angel_]

That is the latest innovation for most of the bigger stores here. Not just the regulated Shopmobility disability trollies but ones provided by the stores themselves which are not so heavilly regged.

Bloody lethal things, especially in the rather small city centre M&S!

Where do you live? We have no such thing here in Leeds!!!! (Then again we only got electricity last year)





*imagines the Morrisons version of the driveable trolley*


*shudders*

 

[pogofish]

Aberdeen. Morrisons were one of the first to bring them in & when Asda bought a small fleet, all the other stores had them within weeks.

Because of the fairly isolated & local-oriented market conditions & profile of the area, many big firms test-out new products & service ideas here. If they think motor trolleys work, expect them to go Nationwide soon.

 

[_angel_]

Aberdeen. Morrisons were one of the first to bring them in & when Asda bought a small fleet, all the other stores had them within weeks.

Because of the fairly isolated & local-oriented market conditions & profile of the area, many big firms test-out new products & service ideas here. If they think motor trolleys work, expect them to go Nationwide soon.

Woah! They haven't even got automatic doors in the Bramley Morrisons. How are we meant to adapt to a fleet of motor trolleys??????


Could be fun...

 

[christonabike]

Howzabout giving people with children priority at the check-out also? Queue jump in front of everyone else cos transporting children is awkward

I would have thought that having a car to get to the supermarket would be deemed a convenience and seem luxurious enough - imagine all those walking or on the bus with kids

 

[nogoodboyo]

But why does someone need one in the city??? Are they gamekeepers or something? When was the last time you saw a pheasant in Bethnal Green?

But fair enough, the 4x4 thing was just an afterthought and probably could be removed. I do fucking hate them though , particularly because that whole family car thing is so hypocritical when you've got more chance of killing a child driving one, than protecting a child when you're driving them around in one (presumably to their pony club/exclusive private nursery/blah blah blah).

Anywya, if it reduces my blood pressure it's a good thing, regardless of the response of the fuck-knuckles who park in those spaces.

I hear you on this point. Just saying it detracts from the focus of your leafletting, spesh because it's an issue that people tend to line up on either side of.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

People in cars should be made to park AT LEAST 100 miles from the supermarket doors. (Except the disabled of course).

Quite right

Walking is good for you, and the more load you are carrying and the greater the distance, think of how fit you will end up

Even more beneficial fitness-wise if you have to carry children along with lots of shopping