Multi Storey Car Parks (A bit OT)

Probably should have put this in uk.rec.driving but here's my thoughts:

IT'S TO GET PEOPLE TO DRIVE SLOWLY IN THE CAR PARKS.

Chris

John ( snipped-for-privacy@ntlworld.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I think you'll find that the walls aren't moving. Your car is.

Therefore your car scrapes the wall.

No, they're stationary. Why would you expect them to "flow"?

You're incompetent. Everybody else manages fine.

I'd agree with that .... but judging by the multi coloured scrapes on even comparitively "easy" ramps ... lots of people don't manage fine.

DougP ( snipped-for-privacy@binternet.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

That's because lots of people are incompetent.

Those that shout aloud about others being incompetent are usually even thicker - or have an over-inflated ego!

Brian G ( snipped-for-privacy@invalllid.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I've never scraped a car in a car park - and if I did, it'd be _my_ fault, not the fault of the designers of the car park.

If it's a two-way ramp, perhaps the driver coming _down_ the ramp swung wide, making the driver going _up_ panic :-}

(the Lowry Centre car park seems to get a lot of that)

So they can fit the maximum number of parking spaces in the given floorspace. More cars = more cash in.

Bob

The best one I saw was in Leicester, one big spiral ramp the full height of the building. Multicoloured scrapes all the way along it. Apparently most fun to navigate in winter when it gets icy and snow blows in.

Bob

Ok, how else would you describe somebody who scarpes their car against a stationary concrete wall that the XJ6 driver in front has avoided?

Perhaps because of the limited space? Anyway, 99% of people manage to not scrape their cars.

Incidentally, I have never scraped my car either - my point was though than many people seem to have done so and the ramps are usually very poorly designed. For a car with a long nose overhang or a poor lock it would be very tiring going several floors.

They could be a lot better - do you agree?

John (original poster)

who designs them with such tight turns and walls

But it doesn't work if people park over the line then no-one* can park next to them 'cos there's a pillar in the way. Some carparks _are_ really badly designed.

Costings and "safety," because space is money and speed kills. By a convoluted path up and down the stories one should slow down.

I've never scraped a car in a car park, but as you point out later, those cars with a poor lock and / or wide overhangs can be hard work.

My biggest beef is too-narrow spaces.

Then they'd have less space & the queues would be longer.

But lots of people do. I have never been in a vehicle that scraped such a ramp, either driven by me or someone else, and I regularly use such a car park in Milton Keynes.

Neil

John proclaimed to uk.rec.cars.maintenance ...

Not sure I agree - my car has aweful lock (I cannot do a 3 point turn in any normal road, and i cant u-turn without 4 lanes!) and my nose overhangs and is fairly low, but multistoreys are not a big problem (although the low kerbs on the ramps have caught me out once when i was trying to drive too fast down one). As mentioned elsewhere, the worst thing is narrow spaces because you never know what jerk will park next to you. For that reason i avoid most car parks and use the road instead.

adder1969 proclaimed to uk.rec.cars.maintenance ...

Oh no that does work, if you park over 2 you get ticketed (I know from experience having parked across 2 spaces after getting sick of finding door dents on returning).

Chris Dugan proclaimed to uk.rec.cars.maintenance ...

People dont usually waz round the ramps, they waz up the straights to get to the ramps - which is the most dangerous time to do it.Like when they cleverly put speed humps in residential areas and people then gun it between them, to make up time lost slowing over the bumps.