Imogen Calderwood
HAVE you ever wondered why you are constantly tearing off your wing mirrors in car parks?
It emerges that Spanish car parks are the stingiest with space in the whole of Europe.
And, according to a study by EuroTest, they are not only the smallest…they have also been slammed for being ‘dark and cramped’ and having poor wheelchair access.
According to regulations in Barcelona, parking spaces must be at least 2.2m wide and 4.5m long, while drivers in Madrid are given marginally more room for manoeuvre with spaces that are 2.25m wide.
This compares to parking bays elsewhere in Europe, which are typically 2.4 to 2.5m wide and 4.8m long.
EuroTest argued in the study that modern parking bays should be at least 2.5m wide, to allow for the increase in average car sizes over recent decades.
A 1974 Volkswagen Golf was 1.61m wide, whereas the 2012 model is 2.03m wide including wing mirrors.
I hope the EU Commission get off their hind legs and issue a directive in this regard. It’s not just the car parking spaces in Spain which are about the same width as the average car. Many of the lanes on multi-lane Spanish roads are too…
I did laugh about the “wheelchair access”. Just look at the roads and pavements in most towns – all broken, loose paving stones and no intelligent thought or design for pedestrians, anywhere. Spain has squandered billions on useless projects and could not fix these fundamental things first. To say Spain is properly “governed” in any way, shape or form is quite laughable.
Don’t hold your breath on EU intervention.
Designed for the Seat 600….
Fred, I wrote that in jest, the EU is no more fit for purpose than the Spanish government…
Very true, the EU prepares a report on corruption in the EU and at the same time it’s 20 years since they have passed an audit of its own books. Total farce.
Fred,
spot on, there is so much corruption in the whole EU mechanism, it would be funny if it was’nt our money that was filling the scumbags bank accounts.
Also very true about access for the disabled, it’s non existant. Not that the UK is much better. As you have a home in the Netherlands you will know the difference.
It’s not just the size of the parking bays that’s inadequate, it’s the amount of space one has to turn into them. In many places this is so minimal that all too many drivers end up parked at an angle in the bay they’ve chosen & very often encroach on the adjoining bay as well. This is all down to the designers of the parking places being so proud of their achievement in getting more bays than anyone with experience would would achieve.