Parking and people

If you think that there isn’t much in the way of space for car parking where you live, then you’re not alone!

One thing you notice when you walk around Kings Hedges is that most of the new building has woefully inadequate parking; people end up putting their cars on verges (where there are any) or across the pavement – not because they want to, but because they have nowhere else to go. And woe betide you if you should have the misfortune to have guests!

This is inconvenient for pedestrians like me, and downright dangerous for children and those who have difficulty walking, or are in wheelchairs. Not to mention people with prams and pushchairs (who suffer from the same accessibility problems, and are often forgotten).

Believe it or not, it turns out that a lot of new developments are actually planned this way, in a somewhat misguided attempt at social engineering. They seem to think that if there aren’t any car parking spaces, the cars will miraculously disappear!

I don’t own a car myself, and I depend on good public transport, but even then I can see that this is another of those ideas that seems great in a planning meeting, but falls flat when real people come into the equation.