Modern Cars Are Outgrowing Parking Spaces

Here in the United States, purchasing a vehicle is treated like buying a gun and bulletproof vest all in one. A car is meant to protect you in a crash, sure, but it’s also meant to make sure you win that crash — meaning your car needs to be bigger than the other guy’s, and his next car needs to be bigger than yours, and so on and so forth. This arms race leads to ever-increasing vehicle sizes, and it’s spreading across the globe. Now, even vehicles in the United Kingdom are outgrowing their parking spaces.

A new report from the BBC out of Essex, a place Owen is not from, details a local government’s attempts to cater its municipality to ever-growing vehicles. The city of Colchester just isn’t built for enormous modern vehicles, and its council is working to remedy that:

“Many of our city centre parking bays are underused simply because they are too narrow for modern vehicles,” said Martin Goss, portfolio holder for neighbourhood services.

The council said the changes “will provide drivers with the confidence to park without concern about fitting into tight spaces”.

[…]

“By widening the bays in St Mary’s and improving the access to St John’s car parks – in addition to other upgrades – we will not only make these areas more accessible, but we are also preparing for the future as part of our broader regeneration efforts,” Goss said.

“This will help us meet the growing demand for parking and improve the overall experience for everyone visiting our city centre.”

Physical space for vehicles is one of the odder levers that governments can pull to keep municipalities safe. Narrow streets are safer, and narrow parking spaces may well discourage the purchase of larger vehicles — parking room is a very real concern for some buyers, at least anecdotally. Smaller vehicles are safer for those outside them than larger ones, so smaller parking spots may well be helping us all. So long as we all live in Colchester, at least.