The parking spaces here are narrower.
True story.
I still haven’t figured out why this is the case, but the parking spaces at my workplace and most other places have been narrower than those I’m used to back home. It doesn’t make sense because – in case you haven’t noticed – we tend to drive big cars here in America. These are perfectly sized for the Aveo/Yaris set. I’m pretty sure a Hummer would take up 8.3 of these spaces.
And yes, I’ve parked twice now and haven’t had enough room to get out of the car. (Thankfully, my car has a sunroof.)
I don’t get it, California.
Posted in Just Plain Odd
Dave Walls April 4, 2007, 4:48 am
It’s not just you, Paul.
When I was out in Los Angeles a year ago to see “The Price is Right”, I drove to the hotel where I was staying, and nearly broadsided the car next to me. My rental wasn’t huge (generic Ford/Chevy whatever), but the spot was small enough so that I was on the line on both sides. I ended up paying for valet, in the hopes that he was more experienced in squeezing that thing in those tiny spots.
If it’s a valet conspiracy, consider me a victim.
Merle April 5, 2007, 1:10 am
Every spot out here is a “compact”. If it’s actually labelled compact, that means you need a sub-compact.
On the other hand, almost half of all cars in California are imports. Still doesn’t excuse it, and it doesn’t stop the SUVs from parking over as many lines as they possibly can.
jk April 5, 2007, 2:54 am
Weird!! Maybe they were originally mapped out when people out there were all driving VWs in the 60s.
I will be in La Jolla next month but carless…I am moving into the town and doing everything on foot or public transportation. I will however check the spaces out.
Parking garages in Germany suffer the same problem. The country is so darn small, they don’t devote much space to parking. My dad has scratched up numerous rental cars and just this past week scraped the car he picked up at the factory there. (He saved $4000 by picking it up overseas, pretty good incentive to visit his homeland.)
Anywho, I stink at parking and am giggling at the thought of Paul climbing out through the sunroof!
Merle April 6, 2007, 1:12 am
I’m not sure if it’s a case where they mapped it out based on actual car sizes. I think they looked at what was legal and went for the smallest possible space. Land being a premium in California urban areas.
(for comparison, the “median” (3B/2B) house in the greater San Francisco area runs about $620K these days, so you can imagine what parking spots cost in comparison to just building condos)