It's probably just me...

[coltle6920]

I've had my 2006 F-150 since it was brand new so why am I waiting until now to post this? No clue but read on.

So I go to the supermarket and look for a spot close to the front because of a bad knee. Second choice is a spot where I can open the doors wide enough to get in and out and put the groceries in.

Problem is that I'm driving a truck that is almost as wide as the average parking spot and trying to open doors that are almost 3' in width allowing me to get in and out without damage to my truck or the vehicle next to me. Sure would be nice if trucks came with gull wing doors as an option.

You say you park in your garage. Sorry,my thread so not my problem.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I have long been acquainted with Carmen DeLeone. He is Maestro Emeritus for the Cincinnati Ballet. He owns a DeLorean and although he didn't drive it often the ballet company gave him a three walled parking spot as he had been hemmed in before.

Rank has its privileges.

 

[Alk8944]

Go to your orthopedic surgeon and see if he will authorize a handicap parking permit for you. If your knees are that bad it shouldn't be a problem! Then you can park in the handicap spaces that give you plenty of width to open the doors. There are several conditions other than a physical disability that would qualify you for a handicap plate or placard.

So, what conditions qualify for disabled parking in Colorado? A person will qualify if they are disabled in one or more of the following ways:

• They cannot walk 200 feet without needing to stop to rest.
• They cannot walk without the use of an assistive device such as a crutch, cane, brace, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or another person.
• They are restricted by lung disease to such an extent that their forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty mm/hg on room air or at rest.
• They use portable oxygen.
• They have a cardiac condition that is classified as Class III or IV by the American Heart Association.
• They have a severely limited ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have a Club Cab Silverado that is 4x4, lifted, and 37" tires. The city zoning commission requires marked parking spots based on the square feet of retail space, but they don't have large enough minimum sized parking spaces! There is no law where I live that says you can't take as many spaces as you need 2 or 4 or if needed 6! A restaurant I frequent, has a lot 8 spaces wide and 8 rows deep, that is 64 spaces for you who had "New Math) and 64 compact cars will fit with room to spare. Problem is, the lunch crowd is about 3/4 pickups and service vans. If I'm early, I take an end space and park against the curb. If others are not as courteous, I park over the line to be sure I have enough space. Am I a jerk, many say yes! Do I want to put a contract out on Traffic Engineers that approve nonfunctional traffic intersections and ridiculously tight parking lots: That's the stuff dreams are made of!

Ivan

 

[Greyman50]

Ivan your next to last sentence says it all. IMHO most so called " traffic engineers" should be hung from some of these down right STUPID traffic designs. About 4 miles West of me the new " expressway" crosses basically a country road. What do these " rocket scientists do? They lash up this country road with a STUPID cross over traffic circle? ( guess thats what its called) as East bound traffic crosses over into West side of intersection and vice versa with a convoluted series of traffic lights. A simple intersection like they have for on/ off of I-95/I-295 and I-10 would have worked. Means probably 5 minutes added to all East or West bound traffic. Get some rope…..

 

[Bekeart]

Park by the Shopping Cart Storage Corral

Second choice is a spot where I can open the doors wide enough to get in and out and put the groceries in.

.
Park by one of the Shopping Cart Storage Corrals
I pull up close along side and headed to pull out.
Shopping Carts on My RIGHT and CLOSE.
The framing parts of that Corral are not going to move.

This method gives me some EXTRA space to open drivers door.

Bekeart

 

[djohns6]

Go to your orthopedic surgeon and see if he will authorize a handicap parking permit for you. If your knees are that bad it shouldn't be a problem! Then you can park in the handicap spaces that give you plenty of width to open the doors. There are several conditions other than a physical disability that would qualify you for a handicap plate or placard.

So, what conditions qualify for disabled parking in Colorado? A person will qualify if they are disabled in one or more of the following ways:

• They cannot walk 200 feet without needing to stop to rest.
• They cannot walk without the use of an assistive device such as a crutch, cane, brace, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or another person.
• They are restricted by lung disease to such an extent that their forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second, when measured by spirometry, is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty mm/hg on room air or at rest.
• They use portable oxygen.
• They have a cardiac condition that is classified as Class III or IV by the American Heart Association.
• They have a severely limited ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition.

Everything you posted is a physical disability . That's how it's supposed to work .

 

[Bald1]

.
Park by one of the Shopping Cart Storage Corrals
I pull up close along side and headed to pull out.
Shopping Carts on My RIGHT and CLOSE.
The framing parts of that Corral are not going to move.

This method gives me some EXTRA space to open drivers door.

Bekeart

NO WAY !!!!! I've seen to many of those carts end up against cars.

 

[Bekeart]

NO WAY !!!!! I've seen to many of those carts end up against cars.

I am protected by the perimeter/boundary frame enclosing the parked carts.

An earth quake could move the entire mass of parked carts and perimeter/boundary frame sideways.

 

[Rodan]

Try driving a crew cab dually...

My biggest gripe is stores like Lowes and Home Depot that have parking spaces sized more for Honda Civics than pickups.... don't think many folks are picking up 4x8 plywood in a Civic...

 

[WR Moore]

The shrinkage of parking spots has been happening since the 70's. Uh, that's 1970's. I've seen some that would have been challenging to my Triumph Spitfire. Tractor Supply seems to be an exception.

Parking spots aren't the only thing shrinking. I live in a rural area where pickups are almost the default vehicle, followed by SUVs of various sizes. Yet, when they built a new post office at the county seat, they put in a special drive for mail drop off. The curves are too short a radius for a pickup.

Then there's the roundabouts that have become popular since they're cheaper than traffic lights. Again, sized for smaller vehicles as a general practice. They installed a two lane roundabout on a local road that sees commercial vehicle traffic. No way an 18 wheeler gets through it and stays in it's lane.

 

[dmar]

These narrow parking spots are an insult to the very customers that make the stores/shopping area possible. Most stores/developers don't care about damage to your vehicle because of their designs, they just need to maximize the number of spaces to maximize the profit potential. I do give credit to Costco, they design their stores with very wide parking spaces, and plenty of area for the parking lot. They do it right, with the customer in mind.

I drive a pickup, and I park as far away from the front of the store, and other cars as possible. My wife gives me grief every time, but my truck doors look great, and her doors look like a golf ball.

 

[Krogen]

.
Park by one of the Shopping Cart Storage Corrals
I pull up close along side and headed to pull out.
Shopping Carts on My RIGHT and CLOSE.
The framing parts of that Corral are not going to move.

This method gives me some EXTRA space to open drivers door.

Bekeart

Now THAT is a clever idea! Besides, if you put too much room between your vehicle and corral "fence" people will try to sneak a cart through the gap and bang up your vehicle.

My pet peeve about truck doors is the clamshell style on my Tacoma. The rear doors are hinged at the back. At first glance, it seems good to have wide open access. But if you're fairly close to a wall or something, just try and get something in the back. You have to get it past the front or rear door, then open the other door. You find you're stuck between the front and rear doors with whatever you're trying to load. Trapped!! Still, I don't want a crew cab Tacoma. Backseat might be usable but the box isn't. Compromises....

 

[tinkerer]

The number of parking spaces may be required by local building codes.

The inner portion of roundabouts (circles) contain a mountable curb to permit articulated vehicles to trasverse the circle. Else they would need "40 acres to turn this rig around".

Double "H" wishbones are constructed to avoid left turn phases or prevent left turns across oncoming traffic.

One would think businesses whose primary customers would be using pickup or larger trucks would have an area for those vehicles. But then, people with 'itty bitty' cars would park there thinking how much extra room they had.

 

[LVSteve]

If you haven't been to the UK lately, then you haven't seen a small parking space. Parking spaces over there have not kept pace with the increasing width of even small, European vehicles. Why are vehicles wider? People have got bigger and governments have demanded higher safety standards for side impacts. This rental is probably barely the size of a Nissan Rogue Sport or a Chevy Trax. Silver car far right is an Audi A3 and it barely fit in the space lengthways. I doubt my 2015 3-series BMW would fit. Note all the yellow steel pillars ready to leap out at you if you don't make a square turn out of your space.

 

[LVSteve]

Then there's the roundabouts that have become popular since they're cheaper than traffic lights. Again, sized for smaller vehicles as a general practice. They installed a two lane roundabout on a local road that sees commercial vehicle traffic. No way an 18 wheeler gets through it and stays in it's lane.

I guess coming from a country where we were all roundabout trained, that comes as no surprise. Unless you know for sure the roundabout is big enough for 18-wheelers to stay in their lanes, we were trained NEVER to try and go alongside one at a roundabout. Thing is this behavior requires planning ahead and ignoring the other wise empty lane to "get you ahead, nyuk, nyuk". These are two things beyond the great majority of US drivers.

 

[robvious]

it is building codes that cause the problem.. the size of building dictates the number of stalls required... max building means max stalls... to accomplish that on a given site means small stalls... economics... the "optimal" parking stall size is apparent when there is a snow storm and the stripes are covered... so yes.. it is the civil engineers fault along with government officials...

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

How I delt with Home Depot's Attitude.

When I was still working, I got to know Home Depot's area manager for internet sales very well. We were chatting at lunch on day, and I mentioned the Westerville Ohio store (Closest to my home) was so small it didn't carry enough to fulfill a fair shopping list! He blamed it on the lot size and Westerville's parking spot to Sq. Foot ratio. I said the guy that chose that location should be castrated by the Board of Directors for wasting the company's money. He looked at me king of green and sickly, and I responded: "You don't want that idiot reproducing!" To which he burst out laughing!

Next topic at that lunch, "How come Home Depot hates the inner city?" No, they don't, yes they do! All the stores are around the edge of town. Lowe's has a store just off the freeway at Hudson!(well inside of town) He looks at me and says, "We sold that location to Lowe's." I said, You know what needs to happen! He chuckled. About two weeks later he shows up at my office and introduces me to the V,P, for the region (The guy that sold to Lowe's) And I made a point that they had no inner-city locations. Then I ask if he had a family. I thought the internet manager was going to wet his pants!

Ivan

 

[MRB1]

I noticed that the parking spaces on the hospital parking lot were noticeably smaller than they used to be. Like good enough for a golf cart, but sure not big enough for a mid-size truck.

 

[LVSteve]

I noticed that the parking spaces on the hospital parking lot were noticeably smaller than they used to be. Like good enough for a golf cart, but sure not big enough for a mid-size truck.

Define mid-size truck. All pickups and SUVs have gone through a major bloat phase in the last 20 years. The original Dodge Dakota was called a mid-sized truck when it came out. Today it would be called a small truck. The current Ford Maverick is as big if not bigger than a 1998 F-150.

It's not just with trucks. A modern Honda Civic is way bigger than a 1982 Accord. My 3-series BMW is a touch bigger than a 1990 5-series. Lard, upon lard.