Electric cars.

So how come my town was a thriving shopping area about 30 yrs ago when there were parking places , admittedly the population has probably trebled in that time but people want to be able to park, nobody in their right mind spends what it costs to run a car these days just to leave it at home and get soaking wet or frozen or both.

Public transport is a non starter, infrequent and never seems to go to the right places, and its expensive.

Town undercover shopping areas with car parking were the big thing years ago and it was considered modern not to go outside especially when most of the year the weather is rubbish. At that time the towns were thriving.

Out of town shopping areas have taken over for one reason, free parking.

 

Where do you suggest we put more parking spaces?

 

I believe that in Japan you cannot own a car unless you have an off-street parking space for it.
My cul-de-sac is a nightmare with works vans and cars parked on the pavement (illegal in Scotland but it will probably be another year before this is enforced).
I think companies should be forced to provide parking for their works vehicles. I didn't take my bus home and parked it in the street!

 

Well they built on most of the old parking sites in my town.
We used have multistory ones built but they have demolished at least two of them in recent years.
But there is no point now anyway, its gone too far now, the town is Pubs, Vape shops, cafes and charity shops.
Hardly the kind of thing that draws people in for shopping like it used to.
Really there is no reason to go there anymore.
You can get everything you need out of town or online.

 

Hi,

Same places as retail parks make space for them and with free parking although as pete rightly says whatever is done now I doubt there's no going back; there's now plenty of empty premises in Huddersfield Town center that could be flattened at no loss also acres of block paving; I've no desire at all to visit Huddersfield Town Center whatever they do or in fact any town center I've managed without now for many years; 2.5 hours free parking at our local supermarkets and retail parks even places like the huge Meadowhall welcome cars and has free parking; no traffic wardens on speed just waiting to pounce if I order online and just sit back as I've just done to send a bouquet of flowers to a friend in Nottingham all without hassle of any kind and not getting a soaking in this pouring rain.

Are cycles charged for parking?

If our car isn't welcome then we aren't either simple as that. This problem needs sorting out to benefit everyone.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

For a secure lockup yes.

But another question might be, how many bikes can you fit in the area of one car park space?

 

Clueless, I'm not riding a bike and I'm not going to stand half an hour at a bus stop, for a bus that takes me only kind of where I want to go.
Its alright for you youngsters

I have done it, when I was young but the thought of struggling like that is just horrible, and I'm probably not alone in that thinking.
Without my car I'd probably manage to get to very few places these days.

 

Nobody is asking you to.

This seems to be a common theme among those dead against any other form of getting about. It's like there's a fear that giving everyone a choice somehow threatens their freedom.

I should be clear. I am absolutely not opposed to cars or car drivers. I own and regularly drive a car myself. I just find it sad that the society we live in insists that the car should be the only choice. It's almost like some drivers think they own exclusive rights to every highway and every pavement, and anyone else trying to use either is an affront. I'm not even annoyed at people like that. I don't think they can help it. I'm more annoyed at the silent masses who just accept the status quo, despite it being grossly unfair, not to mention completely unsustainable.

 

Well we dont really need to go into what is sustainable, because nothing we are doing now is.
but putting that aside.
Its the car owner and road traffic that is propping up the whole country tax wise, mostly.

If they want us to pay stupid prices to use the roads that a full of potholes, then at least let us make full use of them.

As I have said before bikes need their own space, everyone laughs at the Sinclair C5 of the 80s and says it should never be allowed on the road but then we let any old wobbly individual get on a bike.

 

I'm not sure that's true. When I look at my payslip each month the income tax figure on its own far exceeds the combined taxes I pay in terms of VED and fuel duty, and that's despite me having a modest salary and a fairly significant daily commute.

But I do agree that cars generate a lot of revenue. I just think it's a shame that we tend to have short sighted governments (past and present) that are keen to milk it while they can, while at the same time not investing any of it for the inevitable future that we're already seeing hints of, as has been discussed on here, where the roads are simply full and we run out of space to build more.

Compared to many, I'm a relatively newbie to driving. I've only been doing it for about 25 years, which sounds like a long time but really isn't in the grand scheme of things. In that time I've seen the roads get busier and busier, to the point where some major routes are now about knackered. And I've seen things go from where you can just go on an unplanned day out, confident of finding a parking space, to having to plan in advance, research all the parking options before you go, set off early, and still spend an hour crawling in stop start traffic when you get there, looking for somewhere to park. On our current trajectory, I dread to think what it will be like in another 25 years. I think at some point unless cars become unaffordable for some reason, the government will inevitably have no choice but to curtail our driving freedom. They've already hinted I'm the past at things like pay per mile taxation, and more towns and cities are getting congestion charging. I fully expect that at some point, private car ownership will become unviable, and the worst part is, we're bringing it on ourselves, by insisting on the status quo.

 

Rather than turning it into free parking for car drivers would it not make more sense to make it into social housing, flats etc. This would bring people and life back into city centres especially if mixed in with small local shops etc.

 

Not usually; but then cars tend not to be ticketed when parked on the pavement or double yellow lines.
There are dedicated cycle parks and storage areas in some cities both in the UK and in Europe where cyclists pay to leave their bikes in return for increased security.

 

Well, more cars on the road because there are more people, I'll leave it there.

A fair few of the office blocks in my town has been turned into housing but it doesn't bring life back into town centres it seems to have the opposite effect.
Life in the town centre is pubs and bars, night clubs and nail bars, hair dressers and cafes.

So social life maybe, but the kind of place you could buy a toothbrush or a cabbage no way.
Small local shops how they used to be dont exist anymore, because nobody goes there for that kind of stuff anymore, or you cant pay the rent and rates selling that kind of stuff.

 

No doubt the UK population has grown over the last 25 years, but nowhere near as much as some of the media outlets would like us to believe.

When I started my career in IT, more than 25 years ago, my first real job was at a firm that did all sorts of data analysis for the direct mail industry. There were 26 million UK households on the Royal Mail Postal Address File back then. Now there are almost 28 million UK residential addresses. That's not that big an increase. Certainly nowhere near big enough to explain the increase in the number of cars on the road. That is easy to explain. Simply, over the same time period, cars have become more affordable and a greater proportion of the population want to drive.

 

If true, that works out at 80 thousand new homes per year are being built, well short of the 300k every year the government was committed to deliver 5 years ago. But if your correct, it explains why we have a housing issue and not enough affordable homes.
According to the website below, UK households were 23.7 million in 1996 and now stands at 28million.

Households in the UK 2021 | Statista

If the truth was to be known, I would say the UK population is probably a good million more than the government will admit too.

I doubt parking will be an issue in the future, my guess is EV's will not get cheaper but the opposite, price motorists off the road.