A nationwide survey of public carpark parking spaces carried out by tyre-maker Semperit has highlighted a significant number of spaces that are narrower than the recommended guidelines.
In its guidelines for carpark layout, Dublin City Council states that a parking space should not be less than 2.4m wide. However, when Semperit surveyed 20 of Ireland’s most popular car parks in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, almost one in five (19 per cent ) of the spaces measured were narrower than the recommended width.
Paddy Murphy of Semperit Ireland said: “These results confirm what most motorists would say about the everyday experience of parking the car – it’s often very difficult to find a space with enough room for you and your passengers to exit comfortably from the car.”
‘Narrow’ carpark spaces were found at each location surveyed, and some of the results show a significant discrepancy from Dublin City Council’s recommended width of 2.4m: 1.85m at Brown Thomas carpark in Dublin; 1.89m at City Hall, Cork; 1.9m at Grand Parade in Cork, Arthur’s Quay in Limerick and Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin; 2.2m in Eyre Square in Galway and ILAC in Dublin; and 2.1m at Dublin Airport.
Mr Murphy commented: “This situation has come about through a combination of factors. Clearly, there is the fact that our cars have generally increased in size since many of our car parks were first opened. The average family car is 1.8m wide but many of the larger SUVs are actually wider than some of the spaces we found. Poor carpark design is another factor, in that pillars intrude into spaces, meaning motorists do not have the full width of the space to manouvre into.”
“We also have to face up to the fact that Irish motorists themselves are getting larger. The Department of Health tells us that almost 40 per cent of Irish people are considered to be overweight, so that makes exiting cars in tight spaces all the more difficult,” said Murphy.
