Carmageddon?

Half_way

More of a though piece than anything else, but…

One of my news feeds from a local newspaper and a few other local "news" sites recently published some "bygone"/"pastimes" articles on some of the retail parks way back in the 1990s along the lines of Shops we have lost - usual stuff like Comet, Maplins, Woolworths and so on, complete with pictures of said retail parks and their vast car parks.

Out of town retail parks and supermarkets have been around for much longer than I hav, but apart from the various stores/shops one other thing sticks out if you look:

The Car park, some of these places featured a token bus service, but most people would ( and stil ) go there in their car to fill a boot up with things they have purchased.

And despite these sites being car-centric and dependant there appears to be no signs of any PPC infestation, the lamp posts are clean and clear of PPC garbage, and cars are all mostly neatly parked, with space to spare.

I also rememebr going out with parents to some of these sites, and supermarkets, some did have controls, that is to get out you inserted a token into a machine and up goes the barrier, or you gave it to an attendant, Sainsburys in Loughbouough used to have such a token to exit system, and if you had no token as you hadnt shopped then you paid a fee often a little more than the surrounding pay car parks, but not a huge margin.

No PPCs no Carmageddon, no ANPR.

Clamping was a risk in some dodgy run down usually tatty sites but for the most part without PPCs (or PPCs applying their modern day grubby tactics) things ticked over reasonably well, you always had the odd !!!!!! who would straddle bays, and so on, but if there were plentiful spaces in the grand scheme of things it didnt really matter ( and still shouldn't)

I know of, and occasionally visit a site off an A road in the East midlands, it has an Aldi, a Costa and a few other small places it also has no PPC the car park is reasonably laid out, people park responsibly the disabled bays are well-placed and fit for purpose - as opposed to being shoved to one side to make way for "parent and Child" - most ( if not all )cars in disabled bays are displaying a blue badge

Just like the car parks of the 1990's there is no PPC and no carmageddon

Which begs the question - if the PPCs were to vanish overnight and car park owners took measures where needed such as tokens to get out, but in most places not even bothering would we see carmageddon as told by the likes of the BPA.

Its almost as if the whole PPC industry and its (patheitc) excuse for its own existence is built on a big lie used as an excuse to rip the motorist off, and the sooner this nasty industrys bussiness model is completely destroyed the better

kryten3000

I took pictures of local car parks a couple of years back for one of the evidence threads on here.

Several of the locations had no PPC in place and guess what? People had still parked in bays and there were plenty of spaces. Carmaggedon is just another invention of the parking industry to justify their existence.

Coupon-mad

Totally agree. The entire thing is a myth in most sites that are not next to a train station or tourist attraction, stadium, etc.

I am familiar with busy retail parks such as the Portfield Retail Park at Chichester or the Holmbush Centre at Shoreham, West Sussex, to name but two in my area which function very well with no parking issues ever reported.

I've used them for many years.

No ANPR. No carmageddon.

Ralph-y

yes I know its different … but when I travel round the Netherlands …. I am amazed as to how well the car parks seam to manage with out car park companies and ANPR ….. Us brits ……