What Irritates You Monday



"What Irritates You Monday" is a meme thought up by Delores from TheFeathered Nest.

Here, on a Monday, we get a chance to vent our little, or not so little, things that irritate us.
It doesn't have to be something on that particular Monday, it can be anything that irritates you any day of any week.  


Today, my irritation is....

Parking Spaces.
 more specifically, the lack of them....

I'm not irritated for myself, since I don't drive a car, my concern is for others. 
You may have read in your newspapers that our Adelaide Oval is getting a makeover. 
A refurbishment. 
Rebuilt. 
Bigger, Better,  etc.
All well and good you might say, it will bring people into the city and the people will spend money. Councils and Governments like that sort of thing, as do retail businesses. 

The newer, bigger, oval is big enough to cater for tens of thousands of patrons at any one time. 
The parking spaces are for considerably less than that number.
Yes, LESS.  
By about two thirds I believe.
WTF??
Possibly some will travel in by bus or train or carpool, but still, to be allowing so few spaces is bordering on lunacy in my opinion. 
As far as I know, they've planned a single expanse of ground level parking. I could be wrong. 
But why not take the opportunity to build an underground parking section as well?** 
To cater for all those who decide to shop in the city before or after the football, cricket, whatever. They may even zip across the new multi-million dollar waste-of-money, oops, footbridge to the casino. 

The same problem exists in  shopping centres everywhere. 
Build a huge mall, surround it with single level parking spaces and sit back to watch people circling like vultures looking for an empty spot. 

Because people DON'T, park, shop, drive home. 
Really, they don't.
They park, bump into friends or meet up with them on purpose, have a coffee or lunch at a cafe, browse the shops, sit and chat, and maybe, eventually, they'll get around to doing their shopping. 

Depending on what suburb you're shopping in, you may just find a parking ticket under your windshield wiper when you get back to your car, because you forgot to go and move it after two hours. 
There are a few shopping centres that have multi-level carpark areas, Foodland at Norwood has two or three levels in a big block behind their store, across the road.
Arkaba shopping centre has two levels, one underground and the other level with the shops, plus another section off to one side. 
Burnside shopping centre, which seems to get bigger every year, has a huge underground carparking area as well as the spaces at ground level. 
Marion shopping centre, ditto and I'm sure there are others.

In some of the outer suburbs, carparks stretch out seemingly for miles, taking up valuable real estate, because no one thought of multi-level carparks.
Or perhaps no one was willing to pay for that amount of construction. I imagine building multi-level or underground isn't cheap.
And how many times have I seen work colleagues rush out of the store during working hours to go and move their cars?
This is another sore point. 
Dedicated parking spaces are not allocated for those who work at the shops, the planners just did not think that far ahead. 

What is really needed is a nice big mall, full of shops, and right next to it, a nice big multi-storey carpark with allocated spaces for the employees, perhaps a whole floor dedicated just for them, with the rest for shoppers, browsers, ladies who lunch and those getting their hair and nails done. 
It might be ugly, but so very useful. Or they could build in the same style as the shopping mall.....
And it would certainly draw the shopping public. 
Because parking within the city is a nightmare.
Or so I've heard. 

**they can't build above ground because it would spoil the look of the parklands.

Comments

  1. and especially not enough handicapped parking spaces. We gimpy folk like to get around too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And Delores honed in on one of my irritations. People who park in the spots set aside for people with disabilities. My youngest brother waits for them and says 'I see your disability is intellectual'. I agree with him - but some day he is going to get punched.

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  3. I agree, River. It's one of the reasons I now tend to avoid them - especially around Christmas. What a nightmare!!

    And, yes, I've actually seen people without disability stickers on their windscreens, park in a handicapped bay and dash inside, when there are no other options to park elsewhere.

    "Build it, and they will come"... and then be pissed off at the lack of parking planning forethought:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I suppose it depends on the value of the land as to whether expensive multi storey car parks are built or if the land is cheap enough to have acres of cars spread over it. Ideally, public transport should be good enough that most people use that rather than driving.

    For Melbourne's big sporting events, such as those at the MCG, Docklands Stadium or the Tennis Centre, people mostly use trains and trams to get there.

    While I don't know if it is, Adelaide Oval should be well serviced by trains and buses.

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  5. Parking spaces and parking hogs! I have been tempted to paint a yellow marking line over the offending car hog.

    I didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes River, you have hit the nail on the head!!! Pity you can't hit the town planners on the head as well. We in Perth are apparently going to build a new primarily Aussie Rules football stadium near our big casino which at present is one of the major traffic congestion points in our city. They say a footbridge over the Swan River will encourage people to walk across to the stadium after I guess catching a train or bus into the city. I can see that on a freezing day when it is pouring with rain, not. I must admit parking in and around Subiaco (Paterson) has never been good but..............
    Also, near us is a HUGE shopping centre being made even bigger. My son-in-law popped in there a few weeks ago just to buy some lunch and could not finding a parking spot anywhere. I believe they may build a multi-storey carpark but when?
    As for ACROD (disabled) parking even at our medical centre attached to a hospital there are about 10 bays out of hundreds. We oldies have to then be set down while the driver finds parking and then picked up afterwards.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Delores; I forgot to mention those! Imagine a multi-storey carpark with the ground level floor dedicated to disabled parkers.

    Elephant's Child; I certainly hope your brother stays safe. some people are very quick to get offended and throw a fist.

    Vicki; I've seen them do that too. They say things like I'll only be a second and if they are only a second, fine, but what happens when they bump into a friend and go for coffee? Do they think to move their car first? Of course not.

    Andrew; acres of land with cars spread over it? or acres of land with potential parks that no one wants because they all want to be nearest to the shops? Because they're too lazy to walk a few extra metres. Besides, those acres of land could be used for housing.
    I would hope that more people do use public transport for things like the footy, we have a "footy express" bus here in Adelaide which leaves from the city and goes directly to the oval, but do the people come into the city by bus to catch it or do they drive in and take up car spaces that shoppers might need? Often I sit at bus stops a lot and see hundreds of cars pass by with a single person in them. All headed towards the city, it seems carpooling isn't popular.

    Susan Kane; parking hogs indeed. I wish more people were like my older daughter, who thinks nothing of parking in the far corners of a carpark area and walking towards the shops, even in the rain. With two small children in years past, but they're grown now.

    Mimsie; If only planners could think as we do and build as we think they should. Huge shopping mall, huge parking mall right next door. but multiple storeys for both, not spread out over acres of land. Have some of it underground even.

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  8. Parking! Oh, how I love the fact that I rarely think about parking...

    I rides the bus. And I hardly ever hate it. :-)

    Pearl

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  9. Pearl; I ride the bus too, so things like parking, petrol, tyre wear, insurance, maintenance, aren't a concern for me, but I get concerned for my friends who drive.

    ReplyDelete

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