{"id":6739,"date":"2014-10-08T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T18:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myparkingsignblog.com\/blog\/?p=6739"},"modified":"2020-05-26T03:43:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T07:43:07","slug":"car-parking-spaces-shrinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/car-parking-spaces-shrinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it your car, or are parking spaces shrinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Standard parking spaces measure 9 feet by 18 feet, but the 2014 Ford F-150<\/a>\u2014the most popular vehicle in the United States\u2014measures a little over 8 feet by 19 feet. That gives its passengers trying to get out of the truck about 6 inches on either side\u2014and that\u2019s if the truck is perfectly parked in an average-sized spot.<\/p>\n

\"Ford<\/a>

Is your parking getting tighter, or is it just that your car’s getting bigger? From CC-by-CarlImages<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

The example may be one of the most extreme since the Ford F-150 is one of the larger\u00a0vehicles in the country, but it does point to one of the many unintended consequences resulting from America\u2019s continued attraction to big cars and trucks.<\/p>\n

Another is the rise in auto bodywork. \u201cMy truck has, like, a million dents in the door,\u201d says Georgia Stewart of Fargo, ND.<\/p>\n

When she parks in \u201cthe little spots,\u201d as she calls them, Stewart says her large truck always gets nicked or scratched. \u201cI got some estimates, and it\u2019s going to cost,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Those kinds of issues will decrease in the future as cars become smarter, automakers say. Cameras, proximity sensors, and other collision-avoidance features currently found only on luxury vehicles will likely become the norm, helping more drivers sidestep accidents.<\/p>\n

But such features don\u2019t affect car size, which won\u2019t decrease if Americans\u2019 waistlines keep expanding. Notes Dan Cheng of business consultancy AT Kearney<\/a>, the number of adult Americans classified as obese has paralleled the rise in the number of light trucks\u2014the auto sector that includes minivans, SUVs, and pickup trucks\u2014since the 1970s.<\/p>\n

And the figure is only expected to grow: predictions have 43% of Americans classified as obese in 2018, a 3% rise from 2011. That forecast doesn\u2019t bode well for sustainability advocates who would like to see more fuel-efficient cars on the road. The most fuel-efficient are those that are lighter and smaller, but such vehicles don\u2019t work for larger Americans who find them uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Says Karen Steelman, a homemaker from Athens, GA, who has a body mass index of roughly 37 (seven points above what\u2019s considered obese), \u201cI want to be environmentally friendly, but unless I am in an SUV these days . . . I find it hard to find pleasure or comfort in driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still other large Americans voice concern about the safety of smaller cars. \u201cEven if I could eventually fit under the steering wheel of the car, my next worry would be surviving a car accident,\u201d said Robert Dean Cole, a Wisconsinite who weighs 240 pounds and stands 6 feet 7 inches.<\/p>\n

Perception doesn\u2019t match reality, however. Carmakers have accounted for the lower mass of smaller vehicles in collisions with their larger counterparts, and many get as good or better ratings in crash tests than bigger vehicles. The 2013 Honda Civic<\/a> received a four-star crash rating from federal government, for instance, higher than the Ford F-150 and other larger crossovers and SUVs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Standard parking spaces measure 9 feet by 18 feet, but the 2014 Ford F-150\u2014the most popular vehicle in the United States\u2014measures a little over 8 feet by 19 feet. That gives its passengers trying to get out of the truck about 6 inches on either side\u2014and that\u2019s if the truck is perfectly parked in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,577],"tags":[601,600,133,602],"class_list":["post-6739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regulations","category-transportation-2","tag-car-size","tag-ford-f-150","tag-parking","tag-safety"],"yoast_head":"\nIs it your car, or are parking spaces shrinking? - MyParkingSign Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Standard parking spaces measure 9 feet by 18 feet, but the 2014 Ford F-150 the most popular vehicle in the United States measures a little over 8 feet by 19 feet.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/car-parking-spaces-shrinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is it your car, or are parking spaces shrinking? 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