| Cars getting bigger - is this a concern? Posted by grahame at 07:16, 3rd December 2025 |     |
From The BBC
'Carspreading' is on the rise - and not everyone is happy about it
Critics call it "carspreading". In the UK and across Europe, cars are steadily becoming longer, wider and heavier. Consumers clearly like them – a lot. Big cars are seen as practical, safe and stylish, and sales are growing. So, why are some cities determined to clamp down on them - and are they right to do so?
Paris is renowned for many things. Its monuments, such as the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. Its broad, leafy avenues and boulevards, its museums and art galleries, its fine cuisine. And it's truly appalling traffic.
Over the past 20 years, the city authorities have been trying to tackle the problem, by introducing low-traffic and low-emission zones, by promoting public transport and cycling – and most recently by clamping down on big cars.
Continues
Critics call it "carspreading". In the UK and across Europe, cars are steadily becoming longer, wider and heavier. Consumers clearly like them – a lot. Big cars are seen as practical, safe and stylish, and sales are growing. So, why are some cities determined to clamp down on them - and are they right to do so?
Paris is renowned for many things. Its monuments, such as the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. Its broad, leafy avenues and boulevards, its museums and art galleries, its fine cuisine. And it's truly appalling traffic.
Over the past 20 years, the city authorities have been trying to tackle the problem, by introducing low-traffic and low-emission zones, by promoting public transport and cycling – and most recently by clamping down on big cars.
Continues
| Re: Cars getting bigger - is this a concern? Posted by bradshaw at 08:21, 3rd December 2025 | |
This was parked in a Bridport car park the other day. It makes you realise the extent of the problem.
We had a 1960 Mini in which we went on a holiday to Scotland, four of us and luggage. I still am not sure how we fitted in!
| Re: Cars getting bigger - is this a concern? Posted by Marlburian at 09:27, 3rd December 2025 | |
My favourite restaurant, the Beetle & Wedge at Moulsford (where there was once a ferry across the Thames) had a makeover several years ago, with its car-park rejigged and spaces re-delineated. Trouble is that they're designed for traditional cars. In the summer a friend drove me there in her Jaguar SUV and despite all the beeping gizmos to help had trouble parking it. When we got out, the front was six inches from a wall, with two feet of its back outside the marked space.
I suspect that some visitors park in the nearby cul de sac, no doubt causing chagrin to the residents. When I drive there in my Vauxhall Corsa I leave it in the village car park several hundred yards away - less challenging for me.
When my friend arrived at my house for the first time in the Jag she noticed the look of disapproval on my face. She's complained of having to squeeze it into the hedge in the lanes close to her house when she meets oncoming traffic. Dunno why she needs such a large car, as most of the time she's the only occupant.
