Imagine if we could increase the number of car parking spots in the Canberra CBD by 20 per cent. Now imagine we could do so at no cost to government, business or individuals and with no disruption. Would you support it? I imagine you would. So, what’s the catch? The catch is that most street-side car parking spaces are far bigger than they need to be. A Hyundai Excel Hatch is only four metres long while a Toyota Land Cruiser is about one metre longer once the near obligatory bullbar and external spare wheel are attached. If there were dedicated car parks for small cars then we could obviously fit more parking spots into the same length of road.
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