Skip to main content

Bristol, UK: when a parking space is just too small

People park in the smallest of places, despite the best efforts of urban street designers and town planners to ensure an orderly arrangement of suitably spaced cars. Surly some spaces are just too small to park even the smallest car. But the city of Bristol, in southwest England, has taken no chances and has painted the double yellow ‘no parking’ lines in areas no one in their right mind could squeeze a car. Click here to see just how small the space is that authorities in Bristol have felt they need
May 8, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
People park in the smallest of places, despite the best efforts of urban street designers and town planners to ensure an orderly arrangement of suitably spaced cars.

Surly some spaces are just too small to park even the smallest car. But the city of Bristol, in southwest England, has taken no chances and has painted the double yellow ‘no parking’ lines in areas no one in their right mind could squeeze a car.

%$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal Click here Visit BBC story page false http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-32589228 false false%> to see just how small the space is that authorities in Bristol have felt they need to mark out as an illegal parking area.

Bristol City Council said the lines were there to ensure vehicles did not park unsafely. However, people have been laughing at the short length of the lines. Because it is a space long enough for only a model car, why bother marking it out?

One man who is against the parking zone tweeted a picture of a toy racing car beside the short yellow double lines which he criticised as “completely over the top".

"It would be virtually impossible to park anything in the space - it's even too small for a Smart car,” he reportedly said. “It's really ludicrous and so bureaucratic and just another foul-up from the council."

A Bristol City Council spokeswoman said the lines ensure access for emergency services, as well as sanitation and delivery trucks, and allow residents enough space to get in and out of their driveways and garages.

Related Content

  • Godshilla makes a run for it and blocks Isle of Wight road
    February 23, 2016
    It was a heart-stopping moment late one night as a car approached an 8m tall animal that was blocking the road. Most people, seeing what should have been an extinct dinosaur – a triceratops – in their path would have turned and run in the opposite direction. But for people in the English village of Godsill, on the Isle of Wight, the dinosaur was a well-known resident, albeit not a living animal. Chris Hollingshead snapped the photo and put it on his Facebook, which can be seen by clicking here.
  • Angry wife tells husband it’s over with a message on a freeway billboard
    October 9, 2015
    Billboards are used to advertise everything, from toothpaste to airplanes and also to get a message across, such as don’t litter the highway. But one wife in Sheffield, United Kingdom, decided to make it personal, and tell her cheating husband that it was all over.
  • VIDEO: Never give a queen a lift
    May 27, 2016
    A driver in Wales drove around for a day with an estimated 20,000 unwelcome passengers until the problem got to be too evident. The video shows the car of the 65-year-old grandmother, finally parked in the small town of Haverfordwest, literally buzzing with bees. Apparently, a queen bee got stuck on the vehicle and her community decided to follow the car and stick to it as well. It took two members of the Pembrokeshire Beekeepers' Association, a park ranger and some local people to coax the travelers
  • Caterpillar loads up a golf course and takes it for a spin
    July 13, 2015
    Caterpillar’s recent advertising campaign lends new meaning to the term ‘driving range’. The construction equipment manufacturer loaded several heavy mining and dump trucks with soil and created a moving golf course, complete with greens and even a small waterfall. The company then had two golfers attempt to hit the “greens” as the trucks, including a 928 wheel load, drove around within driving distance of the professionals. Click here to see not just how well the golfers did underneath a clear blu