Liffey valley to start charging for parking

Stark

Same here. Free parking at Tesco and the retail parks and anything I've had to buy from the main shopping centre has been small enough for bus/bicycle.

- The size of the spaces seems to be smaller, not great for SUV, etc owners.

Good, we shouldn't be pandering to people who choose to buy vehicles that are too big for our current infrastructure imo. We're not America.

Hippodrome Song Owl

As someone who gets buses at the new hub in the car park at least twice a day, to me the car park looks pretty empty every day. Even right up to the Friday before Christmas, it was sparse enough.

I haven't been inside the centre in over a year. I've never liked it, but would have had lunch there a couple of times a week previously, but friends not willing to go anymore. Aside from anything, it's a horrible layout to navigate safely as a pedestrian since it was redone. I certainly wouldn't like to be doing it with young children.

appledrop

The new coach parking is absolutely ridiculous.

It's all the way up past the Marks & Spencer car park so not safe for bringing a group of school kids through.

No safe walkway through the car park then nearest entrance is food section of M&S. Nighmare for school group.

How the hell is that an improvement?

MrRigsby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121550947#Comment_121550947

Thats great until someone squeezed into a tight space hits your new car with their SUV door and damages it . If they are charging the spaces should be adequate for the average vehicle. The best selling car here is a Tucson which is an SUV

SteM

My wife was saying the Tesco car park was being well policed just before Christmas, I wonder were a lot of people parking there and walking up to the main SC.

It's kind of pointless to say it was jammed coming up to Christmas, when you'd expect it to be busy, without seeing how it has been effected for the rest of the year. Anecdotely, my wife and her friends used to meet there on Saturday or Sunday mornings for coffee and to wander around for a few hours shopping but that has been cut way back. Now they usually just meet for coffee in some other place that has free parking.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121552301#Comment_121552301

The best selling car here is a Tucson which is an SUV

...therefore a Tucson is not average! Someone who buys a larger sized vehicle knows that it is larger sized but surely they already know that the world isn't revolving around them?

DaveyDave

I was there mid-day the Monday before Christmas and it wasn't very busy, back of M&S was a ghost town as always, meanwhile there was a queue of cars waiting to turn into Smyth's at Fonthill so I parked at Aldi and walked over...

People are extremely lazy. Although there's a 50/50 chance some prick will park next to me when surrounded by 50 empty spaces at the very, very back of the car park.

Snake Plisken

Tesco have plans to put barriers up for their carpark where you will need to spend a minimum of €20 instore for your free parking. Or pay the hourly rate.

MrRigsby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121552675#Comment_121552675

The best selling car for several years running isn’t average???? If you say so . You do realise most manufacturers have dropped traditional 3 box saloons (mondeo and Avensis for example) from their ranges in favour of SUV models and are dropping smaller cars altogether (the fiesta is also gone ) due to the smaller profit margins on them and the need to reduce use of ICE in favour of EV technology . The size of cars overall has increased mainly due safety requirements . Car park owners need to move with the times

magicbastarder

Most SUVs have approx the same footprint as 'normal' cars anyway. The Tucson seems to be about 3cm wider than an Octavia which is not much at all.

McGrath5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553164#Comment_121553164

If the owners of these larger vehicles need larger parking spaces then they will have to pay the increased parking charges, least they could do is move with the times.

unkel

Car parking space sizes are still based on the tiny family cars people had in the 60s and 70s. Cars have grown a lot in size and weight since then for varying reasons, the main one being safety. Spaces should simply be bigger now.

magicbastarder

the car park owners would be dead set against that; add 10% to the width of each space and you'd reduce the capacity of each car park by 10%.

i guess for paid parking, all they'd have to do is up prices by at least that much.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553334#Comment_121553334

I don't think anyone happy to pay €2.50 for 3 hours parking would not have paid €2.75 if that was the price they'd set at the start 😂

magicbastarder

How much do multi storey car parks cost to build, and how much more efficient are they in terms of land use? I.e. a three storey car park won't have triple the capacity of a flat one occupying the same land. Also, I suspect the throughput of a multi storey is less than of a flat car park? More scope for queues?

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553317#Comment_121553317

Tallaght hospital car park is ridiculous, the ramps are sized for a Fiat 126. What idiot signed off on that?

MrRigsby

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121553413#Comment_121553413

A lot of multi story car parks weren’t designed with the significant added weight of EV vehicles in mind and won’t be fit for purpose when EV’s are used by all

magicbastarder

only quite old ones (60s or 70s) which haven't been maintained will be at any real risk AFAIK.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121554242#Comment_121554242

I wouldn't be so sure - car weight is approaching triple what it was in the 60s and you'll be well in to the safety margins by then.

magicbastarder

IIRC i base my opinion on this on a half-remembered BBC article on the topic

Hotblack Desiato

They'll end up looking like this 😁

WishUWereHere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121637788#Comment_121637788

Ouch. Where is this?

magicbastarder

The image name suggests it was the cork car park fire, but that's not a car park that has suffered a fire.

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121552783#Comment_121552783

I wonder how that will work for Click and Collect orders where you don't actually enter the store?

Unless they allow a minimum free period. Probably need to be 30 minutes, as sometimes there can be a few cars waiting for click and collect.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121647487#Comment_121647487

It was the level above the level which was on fire.

Yes, jet fuel can melt steel beams...

average_runner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121648079#Comment_121648079

Different lane for click and collect!!

Ezeoul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121655285#Comment_121655285

Don't know if you're familiar with click and collect spot at Tesco Liffey Valley, but it's a delivery van parked in a specific area of the car park. Creating a separate traffic lane just for that sounds a bit extreme. I think a free minimum stay would be more practical.

Snake Plisken

The Body Shop has closed, was located down at the M&S side of the centre

average_runner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121660260#Comment_121660260

Wow, was in there with my daughter on sat. No surprise though as that end is dead as door nail.

All of liffey valley was dead last Sat and even on xmas eve morning the numbers were down on previous years

SteM

I think they brought in paid parking at the wrong time unfortunately. If people are starting to watch what they spend then liffey valley need to be enticing people in, not giving them a reason to go somewhere else.