[tallowen]

What size should a parking spot be? Who should pay for a larger one?

Over the last number of years, it feels like large vehicles have become more commonly used but most built infrastructure remains the same. I notice this at the city owned parking lot a couple blocks from my house - the whole thing becomes very difficult to navigate with the length and width of some modern pickup trucks/SUVs. It sounds like it's not a big enough issue in this parking lot (perhaps because it's only one large vehicle) but it would become an issue if everyone were driving a cybertruck there.

Should parking spots in parking lots be made bigger? This would probably mean fewer spots / more expensive. Should cars be split into "standard" and "XL" classes? XL spaces or lots that support XL cars could be priced accordingly. People purchasing vehicles would have a better sense of "oh this car won't be allowed in many parking spots.

[rpgwaiter]

No, parking spots should be made smaller and people should be prohibited from buying large vehicles unless commercially or otherwise necessary

[bitbangboom]

I disagree with this approach. Forced compliance by the “stick” approach I think never wins against a compelling “carrot” approach. Some people are reflexively defiant to what they see as arbitrary punishments for personal choices. Incentivizing smaller and more efficient cars is better. This is an electric truck, it’s still big, but would the net positives of someone buying an electric truck be better than a gas one regardless of size?

[r00fus]

Not really. It’s not just the massively inefficient ICE drive train that makes large trucks dangerous and a poor fit for sharing roads with smaller cars or bikes.

It’s also the ponderous size the lack of visibility and sheer weight.

Cybertruck has all the rest of the problems. It’s in fact bigger and heavier than most trucks.

[sunflowerfly]

On a related note, many economists argue public free parking should not exist. People should have to pay the real cost of providing it, which includes maintenance, but also the opportunity cost of not using that land for something else. Therefore larger spaces should cost more.

[Ekaros]

Even "standard" cars have become bigger in past decades. In many countries the norms of width and length of parking spots have been updated. So it is not just pickups, but pretty much all cars outside very few models like maybe Smart.