Matt Prior
More car parks in the middle of nowhere
Quite a few of us would like to park in motorway stations for longer than two hours
That you can park for only two hours in British motorway stations before being charged for the privilege tells me something. Namely, that, given the choice, quite a few of us would like to park in them for longer.
I know that, sometimes, I would. Not to see the sights, generally. But to meet a colleague, park one car, take another, share the driving – use less fuel, be less tired – that sort of thing. You can do that, of course, but only if you pay a surcharge to do it.
The service station’s thinking is that, as a weary traveller, two hours is plenty of time to get what you need done. After that, you’re taking up valuable space that other people would like to use for up to two hours, to do the essentials that they need to get done: sign up to the AA, buy a travel pillow, stick a few quid in a fruit machine, that sort of thing. And, unlike in a lot of mainland Europe, to use the loo (for nothing, to the UK motorway service network’s eternal credit). So long as it doesn’t take more than two hours, obviously. And if it does, can I suggest a visit to your GP?
Anyway, being charged if you need or want to stay longer than two hours is, well, pretty much fair, isn’t it?
What? You thought I’d be outraged? I’d like to be but, look, it’s private land, which belongs to people who are in the business of making money. If somebody parked on my driveway for nothing and naffed off for a two-day conference about Optimising Supply and Distribution Networks in Southern and Central England, where they diligently attended most seminars but missed an early evening one because of an appointment with the pub, and one breakfast meeting because of an overrunning dalliance with a logistics manager from Nuneaton, I’d be a bit miffed about it, too.
Besides, after buying a £4 cheese sandwich or a small bottle of water that’s more expensive per litre than petrol, paying £15 to park for 24 hours is a bit of a bargain, I’d say.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t see a better way. A scheme that builds a national network of small car parks, conveniently located where major roads meet, where travellers can stop, free short term, perhaps nominally charged long term, to jump in a shared car, or get on a bus. Or just be somewhere to stop safely to check messages and do a bit of light emailing.
I’m convinced they’d be useful. There’s a spot just off the M40, near Oxford, where people can park, for nothing, to get on a bus into London. It’s always utterly packed. A network of real car parks, rather than this unkept but available verge, would be better for travellers, better for easing congestion, and better for the planet.
And, yes, I know why we can’t have them, of course. It’s for all the usual ‘this is why we can’t have nice things’ reasons: people breaking into cars, breaking people as they go to get into their cars, people dumping rubbish, people dumping cars, and people taking dumps in hedgerows.
So everything has to be more regimented, documented, f loodlit and CCTVED and all that has to be paid for, which means charges and a weary bod in a hi-vis vest making sure they’re complied with. So the status quo won’t change at all, which I think is a pity.