A few years ago I read an interesting article on parking spaces realised in dedicated structures. It was said that modern cars are larger and heavier than in the past, making these structures not only obsolete, but also dangerous. As a matter of fact, they were designed and built decades ago when the average weight of a vehicle (cars, vans, mainly) was much lower than today’s.
Furthermore, while governments encourage the purchase of electric vehicles to protect the environment, the EVs’ extra weight due to the batteries installed on board worsen the impact they are having on the parking infrastructures.
Last but not least, as also reported in the article “CarSpreading” on the rise: millions of cars too big to fit in parking spaces published on 04 Apr 2025 in the UK, we have to face an additional problem to weight: size.
As previously mentioned, modern cars are much larger than their predecessors: for instance, look at the size of an old Fiat 500 (1st model produced in 1957) and the current one [measures in millimetres]: L= 2,970 vs 3,632; W= 1,320 vs 1,683; H= 1,320 vs 1,527. This means the current Fiat 500 (not the larger 500L or 500X) is about 20% longer and 25% wider than the older one. How old parking spaces can cope with these new sizes?
Same concept applies to Renault Clio, VW Polo, city cars in general. No comment on SUVs size that can easily reach 5-metre long and 2-metre wide.
This increase of vehicle size (i.e. occupancy) already creates problems in cities with narrow roads, in street parkings and older parking infrastructure that cannot accept the same number of vehicles. Therefore, we should build new parking spaces (more robust and with larger slots). But, the new trend is reducing the number of vehicles entering cities and, in particular, city centres. How could we solve this problem, which is not only technical?
The obvious solution is improving the quality of public transport with special attention to rural areas, otherwise inhabitants of these areas – if they cannot enter city centres with cars and don’t have a (satisfactory) public transport service – will be stuck there and this will generate (or worsen current cases of) social segregation / isolation.
Multi-disciplinary round tables with car manufacturers, cities administrators, public transport operators, architects, should be devised, kicked off and periodically held to understand which direction to take to avoid further problems.
Stefano Mainero
EPN Consulting and EPN Consulting Research and Innovation Founder & CEO
Article written by human beings without any use of AI. EPN Consulting Ltd. copyright 2025
Previous EPN Consulting Newsletters are available here.