Getting out of car parks at busy times

boliston

boliston

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Not sure if anyone else has had this problem but today OH had to drive to one of these awful out of town retail parks as she needed something from currys and all was well until we tried to get out of the car park.

It was about 4pm and it seemed almost everyone was trying to leave at the same time, the only trouble was that the way the lanes were laid out meant there was no way to turn right into the exit stream as every time someone left a gap it would be instantly filled by someone turning left into the same queue from the opposite branch of the car park.

This went on for several cycles, someone gives way, space filled by car turning left over and over again.

Eventually the only way OH could get out was by trying to partially pull out in order to get the next gap, however this meant the people coming into the car park were obstructed and started hooting, but we did eventually get out.

I think the layout of some car parks does not help and people will often not take it in turn to let another person out (OH is always careful to let people out in turn if need arises)
 
I try not to be exiting retail parks at chucking out time.
 
I try to be reasonably assertive and thick skinned...

...works mostly

...and I have a crap car which probably helps! :D
 
Yes retail parks are a pain for congestion, at popular busy shopping times. I tend to visit mid morning, and be no more than an hour if I can help it. These places are best avoided at Xmas late afternoons, seen many road rage incidents.
 
Tigger.ufo said:
I try to be reasonably assertive and thick skinned...

...works mostly

...and I have a crap car which probably helps! :D
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Nah assertive and thick skinned is enough. Ir perhaps it's the German car :)

It's a shame but you have to do it. I fully agree with the op that the lane system is wrong for these places. The exit should be a dual carriage way to avoid this nonsense.
 
Park further away from the door, preferably on the main 'route', there will be less traffic and you can join the queue immediately. When you get to the feeder lane that someone is trying to get out of, let them out. l.o.o works for car parks as well as main roads.
 
ah retail parks, 4 ways to get in 1 to get out.. what annoys me with Leicesters biggest retail park is it throws out the main road to the side of it which feeds the M69, M1, links one side of the City to the other and main route to a lot of villages.. it is a nightmare at the weekend I avoid it at all costs.
 
Yeah, a few years ago all of Canterbury got gridlocked. IIRC it took some people like 4 hours to get out of the multi storey.

Actually I just Googled Canterbury gridlock to find the story. Apparently it happens all the time......
 
boliston said:
Eventually the only way OH could get out was by trying to partially pull out in order to get the next gap, however this meant the people coming into the car park were obstructed and started hooting, but we did eventually get out.
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Come to London. EVERYONE seem to drive like this, come up to a give-way turning right, he/she pulls forward to BLOCK the said road immediately, so people going the other way has to give-way to not seem like horrible person.

It's understandable during heavy traffic when been let across by other cars it's the only way to get out. But during quiet periods, this seems to happen a lot around here, as though give-way means other driver has to give way! :mad::mad:



To be honest, sounds like you were lucky! People are driving in orderly fashion. My local retail park and big Tesco Extra, people doesn't seem to understand the one-way system. In fact, people seems to loose all sense of driving common sense when entering a car park. Driving straight across multiple rolls of spaces from entrance is seen on many occasions.
 
Many of these car park layouts don't include measures for peak time overloading. In which case they are guaranteed to gridlock very quickly. They do need council cooperation to keep the main road exit flowing. But even with that in place, somebody is approving incorrect layout planning in so many cases like this.

Step out of the car, film it, and report it. CC: the local paper. And the retailers who you, sadly, will no longer be able to visit anymore.
 
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Retail parks awful places, full of lemmings in superdry tops pushing buggies.

Avoid like the plague, just never ever. go there....
 
I urge you to blame incompetent or corrupt planners rather than other victims. No matter how sheep like those victims may be. They can't help being the way they are.

You can fix the car park. But you can't fix those people.
 
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Best times to visit are
  1. During the week.
  2. Get there before opening time and leave again within 2hrs
  3. Go in the evening as they usually remain open until 10pm or 8pm at the earliest.
Or just go to one with more than one exit. ;)
 
strumstrum said:
ah retail parks, 4 ways to get in 1 to get out.. what annoys me with Leicesters biggest retail park is it throws out the main road to the side of it which feeds the M69, M1, links one side of the City to the other and main route to a lot of villages.. it is a nightmare at the weekend I avoid it at all costs.
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They want shoppers in, they don't want them to leave :)
 
There are 2 main retail parks here, one of which easy to get out of since it shares an access road with a supermarket and feeds out onto a dual carriageway through traffic lights. The other is near the exit/entrance road to a large trading estate and the distance fro the car park to the main route into town is about 100m and is a right turn out of the car park (traffic light controlled.) At busy times, the traffic feeding right out of the retail park often ignores the lights, causing the traffic to back up all the way through the estate along with frayed tempers. If we need to visit that one, we go at a quiet time and leave through the estate, turning left. That route is about 1/2 a mile longer to get home but takes us past (or usually to!) Lidl so not really any extra hassle.
 
Several retail parks / shopping area's around here, do they get "rammed solid" at chucking out time?
I wouldn't have a friggin clue, as that's the last place I'd be.
<smug zone> :D
 
Mr Bump said:
Retail parks awful places, full of lemmings in superdry tops pushing buggies.

Avoid like the plague, just never ever. go there....
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If I go to a shop it's always in a retail park, free parking, easy access. The alternative would be to shop on a high street in Bristol, which means controlled parking zones, stupid 20mph speed limits and very limited parking availability at high cost.

It is clearly a policy of the mayor of Bristol to drive retail out of the city into neighbouring South Gloucestershire.
 
braceyourselves.jpg
 
onomatopoeia said:
If I go to a shop it's always in a retail park, free parking, easy access. The alternative would be to shop on a high street in Bristol, which means controlled parking zones, stupid 20mph speed limits and very limited parking availability at high cost.

It is clearly a policy of the mayor of Bristol to drive retail out of the city into neighbouring South Gloucestershire.
Click to expand...

Quite often go to bristol and don't seem to have too much difficulty getting parked - mainly go on the train but generally go by car if OH is also visiting and find easy to get spaces in trenchard street, millenium square or cabot. One place I would avoid like the plague is that awful cribbs causeway monstrosity - have fond memories of security guards asking me to leave just because I was using a DSLR while ignoring people snapping away on phones
 
Get there early, park in the space directly opposite the exit, walk to shops, return to car 10m to exit

Get there late, park where you can, spend an hour getting out

a friend of mine spent 3 hours trying to get out of the trafford centre a couple of years ago

last year we went to M&S to buy christmas dinner, walked in and it was a mass of trolleys, every aisle was gridlocked, mrs wack started walking towards the gridlock, er what are you doing, shopping, no we're going, we left,walked back to the car at the exit spot and gone

I went back at 7am, bliss, about 10% of the traffic,in and out in 10 minutes

alarm clock for the win
 
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