“If I swing hard on the wheel and straighten up, I will just fit in there between those two four wheel drives. Can you get out on your side? Just barely enough on my side. Opening the door with my right hand and holding the steering wheel with my left I swivel around to the right, straighten my feet, and manage to get them onto the ground without scraping the bottom of the door too much. Sitting sideways by holding the top edge of the door frame with my left hand I can use my right hand to lever myself upright off the top of the seat, turn sideways and slide out. All the time making sure my door is not scraping my neighbours’ duco. Made it! The ‘Hold Open’ positions on my car door rarely get used in car parks. Yep! Car locked. The dashboard will be in the sun but can’t find a better spot.”
The standards for car spaces were fixed before the days of the larger, wider, higher four wheel drives. We cannot blame them. Get one of these vehicles out of centre in a bay and it is a test getting in and out of a car for the average person and a painful experience for the aged.
A little bit about my car – Made in South Korea, for international specifications and to conform to Australian standards but not for our climate. The market is too small to make adjustments for our hot summers. Oh, for the days of the sun hood on the old ute.
Having left my car in the sun, it will only take 8 minutes on an average day for the inside to reach 40C and then rise to at least double the ambient air temperature.
I am lucky that today is only going to be 25C, because my windscreen sweeps back at the edge of the front seats. The dash will probably peak around 58C.
Check out Google Earth, and have a look at the extent of car parking between Tunbridge Street and Wallcliffe Road and contemplate the heat island effect from unprotected bitumen.
Contemplate the radiant heat reflected into cars and buildings from exposed bitumen and paving.
It is obvious to me that my locked up car is a health hazard if I leave it in an unshaded carpark on a hot day – not good given rumours that it might be getting hotter for longer in the summer and that with increase in temperatures there is a likely increase in the release of volatile organic compounds inside new cars.
So who takes responsibility for our degraded landscape and overheating of parked cars?
Car manufacturers: Not their problem, our local market is too small, besides their cars conform to Australian standards.
Local authorities: Not their problem, one tree per six car bays is a guideline but not a statutory regulation, besides car bays conform to local government standards.
Developers and owners: Not their problem, their objective only to maximise returns and comply with local government regulations.
Car drivers: The only ones left to take responsibility for the situation.
The little carpark on the way up to the library off Fearn Avenue: Yes, I have found an exemplar of parking facilities. Deep cool summer shade with long trunked trees. Their evapo-transpiration and shade providing cool on a hot day. Advertisements on shop fronts clearly visible, even a surveillance system could do its job unheeded. Leaves in winter for mulch! It actually looks inviting.
I am not convinced we know the signs and symbols of a sustainable society but I am convinced we can do better.
We can always wait until material science solves the car heating problem (driverless cars could create less need for parking bays), however in the meantime we could use our cognitive processes and knowledge as management tools for change to a future sustainable society that is a little more civilised and “situation aware”.
I loosely hold a burning hot steering wheel and slowly creep out from between my two large neighbours into mid-lane, I can’t get my neck around and can’t see a wretched thing.
Hold it, stop, stop, stop, ok go. Made it.”
- Peter Little
