Widespread misuse of parent-child parking bays

One in four parent and child parking bays are being used by drivers with no kids, according to a new investigation by comparison website Confused.com.

Researchers monitored dedicated spaces in supermarkets to find a shocking 26% of bays were being misused.

And Confused.com isn’t the only witness to this behaviour. Seven in 10 (71%) UK drivers have seen a parent and child parking space being used by a driver with no kids.

Further research found that there’s confusion around the use of parent and child parking bays. Can you park in them regardless of whether you have a child with you? How old does your child have to be before you have to stop using the spaces?

Top reasons for misusing a parent and child parking space

• I couldn’t find another space – 31%
• There were plenty of other parent and child spaces available – 31%
• It was late at night and I didn’t think there would be any parents with children around – 26%
• I was only using the space for a few minutes – 22%
• I wanted to park close to the entrance – 19%

“Parents face battles every day and trying to find parking at the local shop shouldn’t be one of them. And this is something I’ve experienced myself with my own children,” said Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com.

“What is clear is if you aren’t travelling with a child you shouldn’t be parking in the dedicated spaces and instead save these for the mums and dads out there who need the space.

“For us parents, knowing the point at which we should be giving up these spaces is quite confusing. How old is too old for our children to be using a dedicated space? To help parents out, we’ve spoken to some of the top supermarkets on their rules to create a handy guide to parent and child parking.”