Think parking spaces are getting smaller? Here’s the truth

If you feel like car spaces are shrinking, you’re not wrong. But the reason isn’t as clear-cut as it may seem.

Parking spaces aren’t getting smaller, but cars are getting bigger – and Australian car spots are still playing catch-up.

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Both on-street and off-street parking spaces are required to comply with Australian Standards, some of which haven’t changed since 1993.

“The current [on-street] parking standard was published in 2020, and it has the same dimensions of car parking spaces from the 1993 version of the same standard,” a spokesperson for Standards Australia told Drive.

“This standard specifies the requirements for on-street parking and applies in every state as the minimum standard.”

How big is a standard car space in Australia?

Currently, the national standard for on-street parking spaces is 2.4–2.6 metres wide (varying based on location) and 5.4 metres long.

The standard for off-street parking spaces – in both private and public parking lots – is the same, but it could soon be increasing.

“As part of the review of the off-street parking standard, it was found that the dimensions of design vehicles did change in the last 18 years,” the spokesperson said.

“In view of this change, revisions are currently being made to the standard to increase the length of off-street car parking spaces from 5.4m to 5.6m.”

This would help accommodate large dual-cab utes like the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ, which measures more than 6m in length in some specification grades.

This sizing increase is still in progress, but Standards Australia expects it will be finalised in approximately six months and, once implemented, will apply to all new off-street car parks.

“State and local authorities may have their own requirements (for example, larger car parking spaces) in town and area planning regulations and Development Control Plans,” the spokesperson for Standards Australia said.

“When it comes to legal disputes between a car park designer and a local authority, courts normally consider Australian Standards as prevailing documents.”

How is car space sizing decided?

When setting a car space standard, Standards Australia says it uses a generic “design vehicle” to dictate the sizing and manoeuvrability requirements of a car park.

“We need to choose a vehicle to design for, so that parking spaces and turning radii on ramps can accommodate most vehicles without over-designing. We could of course make all parking spaces 3m wide and 7m long, but it would be a huge waste of resources for no reason,” a Standards Australia spokesperson explained to Drive.

However, in recent years, that generic “design vehicle” has had a substantial size boost.

Car space designers have to consider everything from a tiny hatchback to a large dual-cab ute when they design a spot.

“The standard method to set the design benchmark is to carry out a statistical analysis of a representative sample of all vehicles registered in Australia and New Zealand,” a Standards Australia spokesperson explained.

The authority uses two kinds of general vehicle classes – codenamed B85 and B99 – to determine spatial requirements.

“These vehicles are not specific makes/models, but close in dimensions to a large family sedan (e.g. Holden Commodore/Ford Falcon) for B85 and a dual-cab utility vehicle (e.g. Toyota HiLux/Nissan Navara) for B99.

“We then design car spaces to ensure that B85 vehicles fit comfortably and B99 vehicles still fit with minimum clearances.”

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