Larger Parking Spaces

[Anchor Lead]

Have you ever experienced a door ding? One of the main causes of this type of accident is parking spaces that are too narrow. Now Korean drivers are about to see a little more parking space for their cars.

[Pkg]

Tight spaces make parking an ordeal for most drivers. They must also worry about dinging or scratching the door of the car next to theirs.

[Soundbite] Moon Do-myeong (Seoul Resident) : "I worry a lot about making a dent on someone else's car. It's annoying."

The width of a parking space has remained at 2.3 meters for 26 years. Back then, the width was determined according to the size of small cars. But now the number of compact cars has sharply declined, while mid to large-sized cars soared to account for more than 80%. This has led to a spike in door ding cases as well. Insurance claims for door dings have tripled over the past six years, accounting for a fifth of the industry sales. As feuds over parking and social costs have risen, the government has decided to widen parking spots by 20 centimeters to 2.5 meters. The width of enlarged parking spaces already in pilot implementation will be increased by 10 more centimeters from 2.5 to 2.6 meters. The rule will be applied to all new buildings, starting at the end of this year.

[Soundbite] Kim Se-hwan (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation) : "This rule will not be applied to the buildings approved before the enforcement date."

The additional cost of widening parking spaces is estimated to be roughly 2.4 million won per apartment unit.