The new car park layout of a Sainsbury’s in Dorset has been described as ‘ludicrous’ and been compared to a ride at Legoland by those who have used it. Honestly, you can make your own call on this one - sensible decision or baffling supermarket racetrack?
To be fair to the supermarket, it’s clearly an attempt to keep people safe and slow people down, so there’s not much complaining to do.
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It does look like a pretty strange hairpin bend, on the other hand.
Check it out.
The controversial curve sits outside the Sainsbury’s in Christchurch and is said to have led to several near misses between drivers going in separate directions.
Of course, there’s something to be said about driving a bit slow and a bit more cautiously when entering a supermarket car park, but still.
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So, one of the problems is that there’s two speed humps across both lanes – aimed at slowing people down, remember? – that people drive down the middle of.
Here it is – don’t drive down the middle of the speed bumps, as they’re just there to slow you down a bit.
When people cross driving through the middle of the speed bumps on the hairpin, they risk the prospect of a head-on collision.
Again, just slow down and go over the speed bumps like normal, OK?
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Anyway, people who have used the entrance have ridiculed it, claiming it looks like the Driving School at Legoland Windsor or something out of popular video game Mario Kart.
Drivers enter the new lane through a mini-roundabout which makes the whole thing look like a gigantic question mark from above.
One user said: "It's too narrow for most cars to pass each other safely. My last car was a people carrier and I would have had to shop elsewhere.
"When I approach the Sainsbury's roundabout to enter their new 'hairpin' car park entrance/exit, I actually feel my stress levels raising.
"My heart beats faster, I get hot, I feel anxious, then usually mutter under my breath 'whose was this stupid ridiculous idea; what a total idiot'"
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Another person said: "The architect/designer of Sainsbury's new entrance should return his payment for designing the most ludicrously stupid car park I've seen."
A third wrote: "The new road layout looks like the Driving School track at Legoland and is like playing Super Mario when driving around it."
A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: "Feedback is important to us and we can reassure our Christchurch Superstore customers that work in our car park will be completed soon and improve the flow of traffic."
Tom Wood