The Wall Street Journal has a piece on the dissonance between Americans love of ever-larger vehicles and the ever-shrinking parking spaces they hope to squeeze into.  This has been a pet peeve of mine for sometime so indulge me for a moment while we look at the Journal's facts

Many downtown garages and parking lots sprouted in the late ’70s and ’80s when sales of smaller cars were on the rise. The standard parking spot in the U.S.—about 8 feet to 9 feet wide and nearly 18 feet deep—has budged little since.

Compact-car spaces, generally 7 feet to 8 feet wide and 15.5 feet deep, are becoming more commonplace in some congested cities, as builders try to squeeze in more parking.

Ford Motor Co., which recently announced it was killing off several slow-selling car models, expects nearly 90% of its North American sales will come from SUVs and trucks by 2020.  Drivers of more diminutive rides are equally frustrated by the parking pinch. Taller trucks and SUVs block views, park at weird angles and make it difficult to get in and out. 

B'gamers are susceptible to the problem in older and in newer parking lots.  The Safeway lot is a great example–tons of SUVs in "compact" spaces.  In a perfect world–or at least my perfect world– planners would not even consider "compact" spaces.  They should just assume every space is going to be used by all sizes of vehicle and force the parking requirement to comply.  It will only get worse too as we dig deeper for more parking a la California Ave. and the other huge developments coming soon.