car expertSometimes people drive way too fast in parking lots and in parking garages. Does a certain maximum speed actually apply there, asks reader Jan Hoevenaars. Our car expert Niek Schenk answers.
Ask: ‘When driving away with a car from a busy parking lot, you sometimes run out of eyes and ears, especially if you want to leave your parking space reversing. On the one hand, this is because the view is often obstructed by the cars parked next to it. On the other hand, because cars, but also mopeds and even bicycles drive across the parking lot at a considerable speed. Driving out of a busy parking lot would be a lot safer if the car was driven more slowly. Is there no speed limit for a parking lot?’
Auto editor Niek Schenk replies: This is not regulated separately in the law. Sometimes a speed limit is indicated with signs at the entrance. And the times that an accident has occurred in a parking lot, it has become clear that the judge assumes that you have to drive there at a walking pace. Logical, because you can expect pedestrians everywhere and always in a parking lot. The same goes for parking garages.
But opinions differ about what speed that is at walking pace. It starts with the fact that the word walking pace originally has nothing to do with the steps of people, or the speed of pedestrians. The word walking pace dates from the time when not the car, but the horse was used as a general means of transport.
A horse can walk, trot or gallop. The speed of a ‘walking’ horse is about 6 kilometers per hour. That is comparable to a pedestrian, who usually has a speed of 5 km/h.
You could therefore take this as a starting point for a car, but in practice it turns out to be hardly possible to drive a car that slowly. Even if you release the brake pedal, you will soon exceed 5 km/h. The maximum speed for residential areas is, incidentally, set by law at 15 km/h. This was laid down in law more than ten years ago, after the prescribed speed for residential areas had until then only been described as ‘walking pace’.
In any case, from a legal point of view, a driving speed of between 5 and 15 km/h seems recommended for a parking lot. But of course the following applies: the slower, the safer, because the more opportunity you have to brake if another road user suddenly appears.’
Our car editor Niek Schenk answers reader questions every week. Mail your question to [email protected]
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