Non-traditional signs in car parks confuse British shoppers

A shopping centre in Britain teamed up with car manufacturer Volvo to promote a new family car. To celebrate the fact that families come in many different configurations they changed the icons on parking spaces to show some of the different types of families in society.

Rather than sticking with the traditional man, women and child icon for a family parking space, they added images which represented same sex parents, blended families and older people who look after children.

One man however complained telling the Mail Online that the variety of icons left him confused and unsure of where he could park his car. Twenty eight year old father Rob Jones said the inclusion of the alternative symbols made parking a stressful dilema.

The 28-year-old said: “My family and I drove into Car Park A when they were put up and we didn’t have a clue which ones we could park in.

“We had a queue of vehicles behind us as my wife and I tried to work out if we could leave the car in them.” JOnes told the newspaper.

The advertising company behind the campaign noted that research had shown that 65% of British families do not fit into the traditional mold of husband, wife and children.

Britons being confused by non-traditional signs is nothing new.  Back in 2016 some visitors to London were perplexed when some crosswalk signals near Trafalgar Square featured same sex couples.

A visiting Lancashire man told The Sunday Express he was perplexed when he tried to cross the road and an image of two women appeared.

“When the light went green I saw the two female symbols and I thought, ‘Oh right, so my missus can cross with my little girl but what do me and the boy do?’ the man told the newspaper.

Another visitor to London said he thought the plan was “bonkers”, while a woman from Leeds said she thought the lights meant different sexes had walk on different sides of the road.

OIP Staff