Parking lot design snafu

Here is a photo from a parking lot. As you see, one parking spot has been mutilated – apparently, as an afterthought – by sticking two poles in it.

The intent, clearly, is to keep a clear path to the stairs leading to the sidewalk above. A valid idea, but ill-executed in so many ways…

1. This is a normally full lot. Given that, most drivers would much rather have an extra parking space available, and wiggle their way in between the cars on their way out.
2. Possibly the idea is to allow access to people in wheelchairs or with baby prams, but if so, they should’ve built a ramp, not a staircase!
3. The two poles are just far enough from the right edge of the space that sub-compact cars can and often do try to park anyway, thereby blocking the passage even worse than they would have absent the poles. If the designers wanted to ensure free passage, they should’ve used four poles, fencing a passage from the stairs that is wide enough for a person and definitely too narrow for a car.
4. Of course, if they did that, they could’ve used much less width than is being wasted now…

Not rocket science, but it isn’t only in rocket design that it pays to think before doing things.