What do you call the space where you park a car? Parking spot, space, bay or what?
I am looking for the correct/common way to call the single spaces which are generally clearly visibile in parking lots as you can see from the picture:
I would probably call them "parking slots," but I am not sure if that is correct and I could not find any reference apart from this one, which clearly refers to a different context.
According to the Collins Dictionary a parking bay is:
a space in a car park designed to be large enough to park a vehicle in
Any reference to American English or British English would be appreciated.
In American English, we generally call them parking spots. Occasionally we refer to them as parking spaces, but parking spot is what I hear most commonly.
Reading all the comments and answers so far it seems to me that both US and UK usages are actually pretty similar.
A parking 'space' is the usual term for a formally delineated 'space-to-park-a-car' (e.g. in a car park/parking lot). It can be impersonal and classificatory.
A parking 'spot', on the other hand, is rather like a picnic spot - namely somewhere you find for the purpose of parking (or picnicking) irrespective of whether or not it is formally set aside for the purpose. It is not (yet!) typically impersonal and classificatory.
Parking bay has always sounded like a US import to my British ears. Ngrams shows 'parking bay' usage began around 1940 with 'parking bay's first entry in the OED (almost twenty years after usage begins on ngrams)
1957 Times 30 Nov. 3/2 A dustcart could use a parking bay without charge.
In my mind a parking bay is associated especially with corporate parking provision.