Am I the only one who relies on having four wheels and seems to run into a parking problem almost daily?
I drive a small hybrid and live in an area where having a car remains a necessity. With that said, I try to be a smart driver and typically rack up significantly less than 10K on my vehicle annually.
Between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning this week:
- I navigate into a spot leaving enough room behind me for a normal sized car to fit. When I return to my car, a huge SUV has snuggled in behind me, it’s rear end grazing the red line. I’m squeezed in. As I try to pull out, I lightly bump it’s fender. The owner jumps out, irate. “You hit my car!” There’s no damage but she’s mad as hell.
- I parallel park this morning leaving enough room between my car and the car next door so that I can get out to walk my dog. Returning to my vehicle, my driver’s side door swings open and barely taps the passenger door on the vehicle. I look closely at the car to ensure there is scratch as the window rolls open. “No damage,” I say and as I pull out the passenger gets out of her car to inspect it.
- I pull my compact into a spot for small vehicles in the REI lot yesterday. A huge truck pulls in right next to me. The owner grimaces as he is unable to open his door to get out. I back out and pull my car further away to accommodate him. He thanks me as he gets out, explaining he has a heavy package to return to the store.
- I swing into a spot which appears to offer sufficient clearance for me to fit with ample room within my two line boundary only to find I’ve misjudged the angle as I tap the rubber fender of a ginormous vehicle parked in a spot for small cars. Before moving to another location, I get out to inspect the fender (even though it was a mere tap). No damage to his fender but mine has a dent which would undoubtedly cost me a minimum of $5k.
And that’s all in less than 24 hours!
“In the United States, the size of parking spaces varies. Typically they fall between 7.5 to 9 feet wide and 10 to 20 feet long. The most common size is 8.5 feet wide by 19 feet long.
Several variables can affect the size of parking spaces. For example, parallel parking spaces are generally larger than perpendicular parking spaces. They may be 10 feet wide instead of the more usual 8.5. This allows drivers to maneuver their vehicles into the allotted space more easily. The cost and availability of land may also have an affect on the size of parking spaces. In areas where square footage is expensive, compact parking spaces are more common. These might be as narrow as 7.5 feet.” Reference.com
Selfish drivers: Compact car parking spaces are a joke
If you can show me a neighborhood parking lot with “compact” spaces that actually are filled with small cars, I’d like to see it.
Check out this super-annoying, super-selfish parking job at Lovers and Greenville — do you think the owners of either huge pickup really thought their vehicles qualified as “compact”?
No, they probably just figured: What the heck? Who’s going to stop me? Who am I hurting? Who cares?
I can’t say I’m losing sleep over their parking etiquette, but it’s annoying to see people wantonly disregard driving conventions just because they’re lazy and driving huge vehicles.
If you see any other examples of selfish parking in the neighborhood, send me a photo and I’ll share. Maybe we can shame the selfish drivers into compliance. Then again …
A sampling of responses — you can’t make this stuff up!
I worked at a place in this parking lot for about 3 years and the majority of parking is for compact cars. This is Texas and no matter how insane I find it people drive big cars/trucks. So on a busy day when I would try and pull my little matrix between two big diesels I didn't cuss the parkers but the parking lot planner that thought more compact car spots was a good idea. Poor parking? Maybe. Poor Planning? You bet.
You know what I really can't stand? When I am driving through a full parking lot and then - yes! - up ahead there's an open spot and then - no! - there's a teeny little smart car parked there. Dumb smart cars. Haha.
I drive a dually which doesn't fit in a Dallas "normal" size spot. If I park in two compact spaces, I'm technically taking up less space than taking two of the normal spots. The lot I always think of is the Jason's Deli on Mockingbird - I can barely make the tight turns in there, so driving around and around is not worth the effort and I usually give up and park in the compact spots farthest from the building.
LOL - it happens. I can fit it in a normal spot, but the folks parked on either side are gonna have to crawl through their windows to get back in their cars. But someone has to haul those cows around.....you do know that's where those steaks and hamburgers come from, dontcha?? :)
HIgh density = high tension. I'll be at the ranch......
The Real Problem with Having 800 Million Parking Spaces
The reality today is that there is a staggering amount of space dedicated to parking: it’s estimated that in some cities, one third of the surface is taken up by parking facilities. Surface parking lots take up up to 4400 square kilometers. There are 8 parking spaces per car. The estimates for the total number of parking spaces varies from 100 million all the way to 2 billion, but it’s often said to be around 800 million. That’s more than twice the number of people in the whole country.
Got any parking stories to share? If not, or if you are one of those lucky folks who doesn’t need a car to get around, no problem. This is AN OPEN THREAD
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