Inspired Parking
Posted on Flickr by richardmasoner
Quick answer: because they are lazy, don’t want to walk any further than they have to and basically don’t care if it inconveniences others.
The ones that really bother me are those who park in handicap spots when they don’t have a disability license plate or mirror hang tag.
I also get irritated when someone with a disabled tag zooms into one of these spots, gets out and goes into whatever establishment it is with no indication of a disability whatsoever. Those spots are for people with medical conditions that make it difficult for them to get around! If ya can get around okay, park somewhere else!
Of course there are a lot of other examples of people parking in places that they shouldn’t.
What set me off on this was the way a doofus state park dude parked his truck at the building supply store yesterday.
I had gone to Lowes to pick up twenty 80 pound bags of concrete mix. They keep a large supply outside that customers can back right up to for loading — in a loading zone.
Guess where doofus state park dude parked.
That’s it. Right in front of the place I was going to need to back up to — in the loading zone!
I figured it was probably be a while before he got done, that he probably had a load of something that need to be loaded onto the truck, so I took a little bit of time to walk around the store — and there he was, by the paint counter, doofus state park dude in his uniform. Doofus state park dude was a park ranger!
By the time that I got back to the checkout area, doofus state park ranger dude was at one of the counters. Another register was open, with no customers in line there, so I went to there. Turned out the two ladies at that counter were doing some register magic that took both of them and took a couple of minutes, but I was still out of the building before doofus state park ranger dude.
On the way out, a skinny young fellow asked me if I was the one getting 20 bags of concrete. I guess that he was going to be loading it for me. As I went to get my truck, he went over and started cutting the plastic off of one of the pallets of concrete mix. Unfortunately, it was the one furthest from where I backed the truck up to, which was the closest place I could back up to without blocking access to doofus state park ranger dude’s truck bed. So I backed up in front of doofus state park ranger dude’s truck — and I hoped he would be done and out before my truck was loaded, not that I would have said anything.
I mentioned to the skinny young fellow that was going to be loading that I really hated it when people parked like that. He agreed and said that sometimes they had to go into the store to get people to move because they were blocking others.
As I was pulling away from the loading zone after we had loaded all 1600 pounds of concrete mix, I looked in the mirror and saw that the skinny young fellow was talking to doofus state park ranger dude, who was looking in my direction.
Wonder if the kid said anything.
How about you? Do you have any parking peeves or stories?
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Years ago a university one of my friends parked his corvette on an angle taking 2 slots each time. It was a small school so I knew it was him and told him if he wanted 2 slots he should at least go back in the lot a bit so others didn't have to walk farther. He laughed and said too bad if they wanted better spots to get there earlier. For the next 3 days whenever I saw his car parked like that I parked my volkswagon within 6 inches of his drivers door so he had to climb in his passenger side, hump over the hump and finally get going.
After that he started parking near the back of the lot.
No offence to old people, but some seniors drivers piss me off. Especially when they pull this "Oh, I'm old, so I can get away with it" crap.
I once had someone park so close to me, there was less than six inches between our cars (on the driver's side). Just HOW did the idiot think I was supposed to get into my car?
I was fuming, debating crawling through the hatchback. Then this old guy arrives, in his 70's. I commented "Nice parking job".
He got mad and defensive, saying the other guy parked too close to HIM…so he had to squeeze over into MY spot.
Right. So HE feels parking is too tight, so he wedges over onto my side and boxes ME in. And he JUSTIFIES it, like he has some kind of special rights.
Idiot.
I just grumbled, and didn't say much. But if he was a 20 year old, I woudln't have let him get off so easy.
And I think he knew it, too.
The main problem is they just don't care about causing inconvenience to others. They think their time is more valuable, their needs more important.
But in recent years, I have taught myself to avoid getting mad on the road. I just breathe deep and refuse to let it get to me.
Sometimes people who park in disabled spots aren't visibly disabled, but are still entitled to park close to the shop — maybe they have some sort of disability that makes walking long distances dangerous — heart conditions, emphasema, whatever. It's not good to assume that just because they're not in a wheelchair they're not disabled. On the other hand, I've known people who borrowed their disabled family member's disability tag so they could park in sweet spots. Personally, I walk everywhere so everything is a million miles from where I want to be.
XUP – Mike is not talking about people that are handicapped but not visibly so — we have handicapped family members and know the difference – he is talking about people who hop out of their car and run into the store to get something – if they can run they do not need the handicapped parking space 🙂 if I person is moving slow or limping or whatever you can assume something is wrong with them that you can't see, but when they move fast – forget about it! Karen (Mike's wife)
stupidity and laziness are what comes to mind here! i once saw a saying somewhere that went something like this …
if you have sex the way you park, you'll never get it in.
My peeves are not far off from yours. You have good reason to vent.
Mike, welcome to the club. Do I have a peeve? I have a permanent one for exactly the same reasons that you have. I have another one which is the mother of all parking offenses, that is cops parking in no parking zones!
Oh man. I hate it when that happens. And sometimes people really do take advantage of their authority. If you are a Park Ranger and are loading something into your truck then it makes sense to be in the loading zone. But just because you are a Park Ranger, doesn't mean you can park wherever is most convenient for you, especially if it is inconveniencing others. Seriously, what was he buying – a truckload of paint? Sheesh.
I was going to say what XUP said. I had a handicapped tag because it was very painful for me to carry groceries, but I might have hopped out of the car once or twice. What burns me up is not so much the selfish people, but the selfish people who have a "screw you" attitude about being selfish and are antagonistic when criticized about it.
My honey's driving an electric car for his office and most of the grocery stores in our area offer a spot or two to park where he can plug in and reboot while having lunch or shopping. In two months, he has not been able to find a spot empty and has to wait until the non-electric vehicle driver finishes what they are doing and moves their car, which is never an electric vehicle and usually an SUV or Ram Truck squeezed into the very small space.
Almost all the city vehicles and state on campus vehicles are now electric so we are hoping that tickets will get some issue so that folks will learn about how folks are not polluting and saving energy and using their tax dollars wisely..
What I don't get is why the offending parker is ALWAYS belligerent to the electric car driver..keep your opinions to yourself we waited patiently.
Nice post…I will be back
I used to park in disabled spaces on occasion. I even went so far as to limp a time or two.
Now that I have a disability, I eat a bit of crow. I fume a bit at illegal parkers then remind myself.
What I really hate is when I forget my tag in a different vehicle.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments. They were all interesting.
As Karen mentioned, we do have handicapped family members and that is part of the reason we are sensitive to the subject. Her mother has been in a wheelchair for several years. One of Karen's brothers had been a quadriplegic, with some limited use of his arms and hands, for almost 30 years when he succumbed to complications last year. A great-niece was in an accident last year that left her a paraplegic.
We don't have problems with legitimate uses of disabled parking, even if it's not obvious.