For whatever reason, it has become vogue to back into parking stalls. I suspect it has something to do with street racing and the Fast and the Furious IV: Drive-Through Combo. In my apartment complex, half the cars in my row are regularly parked backwards. I find this rather silly, as the only reason to park backwards is if you need to drive away really fast. Doctors may need to park backwards. Fireman, sure. Batman, definitely.
Overall, I do not care. Park however you wish, as long as you do not inconvenience others.
Therein, however, lays the crux of my rant. I have noticed a lot of big trucks, those big, huge six-tired, super-jumbo-extended cab, 5-mile-to-the-gallon pickup trucks parking backwards. There are three of them in my work parking lot alone.
Now, I do not care what sort of vehicle people drive. These people may have perfectly good reasons for driving these colossal trucks, be it they have boats to haul, they are tall and need the legroom, or simply like them. However, if they are going to park these enormous vehicles backwards, they should at least be able to get them into the stall.
That is what irks me. These trucks barely fit into a standard stall anyway and if parked backwards inexpertly, they end up taking up two stalls. My work lot is crowded. There is just enough parking. If the lot is full, you end up walking a couple blocks. So, if you are going to park your gigantic truck backwards, make sure you actually get it into the stall, so other people can use the lot as well.
Cheers,
-Jason
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4 comments:
In the past, my wife and I have made little "tickets" to place on the windscreens of such improperly parked vehicles. On it is a simple drawing of a "properly parked vehicle" and next to that drawing is a place where we draw their "feeble attempt"
Actually in driving school that was what I was taught. Almost nobody, me included, does it this way though.
But lets look at it from a different angle. Why would it make sense to back into a parking stall?
Those that are at an 90° angle to the road? Anyway?
a) First when on the driving lane you have pretty good visibility of what is going on on the same in front of you and to your back. So that is positive.
b) Okay, actually parking backwards into a parking stall is trickier than going forward. I was pretty good at it in driving school so it just takes practice. That is a drawback.
c) When driving away you are facing the right way and have better visibility of what is going on on the lane in front of you. That is positive.
d) You are doing stuff differently than the majority. Who cares?
e) You might have a difficult time getting stuff into your trunk when at a mall. That might be inconvenient.
On the other hand we have the drivers doing it the "right" way around.
A) Visibility is good. No difference from a)
B) Driving into the parking stall is straight"forward". People still get it wrong sometimes, but that is how we are made. So basically positive. So B) is better than b)
C) When driving away you are facing the "wrong" way and have at times pretty bad visibility of what is going on on the lane in your back. With a van parked beside you that means driving blindly a pretty long way into the lane. On a truck that way is longer than on other vehicles. So here C) is clearly inferior to c). Especially when drivers are not really cautiosly driving out of their parking stalls.
D) You are doing stuff like the majority. Who cares?
E) You have easy access to your trunk when at a mall.
So b) is skill related, some get B) imperfect, too.
c) is a security bonus.
d) is being rogue or conformist
e) is convenience related
My personal take is that unless one makes a nuisance of oneself anyone can park how they like.
Taking away one and a half parking slots is being a nuisance and therefore I do not advocate that.
I find the bulk of your comments confusing and poorly worded, but I think the gist of them is you like to park backwards because it makes you feel safe and special, and because you find it too hard to look behind you when you back out of a parking stall. How could it posibly be harder to back out into a large space like a street while looking behind you, than into a small space like a stall. You have to look where you're going either way. Unlike parking forwards, (which admitadly some people still cant seem to manage), I've never seen any one park backwards correctly. I've only ever seen people parking backwards poorly and taking up two spaces.
I like your ticket idea. Especially if it looks like enough of a ticket to scare them when they see it :)
I think PJ is actually pointing out that there can be some advantages to parking backwards (well, one advantage). You can see oncoming traffic much better than if you park the 'regular' way.
However, this is only useful some of the time. I have to agree with Anon, in that I don't care if you park forwards, backwards, or upside-down, as long as you only take up one stall.
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