When I got back from Stuttgart yesterday and set about the always embarrassingly too-long process of finding where I parked my car in the huge airport lot, I ended my search with a bit of an unpleasant surprise. To be fair, nothing bad actually happened, but the scene I arrived at was a sort of frozen moment of a close call, and it got me wondering. What I found was the scene you see up above there, where that GMC SUV had been parked unsettlingly close to the face of my little Nissan Pao.
To me, even with no actual contact, this feels too close. If it was me parking that GMC and I walked out and saw this, I’d get back in the car and back up at least six inches or so. I just wouldn’t feel right about parking my car so precariously close to another car.
If we look at the photo, you can see the GMC is actually over the dividing line of the two spots:
In the upper part of the photo you can clearly see the line that divides the spots on the left from those on the right, and that GMC’s nose is definitely flopping over that line. There’s maybe an inch and a half to two inches between our two cars? Again, there’s no contact here, but this still feels wrong.
David and I encountered something similar – though worse, as there was contact – at Pebble Beach last year, and made this little reel:
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Now, my situation is a bit different. There was no harm done, at all. But it’s also not a parking job I would personally feel comfortable with. The side-to0-side parking closeness rules I think are a little more clear, because you need to leave enough room for someone to open their car door, ideally without anyone dinging anyone. But front and rear? There really aren’t established rules.
In parallel parking along a street, especially in a crowded city, things tend to get very tight, which can make exiting the spot a challenge, or, for people who are okay with the practice, sometimes a touch method is just used, letting bumpers bump and grind with the ruthless abandon of crabgrass.
But in a parking lot? In a parking lot, I think you simply shouldn’t park like this. Even without contact, it just makes everything feel wrong and unsettled and precarious, and why would anyone want that? You wouldn’t, that’s why!
So what’s your rule? Is parking as close as Dr. GMC Acadia did to my Pao okay? Is anything good as long as there’s no touching? Or are there standards and rules for parking life?
Personally, I think you need to at least keep the extremities of your car within the bounding lines. If the ass hangs out a bit into the main lanes, well, okay, but everything else? Stay in the lines.
What do we think? Tell me, dammit!
Looks like the hulking great GMC is trying to bully your wee Pike car. For shame!
Around the Mediterranean, “too close” in city parallel parking is measured in micras.
We actually call it “parking by ear” back in Barcelona, meaning people park by stopping when they hear contact.
Hate it and very happy it’s not a thing over here. My cars’ bumpers over there were always scratched and dinged.
I once had someone park with so much contact that when I drove away (they were behind me and I didn’t have anyone in front of me), their front license fell to the ground. Took the plate home with me and left a note with my number, requesting that they reach out to fill out the insurance paperwork together (works different than in the US) and I’d hand back their plate that I had saved from the ground. Took plenty of pictures too, just in case of course.
No. I would back up. In another vein of this..yesterday I was about to pull in to a vacant spot at the grocery store. It’s angle parking with alternating rows going up and down. You know the drill. Anyway, as I was pulling in the car opposite the space decided to pull straight out, right at me, rather than back out of her – it was a her – spot as she should. Not only was this a momentary shock for me, it would have placed her driving up stream against the flow of that row.
Sheesh.
In the same way I value personal space, I also value automotive space. If I don’t you (or your car), kindly step back a bit.
Also, I’ll never park at a goddamn airport again, ever.
I work at a dealership and sit by the window overlooking the customer parking lot. Every day I stare in wonderment at the horrible parking jobs. I could post daily on the Facebook group You Park Like A Fuckhead but I’m too busy.
Based on the scale of that photo, you can always use those GMC headlights as fenders on the PAO.
Gonna make the parking sensor argument for the GMC owner. He pushed those sensors to the edge, but too close.
I think an astounding number of people have no idea where their car ends. I guess not everyone has good spacial awareness.
The parking lot at my employer has a painted walkway between two rows of diagonal parking spaces. There is no physical barrier, but the path is about 4 feet wide and clearly marked. There are routinely 3-4 cars every day that are parked at least 1-2 feet into the walkway. It’s not the same 3/4 cars and isn’t even disproportionately big trucks/SUVs. If they don’t know where the end of their car is +/- 2 feet, they probably shouldn’t be driving.
See also: people who stop well beyond the white line at stop lights. Not the people who decided not to risk the yellow and stop post the line on accident, but the people who roll to a controlled stop with the line at their rear doors. It’s always fun when these people come across a semi turning left. They always seem surprised.
Sadly it’s airport parking which much like airplane seats is designed to cram as many cars in as tiny spots as possible.
The Yukon probably did a love tap before backing off, may have even chosen across from the Pao as they could go that little bit further in the spot, at least the Pao has some hardware up front to help against scuffs.
Take the Pao to a nice Tractor Supply parking lot to feel the breeze around it as you peruse various types of jerky and tractor parts.
Welcome back Torch! Whenever someone used to park too close to him my dad would recount a story of a guy in Kensington in the 70s who used to park in the street and hang old tyres off the front, rear and road side of his Bentley S2 drophead, in a boat fender stylee. Maybe something to learn from there…
Toeing the line is very common in Germany, unfortunately.
It’s due to the legal specifications for the parking space that haven’t been updated in many decades. And many parking garages were built with narrower parking spaces that were no match for the increasingly “portly” vehicles. They couldn’t be modified for the wider space as it would reduce the financial earning greatly.
Despite numerous complaints and frequent media exposure, the German Behörden don’t care.
Sooooooooo, you survived the 115 degree fever you had ,flight back home, David Tracy’s germ ridden mini-van, and are still alive? Are you ok? Is this really you, Jason taillight licking king (Queen, we live in new times, y’all, just be you) or an AI version of Jason? Not a damm word about amber turn lenses, I’m leaning towards an AI Torch. Fuck being 3 inches from that bumper in front of me. That’s what 1970s bumper were made for. Oh, never mind, we don’t have park bench bumpers anymore No more padded landau tops either. Wow, life sucks
The Acadia is sort of wrong, but not because of the closeness. He’s too far over the line. Nothing wrong with being an inch or two away from another car.
This is a peeve of mine as well and I feel like it violates my car’s personal space. If I walk out and see this, my thoughts is that they actually made contact, and backed up a couple inches after noticing. I find it less likely that they were so f*ing precise that they could stop it exactly 1” from my bumper. Also, what if I need to get under the hood for some reason? I’ve come back to airport parking after a long trip and had a dead battery before.
I just can’t get past the foggy headlight lenses!
My initial thought was even being that far forward, that Yukon probably still had its ass hanging out. But then you said it was an Acadia, and now I am confused.
I hate this. Because what probably happens next is another bigger car (not hard to do compared to the Pao) comes and parks in front of the GMC and then they are hanging their ass out the back as well and now 2 rows of parking have more obstacles to avoid while trying to avoid the dumb dumbs walking with their faces buried in their phones.
Though on that note, they probably will walk into the back of said cars with their asses hanging out and that would make me chuckle to myself.
As long as that was the outcome and I was there to see it, then I would approve. All other cases, hard no.
In parallel parking, any space that I can fit in without touching the cars on either end of me is game. Some years ago I found a cutely aggressive note from a neighbor who seemed convinced that I had bump-parked my Accord in front of or behind him, when in fact I had just done a really good job parking.
Well yeah in crowded situations where space is at a premium, but this aint it. Lots of space between lines for the gmc and zero need to be so close.
I agree, but that’s not how the question in the post title is phrased 🙂
Ugh the people in my neighborhood during school pick up time have the opposite problem where they leave enough space to fit almost half a car. You could easily fit a few more cars on the block if they parked with a normal spacing.
And they all do it! I get that the Karens in my neighborhood can barely drive their giant SUVs, but the rest of us shouldn’t have to suffer because they shouldn’t have a license
I think they call it “cell phone spacing”, cause they are definitely on their phone.
If it’s close enough it makes the other driver question if you parked by feel it’s too dang close.
If another car parks within 5′ of my wife’s bumper she freaks out and insists that the other car probably hit her and backed up. If she walked out to the parking lot and found a car this close she would absolutely lose her shit.
If we could post pictures, I could show you the Outback that parked TOUCHING the bumper of the Parsh.
Twice.
That’s too close.
Nope.
Next question.
I thought this might be about a parallel parking situation, which is a real conversation.
Only issue, not that the vehicle is too close, but it is breaching the commonly-agreed-to “property line.”
And then no pic of the back of the vehicle? I mean, if the back is way out of its spot, then you can see why it’s parked so close, and this also means that the vehicle is too big for normal spaces, and it needs to be parked out in the RV lot.
I hope you got paid well for this insignificant event.
Anywho, the solution is obviously to get a decent cushion (for your car), and push that thing with your car out of your space, then drive away.
Also, they’re called “bumpers” for a reason. I think they should be employed even more often.
Correct take
Maybe you could make that argument with the Pao, but bumpers aren’t for bumping anymore. They are crumple zones to protect pedestrians/passengers in an impact and are meant to deform and crumple in service of that purpose. Even minimal impacts will often cause visible permanent marring at best.
Based on the ability of most drivers, especially those driving large SUVs, it’s highly unlikely they managed to get this close without any contact.
Too damn close IMO.
It’s just common courtesy to leave space. This is akin to sitting too closley to someone on the subway when there’s plenty of room, or the equivalent of hovering one’s finger an inch over someone’s body and chanting repeatedly “I’m not touching you! I’m not touching you!”
Exactly. And because it’s common courtesy, that is why it doesn’t happen.
Of course the real question is why do they let trucks park in the car lot?
As a native New Yorker from Queens where street parking is tight and most people “park by feel”… there really is no such thing as “too close”. I’ve parallel parked a squarebody Blazer with a stickshift into spots that had less than 6 inches fore and aft without touching a thing.
Geez, in Brooklyn 2 inches is plenty.
With our old Subaru it was possible thanks to tbe curve of the bumpers to park touching at both ends. Once I parked and when my wife went to use the car she came back and made me unpark.
In parking lots, spaces are spaces, and lines are not to be crossed.
Word. Literal 2” works
Ok, 5cm.
You have no idea how many hours of my work life was spent chasing down bugs causeed by quote marks and operating systems that think you made a mistake and change it to something else.
Oh and Microsoft Word and managers that cut and paste code in and out of it can burn in hell.
Almost as bad as the idiots at Chase bank that substitute some sort of dash ( Em dash or en dash or hyphen ? ) for minus signs in their webpage when you’re looking at your statement.
And also that Spinal Tap joke.
First off, if Flat Stanley cant squeeze through without getting road grime on the ass of his jeans, it’s too close. Secondly, Mr. GMC is prominently using two spots. Sure, when the only Pao on the east coast is parked there nobody is harmed, but the second after you backed out an average size car tried to use your space they found themselves quickly SOL. Maybe a motorcycle could pull in, but certainly not a typical truck or SUV. At least not without hanging way out into the lane.
Also, wouldn’t it have been easier to just take the Pao as your carry-on and put it in the overhead bin?
I don’t really have a problem with nose to nose. People generally aren’t going to drive forward and screw your car up when they leave, no matter how close they’ve parked. Side-to-side? That’s an issue. And it’s even worse when you’ve already headed in to do whatever you’re doing only to return to your car and see someone has performed a U-turn (against the parking lot flow lines) to get a better space and now your only option is to reverse like you’re carrying an open container of nitroglycerin in your lap because their front bumper is pretty much fondling yours at this point and the rear end is at such an extreme angle you can’t see a goddamn thing from the driver’s side while backing out.