Unlike regular people, I rarely buy groceries for a week, much to the dismay of my wife. No, I’m more of a “go to Kroger every day to get two things” kind of guy, and not just because I enjoy the car spotting or that I’m hoping to catch a fresh Hot Wheels restock. Most recently, I was popping in daily to see if Good & Plenty was back in the candy aisle. It was out for like a week.
The thing about Good & Plenty is … no, wait, I’m getting off track. As a frequent flyer at Kroger (and Walmart and Home Depot, typically), I get to enjoy a wide variety of parking spaces and observe the parking skills of others.
Like you, I try to be a respectful parker. I take care not to overlap into the spot across from me, I make sure there’s sufficient door-opening space for whoever will climb into the car to my right, and if only because not doing so would bug me, I do my very best to make sure my car is perfectly parallel with the lines. Surely something bad will happen if I’m not parallel. And of course, I don’t park in handicapped spaces or pregnant-lady spaces and the like, as long as they seem reasonable. If I’m in a super hurry, I may take the Employee Of The Month’s space, because I think someone of EOTM temperament would surely be looking out for me, the customer.
Some people, however, just can’t seem to park well. Maybe they lack the skill, or they don’t care that much, or maybe they were just trying to get out of their car, into the store, and safely to the restroom as quickly as possible – in which case, Godspeed. No matter the reason, crummy parking doesn’t bother me much. My maximum response is an eye-roll, perhaps? A bemused head-shake?
Some people, on the other hand, go crazy. Over the line a little? Rear end sticking out a bit too much? Up goes a photo and accompanying screed on Facebook. Maybe an outraged TikTok or Reel is uploaded right there from the cart corral. There’s one guy Instagram’s algorithm keeps foisting on me who keeps an array of dickish stickers in his car so he can shame poor parkers, roasting them contemptuously as the deleterious decal is applied. Gee whiz, lighten up.
… Or don’t? Should I be getting angrier? I certainly don’t love it when someone else’s bad parking makes it all but impossible for me to get into my car. And when some knob parks his car diagonally across two spots to “protect” it (and in an active part of the lot, not the outskirts, mind you), for sure: screw that guy. But the rest? Life is short, and I don’t know their story.
You tell us: How Worked Up Do You Get Over People Parking Poorly?
Top graphic: depositphotos.com
On the one hand: when I see people parked terribly or inconsiderately I just silently judge them as morons and it doesn’t annoy me.
On the other hand: if I were supreme ruler of all things those drivers would get woken up in the middle of the night by my death squads, and messily not-quite-fitted into shallow graves as a warning to others.
I tend to park as far from everyone else as possible, and I assume those who are inevitably next to me when I come back are massive fans of my car.
I also have no plans to run for the office of supreme ruler of all things, which is probably for the best.
Couldn’t care less. I park far to get some extra “exercise in.” And hopefully avoid some door dings. So much more to worry about. “People are dying, Kim” lol.
I typically park far out just because I can find a spot and walk in faster than if I were to cruise around and try to find a spot up front. Does that hopefully help my car from getting dings and dents? Maybe. But usually when I come out, there is at least one car parked next to me, even though there are at least half a dozen spots open all around,
I know people who do this. They park away from the crowds to avoid damage, but are unable to park using just the lines on the ground, so they find some lonely car and slot in next to them.
Pretty much any time I pull into Costco my blood pressure goes up. Part of that is because of the parking hijinks therein.
yeah Costco is the worst because most of them are crowded all the time.
But at least their parking spots are generously sized. That is, of course, until someone defies any logic and manages to “not fit” there
My local Costco has more parking lot sharks than Disney World. Holy crap, people will block traffic to wait for someone who just got to their car and hasn’t started unloading their cart yet
Usually I’m just ‘Really?’ in my head & move on.
But, I’m moving, and there’s been a cuv caddy-cornered into the No Parking zone directly in front of the apartment I’m moving into since Friday—which I have express permission to use while unloading up 3 flights of stairs. Not enough room to use it for unloading.
Unfortunately, the sign for that space says President of the Association….
OTOH, that person lives directly below me, and I tend to rise very early. 😉
I mentally judge parallel parkers mostly, but I also judge myself every time I park. Am I parallel? Am I exactly in the middle? I don’t sit an adjust it until it’s perfect, but I try to keep track of how well I’m doing it, so I don’t end up inadvertently being a parking a-hole.
Cars have 360 degree cameras for a reason now a days. So might as well put them to good use!
My brother (NJ) and I (MI) regularly share images of bad parking. In my text thread with him I could probably scroll 20 or 30 right now. It’s in our genes to be enraged at inconsiderate narcissists. I loved driving a beater. If someone parked over the line next to me it was game on.
My level of worked-up-ness is on a sliding scale of the offense. Take up a couple spots at the far end of the lot where nobody else is with your fancy car? Well, you’re just being dumb/silly. Park over the line? Jerk, be more considerate. Park in the handicap spot because you’re just going to be a minute? *******, and I’m probably going to move your passenger side mirror because I’m petty. Park your Corvette with vanity plates in the fire lane because you own Woodman’s Markets and think you’re better than everyone? I’ll take pictures, report you to the Janesville fire department, blast you on Facebook, and bring it up any time I think of it because again, I’m that petty of a jerk.
American parking spaces are huge. Our pickups are only dwarfed by our enormous butts.
I’ll park over there. Walk more. Dent less. There’s a lot of joy found in avoiding the self absorbed.
I don’t get worked up about much when it comes to parking. EXCEPT, when some asshole parks so close that I can’t get into the driver’s door, and I have to crawl my tall fat ass across from the passenger side to get in the car. Thier car door is going to have a VERY bad day when that happens – especially if I am driving the Toughest Car in the World, as I often am – a RENTED car with the damage waiver. Always seems to happen in hotel parking lots.
If they merely leave me JUST enough space to squeeze and wiggle in, well, I won’t ACTIVELY slam the door into their car multiple times as hard as my 300lb self can managed, but I will make dammed sure the edge of the door leaves a VERY nice mark in their paint and a bit of a crease.
Otherwise, whatever.
You sound like fun.
If Stephen King wrote a novel about a very large sales person who is quitting cigarettes it would not be different.
I picture someone like Dave Bautista,maybe recently divorced and working some kind of salesman gig,maybe he is working for himself to sell some kind of patent or something. Then he was told by the doctor he had to quit cigarettes and is really pissed about it.
As long as you don’t park 6″ from the side of my car, I am the life of the party.
That is actually kind of generous of you. I had to look up how much that is in cm, it’s a bit under a cock-length as we say here. Not too much room to open the fudging door then.
I used to park in a city garage that had reserved spaces during the day that opened up for the oblivious masses coming in from the burbs after 6, none of whom could park to save their life, and some of whom would also fling their doors open with wild abandon. Being able to move up to parking in the building was well worth the extra $20 a month, since everyone generally recognizes new hires and vice versa pretty quickly… amazing what that does for parking courtesy.
“And when some knob parks his car diagonally across two spots to “protect” it…”
https://xkcd.com/562
Several dozen cheering bystanders, and zero witnesses.
I’ve been known to fold up the side mirrors on egregious violations, a “I coulda really messed up your day here” message.
But with so many cameras (& guns) pointed at us nowadays, eff it.
It depends on what spots they are filling up and how full the lot is. I am pretty sure this is a question you can use algebra for.
I can get pretty annoyed depending on the situation. Right now the bane of my parking existence is the amount of space people leave when parallel parking at my kids’ school. The amount of excess space is crazy – enough that you could easily fit another 5 cars on the street everyone parks if they just paid more attention to their parking.
Some guy put these homemade signs up in his neighborhood, but the city took them down. 🙁
https://images.app.goo.gl/QyQ7Vs2a6xpg1SiE7
I was so excited when I saw the article was published by a Chicago station… and so disappointed when the neighborhood was revealed to be in LA.
It doesn’t bother me as my car is small and can (F)it in most spaces. Additionally, I know I can be sloppy and leave the car at an angle, albeit not too crazy. But it doesn’t matter, because there’s still a ton of room on both sides of the car to the lines.
I am abstaining from this conversation for my own health except to say: furious.
To answer the original question, it depends on how much it’s inconveniencing others. If it’s a place that’s busy and has limited parking to begin with, then it bothers me a lot. If it’s handicap spots, that bothers me even more. If it’s an abandoned mall parking lot that nobody is using, well, that’s a different story.
The church I grew up going to was built over 100 years ago and is located on a two-way city street in a residential neighborhood in a smaller industrial New England city. Thus, there is no parking lot and there has never been a place to put one. The church has to rely on street parking. I get angry when people who are clearly not parishioners take up the spots right in front of the church when they don’t need to. One example of this is right at the beginning of COVID, when some apparent Facebook Marketplace curbstoner started dumping ratty, unregistered used cars for flipping in those spots and put expired license plates on them – I guess in an attempt to make them look legitimate. If you’re going to run an illegal business, at least do it where you’re not inconveniencing others. The city removed the cars after some time.
On a sidenote, I’ve heard that used car sellers like to photograph their cars in front of churches to make themselves look more legitimate.
It your church is visually stunning, putting the car next to it psychologically increases the value to prospective buyers. It also makes the car look better obviously
Some people simply lack the spatial relation and visualization abilities to do it properly. Do they drive me a bit crazy? Sure, but it’s also a little bit like getting mad at someone with special needs. It’s probably not that they are being selfish assholes, just that their best is just not up to your standard.
Confession: One of my kids lacks fine parking skills and nothing I ever do is going to fix it. My mom is also not the best, but is truly defensive about it and thinks she’s great at parking. When I was a young pump jockey I could park four tires on four dimes, now, not so much.
As I said in another post, I only get annoyed when it *directly* affects me.
My mother is *horrendous* at pretty much all aspects of driving. She didn’t get her license until she was in her 30s. She can’t park straight to save her life. Thankfully, she drives a small car.
She is the first to admit that she is bad at it and hates doing it at least. We seriously thought about not buying her a car a couple years ago and just using Uber for the rest of her life. She wiped out the side of that new car when it was two weeks old pulling into her condo carport parking space. Sigh.
I can parallel park a 40′ coach. I take after my grandfather, who was a professional driver much of his career. He initially taught me how to drive a car (though his lesson in parking an RV didn’t go so smoothly), while the guy who did my bus license training finished the job.
That is a bit like my wife. Can’t park for shit,but no amount of me yelling or getting frustrated is ever going to fix it I guess.
Being annoyed at poor parking (poor Driving in general ) is an occupational hazard for me
Poor parking is fun to make fun of, but I think I’ve only been genuinely annoyed by it once.
I woke up late to get to the airport, so I had to drive rather than take the train. The daily parking deck was full, except for one spot where someone was way over the line.
Ah ha! I can just get out the passenger door, leaving mere millimeters on the driver’s side and still park within my lines.
Except, as the passenger door thunked closed, I remembered something. The driver’s door is the only one that responds to the key. The easily accessible passenger door wouldn’t help me. Yikes.
When I got back, I managed to open the door enough to crawl in from the top where the opening was larger, but it was an unpleasant contortionist routine. Of course, it was as much my fault as the poor parking job of the other car, but it’s a fun story.
Should have backed in…
But bad luck that car was still there after your trip!
To date, it’s the only non-overnight trip I’ve taken on a plane. It felt very strange to go through TSA without a carry on.
Reminds me of the time I came back from a business trip to find that the Chrysler 300 that parked across the aisle from me (Silverado 1500) at the airport had backed in and left him / herself 4+ feet to get their suitcase(s) out of the trunk, which shortened the “aisle” I had available to back into considerably. It was a 10+ minute analysis / movement / analysis / movement cycle before I could get the truck out of my space and be on my way.
That’s a normal car trying to use one of the handful of parking spots at my church. Everyone parks on the street for a reason and people prefer it that way. Less wasted space for parking and more space for grass, playgrounds, etc for the neighborhood. I think we’d be generally more happy if we devoted less space to parking and more space to people.
UGH! I would have been tempted to use the Parisian parallel parking method of just backing up to them and giving a good hard shove. Especially if the truck had a nice heavy duty hitch on it. 🙂
I have many peeves about poor or inconsiderate parking. My number one is disabled parking spots. I have a disabled parking pass because of a bunch of steel pins in one of my knees making walking difficult. At least a couple of times a year I catch some supercilious waste of skin parked in a disabled spot. I ask them if they have a pass. The usual response is I’m waiting for my kid, wife, whatever. I politely suggest that they are not allowed to park there and could the please move to another spot. Sometimes they do most times not and often with much drama. I calmly take a picture of their plate making sure the disabled sign is visible. I send it off to the parking enforcement authority who issue a $600 ticket for their effort.
The other are the ones who cannot navigate between the lines and park so close to my door that I am unable to get into the car. These ones I simply have to wait for. The urge to key expletives into their paint does cross my mind in these instances.
I just finished my yearly “help mom and dad get set up in Tucson for the winter” trip. They’re both elderly, and mom has a disabled placard because she can’t walk far and not at all without a walker.
In the four days I spent running mom around to grocery stores, Costco, craft stores etc, we didn’t once get the car parked in an actual accessible space. They seemed to be filled with younger families and people “just running into the store”, mainly without a placard. Luckily, dad came along too, so I could drop them at the store entrance and then troll the parking lot for a space.
I’m not in favor of vandalizing cars, but for people who poach accessible parking spaces from those who need them, I can be understanding about it.
Where I am in God’s Waiting Room, FL, you WILL get ticketed and towed with extreme prejudice doing that. To which I say – GOOD.
I call the cops on handicapped parking violators. My dad was a double amputee. It’s one of the few things I am violently Karen about.
Good my mom had placard, but rarely used it. She couldn’t walk far but rather have a space left for other people. So cheaters to me are double wrong.
It always bothers me. My truck is a 1500 crew cab with a long bed (unmodified). It generally doesn’t fit in parking spots because it’s too long. I very purposefully always park way out in the lot because I know I’ll be poking out of either end of the spot. It’s all about respect for people with normally sized vehicles.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir.
ICE vehicles parking in EV charging spots, yes, that gets me going. Mostly to snap a picture and post online. The chargers in question get used all the time, too. Mostly by PHEV’s (yay for running on electricity!), but sometimes by EV’s.
On a trip I spotted a Supercharger at a giant gas station whose logo is an aquatic woodland critter being ICE’d while people were waiting to charge. I was charging a few spots away. I reported it in the Tesla app, thinking that nothing would be done. Which requires a picture of the purported offender to submit. Not five minutes later, out comes an assistant manager with the driver in tow. ICE vehicle moved and EV gets charging. Amazing!
OK, serious question – I used to park in a garage downtown that would sell more spaces than are available (something, something, rollover, residential apartment building with public parking, spothero, etc).
If I’m in an ICE car, and I’ve paid to get into the garage, and I’ve driven the entire structure and the only parking space left has a charger… can I park there? If I do, how in the hell am I going to inform the next EV that comes along I had no other options?
That’s between you and the parking attendant at the garage. If they want to take the heat for letting you park there, that’s their call. Someone may have been depending on that charger being open to get home.
99.9% of the time I walk or drive past, shake my head, mutter “jackass,” and move on with my day.
What happens the other 0.1%?
shaped charge
I wonder if it involves a bulldozer?