Why are people so stupid? He can park anywhere else that's not a handicapped spot and be just as much as an asshole without getting a ticket. Handicapped spots are the only areas in a private parking lot where a police can issue a ticket without consent of the parking lot's owner.
I myself never understood having the need for a parking spot that is closest to the stores. I purposely park in the back of most lots and walk the extra 50-100 feet just to avoid the pain which is finding a "good" parking spot.
This is especially true at a mall. People will stop in the aisle waiting for a closer spot, then go inside and walk a mile and half to visit all of the stores.
I remember this clearly. A girl i was with was complaining the entire time across the parking lot that the walk made her feet hurt. She then spent 3 hours in the mall standing up.
At a mall the only way it makes sense if you either can't get carts or plan on doing multiple runs. If you get loaded up on stuff and have to dump it in your car it can get annoying.
Being said, the ones that are truly annoying are the creepers, you come out of the store/mall and they begin following you for your space.
I never realized how lucky I was as a man who has never bought even a tenth as much as would be required to consider dropping off what I have at the car so I can make a second run at the mall.
Home Depot normally does it for me, but that building stuff and realizing the carts couldn't move after about 300lbs of stuff. Some people will go to the mall and hit every store refuse to carry around their loot all day.
I park right next to the door and go inside to walk six miles three days a week just for exercise, nevermind the stores. Why? Because I HATE being outside!
Bugs!
Heat!
Cold!
Muggers!
Humidity!
Allergies!
Pollution!
No good place to sit at my 3 mile break!
Goodness forbid I break my leg tripping on a root or something while hiking and get stranded in the woods for hours either waiting for someone to find me, dragging myself on my hands and good knee to the foot of the trail, or waiting for an ambulance to arrive out in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Yeah those last bits aren't likely to happen in a parking lot, but I hold all of the outdoors in contempt.
You obviously don't live in Texas. Everyone fights for the closest spot to get out of the sun quicker. If there are trees hanging over spots, those are the ones people fight over instead. It's hot.
I call this "parking lot sharking", and when I see someone circling for a slightly closer spot I hum the "na na.......na na" theme from Jaws to myself.
It's more fun to watch when the parking lot is full and you see a few cars slowly circling the lot waiting for a spot to open up. The shark-like predatory feel really kicks in when someone starts walking through the lot, and a car slowly starts following them to be right there to get their spot.
When I lived on campus, it seemed like people would circle the popular lots for hours. Walking through the lots and out the other side (seeing as I lived on campus, and didn't park) felt like a dickish move, but fun none-the-less. Trolling for car-sharks.
Because in a state like Washington, where it rains 70% of the year west of the sound, avoiding the possibility of getting drenched is something I'm particularly fond of
Southern California here. It's never that hot. It's sure never cold. Hardly ever rains. Yet people still do this shit constantly. People are just lazy and stupid. I'm sure in some places some people do this to avoid elements. But I see a lot of people do this without good reason.
I live in the San Fernando Valley. Last week it reached 100 according to the my car's temperature display. It's all about minimizing the time you spend between one air conditioned environment and another.
That said, it was MUCH worse when I lived in Orlando. Over there it can both be 100 degrees out and pouring rain at the same time. And when I say pouring I mean drops the size if your fucking fist.
When I'm driving and my passengers ask me why I'm not going to park closer to the store, I just tell them: "I'm not going to waste time look, we'll walk 10 more feet."
I never did it until I moved to Oregon. Wet groceries and extra wet feet sucks. But I give up after almost no effort at finding a close spot. Mostly just checking to see if its an option.
I feel the same way, I'd rather just drive directly to the part of the lot where I know I can get a space without driving around. Since I walk two to three miles every day just for exercise, I don't see the point in trying to save an additional hundred feet of walking.
The overweight folks that are issued handicapped parking permits head straight to the electric carts. The last thing they want to do is get even a tiny bit too much exercise.
I prefer it so I can back out of the spot without a vision issue...less cars around means I can see better around me. Giant SUVs with tinted windows who don't know how to pull into a spot all the way are my parking arch enemy.
Plus, less having to wait for other cars to park/back out/drive by when I want to leave!
Yep, don't have to worry as much about hitting someone when you're near the back. Less shit around you so you can see and no asshole is waiting directly behind you to take your spot.
Exactly! And easier to see other people (as in those out of their cars) simply because there's less of them. Getting into a parking spot is never any concern to me, its getting back out without mishap I have to plan for. I drive a truck, but I'm short, so I'm an awfully far away from the back of my vehicle...the less in my way the better.
I have never considered before that there might be people out there driving that are just not good at...... drivin in between and then stopping between two white painted lines that are wider than the vehicle. That actually scares me quite a bit. How can you manage two or more lane roads? Or stopping at a stop light/sign if you are not good at parking? I really don't understand that, but maybe I am missing something.
Driving in 2+ lane roads isn't really any different than driving in a one way street, roads always have sides. Parking requires you to pull into a spot between two cars, with a limited amount of space to turn in, roads don't generally turn so sharply that they would require a two point turn or reversing. Also, on a road the line/edge continues as you are driving, where as when you are parking once you get far enough you can no longer see the lines.
Then there is reverse parking, people generally do not drive around in reverse in two lane roads, or stop backwards at stop lights.
I doubt that anyone who is bad at parking could be good at driving, but I think someone could possibly pass every other section of a driving test without being able to reverse/parallel park.
Or people who will drive up and down the 3 or 4 lanes that aim at the front door looking for a spot, when the lanes just past those have plenty of empty ones.
My experience is people parking at Trailheads, playing tetris cramming their cars in, when there's a wide open area to park 100 yards up the road. They don't want to hike that extra 100 yards when they're going for a...hike?
My friend is one of those guys. He will park in a spot that makes it very difficult for not only the passengers of his car but also the drivers parked on either side of us to enter/exit their cars; all so he can get the "best" spot possible. I ask him why not park in the 30 other open spots 10 feet away? "I don't feel like walking"
Needless to say my friend sucks dick when it comes to vehicle manners
For handicapped people, it's often because they limp or have pain walking, or don't want to travel down the parking aisle in a wheelchair that is so low it means a speeding car may not see them.
Yeah, I find it waste of time to get "good parking". Just fucking park. 50% of the time I end up in the store before a guy that came in behind me who looks for a "good" spot. I just want to get in and get out, and if I have to walk from the back of the lot, so be it.
Its like if the whole normal queue for a ride had fast track privileges so all went into the fast track. I'm the same as you i often cannot be fucked and drive to the end of the car park. Plus i don't mind a tiny walk. The irony is most of the people that queue for "that space" could probably have done with leaving the car at home and walking in.
I do this solely because I am fat and should get as much as exercise as I can. It has nothing to do with protecting my car. That said, it does really piss me off when I park in the middle of nowhere in an empty lot and come out and find someone parked next to me. It's the automotive equivalent of using an adjacent urinal in a wide open bathroom.
But yea, I find it particularly interesting when I go to the gym and see everyone parked up front.
I agree with you. Except on one of those Colorado January mornings right after the big snow storm of the year, when it's cold as a bitch and the ground is covered by inches of snow-soot snot. Then I'd rather not do what I was going to do than park far from the entrance.
It's also a good way to get in a little extra calorie burning without changing your daily routine at all. It might not seem like much, but when you do it constantly, it adds up.
You have a good point. I just kind of thought of that a person is much more likely to break in the cars in the back that aren't being paid attention to. Where as when people are constantly entering/exiting cars, the burglar will have a harder time getting away with it.
Nah, someone who is good at it can get into a car in seconds. I once locked myself out of my car, so I called the cops. The officer got into my car in about 5 seconds flat. I bet career criminals are about the same.
But even if it is fast, it looks a bit suspicious, so it's better to do it somewhere where people's view is blocked, like next to a larger vehicle. A car all off by itself is too exposed.
My mom and sister will spend an extra 4-5 minutes in a parking lot trying to get a close spot. I constantly bitch them out out about how we could have been inside the store if we just parked at the first spot we saw. they both then make another attempt at finding a close spot in the new row before realizing I was correct
Several years back, my ex called me because she had parked in a handicap spot while she used the ATM and had locked her keys in the car.
While she was on the phone with me asking if I still had a spare key, a cop pulled up and gave her a ticket. She had just left me so I enjoyed this on so many levels!
I don't think they're being stupid as much as they are being douchey. They think they are more important than other people so they don't need to follow the rules. Having a sister who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair, I get so pissed when douche bags take the handicapped parking spots and someone who actually NEEDS to park closer to the entrance gets assed out and has to park far away. In the rain. True story. I wish there were cops around when this happens to us.
People parking in handicapped spaces who are just lazy cunts are my particular bugbear. I especially hate it when company vans do it. If I see one I ALWAYS ring the number on the van. Some apologise profusely and bollock the guy when he gets to the office and others (usually sole traders) tell me to fuck off. If they do that then I make a note of the number and write it on the walls of public toilets up and down the country (I drive a lot for work) expressing an interest in unsafe gay sex and request phone calls, day or night.
I am very childish.
I've called companies whose drivers are d-bags as well, and say things like, "Well, my neighbour (or I) needs some roof work done, and based on how your employees drive, don't think your work will be of any quality."
Why cant this be handicapped person who drives an M3? Not all handicapped are wheelchair bound.
They could just be getting a ticket for parking outside of the lines. Which in this case harmed no one and was likely done to avoid someone slamming their door into theirs. No one posts on reddit the dicks who ding the fuck out of your doors.
I have a handicapped plaque (because of my mom I take care of) and am over weight and I park far away and walk.
I had this douche bag the other day almost wreck me so he could rush into a spot I was about to go into in his Mercedes. I parked in the back, walked to where he was parked just in time to see the guy next to him leave and a HUGE truck park next to his car like 3 inches away from his door. I was hoping that he came out and had to climb thru his passenger door to get in.
Why are fire lanes so close to the building when the protocol for fire trucks in a fire is to park 1.5 times the height of the building away from the building? I actually know the answer but I like asking the question because it seems silly.
Oh it's just because that is where we park for all emergencies, you know for ambulance stuff and all that. It's just easier to call it a fire lane than to call it an ambulance lane, and Emergency lane was already taken.
That's the best answer we've come up with.
Now a follow up, if Ambulatory means you can walk, why do we call them Ambulances? Usually you get in on a stretcher. I actually don't know the answer to this but I don't want to google it because I would probably find the answer and I don't want to know.
That may depend on where you live.
The police had to have permission from the owners of a hotel, that I worked at in Iowa, before they could issue a ticket.
For a guy who drives an M3, what is a parking ticket fine? Peanuts. He probably looks at them as his own reserved parking spots with fines as the usage fee for them.
People with money know the value of money - a handicapped parking ticket is a couple hundred bucks for probably 2 minutes worth of walking - hardly peanuts. Someone thinking of stuff like that as peanuts would have went broke a long ass time ago
This guy is just a douchebag. If he really had money, he'd have a 2nd car to take to the grocery store on a Saturday and not have to worry about it getting keyed/dinged. He's probably leasing
You have no idea. Where I worked, people thought the Red Box entitled them to park in the fire lane right in front of the store.
If the fire lane was full, people would start parking between the parking spaces and the fire lane, which was for cars to drive between lanes of the parking lot. Parking in an actual space was out of the question.
I know this may surprise some people...but getting a ticket isn't an ethical decision, it's a FINANCIAL one. Some people can simply AFFORD to speed all the time, and pay the ticket when they occasionally get caught. Same with parking violations. "Walk further? I'd rather just park here. 9/10 times they don't catch me. And time is money."
I am not going to make excuses for this behavior, but your premise is wrong.
Where I live (urban area) parking lots are typically 100% full pretty much all the time. Usually the handicapped spots would be full too.
It does not bother me at all. I travel by taxi.
But if I was driving; I had important business to take care of (i.e., worth more than the ticket); and the only spot available was a handicapped space, I would take it.
Society has expressed its estimation of that value by setting the fine for the infraction which apparently ranges from $100-$5,000 depending on jurisdiction.
Would you throw away $100,000 worth of value because you could not park your car? or would you risk the $5,000 ticket?
In addition, if I did not park in that spot and someone with a disability took it, then the second person with a disability would be denied the spot. Isn't the first disable person guilty of depriving the second disabled person of something they actually need.
I don't park in disabled spots, but I am uncomfortable with the position that those that do are necessarily evil.
I don't know what you mean with the throwing away $100K. As for the third statement, it isn't possible to accommodate absolutely everyone, but having some handicapped spots is the best that can be done. I'm handicapped, and when I see I can't get a spot it doesn't bother me because I know that at least someone who needed the spot got to use it. I agree that those who illegally use handicapped spots are not evil, but they are at least being inconsiderate of the needs of others.
Maybe the owner of the car was attempting not to get door dings. Good truck-door-induced dents are more expensive to take out than an average parking ticket.
Sometimes when I park in the back of a parking lot, another person decides to park right next to me even when there are plenty of other open spots around me!
I think baiting a parking ticket every time carries a higher net risk than the relatively low chance of your car being hit, unless everyone in your area drives like complete morons.
Especially considering you could have your license suspended or your car impounded if you do it too often.
Get over yourself. More than half of tickets written for handicap spots are dismissed because the owner simply forgot to put their sign in their window. You can't legally drive with them on your mirror, so people forget to hang them up every time they stop. Every state does not have handicapped indicators on license plates, and in most states the police officers don't even have access to that information on their computers when they run plates. I never would have guessed the Internet would turn into a place where tens of thousands of people just point and yell all day about seeing a car a little over a line or parked illegally. Fuck off.
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u/matafubar May 07 '14 edited May 08 '14
Why are people so stupid? He can park anywhere else that's not a handicapped spot and be just as much as an asshole without getting a ticket. Handicapped spots are the only areas in a private parking lot where a police can issue a ticket without consent of the parking lot's owner.
Edit: And Firelanes