People Who Can't Park

[Andara Bledin]

So, last night it was time to go shopping. We got there, pulled into a space, and then sat for a bit while Nekojin use the car's power to run something on his phone, because he was in the red.

While we waited, we were treated to a bit of a show. The space ahead of us was empty, and on the other side of the aisle was a woman who was packing her trunk with her purchases.

Once her cart was empty, she just sort of left it where it was, which was sticking out from behind the SUV that was parked next to her. Lazy assholes who can't at least push the cart to an empty spot are another major peeve, but that's for another thread.

So, then it's time to pull out. But rather than backing up far enough to straighten out and then go around the cart she left in her own way (idiot), she starts backing and turning as if to turn around. This is in a one-way lane with angled parking.

So she pulls back, but doesn't have enough room because there's a large truck across the aisle and one space further up that she can't get passed. Then she pulls forward, and back, and forward, and back again.

At one point, she's about to run into the truck, so I honk and she stops, probably about an inch away. Then she goes forward, and then back, and then forward and then back, and.... well, you get the idea.

After a few minutes of this nonsense, I open my door and shout at her to just go straight and stop trying to turn around. So she stops, hanging halfway out of the space, gets out, and moves the cart from behind the car next to her and into the space she's trying to leave.

It then takes her at least another minute of that seesawing creeping back and forward before she can get past the SUV and out of the parking space.

All told, it took her about five minutes to leave the parking lot from the moment she started the car, to the time she drove off. It was painful to watch. The best part was that if she'd just backed up more than a tiny amount at any point, she could have gone around the cart without having to move it. Then again, if she hadn't left the cart in the way in the first place, she wouldn't have had to deal with it again.

[HYHYBT]

You have to work pretty hard to mess up at angled parking.... and so she did. I can almost admire the stubbornness.

[HEMI6point1]

I love it when a parking spot is big enough for a tank, and someone drives a compact or whatever and parks right on the line to the left or right.

Bonus points if two of them do it and leave what would be a prime space between them now unusable....

[Andara Bledin]

If someone parks too far to the left, I will park right up next to them so they don't have enough room to get in their driver's side door.

And a couple of weeks back at Costco, the woman to my left, in her little tiny compact, parked all the way to the right so I had difficulty getting into my car. So I let my door hit hers; not enough to scratch the paint, but hard enough to make a noise. She looked over but didn't have the fortitude to actually say anything; she knew how she parked.

I can be ornery like that, sometimes.

[Peppergirl]

There used to be a website (on work computer right now so not gonna google) that sold little cards that said 'you park like an a--hole'. You could leave them on people's cars.

They also accepted submissions and pictures.

Passive aggressive, sure - and potentially dangerous if some psycho catches you, but I do admit to laughing a few times, LOUDLY, at some of the pics and stories.