Rail!
Entertainment > Docs >
|

|
Why Do They
Do It?
Parking Lots
|
|
Well,
I have been noticing quite troubling choices and actions made by
the average person driving on the roads. Whether
the driving is on the highways, parking lots, or even residential
streets there seems to be a marked propensity towards a lack of
common sense. The most
basic of rules and ideals of courtesy are constantly ignored in
favor of selfishness (and sometimes, frankly, idiocy).
Perhaps some light may be shed upon what I am remarking
about with some examples:
Parking
Lots
There
are some simple rules in parking lots: entrances
from main roads always have the right of way unless there are
traffic signs dictating otherwise, follow the arrows for direction
of travel, solid lines and the end of an aisle indicate STOP, and
put your cart away! I
remember an instance when I witnessed someone leave their shopping
cart in the middle of the parking lot (I guess they were too lazy
to be bothered with moving the carts out of the way) and then that
cart rolled right into their car!
I began to laugh hysterically as I noticed a small dent and
portion of paint fall off (the cart had a sharp edge). The
owner of the vehicle didn’t think it was funny but when I
pointed out that they caused the damage to their own vehicle
through their laziness they had nothing further to say to me.
One
of my biggest pet peeves used to be direction of travel. If
I ever noticed you driving the wrong way in my lane (in a one way
lane) I would purposely position my vehicle so that you could not
pass me. I would then
wait patiently for the person driving the wrong way to back up...
I’d even start honking the horn at them if necessary (Yes, I AM
that much of an ass). It
is also quite entertaining to watch someone drive down the lane in
the wrong direction and then try to park their SUV (or similar
large vehicle). Due to
the angle of the parking they sit there for 10 minutes driving
back and forth trying to fit between two cars parked correctly and
still end up parked crooked in a manner that partially blocks both
the other cars.
Now
my biggest pet peeve, since I moved to
Washington
, is the compact car parking. I
prefer compact cars for increased performance and gas mileage so I
was pleased to see that the state of
Washington
prefers to offer up parking spots specifically for me.
Imagine the shock when I am trying to squeeze into these
small spots between full-size conversion vans and ¾ ton pickups
with dualies in the rear. What
were they thinking? I had
then lost all hope since I remembered how often the police
monitored parking lots in Texas
when all of a sudden a local police officer appeared. It
was such a joyous moment to see these behemoths receive their just
rewards for parking in the wrong spot.
[in case you were wondering... yes, I intend to just
continue with one immense paragraph unless someone sees fit to
re-edit this] (This
paragraph has been re-edited - Michael)
How
about those people who sit there waiting for 30 minutes to get a
close parking spot? If
I ever obtain close parking I like to sit in the car with it in
reverse (to light the reverse lights) for about 10-15 minutes
before I leave just to see if they will wait for me. It
doesn’t make any sense... are they afraid of a little exercise? I
noticed a spot three cars back but the lady still wanted the
closest spot possible. I
hope they aren’t trying to save time because all they do is
waste gas to keep from walking the extra 15 feet. I
sometimes think I would have had time to go inside, shop, and
leave before some of those “waiters” find parking that is
suitable for them.
Another
point of interest to me is how there will be stop signs positioned
to allow traffic from a highway to enter un-impeded. The
stop signs will be for the parking lot traffic and the entering
traffic will have the right of way with NO signs whatsoever. Now
what happens here? As I’m sure you might have guessed already
(or witnessed) the people without traffic control signs come to
complete stops (I could understand yielding as I’ve seen the way
people drive) while the traffic with the stop signs just keeps
moving as if they don’t have a stop sign. What
happens next? Well, then we
get traffic backed up onto the highway access road and maybe even
the highway... while of course the people running the stop signs
are probably the same people complaining about highway traffic
jams in other instances when they are contributing to such in this
case. Well, I guess
I’ll just have to deal with it until we start having cars that
can valet themselves.
-Patrick |