How to parallel park

I was going to write about speed limits this morning.  More specifically, I was going to rant a little about people who drive under the speed limit.  I'll save that for another time.

On my way home from dropping my husband off at work, I passed (luckily there was no oncoming traffic) the most amazing parking job.  So I just have to return to my previous comments on parking.

Let's talk about parallel parking.  Please see figure A to the right.  The vehicle is parked by the sidewalk, ideally 6-8" from the curb.  There is room to move around the vehicle.  The vehicle is not blocking traffic, nor is it on the sidewalk.

Now, please understand, I get that parallel parking is a difficult art to perfect.  I'm not here to criticize you if you're on a tiny bit of an angle or if you're not perfectly 6-8" from the curb.  You do get points for trying.  But the thing is, you actually have to try.

Please see figure B to the left. 

THAT DOESN'T COUNT AS TRYING!  Neither does it count as parallel parking.  That counts as being a jerk.  The only time you get to park like that is if you are a police officer and you are blocking road access on purpose for the safety of all involved.

As a side note, the street where this had occurred was not quite as tidy as the street in the diagram.  It was a little more narrow, a mere 3 car widths.  Just wide enough for one car driving in either direction, with room for parking on one side of the street only.  So I had to pass fully onto the left side of the street to get around Jerkcar.

Parking ticket?  Of course not.

Let's play a game

Here's a fun game.  It's called "That's Not A Parking Spot!"  This game consists of spotting people who are parked in places that are Not A Parking Spot!

On the surface, this may seem like a fairly hypocritical post, especially if you know me.  I have gotten my abundant share of parking tickets.  If it is possible to get a parking ticket, I'll probably be the one to get it (usually, however, the tickets involve expired meters).  Generally, I'm actually fairly forgiving and not overly judgey of people who are improperly parked.  Sometimes, you just don't see the sign, or you park on the wrong side of the sign.  I get that!

My beef is with people who park like jerks, deliberately getting in the way of traffic and severely inconveniencing other people trying to park. For example, people who are not disabled who park in the disabled parking zone,  people who take up multiple parking spots with one little car, and people who simply stop their car in the middle of the road or parking lot and decide that this is a good place to park.

Above is a diagram of the parking lot at one of the local grocery stores.  This is how it looks on any given Saturday.  The cars to the left are the closest to the store entrance.  However, they are not parked in parking spaces.

I can usually forgive the first person parked next to the proper parking spaces IF the parking lot is full (I should note that there is more than sufficient parking and I have never actually seen the lot full).  It is the person parked next to them that makes me crazy.  Why?  Because that person is parked DIRECTLY in front of and BLOCKING the entrance to the parking lot from the road.  It is beyond maddening.  I've never once seen a parking ticket given for these infractions.  I don't know if you can get them for improper parking in a private parking lot.  I don't think you can.  But some days, I wish you could.

Pedestrian Traffic

Hey, Pedestrians.  Guess what?!  You are traffic, too.  That's why it's called "foot traffic" or "pedestrian traffic".

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not here to bash any one group of people.  Well...no, that's not technically true.  I'm here to bash the stupid, self-absorbed, and entitled.  Those sorts of people exist among all groups, pedestrians and drivers alike.

Pedestrians often complain about the lack of respect they get from drivers.  As a frequent pedestrian, I make this complaint loudly and often.  In fact, you will probably read many more entries on the lack of courtesy given to pedestrians from drivers than you will vice versa.  However, I have to touch on this today, because someone really got under my skin last night.

I got home from a wonderful evening at 1:30am.  My husband came down to the bus terminal to pick my friend and me up.  After we dropped my friend off, we continued down her street, which is, incidentally, a one way street.  Suddenly, we came across two girls walking down the middle of the road, in the wrong direction on a one way street.  They were, essentially, deliberately walking into oncoming traffic and making no apparent effort to accomodate said traffic.

Now, if we were in a suburban neighbourhood without sidewalks, this would be entirely acceptable (so long as they were walking at the side of the road).  However, we were in an urban neighbourhood where traffic at 1am is a completely normal occurance.  There were sidewalks.  Two sidewalks, in fact.  There were sidewalks on either side of the street.  I have walked down this street in recent weeks and can tell you that the sidewalks in this particular area are in somewhat better condition than the road.  They were not blocked.  They were clear and open.  It's July, so it isn't even as if there was the excuse of snow blocking the way.  Yet, there they were, walking down the middle of the street as though no car had any business driving there, wearing no reflective clothing.  And if they'd been hit by a driver who did not see them until too late?  How come that would have been the driver's fault?

If it had ended with those two girls, I might have chalked the experience up to two entitled teens, which would hardly make this blog.  It did not.  Not a minute later, we had to avoid a runner.  She had her headphones in and she was running.  Down the middle of the street.  At 1:30am.  Again, no reflective clothing and no apparent concern for her safety or for the fact that roads are made for cars and sidewalks for pedestrians.

So, dear pedestrians, if a sidewalk is available to you, please use it.  It makes the lives of careful drivers much easier and will certainly save your life from the careless ones.

Where did you get that license?

There are days when you drive out of necessity and wonder in awe at the other drivers on the road.  It used to be that those days were fairly random and rare.  Just lately, it seems that those days are every day, and you pass at least one careless, reckless, or just plain stupid driver every time you try and go somewhere.

This blog is about that.  Because it makes me crazy.  Because I need to vent about it.  And because sometimes, it's just too funny or mindblowing not to share.

For example:
My husband and I were driving home from my sister's house about a month ago.  On the way home, I began to notice a rather alarming trend.  There were a disturbing number of drivers who weren't looking at the road!  They were looking at their cell phone, their GPS, their passenger, their radio, their coffee, the floor of their car, in their purse, or at the car that just got pulled over by the police officer.  But at least every other car seemed to have a driver who was not watching the road nor apparently paying attention.  So when we hit the parkway that marked the 15 minute point from home, I started counting cars, making a note of how many were not actually looking at the road.
We passed 12 cars on that parkway (it was a very quiet evening, and I keep meaning to redo the experiment sometime on a busier night).  In those 12 cars, 8 drivers were not looking at the road.  That is fully 2/3 of the drivers on the road that evening who were not actually LOOKING at the road.

Frankly, I found that number a little upsetting as a passenger.  No wonder there are so many accidents.  How can you drive if you don't know where you are going?

Next poll...how many drivers don't drive with their hands?