This rant is dedicated to all you bad drivers who don’t know how to use a parking lot. In a parking lot such as the one at Shoppers, which has diagonal parking spaces, each lane is a one way. That means that if I’m waiting my turn to go down one of these lanes, I don’t want to be bothered by someone who comes down the wrong way, and then attempts to make almost a U-Turn into a parking space. That person will almost always inevitably not make the turn all the way, thus having to back up to correct themselves seven times until they’re aligned inside the parking space, which probably won’t happen anyway.
Wikipedia’s article on parking lots has an excellent diagram to illustrate the correct traffic flow in a parking lot with diagonal parking spaces:
November 1, 2006 at 1:58 pm
What sucks about this kind of parking lots is the following: let’s say you obey the rules, and pull frontwards into a space, but you then realize that there’s nobody in the parking space in front of you, so you continue to pull forward into this space. I think that most of us would do this, because in a normal parking lot, we can just go straight out of the spot, instead of backing out. Anyway, in this type of lot, pulling forward sucks, because driving straight out, according to the rules, usually requires a 3pt turn.
November 1, 2006 at 2:07 pm
The whole point of diagonal parking is that it makes it easier to pull in and pull out. When you pull out, you barely have to turn the wheel.
Compare parking at 7-mile and Shoppers…its a lot easier to park at Shoppers.
November 1, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Once again, this is why I like old people better in captivity (i.e., nursing homes). Going to the the JCC and fighting over exercise machines makes me feel this way as well.
November 1, 2006 at 4:20 pm
The people that need to see this probably do not read your blog.
November 1, 2006 at 8:16 pm
I can think of one that might. Forget I said that. Sorry, Ma.
November 1, 2006 at 8:20 pm
I think I am going to Hell for that.
November 1, 2006 at 9:09 pm
This is why I ride a bike. Parking is availabe everywhere and it’s free.
November 1, 2006 at 11:09 pm
lol @ peninah
November 1, 2006 at 11:39 pm
Hear hear, Aishel!
November 2, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Wow. I can’t believe I never learned this. Although, in practice, I do drive this way because I find it impossible to park with what you call an almost “U-turn”, but I never consciously thought about it. Guess this is my “one thing I learned today”.
November 2, 2006 at 3:58 pm
The problem with the Shoppers parking lot is that if you park in the direction driving back away from the store, then when you pull out, you have to go up that lane and then back down again since there is no cut through to the center exit. If you go to the side exit and want to make a left you’re blocking all the people who could make a right more easily and it gets backed up. The whole parking lot is too crowded and annoying.
November 2, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Boy, I can cite chapter and verse on this and so can this guy.
November 3, 2006 at 11:38 am
TRW: Thanks
LN: I’m glad I was able to teach you something
BOTS member: It still beats 7-mile!
Ozy: yowzers!
November 6, 2006 at 12:40 pm
I went to Goldberg’s this morning, and noticed the diagonal spots there too….what irked me is that someone decided that the straight spots across from them should be treated like diagonal ones, and parked diagonally through two. I had to drive around to be able to park decently (the diagonal spot I wanted I realized said no parking
)
I guess that’s what you should expect from cars with license plates from a state I won’t mention
November 6, 2006 at 2:35 pm
By the way, I mentioned this post to my mother (without mentioning my comment) and she said, “yeah I read that post. I think he was talking to me.”
I told her about my comment. she laughed. I am so lucky.
November 6, 2006 at 2:37 pm
whew!