I should not pick on pickup owners alone in their inability to place their vehicle centered between two painted lines in a parking lot.
It's not just them.
It's just that full-size trucks and SUV are just so much larger than cars it exacerbates the condition of being a shitty driver.
Parking spaces, in case you had not noticed, are actually narrower than they were 30 years ago and more people are driving larger vehicles than back then.
Doing less with more...
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I have become, recently in life, a full-size pickup driver. I only aim to park at the end of a row of spaces where I can hang over into a non-parking space or I just go the far end, park away from everyone else and walk. The damned thing is too much work to get it centered in between the lines next to others’ cars.
ReplyDeleteSounds like airline seats.
ReplyDeleteSame reason too.
DeleteMinimum parking space width is determined by the governing authority. Some places use an 8.5' space and some use a 9'. The builder will try to get the maximum spaces he can on his property.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was doing site design in areas frequented by large vehicles (typically in the oil patch and on private property) I would use a 10' space. You should bring this problem to the attention of your city and/or county and see if they will change the standards.
One of the places I worked for did parking ramps and garages.
DeleteNever, not even once, did the owner of such a place opt for anything but the maximum number of spaces: which of course meant the narrowest space allowed by law.
They even chafed at the idea that the handicapped spots needed to be wider and that a certain number needed to be wider still for van access.
I just bought used truck and getting centered is usually easy, it's fitting 20' of long bed truck in a space that challenges me. What's amusing is the height difference, I parked next to a jacked up 3/4 ton bro-dozer today , and the bottom of its side window was level with the roof of my stock 4x2 truck.
ReplyDeleteMarvyn just bought a used Isuzu I280 (nee Colorado) and we're constantly amazed that this "small" truck is the same size as a '70's C-15 (a full size truck) and only tiny when compared to a modern Silverado,
DeleteI drive a van, and sometimes my parking just sucks. If a spot is iffy, I'll go to another spot. If I'm lined up badly, I'll do the pullout and readjust. Meh. It's a parking spot.
ReplyDeleteI have seen people basically ride their horse down over parking. Question them or look askance at them and they come completely unglued.
Now, I do wonder about the parking lot at the local spine and body pain doctor. Where they only have 4 handicapped spots... for a spine and body pain shop. With patients who are... handicapped from spine and body pain. 4 spots... for a waiting room usually full of 20-30 patients at a time. In wheelchairs, electric scooters, canes, crutches, etc. 4 spots... where they do... spinal injections and other outpatient procedures...
So I get to drop my lovely wife and Lurch (her power chair, that... lurches) and then go find a spot about what feels like a mile away.
She's lucky she has me. I feel for all the crippled people who have to hobble or wheel themselves from far back beyond.
For the last three years of my working life, I had my '09 Explorer. An Explorer isn't that big but it's not a compact, either. I'd park being conscious of opening my driver's door into another car so I tended to park toward the right but still in the space. I have a row of paint dings on the right front door that are almost a continuous groove from the people parking in the adjacent space. Not one chip on the driver's door.
ReplyDeleteThe parking garage where I work the spaces are so narrow that my C4 barely fits. I have to be basically touching the line on the passenger side to be able to open the driver door enough to get out. There have been several times where I've had to get in from the passenger side when someone parked too close or at least I had to get in from the passenger side enough to get the key in and roll down the driver window so I could get in. And a C4 isn't a particularly wide car.
ReplyDelete