Thanks, guys.

[An Haddock]

Headed out to pick up pizza. (they don't deliver - boooo)

Turn onto the main street in town.

Almost immediately find myself behind a tractor trailer. There's a car between me and the tractor trailer.


"Oh, he's not gonna stop... you're not stopping. You're stopping. You're not gonna double park and unload... you're not gonna... HE'S TOTALLY DOING IT. $%#!&*"


Background: We are a "restaurant town" with at least 20 mid to upper level quality eateries. It's a goddam Friday lunch hour on a gorgeous nearly-spring day. Parking spaces are at a premium. We also regularly get ambulances from up to 4 towns over headed straight up the main street because it's the most direct route to the city next to us that has something like 4 huge hospitals serving the county. And you're talking a 2-lane road. It's New Jersey. They weren't planning on everyone and their mother driving cars 200 years ago when they planned out the street width.


By some miracle there happened to be a good 1/2 mile stretch of clear road in the other lane, so me and the guy in front of me were able to drive around. And it looked like the guys in the truck were only dropping off a couple of bags or boxes of something but...

Really, guys? You're going to hold up traffic, block people's cars in and potentially slow down emergency service vehicles instead of just going up the block and turning down a side street to park? I know it means having to walk a couple hundred feet but I guess your comfort and convenience supersedes everyone else's.

[Seanette]

Catch the company Mr. Inconsiderate drives for? I'm sure they'd be interested in probably illegal behavior by their employees in company vehicles.

[An Haddock]

Catch the company Mr. Inconsiderate drives for? I'm sure they'd be interested in probably illegal behavior by their employees in company vehicles.

I didn't notice... visions of pizza slices were dancing in my head.

[eltf177]

You're lucky. In the town where I work there is a bar. EVERY SINGLE WEEKDAY they have two beer trucks, one or two food trucks and a paper goods truck deliver. And ALL of them completely block a lane of traffic doing so, right underneath several "No Parking" signs and frequently during rush hour!

And why don't the cops do anything? Because the bar owner is a pet of the town, any complaints from ordinary citizens are simply ignored. And if Public Works or the cops ever complained we'd be told to shut up and leave 'bar' alone...

[EricKei]

This sort of thing is why freight trucks are forbidden to park (or even stop) outside of small freight zones after about 9AM in the morning back in downtown/the French Quarter in New Orleans; they have the same issue with the narrow streets.

[An Haddock]

This sort of thing is why freight trucks are forbidden to park (or even stop) outside of small freight zones after about 9AM in the morning back in downtown/the French Quarter in New Orleans; they have the same issue with the narrow streets.

I live right across the river from Philly and it's a nightmare over there, too. Even smaller streets in some areas, hundreds of bars and restaurants... parking enforcement runs like a machine and usually prevents a lot of double/illegal parking but it still happens frequently. We're pretty lucky compared to a city of that size.

[Jetfire]

You're lucky. In the town where I work there is a bar. EVERY SINGLE WEEKDAY they have two beer trucks, one or two food trucks and a paper goods truck deliver. And ALL of them completely block a lane of traffic doing so, right underneath several "No Parking" signs and frequently during rush hour!

And why don't the cops do anything? Because the bar owner is a pet of the town, any complaints from ordinary citizens are simply ignored. And if Public Works or the cops ever complained we'd be told to shut up and leave 'bar' alone...

Probably won't do much, but maybe Public Shaming would start having an effect. Snap pictures of the trucks blocking traffic and under the No Parking signs (with the company logos and plates visible if possible) and start posting on Tumblr and FB and such.

[MadMike]

The same thing happens all the time on one of the main streets in Harrisburg. It's a three-lane one way street, but it has bars and restaurants on either side. If you drive through town during the day, you stand a good chance of getting stuck behind a stopped delivery truck unless you stay in the center lane.

The first accident I was in involved a situation like that. I was driving down the center lane, and I saw a delivery truck parked in the right lane, and a car stopped behind him. The driver of the car didn't bother to make sure it was clear before he decided to go around the truck, and clipped my passenger door. It wasn't a bad accident, but I was pretty freaked out about it.

If course, the guy tried to pull the old "I have a buddy who can fix that", but I insisted on his insurance information, and I called the cops. At the time, I didn't know that you don't have to call them unless one of the vehicles is disabled or there was an injury, but it's probably better they were there.