Parking Lot Douchebaggery

[Mara-chan]

I guess this is a SC rant... although it can apply to bad drivers anywhere. Or maybe it's just in Florida where I live, but does NO ONE follow traffic rules in parking lots?!?

I can't tell you the amount of times customers have parked directly in front of the store (unfortunately they didn't re-paint the no-parking marks on the pavement, but NO store in the area has parking out front). Or how many people will drive diagonally across the parking lot, cutting between cars and cutting off people like me who actually drive in the lanes in the direction you're supposed to.

Near where my wife works there's a lot with angled parking like this:

/ / / / / / / / / / /
-> ->
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

So you'd think people would drive in the direction of the big arrows?

Nope! Not only do they go in the opposite direction, but they get mad at US for driving in the proper direction! You can't follow both an arrow and the fact the spaces are facing the OPPOSITE direction and you yell at ME? Grrrr!

And then I had a customer who, in an almost completely full lot, pull THROUGH one space into the one I was trying to pull into then refused to back up. I was half way into the spot!

Not to mention the ones who have the huge gas-guzzling Hummers and park it across FOUR spots so their precious armored monster won't get scratched!


... I hate people.

[looney_librarian]

It happens here where I live as well (though most of the people who do that are from Florida). I saw a F350 take up 8 spots one day at the theater parking lot I worked at for one summer. Where I live, parking lots have the same rules as the roads, so if you have an accident and you were either cutting through lines or going the wrong way, it's your fault.

[One-Fang]

I sometimes pull through a two-spot to get the easy out. If you look like you were going for it, well, that's just your tough luck, I got there first. I'm not backing up. If you were half way into the space, she couldn't have taken it, could she? You'd be physically occupying it. Since she did, you weren't, and perhaps are embellishing just a tad...?

The arrows thing p's me off too, though. Sigh. There's ONE WAY down here, jackass! And it's not your way. So don't you flip birdies at me for going the right freaking way.

Basically, drivers suck. All drivers, everywhere, and yes, I'm gonna go ahead and include myself in that generalisation. I doubt anyone anywhere is a totally considerate driver all of the time. They might be generally, but one day they'll do something, maybe by accident, that p's off the other drivers.

I had the (sorry it's not carpark, but still) enter the intersection before your way is clear issue today. I wanted to turn right (Americans, French, and any others please think "left") and the straight-through traffic coming against me got blocked up. So many people pulled into the intersection and sat in it, that when the lights changed, not only could I not sneak through "on the orange" for the turn, but the cross traffic in TWO lanes (four lane road) with a green light now couldn't go either!

Idjits.

[otakuneko]

And then I had a customer who, in an almost completely full lot, pull THROUGH one space into the one I was trying to pull into then refused to back up. I was half way into the spot!

Ooh that'd piss me off. In either of my old cars I'd have been tempted to go nose to nose with that bitch. Especially if they were just driving your average four-banger. My current car I care a bit more about, but would be more likely to win such an engagement.

[Bramblerose]

I've noticed that the exact second people drive into a Wal Mart parking lot they roll against their INT at a penalty to lose all knowledge of driving rules. This penalty is doubled if they are in one of the Weird-Ass parking lots (circa early-mid 1990s).

[Nurian]

I've noticed that the exact second people drive into a Wal Mart parking lot they roll against their INT at a penalty to lose all knowledge of driving rules. This penalty is doubled if they are in one of the Weird-Ass parking lots (circa early-mid 1990s).

Rolling a critical fumble results in a catastrophe. Roll 1d8 on table:

1) Collide with the stone thinges they have out front
2) Run into a driver who's as much of an irate asshat as you are
3) Run into a decent driver who's actually doing what he's supposed to
4) Run into a full shopping cart complete with piled dog food guaranteed to dent your front end.
5) Run into one of those shopping cart trains
6) Run into a pedestrian who isn't looking
7) Run into a pedestrian who is looking
8) Realize that your worth as a human being is directly proportional to the size of your car, then realize yours isn't big enough and fills you with great depression, roll again on table, disregard 8's.

[DarkProwler]

People like this are one of the many reasons I wish I could mount flame throwers on my car.

[Dreamstalker]

When I was involved in a Ghostbusters LARP, we did have a scaled-up proton rifle that could be mounted on the GM's truck. No relevance whatsoever to gameplay, but someone had an idea and ran with it.

It did help when he/whoever he had to pick up that week was late for a session. The cops et al in the area seemed to know it wasn't real and left us alone, but the vehicular asshats did not know I wanted to rig up a "fake electronic light show" that could be remote-controlled, but we decided that would probably end up being a distraction.

This was in the late 80s/early 90s and the GM knew most of the town police force, so we could get away with stuff like that

[marty]

The one way lanes...ah...it NEVER fails, everytime I try to drive down one, there's always someone coming the wrong way towards me. So I stop. And I wait. And I lay on my horn. And I look utterly pissed and I point in the direction that I'm driving (which is usually right at their face).

They eventually get it. I mean, most of the time I'm not in a hurry so I can have a little fun.

[Erin]

I went to the grocery store saturday afternoon. For some reason all the stores were insanely packed, and traffic in the parking lot was unusually heavy (even for 2weeks before Xmas...must have had something to do with the weather)

I was coming out of the store and was already in the cross walk, and this woman in a ginormous SUV decided to not stop at the Stop sign. She kept coming straight for me, and wasnt going to stop.

I have MS, and cant run. I'm walking slower and slower somedays and so I couldnt just speed up to walk out of her way. She actually opened her window and started to yell at me while gunning her engine, because I wasnt getting out of her way fast enough. I stopped, waved my cane at her, and told her in sign language (middle finger) where to go...and then walked a bit more slowly across just to irritate her more. She couldnt go around because of the (more polite) traffic coming from the other direction.

Handicapped lady getting out of her car saw me flip off the asshat driver, and told me that she's wanted to do that to people for a long time, but that she's scared she'll get murdered by someone. Told her that I'm worried about the same thing, but I was just annoyed with the asshat and did it anyways.

I just was irritated that the lady was trying to run the stop sign when there were people in the crosswalk (not just me, but little kids and old people too) and she thought the stop sign didnt apply to her because it was a parking lot, or she was special for some reason.

[Dreamstalker]

My mom has said that part of any driving test should be a half-full parking lot.

[Pagan]

And since when did it become ok to just start backing up without looking? And I don't see this just at Wally World, I see it everywhere, including the parking at my apartment complex....which scares the hell out of me realizing what idiots live near me. I've lost count of how many times I've almost gotten hit in and out of my car.

That being said, when I do go to Wally World (and I work in the pharmacy there, so I'm there a lot), that is the one of the two parking lots that I will always pull across. The other lot being Target. I hate trying to back out of a space in those lots and just won't do it. Which means that I park far out sometimes, but walking ain't gonna kill me.

[mattm04]

I was at a large sports type venue trying to leave. The lot I was in was angled. Their were hundreds of cars trying to leave going the right way. One idiot does a 10 point torn to start gt go the wrong way, making it impossible for anyone to leave. Thankfully Security and Police arrived quickly. The old guy driving was removed from his car and out in a cruiser. The Officer parked the old guy car in a vacant spot and traffic began to move.

I have directed traffic for large events at my church. I had to call the police once. As the event was getting out one old guy (80-90 driving a beat up Buick filed with crap). The lot is designed that the entrance drive way is near the building entrance and the exit driveway is at the other side. This keeps the cars trying to leave away fro the people entering/leaving the building.

ignore the periods, just to make things line up

| Exit | median | Enter | SW |
|...........................................Bldg. Entrance
.........\ \ \ \ \ |
............<--
......... / / / / /
......... \ \ \ \ \
............<--

This idiot backs out of the angled space turns around and drives past the numerous "DO NOT ENTER" signs. Near the entrance I use by flashlight w/orange wand to direct him the correct way. He just lays on the horn and starts to drive thru the crowd, forcing people to run. He then starts to goes against oncoming traffic, jumps the curb and onto the side walk (SW) back into the road and hit the grassy median, where eh gets stuck.

Turns out his license was revoked because of a hit and run (at night) coupled with the fact that he was legally blind.