The Battle of Park-ing-Place

Written by Elias Cunningham on February 27, 2012. 8 Comments

Those of you whom follow my blog know by now that I generally write about topics fairly serious in nature.

This entry is one of those.

But instead of talking about racism, remembering our veterans or other topics, I’m going to write about a huge problem Lethbridge has.  A problem which is only getting worse and threatens to utterly consume this city.

The problem is a certain ability that many around here seem to lack:

HOW TO PARK A %&@#$&^ CAR!!!

There I’ve said it.  The park jobs I see in this city drive me crazy.  I mean its one thing to see one or two bad park jobs every now or then but around here I see 3-5 every day. And thats just driving to and from the college, along with the occasional grocery run. (I wont even get into the amount of times I’ve almost been T-boned or sideswiped by careless drivers, thats for another entry)

Don’t believe me?  Take a drive down Mayor Magrath and stop at 2 places.  I guarantee you will find at least 5 examples, whether its at a busy time of the day or not.

Something like this:

IMG 20120128 1438371 300x225 The Battle of Park ing Place

Or this:

1330390727883 300x225 The Battle of Park ing Place

This one is by far my favorite:

 

IMG 20120227 172655 300x225 The Battle of Park ing Place

So it appears we have a slight problem here in our beloved city.  Well here is some parking advice from a citizen whom is tired of having to maneuver through a zig zagged maze of vehicles just to pick up some milk.

First:

- Park inside the yellow lines. This seems like a no brainer but as emphasized by all three of my photos, it is apparently a difficult concept for many to grasp.  For those who may have trouble understanding this, let me break it down even further:  The two long yellow lines should be on the right and left side of your vehicle at equal distance.  The short one should be perpendicular to the front of your vehicle.  You should not be touching any of the lines with your vehicle.  This allows another person, using the same formula, to then park their vehicle next to yours without any trouble.  Then all occupants may exit their vehicles without scraping a neighbor vehicle.  As a bonus, traffic is not impeded by your vehicle.  Isn’t progress wonderful?

Second:

-If you do not have a disability, DO NOT (That means don’t.  Also, nada or nothing doing or just plain NO!) park in the handicapped spots.  Those are reserved for people whom actually need them.  And no I don’t care that you will be “just a minute”.  You can park in an open empty spot and walk the hundred yards to the door. Believe it or not, it won’t kill you.  And if you do see a vehicle park there without a handicap sticker, do society a favor and report it to the authority’s.  Because in all seriousness, someone whom actually has a disability is being deprived of a close spot to the door.

Three:

- Practice your skills!  If parking is a legitimate problem for you and not the result of laziness or just plain incompetence, then take the time to learn how.  Have a friend or somebody teach you. Many people find parallel parking difficult at first, but with practice it becomes easy.  Practice in empty lots if you have to. Trust me you look like a much bigger idiot getting out of a vehicle straddling two parking stalls than you do when parking and re-parking.

 

Four:

-Everyone makes mistakes.  If you get out of your vehicle and realize you have parked incorrectly, get back in your vehicle and correct it.  It takes 30 seconds.  And while we are on the subject of mistakes let me state that I know everyone does a bad parking job at some point.  I have too.  This article is meant for repeat offenders and those who just can’t be bothered to correct their mistakes.  It takes 5 seconds to do a quick check of your vehicle to ensure your parking job correct.  If a 14 year old with a fresh Class 7 license can do it, then you can too!

 

I hope you all enjoyed this blog.  Go out and reclaim the parking lots!

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

  • Rachel

    One of my favourite blog posts – EVER. You’ve totally hit the nail on the head with Lethbridge’s awful parking. Everyone needs to take a lesson from the Japanese, they reverse park AND do it right.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1016841162 Elias Cunningham

    Thanks Rachel! And you’re correct, the Japanese are very efficient.

  • http://www.lethbianlove.ca Jonathan Růžek
  • Rod Leland

    Elais,

    It’s potentially important to note that while, yes, much of the parking is legitimately bad in Lethbridge, there are those of us to are much more worried about ultra careless parkers slamming doors into the bodies of our cars, and park differently because of it. Either because many people are leasing a car that can’t be damaged, or just care about our vehicles not looking the doors have been in a warzone, we park to avoid this.

    I’ll often straddle the end-line of a set of stalls to ensure that I’m out of door-reach from the next vehicle, or take two stalls up- BUT- I always make sure I do this at the FAR side of the lot, where there are no other cars, and I usually back in to make sure people know I actually DO know how to park, I’m just choosing to avoid the guaranteed damage that their inability to climb out of their car properly will cause.

    • Shelley

      There is always a note worthy reason for parking the way we do and I for one appreciate that you take the far end of the parking lot and are able to protect your vehicle. I would do the same… when it is windy for example.

  • Trudy

    It’s nice to see I’m not the only crazy person who thinks you are supposed to parked between the yellow lines.

  • Guest

    In the example of the truck … He is being considerate. He has parked a long distance away from the entrance to the store, away from any other vehicles. The purple car behind him no doubt parked there afterwards. He obviously cannot fit in a standard parking stall, length- or width-wise. Would you want your truck dented continuously by careless people? Yes I do concede that the rest of your examples are prime idiots. I live in Saskatchewan and believe me, I’m looking forward to moving to Alberta where people actually know how to drive.

  • Shelley

    I feel your pain!! The people I work with not only do not care that they have taken two spots for one car in a limited capacity parking lot, but if a complaint is issued the person that complained is cut down and ridiculed! At some point these immature co- workers will have to grow up and learn how to share!