people who cannot park, should not drive.

went out to best buy today to get another HD for my other computer (it died) and on the way out, noticed this lady in a Hyundai Elantra trying to park next to the island.

As she pulled into the parking spot, I noticed her car was already covered in small dents. rather unusual for a newish car. She then missed the parking spot and ran the front wheel up and OVER the parking island, grounding out the floor and passengerside sill on the concrete (adding another dent)

She then pulled forwards, running the back wheel up onto the island.. it was then she realised that she had it all all wrong and backed out, again grinding the sill into the island as she hopped the kerb with the front end. This time on the "bounce" down, she also scraped the front bumper.

She then backed out in a hurry, drove half way down the parking lot, pulled into an open space.. and into the back of an SUV.

I am afraid to be on the road knowing their are people like that

ha, i remember i was in a Lotus Exige S, going to the bank when i saw a Taurus at the nearby gas station start to roll. I was in dreamland thinking "is this really happening" as the car started rolling towards the Lotus.

Luckly nobody was behind me and i started rolling backwards. I guess the steering lock was on and the Taurus locked going to the left and kept going right into the back of a Surburban parked there. The little mexican guy came out and was stunned to see his Taurus was missing. He starts walking down the hill to find his beloved hooptie buried in the rear bumper of another car.

Um, yeah, it's scary, but not that suprising. I spent pretty much the last 8 years of my life driving for a living, both locally and over-the-road. I've seen it all and it's normally sad or infuriating.

I've seen some poor parking but the one I saw a couple weeks ago topped them all. a local shopping center has those concrete "wheel chocks" at the front of each parking space. There are seperate rows of "chocks" for each parking lane and they are far enough apart so you can walk down between the cars and not walk in the traveled lane.

Well some woman driving an Altima had managed to drive over not just one row (which I have seen before) but both of them. This left her car high centered on the chocks and unable to get enough traction to get offf them.

They ended up bringing in a tow truck to lift up the car till someone could crawl under and remove the "chock" and then they did the other end of the car. Guess they didn't want to damage the car any more than it already was.

So every person ever with a handicapped tag on their car?

They seem not to teach parking in driving school. And as someone who takes great pride in parking as well as driving (I back in EVERYWHERE, or find a pull-through spot), I hate it. I leave notes sometimes. It's kind of overkill, and probably rude, but I do it anyway.

My favorite happened when I was in school. I was running late for class and drove into the upper parking lot knowing all the close spots were taken. Just as I rounded a corner (in a little bit of a hurry) I saw a car start to back out. I slammed on the brakes to give them room. This Jackass starts to speed up and curve in front of me much faster and closer than they should. Right as I started to get pissed, the empty car zipped past my bumper and slammed into a parked car to my right. Yeah, I took the space.

On the '07 Power Tour, while filing up with gas, an old guy with bullet proof glasses backed his PT Snoozer into my wife's Z28. He was parked in front of the store and backed up about 20 yards to hit it. Fortunately, he did no damage, but when he got out, he seemed to have no clue why we were yelling "STOP!" His car had plenty of dents, scrapes and rub marks all over it.

WTF?

Before taking my driving test, I spent hours practicing how to parallel park my dad's truck in as small a space as possible. This was an F150 with extended cab and full-size bed.

My parallel parking skills rock. I once out parallel-parked someone for a spot by my girlfriends apartment. Blondie turned her car off because she could fit in. I swung my car in in one smooth motion. She got pissed, "I was going to park there." I was ready to pull out and let her try while I sat on the curb and laughed.

What we're discussing is 2 different things - the inability to properly and safely operate a motor vehicle and the inability to properly and safely secure a vehicle in a parking spot. I've seen plenty of the former just watching idiots in parking lots but only once the latter. I was walling through my parking ramp after parking when I saw an unattended Integra roll straight back put of a spot and slam into the car across the aisle, damaging both and blocking the ramp. I always wondered how security handled that problem...

Quite a few years ago, I had a Grumman aluminum body van for a work truck. Just had it painted bright white- good looking truck. My kids called it Moby Dick, and loved to ride in it. One Saturday I gave wify the afternoon off and took the kids to see the new cartoon Robin Hood. Stopped at Baskin Robbins for ice cream on the way home. I was driving up a boulevard when I noticed a Vega backing down a driveway. By the time I realized it was not going to stop it was too late. I cranked the wheel hard to the left, over correctd to the right, and got hit hard right on the passenger side door.and rolled over on the driver's side. I was out for a few seconds, came to to the sound of shreiking kids and two guys were on top trying to pry open the caved in door. Adrenilne kicked in and I got it open and passed out my kids to them. My youngest was 3, had been eating a chocolate cone and was now a horrible mess with blood and chocolate all over his face. No real damage, but time for an ambulance ride. People that owned the car were real helpful, cleaned the kid up, while we waited for the ride. Calling wifey was no fun. She beat the ambulance to the hospital. Yeah, I got hit by a parked car, too.

Apparently they will give anyone a Driver's licence.

Philosphical question: If the State issues a monkey a licence, and the monkey runs into your car, who is at fault?

The State or the monkey?

My mom met my step-dad when his parked truck rolled down a hill and slammed into her parked car.

NYG95GA wrote: Apparently they will give anyone a Driver's licence. Philosphical question: If the State issues a monkey a licence, and the monkey runs into your car, who is at fault? The State or the monkey?

The car maker, for not making the vehicle controls comply with Simian-American safety in mind. A class action lawsuit would be launched and PETA would be onboard.

I had a friend who should not have had a license. I watched him pull into a parking spot in his Ford LTD POS and almost get it inside the lines. It was when he went to straighten the car up and caught the rear bumper cover of the Fox Mustang beside him that things went wrong. What does he do to unhook from the Mustang? He FLOORS IT and rips the bumper off the Mustang. My friends and I just walked back into the mall and pretended we didn't know he existed.

NYG95GA wrote: Apparently they will give anyone a Driver's licence. Philosphical question: If the State issues a monkey a licence, and the monkey runs into your car, who is at fault? The State or the monkey?

If the monkey meets the state's licensing requirements & passes whatever tests they have, then I suppose the monkey would be at-fault for an accident.

But come on & be serious....there's no way a monkey is going to drive as bad as most of these people. :D

My dad has a problem of not looking when he is backing out of parking spots. He backed his truck into my mom's car and pulled the bumper cover off. He also backed my brother's car into a light pole.

petegossett wrote: But come on & be serious....there's *no way* a monkey is going to drive as bad as most of these people. :D

Most of the monkeys I've known drive pretty well; sometimes they beat me in autocross...

I saw a lady jump a curb, cross a sidewalk, and take out a fence when parallel parking...during her driving test. I kid you not.

My wife parallel parks on the street at work, and judging by the marks she has accumulated, those who park around her navigate into their parking spots by touch. Her previous car was all marked up, and even included a nice square punched through the front bumper by someone's trailer hitch. She drove her new-to-her car last monday and already has an imprint of what looks like a 1/4 inch nut pressed into the back bumper from a single day parked there.

Also, I grilled her about whether she hits things and I believe she is innocent.

My buddy drifts off into dream land while driving sometimes. We were in his boat going down a river and almost rearend the same boat twice. One of the guys on the boat in front of us was standing on the back of the boat yelling at us the first time and when my buddy almost did it again, he was irate. The guy could have stepped on to our boat. My buddy was like "What?" I said lets go home.

May I add: People who can't maintain a constant speed on a berkeleying four-lane highway with zero traffic should be shot...I mean...not drive.

Salanis wrote: WTF? Before taking my driving test, I spent hours practicing how to parallel park my dad's truck in as small a space as possible. This was an F150 with extended cab and full-size bed. My parallel parking skills rock. I once out parallel-parked someone for a spot by my girlfriends apartment. Blondie turned her car off because she could fit in. I swung my car in in one smooth motion. She got pissed, "I was going to park there." I was ready to pull out and let her try while I sat on the curb and laughed.

I've parallel parked my van with a tandem jet-ski trailer hooked up. Some onlookers were freakin' AMAZED at my mad skillz, yo.

I have parellel parked a box truck... 32,000 pounds, 45 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 12 1/2 feet high... the cabover design and the extreme angles the front wheels could hit made it a breeze

poopshovel wrote: May I add: People who can't maintain a constant speed on a berkeleying four-lane highway with zero traffic should be shot...I mean...not drive.

A-berkleying-men!

Back in college the parking garage had a bunch of compact only spots. As a guy with a miata, I'd always look for a spot there. Inevitably all the spots were full of suburbans and impalas or other big cars. I remember big SUVs would have the tires on both lines in a spot. I always wondered how these people even got out of their cars with only an inch or so between them.

I was also once the last car allowed in the garage. As in the "there's one spot left up there, have fun finding it" last car. What I found after damn near 30 minutes was a new E-class parked across two spots. I ended up parking my beater buick against the drivers side of that car to get in the spot. At the end of the day the guy had apparently somehow got his car out of the spot and then poured coke or something all over mine. I was parked legally inside a single spot. His car just happened to take up the other 3rd lolz.

I used to do that with my old beater K5 Blazer. Someone trying to take 2 spaces or park too close to the line? If I can fit my K5 next to it I would. Whats one more scratch or small dent in a truck used to off-road and bush beating. Maybe next time they will think of parking better as they squeeze to get in their car. I could park that Blazer in anyplace it would fit, Parallel parking or just pulling/backing in. Suprised myself a few times.