My neighbor isn’t parking illegally, but she parks directly across from my driveway so I have a lot of trouble getting in and out. Someone else parked right at the edge of my driveway and I can’t take a left to get out because there isn’t enough room for me to squeeze between them. I like the neighbors on the left and I don’t want to yell at them for something that has never happened before and I assume will not happen regularly but c’mon. It’s probably legally parked, just enough back from my driveway where it’s technically legal, but if someone does the same on the other side of the driveway, I’m stuck entirely.
And that’s when I start screaming and banging on doors. Parking is not at such a premium that we need to be doing this here.
Around here, cars can’t be parked within 5 feet of the of the driveway (technically, the “return” of the driveway, which is the curve at the ends of it).
Wow, you’re right. As someone who automatically maps out all the vectors involved*, it never occurred to me that other drivers are challenged (I’d call it “blind”) in that regard.
*In other words, I’m constantly watching a “film of the future movement of all the cars and bikes and people”. How sad that many people can’t do that.
On the bright side, now I feel special.
My first instinct would be to label it paralysis analysis due to information overload of sorts but then I realize I’m likely giving them too much credit in the thinking department.
After more or less “cataloguing” inscrutable driving behavior over the years ( ahem: decades ), I think your theory is illustrated most vividly applicable in traffic circles/roundabouts. I notice the purpose of them is largely defeated by those who are ignorant of the rules of them and who seem fearful of them. By my own observations, those who aggressively charge in and play “chicken” unconcerned with the right of way of others, while who are arguably 24 carat alpha assholes, are the least of the trouble. What I notice most are the backups caused by the ones paralyzed by uncertainty waiting in vain for a large enough gap in traffic for their comfort level that will never come in heavier traffic situations. If they see a vehicle approaching from another spur counterclockwise to them, even if it is a hundred feet from entering the circle, they still can’t manage the mental calculations such as you describe. In a few cases on some multi-laned circles, as I go on past such a vehicle waiting in vain, I can see the anguish on the driver’s face: they just don’t know what to do.
More gobsmacked than seething, but my neighbors will remote warm up their car in their drive every morning in the winter (visible water vapor coming from the tailpipe) and then (most mornings) NOT use the car. So it sits in the driveway and cools back off.
Maybe they’re trying to provide a warm nesting space in the engine compartment for the neighborhood squirrels and cats.
I sometimes wish I owned my own company and employed thousands so I could personally fire anybody who uses “literally” wrong. I want to publicly humiliate them and destroy their lives and make them forever regret thinking “literally” is a fancier word for “actually.”
I DON’T CARE IF MERRIAM-WEBSTER OFFICALLY UPDATED IT! It’s just wrong.
My brother-in-law used to do that - it was always “what are you doing?” or “are you busy?” My response was always “Depends on what you want”. Now he has my sister call me.
It’s a matter of survival! I do this constantly. I find I’m driving towards what is going to happen. I think it’s a skill that developed more or less naturally after driving for many years and thousands of miles.
Some people are definitely better at that than others.
(I suspect I’m average; but then, I suspect that most other people think they’re average at it too.)
It’s not something being done with the rational-thinking part of the mind. I suspect it’s being done with the same parts of the head that are used for, say, catching baseballs: some of it may have been learned consciously to start with, but once learned at least most of the work is done elsewhere in the mind.
In the courthouse where I regularly make or supervise other attorneys making multiple appearances per day, the judges run the gamut from good to terrible. Many of the good ones–the ones who know and follow the law, who understand the struggles my clients face and treat them fairly and compassionately–have this very slooooow deliiiiiiiiberate way of conducting proceedings, and it drives me nuts. I hate to complain when I’m getting results, but I hate that it takes all damn day!
[quote=“BrickBat, post:46, topic:943102”] I suspect it’s being done with the same parts of the head that are used for, say, catching baseballs:
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I read somewhere that the same hyper-developed glands that enabled Babe Ruth to hit incoming baseballs emitted the enzymes that caused his nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Upon entering a large building with several different purposes (especially through a revolving door) like a courthouse, an office building, an airport, or a train station, when someone with 37 people right behind them walks through the door and STOPS and just looks around bringing the line behind them to a screeching halt or causing people to bump into one another.
You just walked through this line. You know a bunch of people are behind you. Walk past the entrance way, over to the side out of the way and then determine your next plan of attack. It should be legal to shove these people in the small of their backs.
It is legal. You’ll be lost in the crowd instantly.
My response is generally to bump them shoulder-to shoulder as I pass too close while loudly saying “That’s a REALLY bad place to stop.” Don’t look back, just keep going.
Obviously the elderly or infirm get a pass. The able-bodied? Not a chance.
