Look, if you don’t want to walk a foot it’s fine with me, just dont block me as I try to drive to wherever I want to in the parking lot. It is selfish to just sit there. If you really want a close spot, keep driving around till one opens up.
Also, quit asking me where I parked as I walk to where I parked my car!
The irony is that some of the folks who wait to park so close could really use the exercise of walking a little farther.
…and then it takes some old fart (no offense to you old farts) like 5 minutes to back out of the damn parking spot that everyone is waiting to get into.
Could you maybe hurry up a little and stop being so inconsiderate to the inconsiderate idiots that are blocking the isle waiting for you to leave? Sheeesh!
I really hate it when people honk as they are waiting for me to pull out of a parking space. Several times when people did this, I all of a sudden “remembered” an important errand that I had to do right then, so I got out of the car and went to some nearby store. Screw them. That has got to be the most obnoxious thing ever.
I’ll never forget one time in the garment district in downtown LA, (where parking is scarce) someone honked at my sister and me as we were preparing to get into the car, settling our shopping bags in the back, etc. etc. And bear in mind that my sister has a bad eyesight, a fake leg and uses a cane, so she’s a little slower. Some bitch is waiting for our space, and honks at us to hurry up. My sister was so pissed that she all of a sudden “remembered” something she needed to get in a store, so she crawled out of the car (as quickly as she could with her cane) and took off down the street. That bitch gave up and went on to annoy someone else.
What I find annoying is when you are walking to your parked car, with keys in hand, and another car “stalks” you, wanting to see where you are going.
People do this kind of shit to me while I’m putting my kids in their car seats, as if I’m going to take the chance of seeing my babies’ brains dashed on the highway just so they can get in their spot 30 seconds sooner. I just make sure It takes a long time to adust those little seat belts.
I’ve done this - but only in the university parking (particularly at the beginning of fall semester) when there was nothing to be found and someone happens to be leaving - I’ll follow them.
In a regular parking lot? Drives me nuts - especially when they decide you’re too far out so they speed off. I’ve never heard of people honking to try to make you leave faster - that just freakin’ obnoxious!
I love when a car is following me as I walk thru the parking lot, intent on getting my space, and I’m actually parked one lane over. They get rather miffed when I cut thru.
As for me, I grab the first available, and it’s rare that I’ll sit and wait for someone to move. As long as it’s not raining horizontally, I don’t mind a little bit of a walk.
I have to laugh when I see someone waiting and waiting for a close space and I park a few spaces farther away, and I’m walking into the store while they’re still waiting to park.
I’ll have to admit, though, that I did sit and wait for a car to pull out and got annoyed when he didn’t. The situation was that the parking lot was full. I didn’t see any other spaces, even a very long way off from the store. I sat and waited (on my lunch hour) as the guy and his mate got into the car. Then I waited while the guy got on his cell phone to make a call. After three or four minutes (the parking lot was really full) I got out of my vehicle and asked the guy if he was leaving. He looked very annoyed and said, “I’m on the phone!” I went back to the car to wait (did I mention that there were no other spaces available, and no one else was getting into their cars?) with my turn signal on, indicating that I was waiting for that spot. As I sat there a woman in a Mercedes (it’s always a Mercedes) came around the corner and stopped to wait for the same space (after I had been waiting for about five minutes or so – yes, I timed it). She seemed to be put off when the guy finally pulled out and I got the space instead of her.
I have no problem walking a few tens of extra feet when there is parking available farther away, but it’s rude when there are no other places and a person who is leaving decides that it’s time to make a phone call.
It infuriates me when someone blocks a lane while waiting for a parking spot to open. Even so, I try to remember that there are people who can’t walk all that well but who do not qualify for a handicapped tag. Those people need a parking place as close as possible to the store entrance. Even if they do qualify for a handicapped tag, those slots are usually full, at least around here where us old farts make up a lot of the population. I wish I could be more patient when someone wants/needs a close parking spot, but I end up furious more often than not.
LouisB, the only people I ever see parking in handicapped spots are the mentally disabled who use their relatives’ temporary handicapped plaques but have no physical problems and happily hop out of the car and run into the store.
Not that there aren’t legitimate users of those spots, they’re just few and far beween compared to the opportunistic asses.
I do the “cut to the other row” thing whenever a car is stalking me too. Sometimes I do it even if I’m in the right row. Then I just cut back when I get to my car. Christmastime is my favorite time to screw with those annoying people.
This past weekend, I saw a car waiting for a spot when there was an open spot literally two spaces away, and at least four more within a few spaces. We were parked further down the row, and I was turning around and looking at the waiting car and pointing to all the available spots. Idiot.
I get upset when people park next to the sidewalk while they wait for someone else to do the shopping. I’m not talking about someone dashing into a 7-11 to get a cuppa whatever; I’m talking about the morons who will still be there AFTER I do a full cart-load of shopping (30 minutes worth), come out of the door and there they are, still waiting, engine idling, still waiting, blocking the FUCKING FIRE FUCKING LANE…
Goddamm fucking assholes…makes me want to smash in their window and drag them out by the fucking neck…
For those idiots who honk at me as I’m still loading my car, I have a simpler method. I walk over to their car and say, “Yes, may I help you?” I love the look on their faces as they struggle to comprehend what just happened and to come up with some sort of reply.
Why are you such a fucking asshole? Assuming they aren’t just looking for a close parking space when there is plenty of parking further down, why would you do this? They’re just looking for a space to park. If I’m leaving the store and I notice someone is following me in their car and I have to switch sides, I always try to let the person know by pointing. Or if I’m not leaving yet, I also try to let the person know so they don’t waste their time.
Now, if someone were to honk at me to get me to hurry up, I’d change my mind and wouldn’t help them or may even go back to the store. But if they’re just following me, I don’t see what the big deal is.
Please remember that there are many conditions that warrant a handicapped parking permit that are not immediately obvious to the outside observer. For example, asthmatics don’t look handicapped, but for them, a long walk in from a distant parking space might trigger a life-threatening attack. These people, who are completely legitimate users of handicapped spaces, have to put up with whithering glances and snide comments all the time just because their disease doesn’t come with a cane.
yosemite–you go. I hate it when people honk for any reason other than an emergency (or maybe when some dimbulb has been sitting in front of a green light for an eternity or something.) That’s exactly what I’d do. Well, actually, maybe I’d lean against the side of the car and stare at them until they drove away.
I will wait for a space briefly if I see them getting in their car and otherwise acting like they’re going to leave, but if they don’t move, I do. I don’t want to block the lane, and I don’t honk at people in parking lots unless they’re about to hit me. I also don’t follow people unless it’s on campus, like somebody else said, where parking can be scarce.
And the only times I honk routinely – and it’s a beep, not a real honk – is when somebody’s sitting at a green light and not going anywhere. There’ve been a few times when I was just flat out not paying attention when the light changed, and gotten beeped at. It’s actually helpful, if it’s not a HONK HONK HONK.
I’ll have to remember the “I have another thing to get, oh yeah!” tactic should somebody honk at me for a space. Around here, though, they’re a lot likelier to drive by WAY too fast for a parking lot; I managed to bump one lady’s car when she zipped up behind me when I started to back out (and I WAS looking!) and didn’t see her in time because she was going so damn fast. No damage done, fortunately.
Actually, there are some number of people who really do need the handicapped spots, but you can’t see the reason for it. My dad, rest his soul, had a bad heart. He couldn’t walk long distances, and needed the handicapped spot, so when I or my mother drove him anywhere we used the tag. But you couldn’t see his heart disease if you were just watching him get out of the car. So there may well be fewer opportunistic asses than you think. Which is an encouraging thought.
Count me in as annoyed by the parking stalkers. Sometimes when I’ve got an impatient person who’s overeager for me to pull out of my spot, I find I have to take a very long time adusting the kids carseat belts, blowing my nose, cleaning my glasses, checking the windshield wipers, and sometimes making sure I’ve got just the right music for the drive to my next stop–which requires pondering each cd I have in the car to make sure I don’t miss the perfect one.
As one of the aforementioned “waiters” (though I am not a walker-stalker and NEVER a hurry-up-honker), I can say that you’re right: it’s pure laziness (that, and the fact that I just feel like I pulled a parking coup when I see a close space opening up in a crowded lot). However, I will also say that I try my damndest to leave space for anyone behind me to get by while I’m waiting for a space. If I can’t do that, then I won’t wait for very long; I’ll either circle around again, or give up and move on if the person in the space is taking awhile.*
The one time I even came close to violating the above self-imposed rules was when I went to the mall with my friend Mary (who is . . . interesting, to say the least). A family (mom, grandma, grandpa, and two small children) were packing up the mini-van to go. The lot was packed, the lanes were plenty wide (for other cars to get past me) and the space was the closest non-handicapped space available (super-coup!), so I settled in to wait patiently for as long as necessary (yes, Johnny L.A., I’m aware of the irony you pointed out–whereby people parking further away often beat me into the store–but . . . the coup, man, the coup is so delicious ;)).
So there I was, happily waiting in the car with Mary while Mom loaded kids, parents, and shopping bags into the van. Just as Mom rounded the rear of the van to get into the driver’s seat, she made apologetic eye-contact with me. I sensed an unnecessary apology forthcoming, so I prepared to wave it away with a “No Problem!”
Just as the woman uttered her "Sorry . . . " however, she was drowned out by Mary who, from my passenger seat (windows and sunroof open) yelled, “Fuckin’ BREEDERS!” at the woman, whose look of apology had been replaced by one of mild shock.
I was mortified.
I called a feeble, "No problem, take your time . . . " at the lady’s retreating back.
Soon the parking space was mine, but the coup was not quite as delicious.
Mary showed remorse later, but by then the woman was long gone.
**My mom said that she read a survey or a study or something that said that people tend to deliberately take longer to get out of a parking space if someone else is waiting to use it. Me, I’m the opposite, but hey, it takes all kinds . . . *
For there’s no nicer time-killer then walking the parking lot at the mall pretending to be walking to my car…and having always some lazy-ass loser dilligently following me around.
Cracks me up every time…
I never wait for spots and almost never get a spot that’s near the store. I was a very late driver and am still not all that confident in my parking ability. However, recently in the freezing cold I found a great spot at Wal-Mart and proceeded to park suckily in it. Obviously, since my parking sucked, I had to remaneuver a few times and three different cars got all excited that I was leaving. So, even though it wasn’t my intention to do the “suddenly remembered an errand” thing, I did it anyway and I LOVED it.