Hey, it’s an exercise plan. Deal with it.
same here, in college there was a lot that was always full with sharks circling, and i cut through it on the way to the bus, but i’d usually take out my keys so they’d think i was heading to my car, then i’d watch them speed around as i cut through lanes, only for me to exit the lot. Serves them right for not buying a parking pass.
And if anyone ever honked at me when i am getting into my parked car, i’m going to turn the car on, and sit there until they leave. (doors locked, of course)
See, it doesn’t bother me when someone comes up as I’m about to pull out and waits so they can take the spot. It doesn’t bother me when someone waits for me to get in my car when there’s no other traffic behind them, and I’m even more tolerant when the lot is full. I’ve waited myself, when I’ve seen a nice spot about to open up, but the moment another car comes up behind me and it’s clear the folks I’m waiting for are going to be more than just a moment, I’m gone.
What bothers me are the people who wait and wait (or stalk you to your car) when there are lots of empty spots, just not quite so close, and I also can’t stand the people who honk or are otherwise rude while you’re loading up or buckling in kids, or people who let traffic pile up behind them as they wait for a spot by the door instead of one at the other end of the lot. I’ve seen traffic clogged up in the grocery store lot all the way out the end of the aisle and down the front of the store, unable to move because one person is waiting for someone to load their groceries. By the time I get into the aisle, it’s clear that the back half of the aisle is totally unpopulated, and the waiter just didn’t want to walk the extra ten yards. That sort of behavior is unacceptable.
I don’t see anything wrong with waiting for someone who is pulling out. If you are not being rude (honking), then the person who makes you wait longer than necessary just for fun is a huge asshole. I’ve never seen a parking lot* where sitting a minute or so would block traffic or make things dangerous for anyone who is driving safely to begin with.
*Parking garages are different. They’re set up differently, and there are turns and people drive faster and such.
I’ve never heard of this “stalking” business. Frankly, if a car started following me around a parking lot, I’d head right back into the store and call the police. That is just creepy. And that goes double for Christmastime and University parking lots, two situations where I don’t feel totally safe to begin with.
This is a common and very accepted, as being polite, practise at the university where I teach. In fact as soon as someone exits a building they make eye contact with waiting/circling drivers and point toward the area they are parked.
The driver then follows that person to a spot. It’s considered rude to “poach” a spot already “given” to another driver.
Of course this is obviously a different case. I agree with the OP regarding public parking, malls, etc.
I’m pretty brave I guess, if I get the “hurry up and leave already” honk" I don’t exit the car, I turn it off, open my book and snack (I always have food and novels in my car thanks to my busy schedule) and proceed to eat lunch and take my break right then and there!!!
If they persist, I give them “the look”. If need be I’ll personally tell them to take their honking elsewhere. So far “the look” and the attitude have sufficed!! hehe
Egomk2, I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, but remember, there are diseases that allow a person to have “good” days and bad days.
People with md for instance, or fm, or lupus, or those that have been in serious accidents. These people can seem as sprightly as you or I one day, and the next barely be able to move.
I just love this sentence. I might repeat it to myself, under my breath, for the rest of the day.
Many practices are considered much more acceptable in a crowded lot than an empty lot. Waiting for a spot, stalking, sitting briefly in the fire lane, etc. are less annoying (or more understandable) in a crowded lot than an empty one. In my neighborhood, people wait in the fire lane when there are open spots not 20ft away, the closest spots in the lot are available, and they sit illegally, I HATE that.
I will never cease to be amazed by the amount of effort spent by those looking for a parking space a few feet closer to the gym where they’re about to work out.
The people that just amaze me to no end are the ones who are waiting for your spot, but they give you enough room to back up two inches.
I never fail to just stop and wait for the idiot to back up a bit so I can get out of the space. I don’t mind giving it to you, and I’ll even do my best to make sure that would-be poacher won’t get it…but give me the room!
As for being stalked…I confess to being one of those who will ditch the stalker. A few years ago, I had the most creepy experience of being stalked in a parking lot (and thinking nothing of it, other than they wanted my space). I get in my vehicle, back up, and drive off.
And the car in question followed me out of the parking lot. Onto the road. Towards the freeway. Onto the freeway. Through a few lane changes. There was zero doubt, by that time, I was being stalked.
I managed to lose them by getting off at another exit and losing them in the parking lot of another local business. But I refuse to be stalked anymore. That was just a creepy ass business.
Just a coincedence
Actually, I meant that Tuesdays are the most crowded days for parking. The garage is the most crowded, and the drivers are the snarkiest :mad:
Working as a Crossing Guard, its one of my few guilty pleasures to unleash my wrath upon parents who park in the red zone. I usually handle it by running towards them, screaming, “YOU CANT PARK HERE!” while swinging my stop sign around frantically. Every time I do this the driver thinks an emergency vehicle or cop is nearby and takes off in a panic
I have to say it…
A bunch of you guys are assholes!
It’s one thing to criticize people who honk for no reason, or who refuse to walk an additional 10 feet. It’s quite another to take joy in the power you have to make someone else’s day miserable. So someone is following you, hoping to take your parking space. So? Does that hurt you? Assuming they don’t run over you, are they in any way infringing on your rights? And yet, many of you go out of your way to waste these people’s time.
Jerks. I hope the next time you’re in a parking lot trying to park, and it’s super crowded, you encounter 800 consecutive asshat versions of yourselves. Sheesh.
(Note: I’m always willing to park further away, if there’s a space. But sometimes, the damn lot is FULL. And if it’s full, and if I see someone who looks like they’re leaving, I’ll slowly follow them, at a respectful distance, to see if they are leaving. If they’re not, no harm, no foul, I’m not going to honk at them, but why would they go out of their way to fuck with me? Crikey)
I have a similar plan. If some jackoff starts honking at me to get out of his space, I slam on the brakes, put the car in park, and give the guy a hard look. For about a minute and a half. If that isn’t enough (which, really, just weakens my faith in humanity), I’ll get out of the car and sit on the trunk, arms folded, continuing to stare. I’m a reasonably intimidating man, I like to think, so I can get away with this stuff.
I’ve never had someone get past the first two levels, but if I ever do, I imagine it would be fun to get a friendly look on my face, walk over to the window and tap on it, then say, politely, “Hey man, I gotta go back into the store, I forgot one thing.” And then go back to sitting on the trunk. I like to make people’s days a little surreal.
-Henry
Several people have written against the practice of deliberately delaying when someone is waiting/stalking/following/honking. As someone who hates the practice of waiting, I admit I have been a jerk on occasion and not left as soon as I could have. It is not my best quality.
Maybe I can explain why people react so strongly to stalkers. A parking space stalker seems to have the attitude that the parking space you are in belongs to him, and you should hurry up and get out of it. Heaven help you if you want to go to your car to get something from it, listend to the radio or take a nap: hell hath no fury lika a PSS dissapointed. To a PSS your car is fundamentally different from all the other cars. Those owners have no obligation to come out and move their car so the stalker can park, but you, by virtue of walking towards your car, which you parked in a far corner of the lot to avoid all the selfish people blocking trafic waiting for the good spots, you forfeit your right to park your car as soon as the stalker yells “Hey, where you at?”
Now you may think you as a PSS are just a nice guy asking for the same kind of help you would/do often give. But when there are several of you all clamoring for my spot, how should I decide who to help. Plus, it is rare to be a stalker without being a waiter/blocker, so when you call out to me, I know you are selfish. This makese me not want to help you.
I guess you waiters/stalkers need to be told this: there is always someplace to park, there are just some spaces that are further away than others, some people that plan better than others and some people that are less selfish than others
At my JC, there’s a major parking problem. There’s no room to build any more lots, all the surrounding businesses will tow or ticket if you’re there for more than an hour, and I’m always amazing at how many cars are parked on this sides of the nearby residential streets, for how many blocks away from the place. So, as you can see, parking gets a little tricky.
Now, if you get there around 10 minutes before the hour, you’re in luck - classes are letting out, and you can usually find someone just leaving, or even (gasp) an empty spot! However, usually I’m more likely to get there 10 minutes after the hour, and there’s not an empty space in the lot. In that case, I’ll find a nice spot (usually in the row that’s further away from the buildings, since there seems to be more people leaving there), and I’ll wait. And wait. I think one time I waited around 20 mins for a spot, while I was already late for class. I pulled out our lit novel and read that while I waited.
This isn’t a matter of just being to lazy to park further out, or not having looked hard enough - by the time I sit, I’ve usually circled the lot a couple times. There’s plenty of room to get around me, and I’ve never honked at someone to hurry them up - that’s just rude. If I see someone walking, I’ll roll down the window and ask them if they’re leaving, and no one’s even seemed to be creeped out about it. (This may also have to do with the fact that I’m young and female, and don’t look like I’m about to be kidnapping anyone anytime soon.)
So, to all you people who think that what I’m doing is inexcusably rude - what am I supposed to do instead?
I don’t think that anyone (or I hope not anyone) is going to villify people who are in your JC’s situation, teleute12. I, too, had a college that could get crowded like that. (Well, not that crowded, but bad.) I think we all know that in certain situations, where the same people go to the same place everyday (like a college with not enough parking) they all know the “rules”. And at your JC, the “rules” are that people will wait and hover for spaces because everyone’s desperate.
I also don’t personally have a problem with a car who is circling the lot stop and wait for me as I am pulling out (or am very close to pulling out, so the wait is maybe 30 seconds). I have done that myself. I mean, if they are actually pulling out as I drive by them, I’ll go, “Great!” and pull back and give them enough room to get out. If they take too long or are not as ready to leave as I’d hoped, (or there is a line of cars waiting behind me) I’ll keep going. I NEVER want to make people wait behind me, (unless those are the “rules” of that particular parking lot, like they are at your JC).
I don’t think it’s reasonable to get your knickers in a bunch over someone wating 30 seconds for you to pull out, as long as they give you space to breathe, don’t honk, etc. etc.). It’s the hovering, hovering, hovering…making you feel like you no longer are entitled to your space so you’d better “hurry up”, the dreaded honking (which will always get me to jettison out of my car) and making a line of cars wait behind while waiting, and waiting, and waiting.
That’s just inconsiderate and rude.
I’ll also add that it’s damn creepy if you’re a small female like me and heading to your space at night. That being said, on a busy day, I don’t mind if people need my space and follow me.
The problem with the lot-stalkers fo me is that I usually park far away (as mentioned on page one) to avoid a wait and to let those who really feel it’s important to park “as close as possible” have a better shot. Lot-stalkers following me often get really pissed off when it becomes clear that I’m parked way out. Or I’ll walk diagonally though the lot – zigzagging through the rows of parked cars – to get to my car a touch faster and that throws off the stalkers and also makes them mad.
I’m also loathed for the fact that if I have several errands, I’ll go and drop stuff off in the trunk of my car so I don’t have to carry it around with me. I try to mouth the words “I’m not leaving” but there will always be a car or two that follows me and then gets pissed when they find out I’m not leaving.
I don’t mind “friendly, hopeful stalkers.” However, most stalkers seem a little more nasty and impatient – I don’t like pissed off lot-stalkers who are mad at me just because I didn’t offer up the Ultimate Parking Space[sup]TM[/sup] to them – the Gods of the Lot.
Note to lot-stalkers: By the time you’ve followed me, guaranteed you’d have found a “better spot” on your own. I, Crayons, am a waste of your time.