Yes, I was, and Mighty Mouse chimed in as I was logging in to confirm I happened to be correct. I suppose I should have stated my assumptions but that is the normal state of most parking lots.
IME, in the midwestern US, it’s typical (but not universal) in surface/flat parking lots. In parking garages/ramps, IME, angled parking isn’t uncommon at all, especially in older ramps.
And we have had a couple people have their parking privileges revoked. About bloody time.
Sounds like it’s about time.
Also, do parkers know that the reason for the rule is to prevent back ups on the road? Because i think that’s generally better compliance with “rules that make sense” than with " stupid arbitrary rules".
Your story reminds me of a story my rabbi told at Yom Kippur this year. The first year he was our rabbi, a town police officer came in and interrupted his Yom Kippur service to tell him he needed to hurry up and end the service. Because no one at the first service had left, so all the people waiting to park for the second service were on the street, and traffic was a nightmare.
(We’ve since redone the schedule, rebuilt the synagogue with better parking, and arranged to rent a lot a mile away, and shuttle buses to take congregants back and forth.)
“Hurry up.” That’s hilarious.
Not only do they know because there are signs at the door connecting the garage to the building, but the warning notices placed on their windshields also explains it.
You’re underestimating the level of arrogance of someone who believes they have the Engineering Validated Best Method and are being fucked with by Stupid Administrative Busybodies.
We had a Senior Vice President terminated because they kept their team in a meeting while the fire alarm was going off. There was a real fire and the firefighters had to go upstairs and order them out. The General Counsel had to insist on the executives termination because the COO and CEO thought this was a trivial issue.
No one on their team just left on their own?
No. They had traveled in for that meeting and they were very sure that I (“Floor Safety Captain”) was interpreting the fire alarm signals incorrectly. We have a tiered system and there is an alarm even if you are not evacuating that particular floor. But the first rule of fire safety is that when there is an emergency the org chart goes out the window and in the Floor Safety Captain is an hourly clerk, they can give instructions to an executive.
Damn. They were well trained. Or cowed
“Did you know you were davening 140 words per minute in a minimum 160 zone?”
I’ve had trouble getting people to leave a meeting when the fire alarm went off. (It wasn’t even a meeting people desperately wanted to be at, it was a weekly meeting of the grand jury i was serving on.)
Anyway, yeah, i am underestimating the arrogance of some of your co-workers. Or maybe they are just assholes. I often like to back in park, but I’m not selfish enough to do it when a bunch of people are waiting to get past me.
I drive a Toyota 4Runner, not a big car, not small either.
When I’m looking for a spot there might be a 4 door long bed pickup sort of sticking out, and then a spot right next to a beyond it. I can’t turn right (or left as the case may be) and get around it since it’s sticking out about 2 additional feet. I just drive beyond it a little and if no one is behind me, I can back into the spot.
Easy, peasy.
Now imagine:
a) the space is before the pickup sticking out, not after
and
b) there is a car right behind you, and a car right behind them and so on all the way out of the garage and into the street
And you try to back into that space. And it takes a while, because the cars behind you have to move back. The first one starts backing up in panic when you throw it in reverse, then the one behind it. And then you still have the awkward angle. And now the traffic on the street is backed up into one of the busiest intersections in the metro area.
But you are absolutely sure it’s the right thing to do because:
a) it would be DANGEROUS to back out of that space with that pickup next to you, blocking your view
and
b) it would take longer to back out and you have done the research and the combined time is shorter your way.
This is the situation we are actually dealing with that causes the issues. This is not imaginary. We really have traffic backing into the street because of this and the police really are coming to warn us that they will shut our garage down. Again and again for years on end (decades actually, but I’ve not been here that long).
You left out that your garage has 6 levels, and there’s more space further in, and back-in parking is even allowed on the upper levels. I think those are all relevant points, too. If it’s easier to back in, due to the geometry of your vehicle, you can just keep moving until you are on the third floor, and then look for a spot.
I’m a fan of back in parking. But you have a special situation, and it doesn’t work on the lower floors of your garage.
So I don’t do it. Solved.
What really pisses me off is when a car pulls into a parking lot off of a busy street and stops right at the entrance of the lot, wondering 'hmmm, where should I park.