Yep.
Mostly, because I suck at parking, and don’t drive enough to remedy that. So when I do drive, I just park in the back, where dings are less likely to occur. I’m young and healthy; I’ll let the old and/or stupid take the closer spots.
I suppose if there is a close spot that doesn’t have cars on both sides I’ll take it. Otherwise, I do like to go further away where I can get a pull through spot. Ease of parking is tons more important to me than having less to walk. I don’t ever have shopping excursions where I have a lot of heavy stuff to carry by hand. I can’t even think of what kind of shopping that would be for me. Clothes? Not heavy. Food? A cart, obviously. Books, CDs, health and beauty aids? All Wal-Mart and Target with carts or really light weight. Otherwise it’s delivered or my husband goes and gets the car and pulls up to a legal loading spot.
At work, I have, lets see, 4 lots that are closer to my office than where I park but I always get a spot in my lot, I usually get my favorite spot where I park and it’s really easy to get right on the highway.
Now, when I park I suck so I almost always have to straighted out. When I get one of those rare “good” spots, I almost always fake someone out. While it’s not intentional, it gives me a little thrill. I know, it’s bitchy.
I used to park close to the front, but when I noticed that the artillery was getting more accurate in their fire I moved my vehicle back to shelter.
I read the OP a few days ago and my initial reply was, “Because they are lazy bastards!” But I had a revelation tonight.
I have a night class at school (6-8 PM) and when I get out it is very, very dark. When I arrive and am trying to find a spot, I always try to get the closet spot. It is not safe for a single, young (and absolutely beautiful! ;)) girl to walk all over the place late at night alone.
Other than that time, I really could care less. I’ll park where there is parking. I’ve noticed that fighting for parking spaces is the one thing that really gets my blood pressure up. It frustrates me, so (for my health!) I take what I can get off in the distance.
I rarely park in the spaces closest to the store. I’d rather park 2/3 or 3/4ths the way down the parking lot and be able to pull through than to park much closer in a space that’d require backing out of and having to worry about backing into other cars, or god forbid, a shopper. Besides, who couldn’t use a little more excercise?
If I’m alone I just nab whatever spot I see first upon entering the parking lot. If I have my daughter with me (she has CP and walks with crutches), I will circle a bit to find a nearer spot – we don’t feel she needs to take up a handicapped spot, really, but she’s a slow walker and it’s better and safer for her to be as close as possible to the entrance. All that said, I’m not the least judgemental about people who circle – it’s no skin off my nose what they do, although I don’t do it myself. What I do find irritating is the types who park and wait – sometimes for a long time – for a near spot to open up. That’s rude and indefensible.
I love playing that game - here’s an even funnier version. If someone is trailing you while you walk to your car, keep on walking to your car, put your groceries/gifts/shopping in the trunk, get in your car, rummage around, get out and walk back to the mall/store. I can’t tell you the myriad of reactions I have seen - honking, cursing, laughing
I’ve done that, too. On occasion, I would just sit in my car for a while, doing stuff (reading, usually).
Mind you, I only do this if there are plenty of other parking spaces that someone could nab–and only if I genuinely do have other stuff that could be done. I figure that maybe this’ll teach people how foolish it is to invest that kind of effort in perpetuating laziness.
There’s a big difference between grabbing a convenient parking spot if it’s available and circling the parking lot to avoid walking a few more feet. The former is an example of pragmatism, whereas the latter is just plain laziness.
Along the same lines of people sharking the lot to get a spot closest to the gym, I’ll see people pay $15 for “preferred” parking at the Renaissance Faire. Sharking isn’t really possible in main parking as we’ve got Disney-style lot attendants that direct people as they arrive.
They’re going to spend the next several hours on their feet, but they just *have * to be close to the gate.
I’m the exact opposite - and luckily my husband is the same way. If it’s some event where everyone is leaving at the same time (or close to the same time), we’ll park at the far end of the lot, just so we can get the heck outta there quicker. I don’t mind walking farther to get in, since I know when we leave, once I get in my car, I can get out quickly.
I’m the exact opposite - and luckily my husband is the same way. If it’s some event where everyone is leaving at the same time (or close to the same time), we’ll park at the far end of the lot, just so we can get the heck outta there quicker. I don’t mind walking farther to get in, since I know when we leave, once I get in my car, I can get out quickly.
Same here.
At work, parking in the same space every day is more important than parking in a close space. That way, I won’t be wandering around the parking lot trying to remember where I parked when it’s time to go home. So, I guess ease of finding my car is more important to me in that case.