# Why no, I don't really need to be able to get to my car **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 10, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321 "2013-04-10T13:09:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/41 "2013-04-11T18:04:26Z")
Sounds like somebody’s still butthurt over being cited for the all junked cars and broken refrigerators in his front yard. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/42 "2013-04-11T18:19:56Z")
The City of Calgary did a lot of street work in my neighbourhood last summer, which was great. Unfortunately, their street crews did not give anyone notice, and they did not make any effort to keep streets open - I had neighbours who had their cars stranded in their garages for days on end (the entire street was ripped up, with huge trenches that prevented them from getting their cars out of the driveway). Another trick the street crews do around here is to rip up streets and sidewalks and then not replace them for a month or so - I guess organizing the rip up crews and the put back crews is too much to ask. So my point is that street crews do as they please, and to hell with the end users of these streets. I sympathize with the OP. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/43 "2013-04-11T18:30:22Z")
I guess I’ll have to stop whinging about road repairs here, where they actually do their best to keep at least some access open for the locals. Is this a big city thing? I can more easily see it if you actually have some sort of public transportation options. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/44 "2013-04-11T21:07:07Z")
While HOAs are indeed typically evil, this kind of thing also makes me wonder if they had a meeting about the issue but only 10% of the residents bothered to attend. That’s how it was at my condo development. Maybe the shuttle would have had a better schedule with input from the residents. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/45 "2013-04-11T21:56:09Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > So now we know who on this board is an apologist for tin-pot dictatorships and localized tyranny. > > All of you are incredibly stupid. You deserve to be given a Singapore-style caning. You embody the worst attributes of humanity. Hey, the dictatorship I live in is great. But that’s probably because everyone has to do what I say. ---
**Author:** ![sidhechaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sidhechaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidhechaos)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/46 "2013-04-12T04:07:49Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > They could only work a block or two at a time, so that the distance to parking was less. > > They could work on only one side of the street, allowing traffic on the other side. > > I’m sure there are other options. > > Of course, it’s going to be more expensive to do it that way. > > I know that my town has been working on road repairs in various neighborhoods for the last several years. I guarantee you that residents have not been required to park a mile away from their homes. You would have heard the screaming. > > I’d probably rent/borrow a Jeep and ignore their “under construction” rules. or hotwire their steamroller thing and drive it to work ---
**Author:** ![sidhechaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sidhechaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidhechaos)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/47 "2013-04-12T04:11:48Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > You had to walk for twenty minutes 2 or 3 times, and this is something to complain about? Normal people do that daily. aren’t you so lucky you are normal, and won’t you feel differently when you get older or become crippled from a car accident or develop something like parkinsons or MS. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/48 "2013-04-12T04:26:43Z")
> [@sidhechaos](#): > > aren’t you so lucky you are normal, and won’t you feel differently when you get older or become crippled from a car accident or develop something like parkinsons or MS. Yes, I am lucky. So, unless there’s something she’s not saying, is the OP. If this had been a pitting about someone being trapped in their own house because of their disability and the refusal of the authorities to recognise it, I would have had a different response. As it is, though, someone who is healthy bitching about having to walk a mile occasionally is just laziness. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/49 "2013-04-12T04:32:42Z")
**Mama Zappa** I’m late to the party as usual, but I’d have pitted your HOA as well. I think that everyone has the right to pit that sort of stuff when they want to rant. It would really bite to have to walk that far when you bought a home with a road and a driveway and everything. In Arizona, they pave the rural dirt roads by dumping hot tar and then following up with a load of gravel. That’s how they repave the roads as well. No warning, unless you read the back page of the local weekly paper. You are supposed to drive on the stuff and pack it down, I guess. No concern to damage to cars, or for bikers who are afraid to ride on such a slippery, shifting road. Had I been a Doper the last time that happened to me, I would have pitted the inconvenience instead of being happy for paved roads as well. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/50 "2013-04-12T07:19:50Z")
It would be worse if the road wasn’t repaired and you couldn’t use it at any point. Anyway, since when did walking a mile become “that far”? I walk that distance to work every day, it takes about 20 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/51 "2013-04-12T07:40:52Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > The “twice in 2 years” was another delight: last year’s lockout was because they needed to repaint the fucking curbs in yellow paint because our entire neighborhood is a fire lane. Same deal as this year - out of your house by 6 AM or some such, can’t get back until late morning the following day, “shuttle service” offered when _they_ felt like it. 😕 Why would they need to close everything off just to paint curbs? ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/52 "2013-04-12T12:24:07Z")
Seriously? I have no idea how America expects to be globally competitive when we are apparently too delicate for a 20 minute walk. What ever happened to “grit” and “ingenuity?” I hate to say this, but the Chinese certainly aren’t bitching about having to walk a mile three times a year. Honestly can’t do a mile? Stay at a friends, or a hotel, or take a day off work, or sleep in the office, or have a neighbor watch the kids while you park, or, you know, _dont plan grocery day for the day you have to take a short walk_. Maybe you’ll make the headlines. “Area resident uses common sense in the face of mild inconvenience.” ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/53 "2013-04-12T12:38:47Z")
In fairness, we don’t send our whiners to labor camp. Which is a good thing, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/54 "2013-04-12T13:13:21Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > In fairness, we don’t send our whiners to labor camp. Which is a good thing, I guess. Is it? Is it really? If you did send the whiners to labor camps you wouldn’t need to hire so many illegal aliens. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/55 "2013-04-13T03:33:16Z")
This was a perfectly good Pit thread. The OP was inconvenienced by something that the HOA did. The OP came here and ranted about it. I used to walk almost 20 miles a day at work. And moved 2 tons of paper by hand and hand truck every hour…uphill all the way. If I had had to park my car a mile away for a couple of days, I could have done the walk and carrying stuff with no problem. I still would have been steamed about it. There is a very good reason that someone who bought a nice home with a paved street and a driveway and a garage, and it doesn’t include walking a mile to get home because the HOA didn’t plan things well. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/56 "2013-04-13T08:34:48Z")
Before you criticize **Mama Zappa** , try walking a mile in her shoes (because she won’t be using them). 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/57 "2013-04-13T14:18:07Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Seriously? I have no idea how America expects to be globally competitive when we are apparently too delicate for a 20 minute walk. What ever happened to “grit” and “ingenuity?” I hate to say this, but the Chinese certainly aren’t bitching about having to walk a mile three times a year. > > Honestly can’t do a mile? Stay at a friends, or a hotel, or take a day off work, or sleep in the office, or have a neighbor watch the kids while you park, or, you know, _dont plan grocery day for the day you have to take a short walk_. > > Maybe you’ll make the headlines. “Area resident uses common sense in the face of mild inconvenience.” I think that the OP lives in a suburban subdivision. For me, walking in a mile to my car for my morning commute would be an inconvenience since I would have to leave earlier but it would be doable since I have proper sidewalks to walk on as opposed to being on the side of the road or walking on a dirt path. I’d be irritated with the subdivision. When the city tore up the streets on my block last year, they did sections of 1 or two blocks at a time, and they did one side of the street at a time, not the whole neighborhood. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/58 "2013-04-13T18:33:18Z")
I make a conscious decision to live someplace where I can walk almost everywhere I need to go - the only exception is driving to work. If my car gets closed up in my garage so I can’t get it out because of road work, I can’t drive to work. Yes, I can still take the bus - at great inconvenience to me and not what I bargained for when I bought this house, in this location. I’m not living in China; I have no reason to expect conditions to be like they are in China. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/59 "2013-04-13T18:57:24Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I make a conscious decision to live someplace where I can walk almost everywhere I need to go - the only exception is driving to work. If my car gets closed up in my garage so I can’t get it out because of road work, I can’t drive to work. Yes, I can still take the bus - at great inconvenience to me and not what I bargained for when I bought this house, in this location. I’m not living in China; I have no reason to expect conditions to be like they are in China. What should happen when the road outside your garage needs mending, or digging up for some other reason? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321/60 "2013-04-13T19:43:03Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > This was a perfectly good Pit thread. The OP was inconvenienced by something that the HOA did. The OP came here and ranted about it. > > I used to walk almost 20 miles a day at work. And moved 2 tons of paper by hand and hand truck every hour…uphill all the way. > > If I had had to park my car a mile away for a couple of days, I could have done the walk and carrying stuff with no problem. > > I still would have been steamed about it. There is a very good reason that someone who bought a nice home with a paved street and a driveway and a garage, and it doesn’t include walking a mile to get home because the HOA didn’t plan things well. This. I can walk a mile and no work is beneath me. I have shoveled horse shit before. But at a time in my life when I can afford to buy a nice house in the suburbs, I expect to be able to access it by car. The HOA needs to do one side of the street at a time or make alternate arrangements. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-i-dont-really-need-to-be-able-to-get-to-my-car/655321.md?page=4)