I can explain this phenomenon for you. It is not done to protect the car from bumps and dings; it is done to save the second parking space for a favored tenant or coworker.
As you know, free curb parking spaces are rare and precious commodities in NYC. Apartment building workers – usually with the doormen acting as chief scout and ringleader – will snag as many spaces on the block as possible by parking one car across two spaces. They’ll only move the offending car to slip in a friend. When one of the two cars leaves, they’ll move the remaining car back to the original position.
I HATE fucking doormen. They think they own the city streets. Thank goodness I don’t have a car anymore. I’d probably have slugged one of them by now and I’d be typing this from a prison cell.
I’ve never understood this dings thing. I’ve had my car three years, its always parked in parking garages and tight spots. I don’t think I have even one “ding” from a car door (its been keyed, knocked from behind and I think banged by a shopping trolley but no doors), what the hell do people door around there? Fling their doors into parked cars?
Apparently so. My mini-van has scratches and dents on both sides from god-knows-what-happened in parking lots. And my wife’s car came home last week with a huge scrape with white paint that happened when she was parked somewhere. That’s why I try to park my new car in places where I still take up one space and and nobody else wants to walk that far so there are no other cars around I don’t bother anybody at all, except some idiot that gets all exercised because I think my car is worth parking at the other end of the lot.
Of course maybe it was that old fashioned dinosaur gland oil we cave people used. Lets just say as young person I both saw and caused more rings than I could recount in a reasonable period of time.
I usually make a point of parking where nobody is on either side of me. The reason? That way I can state without a doubt that **I did not cause **the dent/scratch/whatever damage to the car that invariably ends up next to mine when I come back out.
So, if they’re really that paranoid about damage to their car, they should be checking it every time they come back from the store, not just when they see that there is another car parked there right that second, because they have no way of knowing what happened while they were away from the vehicle, and therefore they have been caused no additional inconvenience. I explained this already.
Can you believe that some of us assholes park out in the boonies not because we’re afraid of dings to our own car, but rather we aren’t that great at parking, and we don’t want to be the dinger rather than the dingee. Hilarity, isn’t it?
Yup, I’m thinking it’s mostly kids. But I think there’s some careless people also. When they park their car so close to mine that they can’t get out without hitting the door of my car, they usually push on it to squeeze out also. And that causes paint scratches as well.
And it just happened again right after I posted that last post. One of those huge trucks parked right next to my car when I stopped in the grocery store for 10 minutes. Luckily, the guy stayed for less time than I did, because if he was in the store when I got out, I could not have gotten into my car. He parked that close to me. . . with 2 spaces on either side of me. I got to my car just in time to watch him back out and drive away.
If you can’t manage a simple non-parallel parking space, how are you otherwise qualified to safely drive a car? If it’s a disability issue, then that’s a horse of a different color, but those folks get to park in the front, not BFE.
Also, I openly admitted that I would occasionally park next to those folks to be a dick because I think it’s a little amusing. Calling me out on either of those points doesn’t phase me - I admitted as much.
I don’t see anyone defending taking two spaces so I think I’ll play devils advocate on this one… if I pay 4 or 5 grand for a paint job and don’t trust some hillbilly driving a beat up piece of crap or some of the people who have absolutely no respect for other peoples property, I think I would do it also. There are people who love their cars and want to keep them in pristine condition. I have been sitting in my car in a parking lot and have had people pull up beside me and hit my car with their door when they were getting out, they just don’t care. If someone intentionally damaged any other piece of your personal property I’m sure you would be pissed and would do something to prevent it from happening again.
Just for the record I have never used two spaces but if someone with a classic or custom car does it,I understand.
Whoops I missed the whole second page and the edit window…
I know lots of people who use there custom/classic car to go shopping on nice days. My neighbors '57 Chev is appraised at $45,000 and he drives it all the time as does my friend who owns a custom '76 vette with airbrush work. I can assure you that neither one of thses guys want any damage done to their cars by some idiot who has no respect or is jealous.
I was happy to see some asshole ticketed last night for doing this exact thing in a municipal parking space by the lakeshore. Sometimes, I like the parking cops.
A few weeks ago I went to the pub to buy a bottle of wine. I parked outside the bottle shop and when I came out some idiot in an SUV had parked so close to me that I couldn’t even get to the driver’s door to open it. I waited at my car until he turned up and his excuse was, “I didn’t realize that that side of my car was so close to you.”
I suggested it may be an idea to start driving a car the size of which he was capable of judging or maybe he could look at where he had parked before pissing off. Had I not had to wait for him I may have for the first time given in to the urge to fuck up his vehicle.
I was telling the story at work and one of my coworkers said she had seen a similar incident outside our offices a couple of years ago. The guy who had been parked in took a baseball bat out of his boot and smashed all the lights, mirrors and windows of the offending vehicle in front of a crowd of onlookers. After much back and forth he was able to drive off along the footpath.
I can maybe give a little perspective from a person who is paranoid about damage to his precious vehicle. I am not a douche and wouldn’t consider taking up 2 parking spaces, but I try to do one of the following:
Park far out in the parking lot next to a curb, with my tires as close to the curb, leaving plenty of space between me and the spot next to me. As long as the inevitable person that will park right next to me stays inside the lines of their spot, they can’t ding my car with their door.
Park right next to a cart return area (sort of risky if people aren’t careful with thier carts), same sort of idea as the curb.
Worst case, park close to an expensive shiny car. I figure they’re even more worried about their paint than me, and I’m normally in and out of stores quickly so I’ll probably be leaving before them.
Of course with my methods I’m not bothering anyone, I get some exercise walking from the far end of the parking lot, and my car stays ding free.
Because driving a car and parking a car are two entirely different events and skill in one does not necessarily mean skill in the other. It’s not about being completely unable to manage it, either, it’s about feeling more comfortable not pulling in right next to someone else when it can be easily avoided. Which it can be almost every time.
So if someone finds it amusing to do something dickish, it’s alright so long as they admit to being a dick? I did not know that’s how it worked. Thanks for fighting my ignorance.
