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Originally posted by Kskelton:

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Originally posted by Muddflap:


That's what I do. Plus parking far enough out that I'm usually by myself.

Does parking far away work for you? It's 115°+ here, I park at the very far end of the parking lot thinking "who's stupid enough to walk across this entire parking lot when it's so hot outside" and EVERYTIME my car is surrounded by the time I leave.

Yeah, it usually does. The few times there has been someone else out there, they have parked more than a car door length away. I figure they're someone like me.

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Originally posted by SBrooks:

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Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

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That's why I back into as many parking spots as I can, much easier to exit.

Yeah make a quick getaway. Ayob says never go into a convenience store where somebody took the time to back into a space.

I had a guy cuss me for taking the time to back into a spot in a convenience store. He said the lot is too busy for me to back in. I'm thinking - I either have to back out or back in - either way, I'm backing up at some point in the process....

I respectfully disagree. When you're backing in, it should be a rather precise operation. Most folks back into a parking space a hell of a lot slower than they will back out of one (where you're backing into a wider aisle and it doesn't matter exactly where).

I understand and make exceptions for folks driving longer vehicles. That adds a different dynamic to the whole thing.

Of course, back up cameras are beginning to improve the situation all around.

As for angled parking spaces, my biggest pet peeve is the fuckwit who will drive the wrong way down a one-way aisle (b/c angled spaces on both sides) while either coming or going, or almost worse - back into an angled space (which are obviously designed for head-in parking only, since the aisle is one-way) and then drive out the wrong way. Obviously not talking about those odd parking lots w/ angled spaces in opposite directions on either side, so the aisle is two-way, but I'll still see people backing into them, which is just weird.

-Rob

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Originally posted by OKCGene:
That's why I back into as many parking spots as I can, much easier to exit.

Absolutely! Around my area they are getting t be this bad. I have been nearly hit two or three times lately because people are to impatient to stop until I can finish backing out and just must swing out around my rear end in spite of everything, even tho I am halfway out of my space.

Instead of backing in, I try to find two spot connected front to back. So I can pull in and leave myself a straight out exit. Preferably next to a shopping cart corral, (buggy for you fellow southerners), or a landscape island for my driver's side. This prevents someone parking so close as to keep someone parking so close as to keep me from getting into my vehicle.

Seems the best way to keep shopping carts away from your vehicle is to park near the cart return area....

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Originally posted by Floyd D. Barber:
Instead of backing in, I try to find two spot connected front to back. So I can pull in and leave myself a straight out exit. Preferably next to a shopping cart corral, (buggy for you fellow southerners), or a landscape island for my driver's side. This prevents someone parking so close as to keep someone parking so close as to keep me from getting into my vehicle.

That is called pull-thru parking. I posted about it earlier in the thread.

Parking next to a cart corral is a good idea. Works better in the south than the north because snow plow drivers hit them and the staff is too lazy to center back in the spot in the spring (at least that was my experience in Alaska and Alberta).

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Originally posted by OKCGene:
That's why I back into as many parking spots as I can, much easier to exit.

Agreed, battle-parking is the only way to go!

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Originally posted by Georgeair:

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Originally posted by OKCGene:
That's why I back into as many parking spots as I can, much easier to exit.

Agreed, battle-parking is the only way to go!

Pull-thru parking is even easier as you never have to back-up.

The other day at the local grocery store, I backed into a spot at the edge of the lot. I did some people watching first (like always) before getting out of my truck.

First, I see a tourist couple fighting with their liftgate of a Lexus SUV. It wouldn't close no matter how many times they put their feet under the sensor or hit the fob button (had to have been 20 times each). After two and a half minutes he finally reaches up and pulls the liftgate down like we used to do in the olden days.

Then, I watch a local family getting loaded up into their 10 foot tall, 25 foot long lifted 4x4. You know the type, diesel, polished up, farkled to death and never worked kind of showpiece. Well, after dad lifts the kids and mom in, he climbs aboard. With a giant cloud of soot, it comes to life, less than a second later it revs and reverses. Almost hitting another pickup with less than a foot to spare, then stares at the other truck with a fuck you look and waited for them to move out of his way. More black smoke (PUFF, no, not poof), he was gone.

Lastly, I watched a foreign tourist family try to navigate a rental motorhome out of the parking lot. There were four on foot searching for a way out. One thought he had the best way and started hollering and waving like a fool. The others went back to the RV and began to "guide" mom out of the parking spot. Well, mom had to reverse a few times, nearly running over one daughter (her belt buckle blocked her vision). I wonder if they found their way out of the neighborhood they went into.

I decided it was far too dangerous for me to attempt a parking lot crossing on foot, so I fled the scene (not following the rental RV), got fast food and went home.

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I dont know if I am imagining this but it seems that if you were pulling out of a parking space and were more that 1/2 - 3/4 of the way out people would stop and wait for you to finish pulling out but in the last week I have come damn close to getting hit on more than one occasion by impatient assholes that can clearly see that I am just about our of the space but they come charging ahead anyway.

I would agree but what about the assholes pulling out that wait until you are right on top of them to pull the rest of the way out?
Hey pal, you could have pulled out three times already but had to wait 1/2 way out of the spot then pull out DIRECTLY in front of me.

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As for angled parking spaces, my biggest pet peeve is the fuckwit who will drive the wrong way down a one-way aisle (b/c angled spaces on both sides) while either coming or going, or almost worse - back into an angled space (which are obviously designed for head-in parking only, since the aisle is one-way) and then drive out the wrong way.

Oh yes, the ubiquitous parking lot Salmon.