People who suck at street parking, when your home is street parking only

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain this to me? Why do you live in a place that has street parking only, but you are really (really really) bad at it?

I'm not talking about being new to the situation - I used to suck at street parking and parallel parking until I moved into a situation, and learned/adapted. But some of my neighbors have lived here for years. And they just suck. They have trouble parallel parking into a very generous spot. They leave like 6 feet between themselves and the car in front or in back of them. They can't estimate how much space is between them and the curb, or the end of the section. I just don't get it.

New resident? I get it. Lived here for 5 years and still totally awful? Why?! How?!

[Anonymous]

Why do you think they suck at parking versus just don’t care?

[Anonymous]

It's not that they can't park. It's that they don't care.

Also, please remember that when you see awkward spaces between cars, it's often because drivers parked close to each other, but then one leaves, and another, perhaps smaller car, moves into the space. Multiply this all along the parking lot or street line, and you have awkward spaces between some cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not that they can't park. It's that they don't care.

Also, please remember that when you see awkward spaces between cars, it's often because drivers parked close to each other, but then one leaves, and another, perhaps smaller car, moves into the space. Multiply this all along the parking lot or street line, and you have awkward spaces between some cars.

Exactly. So then people like me overcompensate because I hate being boxed in and needing to add in the time to manuever out of my spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do you think they suck at parking versus just don’t care?

There are definitely people who suck. I've seen some of my neighbors really struggle with getting in/out of a generous (car and a half) space.

The people who leave 3" are just a bad as the people who leave 6 feet. I don't know why it's so hard for people to find a balanced middle ground.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not that they can't park. It's that they don't care.

Also, please remember that when you see awkward spaces between cars, it's often because drivers parked close to each other, but then one leaves, and another, perhaps smaller car, moves into the space. Multiply this all along the parking lot or street line, and you have awkward spaces between some cars.

Exactly. So then people like me overcompensate because I hate being boxed in and needing to add in the time to manuever out of my spot.

Yes, I do that too, after decades of living in Paris. You know what they do there? There is so little parking and the cars are so squeezed together, that it's expected you need to gently bump the car in front and car at the back, to get out of your parking space.

Here, I always leave a little space.

[Anonymous]

People think parallel parking well is way more difficult than it is.