Settle this street parking debate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you aren’t parking with the goal of allowing as many people to park in the area as possible, you’re a jerk. Plain and simple. If parking closest to your house was a priority, you’d live in a place where you have a garage, a driveway or a dedicated spot.

Street parking is not just for those who live in the houses. It is for the neighborhood, and that does include shops, restaurants and businesses. I’m glad that people in my SW neighborhood get that. We need our restaurants, coffee shops, businesses and local points of interest to help our neighborhood thrive. What we can do is park in ways that allow for people to live AND visit our neighborhood as comfortably and conveniently as possible.

So if there are a lot of open spots, do you always choose to park as close to another car as possible regardless of distance to your destination?

If there are lots of open spots, I park as close as I can to allow as many cars as possible around me. Let’s say my destination was in the middle of a block. I’d still move up or down the street to “pair up” with another car, which makes it much easier for other cars to file in, rather than take a middle spot. I’m not talking about going blocks out of your way here, people. But form a line and make it orderly, don’t just park like a dumbass in the middle of an open block for no reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you aren’t parking with the goal of allowing as many people to park in the area as possible, you’re a jerk. Plain and simple. If parking closest to your house was a priority, you’d live in a place where you have a garage, a driveway or a dedicated spot.

Street parking is not just for those who live in the houses. It is for the neighborhood, and that does include shops, restaurants and businesses. I’m glad that people in my SW neighborhood get that. We need our restaurants, coffee shops, businesses and local points of interest to help our neighborhood thrive. What we can do is park in ways that allow for people to live AND visit our neighborhood as comfortably and conveniently as possible.

So if there are a lot of open spots, do you always choose to park as close to another car as possible regardless of distance to your destination?

If there are lots of open spots, I park as close as I can to allow as many cars as possible around me. Let’s say my destination was in the middle of a block. I’d still move up or down the street to “pair up” with another car, which makes it much easier for other cars to file in, rather than take a middle spot. I’m not talking about going blocks out of your way here, people. But form a line and make it orderly, don’t just park like a dumbass in the middle of an open block for no reason.

But if you know that the width of a townhouse can decently fit 1 averaged size car, then it's easy to calculate how many cars can fit and how much space to leave. For the most part, everyone should be able to park 1 car in front of their house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you aren’t parking with the goal of allowing as many people to park in the area as possible, you’re a jerk. Plain and simple. If parking closest to your house was a priority, you’d live in a place where you have a garage, a driveway or a dedicated spot.

Street parking is not just for those who live in the houses. It is for the neighborhood, and that does include shops, restaurants and businesses. I’m glad that people in my SW neighborhood get that. We need our restaurants, coffee shops, businesses and local points of interest to help our neighborhood thrive. What we can do is park in ways that allow for people to live AND visit our neighborhood as comfortably and conveniently as possible.

So if there are a lot of open spots, do you always choose to park as close to another car as possible regardless of distance to your destination?

If there are lots of open spots, I park as close as I can to allow as many cars as possible around me. Let’s say my destination was in the middle of a block. I’d still move up or down the street to “pair up” with another car, which makes it much easier for other cars to file in, rather than take a middle spot. I’m not talking about going blocks out of your way here, people. But form a line and make it orderly, don’t just park like a dumbass in the middle of an open block for no reason.

But if you know that the width of a townhouse can decently fit 1 averaged size car, then it's easy to calculate how many cars can fit and how much space to leave. For the most part, everyone should be able to park 1 car in front of their house.

Take a walk around any block in DC, or Capitol Hill—or Annapolis or Baltimore, for that matter—and tell me how neat and precise everything is. Lots of great “calculators” out there, clearly.

I can’t tell you how often I had to park blocks away when I lived in NW because people’s “calculations” were all about selfishness and thoughtlessness rather than order and logic and consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you aren’t parking with the goal of allowing as many people to park in the area as possible, you’re a jerk. Plain and simple. If parking closest to your house was a priority, you’d live in a place where you have a garage, a driveway or a dedicated spot.

Street parking is not just for those who live in the houses. It is for the neighborhood, and that does include shops, restaurants and businesses. I’m glad that people in my SW neighborhood get that. We need our restaurants, coffee shops, businesses and local points of interest to help our neighborhood thrive. What we can do is park in ways that allow for people to live AND visit our neighborhood as comfortably and conveniently as possible.

So if there are a lot of open spots, do you always choose to park as close to another car as possible regardless of distance to your destination?

If there are lots of open spots, I park as close as I can to allow as many cars as possible around me. Let’s say my destination was in the middle of a block. I’d still move up or down the street to “pair up” with another car, which makes it much easier for other cars to file in, rather than take a middle spot. I’m not talking about going blocks out of your way here, people. But form a line and make it orderly, don’t just park like a dumbass in the middle of an open block for no reason.

I don't want my car damaged. I park as far away from others as possible. Don't be annoying and park next to someone pretending you are helping everyone when you are just being obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Of course you should pull forward as much as possible. What, you can’t handle an extra 20 steps to your vehicle? Plus, your “calculations” can be off, not to mention the fact that it’s perfectly legal for other cars to park there that AREN’T your neighbors cars.

We recently went to dinner in Annapolis, and only street parking was available. As we were pulling into a perfectly legal space, a man literally jumped into it, holding a cone. His wife came up and said, “This is our house, and we are just leaving to pick up our daughter from the Naval Academy, and we’ll be right back and need to park in front of our house.” Because we saw other spaces, a few hundred feet ahead, we rolled our eyes and complied—not worth arguing over. But if we hadn’t seen other spaces, we would have waited right there until they left, and moved their illegal and unfair cone. Such entitlement.

YTA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The segment of the street is bout .15 mile long, between the street corner and alley. Homes are townhomes, and an averaged size vehicle can match up to the townhome's width (with a little extra space), but obviously some cars are much longer and much shorter than average (our is average). We live 3rd from the end, and if space is free, we like to park in front of our townhouse with enough space so that 2 cars can park behind us.

Brother thinks we should just pull up forward as much as possible, instead of calculating vehicle space for 2 cars behind us (that would comfortably fit the vehicle size owned by those 2 neighbors).

Our thoughts are that we can decently estimate the space needed for cars and it isn't necessary to just pull forward to the next vehicle.

What do you guys think?

On my street we do it your way. Has worked for 19 years.