Of Rain and Parking Nazis

[dr_nebula]

If you live in the southeast, you are like feeling the effects of Tropical Storm Ida. For Northern Georgia, this means another 3 to 5+ inches of rain during a likely record settling Autumn (and year). Flood watches and warnings (surprise!) have been posted yet again for the region. Blah.

The Inept Parking NaziToday's commute was rather soggy, but

Comments

[technoshaman]

'scuse my one-upsmanship, but my "other" is because I don't drive, I ride. My motorcycle, my mega-scooter, and my baby scooter all fit in a teeny wedge of a space no car could use, not even the Peel P-50. :)

(I should take pictures sometime.)

I *do* parallel park when I'm paying the City for the privilege. If I'm going to pay for a full space, I'm taking a full space. But if it's after six, or I'm otherwise not going to pay? I try my best *not* to take a space. Seek out a wedge, a curb corner, some extra space some idiot wasted... sometimes there's even dedicated motorcycle parking.

What's really cool about what passes for parallel parking for a motorcycle (backing it in either at an angle or, if there's enough room, completely perpendicular to the curb)? It's dead easy to exit the space in the opposite direction from which you entered. 'course, you can do that with your Lupo (or a Toyota Prius, which I'm told is becoming as popular over there as it is over here) (yes, I'm a regular Top Gear watcher... you lot call it "PRY-us", not "PREE-us" :), but it's pushing it, especially if you're not in the high street...

Over here you can't get your M/C endorsement unless you can reverse in 24' (or at least get close and do well on other things, which is how I passed :)

But, yeah. If all you've got to get there and back again is one guy and maybe some groceries, you don't *need* four wheels, four seats, and the horsepower to shove half a tonne around. I get roughly the same performance out of 19hp on my megascoot as I did out of 124hp in a Saturn SL2... and it gets double the mileage and is a LOT more fun!

[silme]

No need for one-upmanship, as I didn't tick 'other'. :)

A Prius actually is a pretty large car here in the UK and it's expensive. The Yaris is a far more popular Toyota model, as it's smaller and far less expensive.

My first driver's license was from Pennsylvania, earned in 1977, when you didn't have to parallel park (even in Philadelphia, where I lived). I moved to Colorado two years later, where parallel parking was on the test, but I merely traded in my PA license and only had to take the written test, which included questions about mountain driving and dealing with chains.

I emigrated to England in 2000, where I was required to take both the theory and practical tests after one year of residence. I'd not taken a driving test since 1977, so I was nervous, but I was fine. I did have to parallel park on a very busy street on a Saturday morning. You also may be asked to reserve around a corner (which basically is reversing around a corner and then parallel parking) and/or to reverse into a car park parking space.

The car that people park head-on here, instead of parallel parking, even on a busy, narrow high street, is the Smart Car. (Not the one for four -- the original one for two.) It's small enough that it doesn't stick out too much even when you pull in head on and have to reverse out. No need to parallel park when you drive one of those.

Over here, there's generally plenty of dedicated motorcycle parking, so motorcycles don't need to take up the space of one whole car.