# Office parking lot etiquette



## MorganO (Jul 17, 2009)

For several weeks I have been watching one of my co-workers park her pristine red Mercedes-Benz hard top diagnally across two parking spaces in front of our office building.

Now, we have no internal policy within our building on how to park in a parking lot, but to me, it is just unacceptable to take up two spots just because you have an expensive newer vehicle. 

It just irks me to no end!!

It would be fun to stage a 'protest' and have all employee's take up two parking spaces just to see what kind of crazy mess we could make of the parking lot.  Or box her car in so that she can't get out...

Unfortunately, I'm sure the person I'm trying to make the point too wouldn't get it.

Just a rant...

Owen


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## Joe4 (Jul 17, 2009)

Owen,

We had something like that happen at my last job.  Our parking lot was always very crowded, and tough to find parking spaces if you weren't early in to work.  One day, someone parked their red Ferrari in the middle of the last two parking spots in one of the rows.  At the end of the row was a curb and a grass median.

A friend of mine came into work and was looking for a parking spot he drove a very old beat up pick-up truck).  He parked that truck halfway in that last parking spot, and halfway on the grass about 6 inches from the side of that Ferrari (not nearly enough room for the Ferrari owner to open the door on that side).  We loved it!  I would have loved to have seen the face of the Ferrari owner when he left...


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## schielrn (Jul 17, 2009)

I take a motorcycle to work and get here pretty early compared to most.  So I am usually in the first or second spot in the garage.  I typically park on the furthest edge of the spot because other people ride in as well and we usually get 3 bikes in a spot.  Well some days I come out to my bike and there is a car or seometimes even a truck parked in there at an angle right on the line.  I don't know what they are thinking, but as long as they don't hit my bike I don't really care.  But lately 2 other people that ride have been coming in early adn all 3 of us take our own spot and park right in the middle and I know it irks some people.  But why do they deserve a sapce over me?


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## Greg Truby (Jul 17, 2009)

See, this is where, left to my own devices, I would get myself into trouble. What I would love to do is find the two people who own the cars that were parked on either side of her and owners of two old barely-pass-inspection, minimum-of-one-quarter-panel-painted-primer-grey, pieces-of-junk. And then have the original bookends pull out and the pull the jalopies in so snug that there is absolutely no way she can open the doors even a centimeter. And then just leave 'em. Give the jalopy owners rides to and from work every day until she figures out a way to get her car out. 

Alas, I'm sure I would chicken out in the end. But it does make for a nice daydream... though I might really be tempted to let the air out of a tire (or four). 

@ Joe, I really, really wish you could have gotten video of that to post on YouTube.


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## Joe4 (Jul 17, 2009)

> Joe, I really, really wish you could have gotten video of that to post on YouTube.


Me too!

My friend who drove the truck was quite a character.  One day during the winter, he went out for lunch and got a bunch of tacos at a drive thru.  One taco ended us stashed under his seat and he forgot about it for a few days.  He found it a few days later, and reasoned that since it was winter, his car acts like a refridgerator, and decided to eat the taco.  Needless to say, he got a really bad case of food poisoning...

I was incredulous, and asked him if he looked at the taco before eating it.  He said, "Yeah, the lettuce was pretty brown."  

He also has another great story in which he and some friends temporarily "borrowed" a large 20 foot inflatable Ronald McDonald from the local McD's at took it to a house party.  They decided they should take it back, and stuffed it into their hatchback.  Just as they were pulling out of the driveway, a police officer showed up.  He told the officer that he and the Hamburglar (the driver) were just taking Ronald for a little spin.  The cop laughed so hard, he let them return it with out charging them.  

In case you were wondering, yes, alcohol was involved in that last one.  His wife doesn't let him drink anymore...


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## lilredsrt (Jul 21, 2009)

This is one of those subjects that has 2 extremes. 
I would never take 2 spots but I try to be mindful of other peoples cars.
Unfortunately a lot of people get out of their cars like their square dancing and the next thing you know, door ding city.

If I'm that concerned about the parking lot in question, I'll park a little further out.
(A little extra walking wouldn't hurt)


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## hatman (Jul 27, 2009)

Greg Truby said:


> See, this is where, left to my own devices, I would get myself into trouble. What I would love to do is find the two people who own the cars that were parked on either side of her and owners of two old barely-pass-inspection, minimum-of-one-quarter-panel-painted-primer-grey, pieces-of-junk. And then have the original bookends pull out and the pull the jalopies in so snug that there is absolutely no way she can open the doors even a centimeter. And then just leave 'em. Give the jalopy owners rides to and from work every day until she figures out a way to get her car out.
> 
> Alas, I'm sure I would chicken out in the end. But it does make for a nice daydream... though I might really be tempted to let the air out of a tire (or four).
> 
> @ Joe, I really, really wish you could have gotten video of that to post on YouTube.


 
Hmm, at my last job I was one of those Jalopie owners... a 1983 AMC Eagle... and me and anothe rguy did just that.  And the shole floor of engineers watched out the window as the offender went to lunch... it was CLASSIC!!!

OOOH! I got a few of these that we've done, now that i thin kof it.

Parking lot wars at the Dorm in College.  One of the guys none of us liked parked diagonal after coming back from the bar in the two closest spots to the dorm (highly contested spots, that I actually won a few times).  Well, a group of us (walking) got back an hour or so after him, and saw his sub-compact car sitting there (looking out through the dorm window, since the lot was out back).  Well, we prmptly re-exitted the building, and we lifted and carried teh car out of the lot, ove rthe berm, about 50 feet to the side of the dorm... placed it nose first AGAINST the brick wall of teh dorm... then shifted the nearby dumpster about 4 feet so it was about 6 inches behind the back bumper of the car.  It took him over an hour to extricate his vehicle the next morning (forward, reverse, forward, reverse...).

Another time, we snatched a 2-ton floor jack from the student repair shop, and put it under the rear differential of someone's car we didn't like... lifted it up so the tires just came off the ground.  Took the jack handle, and stood back to watch...  FUN.


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## Joe4 (Jul 27, 2009)

Man, I would have liked to hang out with you in college!

We have a funny car story like that to.  There was a student that most of couldn't stand.  My friend and I were tutoring in the Math Help Center when this particular student came in all upset because he had locked his keys in his car and didn't know what to do.  So we told him that he could use a coat hanger to try to get into the car.  

After he walked away, the Math Professor on duty (half-jokingly) said that someone should call campus security and tell them that they see someone breaking into a car in the parking lot.  So that is exactly what my friend did!  I would have loved to see how long it took him to convince security that it was his car!


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## hatman (Jul 28, 2009)

Joe4 said:


> Man, I would have liked to hang out with you in college!


 
The college stories would fill a book.  On the whole, I like to think hanging out with me was fun for my friends (I still hang out with some of them), though the guy that got his shattered in 13 pieces when we got hit by a car walking to the bar on a Wednesday night might disagree.

But I'm a mature father of 2 now, and while I don't regret any of my college antics, I wouldn't do them now.


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## Joe4 (Jul 28, 2009)

> though the guy that got his shattered in 13 pieces when we got hit by a car walking


Got his what shattered (leg maybe)?

Out of curiosity, where did you go to college?


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## hatman (Jul 28, 2009)

Arm.  Sorry... the down-side of multi-tasking.  The funny thing is that the following year, just after he got the cast off, I fixed the brakes on his bike, and he went over the handle-bars then next day (because the brakes were no lonbger dangerously loose) and he re-broke the same arm... 

Most of my best stories come from the 6 semesters I spent at Rennselaer.  But I finally got my degree from Western New England College in Springfield, ma.  After spending 4 semesters on Dean's List (3.5+ GPA), I got a 0.9 followed by a 1.0 GPA in my last 2 semesters due to my allowing myself to get consumed by a special section of an Engineering Design course where we designed and built a robot for the US First Competition (we came in 4th of 50 teams, BTW).


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## milesUK (Jul 31, 2009)

Like hatman here is a tale from my own college days.

A fellow student who usually got on everyones nerves was late in the elctrical machines lab whilst the rest of us went home for the day. It had been snowing and cold for a few days by now and the main routes around the car park had been gritted and were clear. However the actual parking spaces were still covered with compacted snow. It only took two or three of us to rotate his small car through 90 degrees and push it, on the slippy floor, tight up against the kerb. With cars still parked on either side it would have taken him ages to extract it.

So long ago now I can't remember the resultant conversation the following day. 

Miles


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## yytsunamiyy (Aug 14, 2009)

xkcd has the solution:


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## Joe4 (Aug 14, 2009)

Nice!  I like it!


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## MorganO (Aug 14, 2009)

That cartoon is just what I needed to end my Friday on a high-note!  Thanks!


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