I don't understand parking in America

**Ian Gills** · 12-18-2010, 04:52 PM

This has happened a lot to me recently and it really riles me.

I sincerely hope this is just an East Coast phenomenon and if it is I will happily agree that the West Coast is superior to the East.

Anyway. Here goes.

I know that few of you can really drive because you were never properly taught to and the test is such a joke here that a blind person could pass.

So I don't have much to work with.

But why-oh-why do Americans insist on parking their cars an inch or so from the bumper of the car in front/behind. Some Americans will even bounce bumpers when parking and think this is OK to smack cars up and leave scratches.

Where I come from (where we are properly taught to drive by licensed instructors) we learn to leave at least a foot or so between cars when parking. Then, at least, people can get out of their parking space when it is time to leave.

But I guess if Pops taught you to drive at fourteen on the farm, and the written test is just a multiple choice that even lucky chimpanzees in a lab could pass, then you never quite worked that out.

Well, here's your wake up call from someone with a real license. Leave a gap and don't think of bouncing my bumper!

**Basement_Lurker** · 12-18-2010, 11:12 PM

....let alone leaving cyclists a nice wide space as drivers pass them on the road instead of the few inches most drivers actually do, or leaving a car with a standard transmission some room when you are stopped behind them. The drivers are still somewhat courteous here where I live, but all bets are off in the crowded wallmart parking lot!

**Cookie** · 12-19-2010, 04:48 PM

I cured that problem once Ian. I got tired of not being able to get into my gate of the car. I got tired of having to push my grocery cart aside, get in the car, move my car up. I patiently waited for the man to come out of the supermarket and when he started to put his groceries in the back end of his car, so did I. By standing on his bumper, with the cart up against his headlight. He came running up saying, " I will move it, wait, wait.." so, I got off his bumper and waited for him to back up.

I wouldn't really recommend this.

**Redwood** · 12-19-2010, 08:47 PM

I have a very aggressive looking trailer hitch. For some reason i always seem to have plenty of room.

**Ian Gills** · 12-20-2010, 10:09 AM

Thanks for the great ideas! I'll try some of those.

**ballvalve** · 12-21-2010, 04:57 PM

In Europe they park on the sidewalks in every direction possible. Been parking in Italy lately? Get a bit drunk first.

**Basement_Lurker** · 12-21-2010, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by Ian Gills

Thanks for the great ideas! I'll try some of those.

Ian, you've been living in America long enough now, why don't you just do the American thing and pull a gun? lol (before everyone flames me, yes, that was a jab at your other thread)

**ballvalve** · 12-22-2010, 09:02 AM

Ian is probably trying to park on the left side of the street, a bit confused from the disturbed method of wrong handed driving in England.

**Ian Gills** · 12-22-2010, 02:02 PM

No, that is not true. When I park, I do exactly that. I "park". When Americans park, they just "leave it there".

You were never trained to drive, you see. Which is why most of you need an automatic gearbox. Because go-carts, you can do.

For example, when I park I put the stick in P and put the hand brake on.

I bet most of you were never trained to do that and still wonder what that funny E-brake is for.

**ballvalve** · 12-22-2010, 06:50 PM

Americans have these stupid foot operated park brakes that no one wants to screw with.

Then they put the release right next to the hood operator, so we all say let it roll if it wants.

And Americans cannot figure out that turning off the ignition key when your toyota gets up to 900 MPH is a pretty simple solution outside death.

And then toyota gets a 40 billion dollar fine, because we are too stupid to turn a key while the engine revs up to 10,000 RPM's ......but that you should agree with, since it might go to the downtrodden in some percentage. And toyota deserves some flogging for its lies and usurious profits from American self defeatism.

Grew up with stick shifts, but its hard to shift now with a glass of wine in one hand, so automatics for me. Bulldozers and excavators abandoned straight gear drives 25 or more years ago.

Had a 48 Desoto with a fluid drive/ stick/auto combo drive. Just like dozers today, except the pure hydraulic drives, which make cars look like something from 1925

Finally, since so many of US drivers in the last 20 years have NOT seen a stick shift, its safer all in all to give them a auto. And most automatics get better mileage than the average brain dead teen pretending to DRIVE a car with gear drive.

**Redwood** · 12-23-2010, 10:57 AM

Originally Posted by ballvalve

And Americans cannot figure out that turning off the ignition key when your toyota gets up to 900 MPH is a pretty simple solution outside death.

And then toyota gets a 40 billion dollar fine, because we are too stupid to turn a key while the engine revs up to 10,000 RPM's ......but that you should agree with, since it might go to the downtrodden in some percentage. And toyota deserves some flogging for its lies and usurious profits from American self defeatism..

Somehow if the key could turn I'm sure they would have done it...

I believe the issue is similar to the one in the 1983 movie "Christine"

**Ian Gills** · 12-23-2010, 11:49 AM

Pull that key out and throw it out the window, and even a Prius would get the general idea of what you are trying to do.

**Ian Gills** · 12-23-2010, 01:22 PM

putting it in park, neutral or reverse would be a pretty quick but noisy solution.

In my Toyota, I have gone from D to R before while moving forward. It doesn't seem to do much harm but the engine stalls and does not start again until you stop, put it in P and try again.

I coast down a long lonely steep road each day in neutral with the engine off, Prius like, and so if ever my car goes toyota nuts, it will be just a moment for me to be in control.

This is silly and is the reason why I went from D to R. I was coasting in N and slipped it into R by mistake. Also, with the engine off you risk putting the steering lock on!

**Redwood** · 12-24-2010, 07:43 AM

So Ian how is it driving around in a Toyota Made in the USA?

**Ian Gills** · 12-24-2010, 08:28 AM

No. My Toyota is an old one and arrived on a ship. It was made in Japan where the workforce are educated (because the taxpayer picks up the school bills) and where sick people don't fit the engines (because, again, the taxpayer fixes Japanese workers when they fall ill). So while its over 10 years old, it still runs good. I'd never buy an American made Toyota.

The guys that make those have bad backs, and some can't even see, and their families couldn't afford to send them to school for as long as they wanted to.

America will never be able to compete as long as the kid from the poor family is not given the same opportunities as the kid from the rich one. You'd be good to remember that.