Osler's Razor

A lot of people who are undereducated or uneducable as to how to park, their social responsibilities to the rest of the human race, etc., etc. A failure of either education or genetic endowment!
 

Waco Friend, you have no idea how many well educated oblivious jerks walk this Earth…many of whom fancy themselves good Christians, self-exempted of course from the Golden Rule of “[not]do to others…” blah, blah.
 

I lived in West Philadelphia when I was in law school. Lot's of crazy things happen in West Philly. Shootings, burglaries, frequent police chases . . . my roommate was robbed at gunpoint in front of our apartment, for example. But the parking situation was an absolute circus. It's a neighborhood where many folks don't have cars, but those that do largely have to parallel park on the street. In the summer, it was like an all-out game of bumper cars. People would just back up until they hit they car behind them, the pull forward until they hit the car in front of them, then repeat that process until they were generally out of traffic. Things were even sillier in the winter. The snow plows would push all the snow and ice into big berms between the driving lanes and all the parallel-parked cars. Philly tends to have wet winters, so after a couple of weeks these berms were typically frozen solid, leaving legions of sedan drivers no option but to (a) shovel and smash three feet of accumulated snow and ice out of the way, or (b) attempt maneuvers better left to Jeep Wranglers and Humvees. On one particularly notable occasion, on intrepid driver managed to get high-centered on top of the berm, with its drive wheels completely off the ground and partially blocking the eastbound lane. All of this happened near the top of a fairly steep hill. When a SEPTA bus had to stop to avoid hitting the stranded car, it could not get going again, with its back tires spinning on the icy road. As I recall, three police cars and two tow trucks were involved in the ensuing melee. I was late to class that morning...
 

Scene: The parking lot is a sea of open spaces. I park well away from other cars, leaving at least two or three empty spaces to either side. I come out from the store to find that someone (usually in a huge pickup) has parked right next to me on my driver's side. Why?

From my forthcoming memoir: Parking Lot Archipelago.
 

In the U.K. people park on the sides of already narrow streets. They turn two-way streets in to one ways. Oncoming cars have to take turns from opposite directions going around the cars. It would propbably be ok, except they don't stop to take turns, just speed up or slow down. There is some sort of unspoken code that I haven't figured out yet.
 

In Iceland, people park on both sides of the road in either direction. So you might be facing the front end of another car when you parallel park, and it's ok. I love Iceland.
 

This reminds of the David Brooks piece in the NYT a month or so ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/opinion/how-would-jesus-drive.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

In the aggregate, these folks all seem to be in a hurry and employing a cost-benefit analysis in which they believe they aren't inconveniencing others. I'm guessing winter in MN has something to do with this.

 

So many weird parking traditions! CTL, I know exactly what you are talking about... (lived in Philly) and Desiree, they do that in Texas, too.