Some weeks ago, I wrote about how poorly designed carparks made even the most skillful drivers feel like novices. From narrow, straight-angled ramps to speed bumps in front of barriers (which wouldn’t stop a driver from crashing through it), most of us have seen and experienced it all.
Now, a poorly designed, all too tiny carpark can be avoided, but an inconsiderate motorist who parks too close to your vehicle, can’t.
The feelings of frustration (and rage) are all too familiar. As you approach your vehicle, you notice that the vehicle/s on either side of your car are parked too close. So close, in fact, that you wonder how the other drivers even managed to exit their vehicle. Perhaps those people happened to be as skinny as Olive Oyl.
I suppose all this boils down to the fact that some drivers just don’t care. They’re the ones who walk away from their vehicle without bothering to check if they had parked properly. They must have been thinking, “Hey, as long as I managed to get out, I must have done a bang-up parking job, right?”
This is exactly what drives me and a former colleague to always park as far as possible from a carpark exit or a shopping mall entrance. To us, the further away we park, the less likely it is for another driver to want to park next to us. After all, we’d be in a less convenient spot.
There were times when the car parked on the driver’s side was so close that I had no choice but to climb into the driver’s seat from the passenger’s side. This isn’t possible in every car, and even in the vehicles that might allow this manoeuvre, one would have to perform contortionist feats.
Perhaps being a good driver these days also requires one to be a frequent yoga practitioner.
