Please explain this behavior to me.

[Astro14]

I apologize if I conveyed that I condone vandalism, because I really don't, but when people park like this, the temptation is to just let my door hit their car when I open it, because they don't seem to care if that happens or not. The risk of my getting dinged by accident is pretty great in this situation, and this person doesn't seem to really care about that either. The tales of my escapades in my younger years are greatly exaggerated. Sorry if folks on this forum now feel like I'm a dangerous criminal now, I guess that's the risk you run of voicing your opinion here. Sorry.

Look, if you're referring to my posts - I didn't exaggerate anything - you did. I took your posts at face value. Quoted your own words, in fact.

I found fault with the actions suggested in them. Clear, direct, even blunt, fault as stated by me.

The risk in posting anything on this, or any other forum, is that you might discover opinions that do not agree with yours. That's the risk, I think.

There is also risk in "chest-thumping" - in stating, "I would've done XXX." when that was over the top and, by admission in this post, more than you would actually have done. Again, I think most of us took your post at face value, if you say you would have done something, how are we to know if it's hyperbole, rhetoric, or something else all together?

I don't understand why they (we still haven't established that it is a "she") parked next to you, either, if that's far away from the entrance, unless the lot was full at the time they parked.

But I also don't understand why you were upset enough to post about it.

I do understand why you would be upset with me. That, I understand.

I apologize for being so blunt. I could have been more understanding, and not so confrontational, in how I said it.

 

[DriveHard]

I looked into this once...and there was actually a research paper I found. It was linked to people with a heard mentality - they literally just want to be with someone...they have an attachment to their vehicle, and they don't want it to be alone either. It was a cool paper, but I doubt I will be able to find it again.

 

[leadcounsel]

White car driver did nothing wrong.

And herein lies the problem in society.

OP has described it as the farthest spot, and OP drives an apparently nice car with big doors. If OP had a small 4 door in poor condition, it's a different analysis.

In society there are unwritten norms and rules. Social cues. When a person with a nice car parks in the furthest spot away, that is a red flag indicator, a bright societal cue, not to park next to that person. It's unfortunate this needs to be explained expressly to people who don't seem to pick up on social cues, but it is in fact a social norm.

When you get into an elevator with 1 person, where do you stand? If you stood right next to that person, or right in front, or stood face to face 6 inches apart, you would be viewed as a weirdo. Same situation here.

It's also not justified to make things up. If the driver has a disabled person in the vehicle then one would not park here in the first place. Imagine if someone did that, they expect problems in this spot regardless of who parks next to them or not. This spot is not "way out in the furthest spot."

The person next to them did not roll up and "snugs right up to him", any more than the facility made the spots close together. A spot "way out in the furthest" area will presumably have the same slot spacing.

Again it isn't snugged up. You keep saying that but that's how you would portray it in court rather than explaining what is actually being seen in the photograph.

If you think I'm here to argue with you, you're mistaken. The OP explained he parked at the furthest spot away, so I take that at face value.

It's at the end of the garage, there is no further to get away.

The other driver would have no specific idea why this guy with a nice car with 2 big doors parked way out, but could easily draw some common sense conclusions sufficient to be interpreted as "don't park next to me." That's all that is needed to be communicated. These are societal norms that have broken down over many years of widespread mental illness left untreated.

I'm in the camp that you give people personal space, especially when they have indicated so thru behavior or circumstances.

For those unaware, you don't stand face to face with a stranger in an elevator especially when he/she is the only other person, you don't go talk to children in a park unless you know them, you don't offer candy to children outside of school yards, you don't hit on the spouses of co-workers, and you don't park on top of others when they clearly park far away in nice vehicles especially when they have large doors and are clearly trying to mitigate door dings in small parking spaces.

 

[PF52]

This building was built in the early eighties and they haven't updated a single thing.

There's the problem. Compare what was considered a "compact car" in the 80s vs. your Mustang. You're parking the equivalent to the Queen Mary in there. Your doors are nearly as long as a Chevette.

 

[Astro14]

I park in airport parking garages quite a bit. About half the time, my S600 is in a garage, in fact. It spends a lot of time there while I am an work.

Now, in choosing where to park my car - I often look for other nice cars. I won't go out of my way to park next to one, but I will choose a nice car over some clapped out Altima with peeling paint.

I reckon someone who might be "casing" the garage would look for the nicest car - and I don't want mine to be standing out - so, a nice Maserati, or Tesla, or new anything, next to my older Mercedes feels like security to me - because my car isn't the most desirable - and yeah, perhaps that is a "herd" mentality.

 

[alarmguy]

Agree with the pack mentality. We are animals in the animal kingdom.
I do agree with the OP that it kind of drives me nuts. Though all I can do is laugh about it now because it happens ALL the time to the point of stupidity no matter how far from a building that I park.
I certainly never would vandalize someone’s car over it though. It’s a parking space.

 

[aquariuscsm]

BUT, if she’s hot, it’s a good thing she’s parking next to you

 

[SuperSalad]

And herein lies the problem in society.

OP has described it as the farthest spot, and OP drives an apparently nice car with big doors. If OP had a small 4 door in poor condition, it's a different analysis.

In society there are unwritten norms and rules. Social cues. When a person with a nice car parks in the furthest spot away, that is a red flag indicator, a bright societal cue, not to park next to that person. It's unfortunate this needs to be explained expressly to people who don't seem to pick up on social cues, but it is in fact a social norm.

When you get into an elevator with 1 person, where do you stand? If you stood right next to that person, or right in front, or stood face to face 6 inches apart, you would be viewed as a weirdo. Same situation here.


If you think I'm here to argue with you, you're mistaken. The OP explained he parked at the furthest spot away, so I take that at face value.


The other driver would have no specific idea why this guy with a nice car with 2 big doors parked way out, but could easily draw some common sense conclusions sufficient to be interpreted as "don't park next to me." That's all that is needed to be communicated. These are societal norms that have broken down over many years of widespread mental illness left untreated.

I'm in the camp that you give people personal space, especially when they have indicated so thru behavior or circumstances.

For those unaware, you don't stand face to face with a stranger in an elevator especially when he/she is the only other person, you don't go talk to children in a park unless you know them, you don't offer candy to children outside of school yards, you don't hit on the spouses of co-workers, and you don't park on top of others when they clearly park far away in nice vehicles especially when they have large doors and are clearly trying to mitigate door dings in small parking spaces.

 

[kschachn]

BUT, if she’s hot, it’s a good thing she’s parking next to you

But he has to talk to her first.

 

[PWMDMD]

I park in airport parking garages quite a bit. About half the time, my S600 is in a garage, in fact. It spends a lot of time there while I am an work.

Now, in choosing where to park my car - I often look for other nice cars. I won't go out of my way to park next to one, but I will choose a nice car over some clapped out Altima with peeling paint.

I reckon someone who might be "casing" the garage would look for the nicest car - and I don't want mine to be standing out - so, a nice Maserati, or Tesla, or new anything, next to my older Mercedes feels like security to me - because my car isn't the most desirable - and yeah, perhaps that is a "herd" mentality.

Proof that sometimes people have reasons for doing things that others might not understand but they make sense in our own heads. I never park my truck away from where other vehicles are in the garage. I may not park the way that person did but my rationale is I don't want to provide a car thief or catalytic converter thief an isolated or remote location with little foot traffic and I hope they'll think twice if there are more cars around with the possibility of people coming and going.

 

[leadcounsel]

The fact is the OP clearly sent social cues by choosing to park his 2 door nice Mustang in the spot furthest away, in an otherwise empty lot, to attempt to guarantee nobody would park next to him. His reasons are largely irrelevant. Don't park next to him if there are open spots closer to the building entrance.

If I saw this, I would not park next to him and respect his social cue. I would assume he wants to protect his car and quite possibly wants access to his passenger side for any number of reasons.

While not illegal, per se, it's incredible self-absorbed and oblivious to the point of rude for the other driver to snug up next to him. Now he cannot access his passenger side without moving his car. Door dings are exponentially higher likely going from zero to greater than zero. Makes it harder to back out as well.

This other driver behavior is a mental illness of rude, selfish, and oblivious behavior. I have experienced it thousands of times and it's grating.

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

When you get into an elevator with 1 person, where do you stand? If you stood right next to that person, or right in front, or stood face to face 6 inches apart, you would be viewed as a weirdo. Same situation here.

LOL

I was going to use a similar analogy in my post but about waiting in line three inches behind someone else, but decided to delete it. Hilarious.

 

[thunderfog]

Door dings are exponentially higher likely going from zero to greater than zero.

Not mathematically correct, and my brain just supernova'd.

** ducks **

 

[emmett442]

Whoa! The Karen is strong with this one!

 

[leadcounsel]

Not mathematically correct, and my brain just supernova'd.

** ducks **

Nobody has ever accused me of doing higher math!

But I do know the fundamentals, of I cannot get harmed if I'm not there. First rule of self defense. Same principle. Car cannot get a door ding if no cars snug up next to it, in theory.

Seeing the post from Jeff above with a totally destroyed side of a car, is my exhibit 1.

 

[oilcandave]

When you get into an elevator with 1 person, where do you stand? If you stood right next to that person, or right in front, or stood face to face 6 inches apart, you would be viewed as a weirdo. Same situation here.

Did you know if there are 2 people in the elevator and one person farts everybody knows who did it...

 

[Wylie6G72]

It's also not justified to make things up. If the driver has a disabled person in the vehicle then one would not park here in the first place. Imagine if someone did that, they should expect problems in this spot regardless of who parks next to them or not. This spot is not "way out in the furthest spot."

The person next to them did not roll up and "snugs right up to him", any more than the facility made the spots close together. A spot "way out in the furthest" area will presumably have the same slot spacing.

Again it isn't snugged up. You keep saying that but perhaps that's how you would portray it in court rather than explaining what is actually being seen in the photograph.

A picture really doesn't portray the distance accurately. I should have taken another one directly down the passenger side of my car. Unless this person is 95 lb soaking wet, there was a struggle getting out of that Lexus. A struggle that may well have culminated in a dent or ding in my car, which I won't discover until I get home tonight.

 

[Rand]

Okay well then it's the fault of the owner of the parking deck for not making the spaces wide enough. I could see your point if the vehicle were parked in a compact space, but it is parked within the lines. It just so happens that the space is very narrow.

Maybe thats why they are labeled for compact car. Yugos,geo metros, and maybe ford festiva?

Car cannot get a door ding if no cars snug up next to it, in theory.

You keep saying snug up but its perfectly centered.. in the 1980's compact car parking the OP decided to park in?

 

[Jimmy_Russells]

Did you know if there are 2 people in the elevator and one person farts everybody knows who did it...

 

[vavavroom]

I have had to houdini my way into my Lincoln on many occasions. Not easy at 6'2". Using the hatch is undignified. I avoid angled and perpendicular parking with that vehicle.