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Before he retired, my father was a frequent practical joker at his office. One story (I won't swear to the specifics) began when he found a sign advertising a maid service lying in the road. It was a magnetic sign that had clearly fallen off of a car door. So he took it back to the office and attached it to the passenger door of a co-worker's car (where the victim might not notice it for a while). For the next week or so, Ted drove around the city proudly declaring himself one of the "Mighty Maids". The beauty of it was that no permanent damage was done, and it was trivial for the victim to reverse the prank once he noticed it.
That story came to mind recently when I saw that one of our neighbors had gotten a new truck:
In my book, a truck that unreasonably big (and that rudely parked) is just begging for mockery. Although I'm not generally comfortable with pranking individuals you don't know, that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. So it strikes me that there could be substantial demand for harmless but embarrassing magnetic signs for this sort of situation.
The question is, what should they say? It's tempting to go with the obvious:
BIG TRUCK
SMALL PENIS
But there must be better options. Suggestions?
There's also one more annoying thing about that truck's parking job. If you look behind the truck into the parking stalls, you'll see that there's an instruction there:
Yes, in addition to having a truck so large that it doesn't fit in his parking spot, this guy also can't read. Now, to be fair, the truck wouldn't have fit at all going in forward, but it's not as if backing in solved that problem.
Incidentally, what's the incentive for people to back into parking spots to begin with? Is it the James Bond "I may need to escape in a hurry" thing? Because the way I see it, backing up is always a bit trickier than driving forward, and squeezing into a tight space is always harder than pulling out of one. So why put the two hard tasks together? Plenty of people do this, so someone out there must know.
That story came to mind recently when I saw that one of our neighbors had gotten a new truck:
In my book, a truck that unreasonably big (and that rudely parked) is just begging for mockery. Although I'm not generally comfortable with pranking individuals you don't know, that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. So it strikes me that there could be substantial demand for harmless but embarrassing magnetic signs for this sort of situation.
The question is, what should they say? It's tempting to go with the obvious:
SMALL PENIS
But there must be better options. Suggestions?
There's also one more annoying thing about that truck's parking job. If you look behind the truck into the parking stalls, you'll see that there's an instruction there:
Yes, in addition to having a truck so large that it doesn't fit in his parking spot, this guy also can't read. Now, to be fair, the truck wouldn't have fit at all going in forward, but it's not as if backing in solved that problem.
Incidentally, what's the incentive for people to back into parking spots to begin with? Is it the James Bond "I may need to escape in a hurry" thing? Because the way I see it, backing up is always a bit trickier than driving forward, and squeezing into a tight space is always harder than pulling out of one. So why put the two hard tasks together? Plenty of people do this, so someone out there must know.
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(Given the amount of bike commuting I've done, vehicles not observing parking and traffic control signals is something about which I no longer have a sense of humor. Well, that's not quite true. Half a truck sawed straight through is pretty darn funny.)
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It seems to me that the owner parked backwards (despite the sign) to be courteous in order to at least attempt to get the vehicle out of the road as much as possible given the situation. There doesn't seem to be a very obvious reason for the sign that might outweigh this consideration for many people.
I think perhaps part of the underlying issue is not the parking situation but that you don't like people to own large trucks because you assume they have no need for one (ie they don't work construction which might require heavy equipment moving etc) which probably is valid and correct in many cases or that you have a hostility to those that drive such vehicles for some reason.
Backing into a parking space can provide an advantage in a number of situations which I'm sure you can imagine if you think about it (aside from this case where parking normally won't work at all). Imagine you are parking in a relatively empty parking garage (pre-event) but anticipate that when you plan to leave the garage (post-event) will be full of traffic of other departing vehicle in tight quarters. It is much easier to merge going forwards especially if the other drivers are not polite.
At any rate, mocking someone without knowing the details seems juvenile. Perhaps the owner is visiting a friend, works planting trees for the city for which he uses the truck to transport the trees, and parked as best he could?
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Furthermore the truck looks suspiciously clean for something theoretically being used in a work situation. More importantly the truck bed is very small, making the "needing to transport stuff for work" possibility even more unlikely. I think i could fold down the rear seats in my Rav4 and have just as much cargo space as that truck has. I've seen a lot of work trucks out on the freeways and such with trees and all other kinds of things in the back. The vast majority of them aren't meticulously clean, have much larger beds, and aren't built so high that they couldn't fit in a roofed over parking space. I'm also pretty sure that most of them didn't have extended cabs.
And speaking of the small bed, it's pretty clear that it wouldn't be sticking out significantly more parked forward rather than backwards so it's not being done that way as a convenience to others. They're also not at a mall (and i've never had significant trouble backing out of a parking space even at a busy mall.) And whatever dubious personal benefit the person is getting out of parking backwards it's in clear violation of the signs put up by the owners of the complex.
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I can't speak for Steuard but it seems to me he is not mocking the owner for having a large truck that is the individuals choice. What is being macked, and found frustrating is the ownership of such a vehicle when the owner does not have a place to park it. That truck is not legally parked and does not fit in that spot. When living in a communal setting (apartment complex) the individual has a responcibility to limit their negative impact on others. It is irresponcible to own such a large truck and live in that complex without arranging seperate parking.
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What makes this parking job particularly dangerous, is that it is right next to a corner (right about where Steuard was standing to take the first picture). So cars coming down the road are forced to drive on the wrong side of the road right before a fairly blind corner. I'm waiting for the inevitable head-on collision.
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The picture is a bit small, so it may be tricky to make out the details. This isn't just a big work truck, it appears to have been modified to be especially tall (note how high the wheel wells are above the wheels themselves, for example). I have no idea whether trucks that have been "lifted" like this are still safe for heavy work at all, but it's certainly not a necessary work feature. Lifted trucks are almost always a statement of style rather than practicality. The number of people who "have need for" a lifted truck is exceedingly small. I have very little patience for people whose style-driven choices cause inconvenience for others.
Part of the issue is probably that I'm not a car person: all I look for in a car is something that will get me from Point A to Point B as safely and efficiently as possible. So looking at a lifted truck like this, my first thought tends not to be "That would be fun to drive," but rather "What would that do to my car in a crash?" or "How much gas would we save if drivers were less obsessed with size for its own sake?" You may be right that there's some level of hostility implicit in such thoughts, but if so it's based less on blind prejudice and more on a legitimately different set of values (where I honestly feel that mine are to some limited degree "better" in a global sense).
As far as backing into a parking space goes, thanks for the insight into a case where it could be useful. That doesn't give me a lot of insight into why people park that way at grocery stores or private parking lots, but at least it's something.
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In grocery store lots I see a lot of people pull forward through a parking spot into the next row -- presumably so they get the best of both worlds -- easy in and easy out. But that makes it look like they backed in.
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Of course, I will admit some hostility to my neighbors who drive a similarly sized vehicle. The parking spaces in my complex are narrow, and we have to park further to the right (thankfully, there is space and no more parking spots) in order to get out of our car. I would be even more annoyed with them if their other vehicle were not a motorcycle. Sometimes, they park the huge annoying truck in the middle of their two assigned spots because they can.
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