Compact, defined!

[Delfontes]

a : having a dense structure or parts or units closely packed or joined <a compact woolen> &lt;compact bone> b : not diffuse or verbose <a compact statement> c : occupying a small volume by reason of efficient use of space <a compact camera> <a compact formation of troops> d : short-bodied, solid, and without excess flesh

So... when you see the word "Compact" written accross the parking spot, what is your interpretation of the meaning?

Is it, "Well, my full size SUV is more compact than a Hummer, so I qualify."

Or maybe "This is only an F250, Ford makes much larger trucks with bigger beds."

I am trying to figure out the logic, because every **** morning this pisses me off.

Inevitably 1-2 Trucks or Suv's will park in the COMPACT section of our parking garage. They try to fit, and center perfectly... with their left wheels over the left line, and their right wheels over the right line.

So what does this do?

It makes the guy that parks next to them park so Their tires are over the line, and so on, and so on, and so on. Eventually someone skips a spot, and parks correctly. Making a spot that is too darn small for anything but a motorcycle.

This happens on both sides of the offending oversized illiterate inconsiderate guy's truck, making it so that by his parking, he has now taken up THREE spots.

So there I sit, staring at a parking spot that would almost fit my car, on an almost daily basis.

I swear, next time I am going to get my key out and transcribe that definition above onto his door.

Maybe then he'll get the picture, and even if he doesn't like the humor, the guy that has to repaint the car will get a laugh out of it.

[Varlik]

Two choices. Notify whoever is in charge of the building/parking lot of the infraction or if it's considered against the law (not properly fitting into a parking space) call the cops to write a ticket/tow it. The people might start to get the idea that their vehicle is not a compact.

[Luclingal]

Ok going to be 2 voices here because I love to debate and this topic is defiantely something that ticks me off daily too.

First voice is the guy that owns that SUV. How was it right for the garage designer to make "special slots" Unless there is ALSO SUV only parking slots and when compact cars park there they can get equally pissed about that....there's definately a one sided "preferential treatment" problem there. Sure it created a few more spots overall to make some smaller, but just look at the problem it created......give and take considered, making the smaller spots was probably not worth it.

Because I know how annoying it is to see people take up more room than they should and throw the rest of the parking lot row off. That is the biggest parking-pet-peeve I have.

Same goes for when it snows. I mean c'mon peoples can we not imagine how big the spots were before? We park in the same size parking places day after day after day.... can you at least guess at where you need to park it?

Now I'm the voice of America. Can we learn how to park people? You need to center your car between the 2 white lines.....it's not really hard to do, just takes a little hand-eye coordination. If you are having trouble with this skill, don't park in the front parking spaces, or maybe go spend a few hours in a low traffic parking lot and practice. And can we get some consideration from the jerks that just throw their doors open?

Heck I would venture a guess that I nail center at least 85 percent of the time. Unless someone landed their dumb-a** on the line beside me.
And what do I do then? still get pretty close to center and say "if they can't park more intelligently than that they can crawl through their passenger side."

And lastly parking spots are to small in general, my car has so many door scratches and dings.....I think damage in excess of what one should normally have to endure. And I typically park in the center of those silly crap spots. So by no fault of my own my car is getting all crappy down the side panels

[Unidin]

normally those spots are there because it's better to have 3 small spots than 2.5 regular spots. They make up for 'left over' space.

[Railina]

I was under the impression that "compact" spots were intended to be a form of preferential treatment. You drive a smaller, more fuel efficient, more space efficient, less wastefull car, and since many environuts and cities think that's a good thing (often for different reasons) there is a form of recompense in place.

The city i live in prides itself on being a "tree city" and although when i hear that term i think of Kelethin :P what they mean seem to mean is that they intend to be environmentally conscious. i haven't seen a parking garages here, but there are "compact" spots marked off on the street.

[cattywumpus]

One way you can get even with them is park so close to them they can't get their doors open. A friend and I used to do this at our apartment. We would park a car on either side so close that it was impossible for them to get into their car. :twisted:

[Delfontes]

Yeah, I will park extremely close to people, in the spaces everyone passed up.... but it is usually a few spaces away from the big car that caused the wave as it were.

I have even parked soooo close that I've had to get out the back of the car.

[Gargazon]

What? Oh sorry, I don't have time to listen to you now compact car boy. I'm a soccer mom and SUV owner after all, and far far too (self) important to be dealing with your inability to understand why I am the center of the universe. I mean really, if you mattered, you would have your own assigned parking space next to the front door, but you don't, so I'm going to ignore you and go back to talking on my cell phone while I put on make up and park in the slot which they clearly meant to put my name on anyway...but just forgot to.

[Delfontes]

hehehe

[Mahlig]

Actually, from what I have seen, compact car spaces are further away from the destination than normal spots...hardly what I would call preferential treatment. Then again, if you compact cars would park in those spots and not the bigger ones, you would not find SUVs in your little spaces. Perhaps if compact car owners showed courtesy, they would receive it.

Then again, I drive a JEEP Wrangler...a compact SUV. =D

[Delfontes]

hehe

Those are the ones that are the hardest, a Compact SUV... the thing is small for an SUV, but... I don't know if I'd go so far as to say compact.

A bunch of those parked side by side in the compact section would have extreme difficulties opening their doors... but it isn't as annoying as the actual full size trucks.

[Cuiva Lapdancer]

I know of at least one place that has a few "compact only" spaces - but there's a particular reason. It's in a parking garage where there's a break in the parking to switch from the "going up" side to the "going down" side - parking a big honking vehicle in the compact spot next to that opening causes problems for people trying to get out of the parking garage.

Then there's this other place that 2/3 of the parking lot is "compact only" - a huge electronics superstore with a fairly small parking lot -- make the spaces smaller, fit more people onto the lot, get more people into the store, make more money. *chuckle*