Parking next to someone

[SpaghettiSquash]

I am sitting in my car in a supermarket car park which is half empty. I just needed to reply to a text before getting out. A stupid woman in a big 4x4 has just
parked in the space next to me and is very close which means I will have to carefully squeeze out of my car.

WTF do people do this? There are loads of empty spaces! I'm not near the shop entrance. Opposite me I can count 24 empty bays all in a row and there are plenty of other spaces free.

Ah, it's hereditary, that's a worry. However my family seem to be unaffected thank goodness.

I don't drive but had a few lessons pre-Covid. My instructor 'taught' (I use the word loosely ) me to gauge my spacing by parking next to another car so I wouldn't be over the lines...

It’s definitely a “thing”, and I’ve no idea why people do it.

My husband has some exotic cars and although he’s not precious about using them for things like shopping, he will tend to park away from the entrance in an empty area if he can. Pretty much every time he does this we’ll come out to find someone has squeezed right in alongside.

Any idea why, though? You can see the lines when parking, so it’s not hard to line up right between them.

If you can't see the lines without parking next to a car that's a worry! People are being taught to do this?

@MsFrenchie I agree with you, it was actually easier for me (fewer things to hit/worry about!) to go into a space that was free either side, but he was insistent about me lining things up using another vehicle to do it!

They might have thought you was about to leave if you where sat in your car.

They've done it while I am sitting in my car but even so if the car park is empty then not sure why they'd do it still even if I was leaving. But also between me parking, going to the ticket machine and coming back, they do it, or if I've only been in the shop 5 minutes and the car park is still empty. No idea.🤔

On holiday my son was very car sick, so we pulled into a service station to sort out him and the car. We parked well away from the building in an almost empty area with masses of spaces all around us. We took my son to the toilet before coming back to clean up the car and someone had parked almost bumper to bumper behind us, making it almost impossible to open our boot. They sat in their car watching, as at one point I fell backwards onto their car and almost onto their bonnet trying to open and get some clean clothes from the boot!

Yes, we could have moved the car but would have had to put the children and all of the stuff back into the sick covered back seat to do so and we really couldn’t understand why they would park like that in the first place.

I thought it was the done thing! Ie I’d see two cars next to each other in a car park and go and join them rather than park elsewhere. Seemed polite.

Also looks neater than straggly cars all over the place.

Plus if everyone parks not next to another car, eventually you’re left with spaces with cars on both sides, not necessarily brilliantly parked, which makes it harder to park. Parking next to one car and one space is easier.

The next car after you entering the car park can instantly see the clump of cars and come and park there – or be a chaos demon and park in the vast emptiness – rather than spaces willy nilly everywhere and no clue whether the car park is full, or where they’ll find a space.

For all these reasons and more, it’s the logical, practical choice.

Also looks neater than straggly cars all over the place

What does it matter how neat the car park is? What about space and not getting your doors dinged?

I assume you are joking though.

I'd rather be a chaos demon and not get my door dinked.

Some twit did this to me in our local car park the other morning. Again a vast 4x4. There are thirty spaces, five were occupied.

Never less than deadly serious when it comes to shitposting on Mumsnet

(I do enjoy a neat car park, though. It’s got a Tetris-like appeal.)

This happens to meal, the time.

I assume it's because some people are completely incapable of using lines on the ground to aid them with parking, and feel the need to line up with a car beside them.

...to me, all the time.

That’s possibly the most ridiculous post I’ve read in months. You think it’s “polite” to go and park next to another car whose owner chose to park away from others?

@MsFrenchie Their car might get lonely on its own.

@BiscoffSundae The bus seating thing. If someone sits next to you they are controlling who they sit next to, as opposed to sitting in 1/2 of a two seater as they can't control who will choose to sit next to them.

To be fair at night I'm more likely to park by other cars so I'm less likely to be walking somewhere completely isolated

But the bus and trains are empty!!! No one should be sitting next to anyone on empty buses/trains, it’s a bit rude to control who they sit next to but think the person they sit next to doesn’t also deserve to not have someone they don’t want sitting next to them 😬

This annoys me so much - whyyyyyyy do people do this??!!

Maybe I can throw some light on why people might do this. You might be able to see the lines when parking, but I'm too short to see them once I've started to move between them.

When I park my car I can't actually see the lines once I am driving into a space. So I line up from a bit further back where I can see them, and then remember where they are. I park the best I can and then open the door to check/adjust before leaving the car. Ideally I get far enough back so that I can see the lines and approach them straight on, but if the rows are close together and the car park is busy then it can be difficult to get positioned far enough back to make this work.

Often I can rely on the lines in a row ahead, but if the car park is an odd shape and the rows aren't all parallel then this doesn't work.

It's much easier to use an already parked car for guidance as I can see that all the time. I do park in the next-but-one spot if possible though.

Its weird.
I was on the treadmill at the gym and a bloke got on the cross trainer closest to me instead of using the other 4 in the line.
There's a unwritten rule with urinals apparently but apparently not for parking and gym.

stuntbubble
How does it feel to know that the people you snuggle up next to really don't like it after all? Will it make you think twice about parking next to the car that has deliberately parked by itself...
My car doesn't get lonely. We have a travelling lizard (toy) that's always in the car 😂