Is deliberately blocking a driver's side door a thing?

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

I've been driving for decades and in all that time I've never had a car park so close to my driver's door that I couldn't get in at all although there have been a few tight squeezes, until this car where I've had two instances of another car parking within about 15 cm of my door. This car is the widest car that I've ever owned. However, I can still park it within the lines with space between my car and the line. The two times that I was blocked the other car parked right up on my side of their parking space leaving a gap on the other side, if the other car had parked in the centre of their space there would have been enough room.

The first time I was coming out of a shop on the other side of the car park so I saw the woman pull into the space beside me. There were plenty of empty spaces, including four in a row on my driver's side, but she pulled in tight to my car leaving a massive space on her other side and then hopped over her centre console to her passenger side to get out (she parked nose in and I was nose out). I was waiting for DS to come back from the barbers so I went and sat in my passenger seat. While I was there she came back to her car, put some bags into the boot, gave me a filthy look and went off again. When DS came back I got him to hop from the passenger to driver side and pull the car forward for me (he's very limber).

The second time was the other day when I had a hospital appointment. The hospital car park does have the tiniest spaces that it's possible to have so I chose the end of a row so that I could put my passenger side tight up against a wall, leaving space on the driver's side. When I came back there was a car parked with its wheels on the white line leaving not enough room to open my door. It was a Yaris and very short so there was just enough room to get the back driver's side door and I climbed in from there (with difficulty). Again there were plenty of other spaces.

Once I thought was a bit of a fluke, something that was bound to happen at some stage, but twice in six months after nearly 40 years of it never happening seems more than coincidence. Do people really hate wide cars and want to punish them?

I think car parks have not kept up with the increased size of cars. I drive a people carrier, and can often open either one door or the other, but not both. I try and park as far away from the shops as possible, in the unpopular sections of the car park that are less likely to get crowded. (This is why I chose one with side-sliding read doors)

Whist you can get your car in the white lines can you open you door enough and still be in the white lines?

As Pinky said, very few car parks have wide enough spaces. sometimes people are just quite poor at parking, some are just inconsiderate, but often, they have had to squidge in because the next car over was right up to the line and so it goes on.

Car park spaces are not wide enough for the wider cars that are made now.

I drive a small hatchback. Today I parked between two new (less than 2 years old) luxury 4x4s and I climbed out of my boot. I was within my lines and so were they, but there was no way any of us were opening any doors!

Cars are too big these days. Especially SUVs.

We need car parks with wider spaces for the massive SUVS - they can pay higher parking charges. The rest of us can park in the normal sized spaces.

The spaces are small/my car is wide, but in both of the cases there was room for the car that parked after me to park better. Particularly in the first case where there were absolutely LOADS of other spaces and she didn't even attempt to park in the centre of her own space. She knew that she had parked too close to me because she didn't even try to open the driver's door of her car, she hopped out the passenger side in a flash like she did it often. It just seemed deliberate to me as I watched from across the car park.

In the second case he had his wheel on the white line, he was nose out the same as me so he had his passenger side on the white line and his driver's side had enough room to swing his door fully open. However, it was a hospital car park so I will charitably assume that he was mobility impaired enough to need to have his door fully open to exit but not mobility impaired enough to get a blue badge.

People who can’t park (or shouldn’t be driving) often can’t bay park unless they have a car next to them to guide them. They often use it instead of what they should be using (the line). Also, many older drivers haven’t actually learned how to bay park & so don’t know how to do it properly.

Cars are bigger but so are people.

I think the short answer is yes. It can’t be coincidence it didn’t happen until you got a large car.

On the plus side I brightened up my DS's day by describing to him the contortions of climbing from the back seat into the drivers seat. He was doubled over laughing.

I have a wide car, I always try and park driver side to driver side to leave both cars plenty of room. Whenever I look at buying a replacement car I now always look at the external width!

What car is it? Certain brands/models seem to bring 'the rage' out.

It's a Jaguar i-Pace @unsync. I love it very much and would have been envious of anyone owning one if it had existed back in my Peugeot 205 days. I wouldn't have blocked it in out of hatred though. Even cars that I strongly dislike (looking at you Range Rovers) I don't feel the need to inconvenience despite the fact that they are more than averagely likely to park on double yellows and go the wrong way around one-way systems.

This happened to me today.
I had to climb across from the passenger side, holding a latte from the petrol station, swearing under my breath and banging my elbow and getting my foot caught up near the steering wheel. Was not my most gracious moment. The parking spaces were tiny and the van next to me was huge. However, they parked REALLY badly, at a slant and waaaaay too close to my car. I wasn't best pleased. I have an embarrassingly small car as well.

You’ve bought a car thats almost 20cm wider that the average UK car. Unfortunately, parking spaces haven’t widened as a result 😳

I had this yesterday, driving a work car (which was a mondeo).

Parked in a space with a car next to me, hit out leaving plenty of space.

Came back later and someone in a Tesla parked so close that I couldn’t have opened the door if I tried!

Luckily I could get in via the passenger door and climb across.

You do have a large car. I think you are probably not being realistic about how well your car fits in to a space with other cars around. People can be arseholes in car parks though and it is shit to park next to a large car and prevent them leaving through their door.

I have a mini and still struggle in some parking spaces if there are large cars either side!

Car parks are not designed for the large cars of today and it does cause issues.

I had a Ford Galaxy a few years ago and that was a fucker to park. I used to go to the arse end of car parks and couldn’t parallel park it for toffee!

I have a small because I live in a city and don't need a big one. I'd never do what you describe. But being honest I don't think many people actually need large suv style cars so I'd be less charitable in my parking with one next to me. So not going out of my way to stop you opening your door or anything. But if you have to squeeze in because your car is too big and I'm parked within the lines, that's your problem. Get a smaller car! If you have a big car you need to expect parking to beat bit harder.

So perhaps it's just been this type of sentiment but people don't realise they are as close, think you are parked badly when you're not or you actually do park badly...

Do you live in Grantham? It's become a running not-very-funny joke in our house that people in Grantham seem incapable of parking in any way other than right up against your car, even if the rest of the car park is completely empty. It has happened to me loads of times, notably when I was eight months pregnant.

I travel quite a bit for work, but only notice this phenomena in Grantham. Maybe it's something to do with food additives. It doesn't happen in Stamford.

Loving the food additive theory, but this is in Dublin.

I don’t know what exact jaguar this is but I have a neighbour with some sort of jaguar 4x4 thing and we call it the tank. It’s far too big.

I physically couldn’t climb over my passenger side so I’d need to wait crossly .
I did notice with my previous motor that loads of drivers seemed to think they were entitled to poach a bit of my space. Worst was when I was parked facing out ,there was a row of parking behind me. One behemoth SUV was into my space (I’d left room to open my boot) by several feet with the front grill ON my back windscreen 😡

But your car is rather large compared to the Yaris which is a perfectly reasonable car to fit in the bay. As long as they are within the lines they’ve done nothing wrong.

I drive a small hatchback and cars like yours annoy me, I can be in the middle of a bay and struggle to get in my car because of the width and I cannot easily see when pulling out of a bay because they are too tall and block my view.(I reverse in).

I have a mobility problem and need to open my door fully to get in or out. I do have a blue badge now so am usually fine and I rarely go shopping in person as I can only walk a few steps even using two walking sticks. However, today I forgot to add a pint of milk to my Tesco delivery to make cups of tea for some workmen tomorrow so popped out to the local garage Tesco.

I parked in the only disabled spot which is next to a large bin. I have to park close to the bin to be able to use the hatched area to open my door but that is usually fine. When I got back with my milk I found someone had parked a motorbike on the hatched area so I could not open my door and even if I could have opened the passenger door, there is no way I could have scrambled across, my legs just would not bend enough!

I had to painfully walk back into the shop to get help finding the motorbike driver, he turned out to be a staff member who had just arrived for his shift! I was not impressed and neither was the store manager, his excuse was that he was late and planned to move it as soon as another space became available. I was quietly pleased when he was told by the manager that due to the shortage os spaces, staff were not allowed to park there and that he would get a penalty ticket after the 30 minute limit anyway!

You have a fat car OP

And people are shit at parking