Pedestrian holding parking space

[carparkcow]

As soon as this happened today I told DH I just HAD to open it up to the wrath of AIBU... very interested to hear opinions!

We were circling the hospital car park which was extremely busy as always. Finally see a lady pulling out of a space a little further up the row and thank our lucky stars. However, as we go to pull into it there is a pedestrian stood there and says she has claimed the space for her husband and points at a car literally on the other side of the car park.

I was pretty stressed about my appointment (scan to check for MC) and essentially told the woman that she was completely out of order, this wasn't in the spirit of the law of the car park and we would happily block the space and take the fine to prevent her being able to park there, such was my fury.

So - AIBU?! SURELY this isn't acceptable behaviour??!!!!!

Re the cafe thing: Of course you need to secure a table before you order food.

What exactly are you supposed to do if you queue up, get your food and then there are no free tables? Are you supposed to stand and wait while your food goes cold? Maybe walk round patrolling like you do in a car park, while carrying a tray of food and drinks? Of course not!

You find your table and someone sits at ot or you leave a coat, then you go get your food. What is unacceptable at busy times is people lazing around of a stone cold half cup of coffee, whiling away the hours when people need those tables for their lunch! Buy your food, eat it at a sensible pace and then when you're done clear out to let someone else sit down!

I had a dash to hospital as I’d had a phone call from them telling me my mum was dying. My DH went round the car park a few times looking for a space and I was beside myself. In the end he had to let me out and I went in on my own, only to be told she’d died.
You had no idea why the woman was standing in the space, or how long they’d been circling the car park.

Completely agree @SW2002 If a cafe/eaterie forbid me from securing a table before I ordered my food, I would walk away. As you say, what if you queue to order (and some places you can be in the queue 10 minutes!) and there is no table available by the time you have ordered your food? And there is still no table when your food is ready...? Do you just stand there holding your food in your hands? Or eating it off a window-ledge or shelf? Or sit on the floor?

When me and DH go to Maccy D's, he goes to get a table for 2 whilst I order on the screen. Sometimes I ask for it to be delivered to the table, sometimes I pick it up at the counter. Same in any restaurant we go in. Pick a table, then order the food at the bar, and give the table number. Or if it's a restaurant (or cafe) where they come to you, then you sit down and wait to be 'served.' Then the stuff is brought to you.

What kind of weird place does not allow you to find a table before you order? How incredibly bizarre - and rude!

Every cafe I've been to, I pick my table and then go up and order and that's what everyone inside has also been doing. Am I fuck spending £20 on food and then having nowhere to sit to eat it cos the place is full.

I don't get the reasoning behind the other way anyway. Whether the person's bag is on a seat/table or whether it's not but they are already in the queue, they arrived before you in both scenarios so will get a table before you anyway.

Sorry, not the topic of thread but those threads always drive me bonkers because some people are so insistent that's how it works when it just isn't 🤷‍♀️

@FergalforPM you previously said you parked in the emergency drop off area. That is verboten.
And the way you continue to use cunt and its derivatives demonstrates very misogynistic attitudes, so no surprises there either.....

@Soontobe60
I had very similar but didn’t wait. Jumped out of the car as soon as possible and ran in. Alone. Absolutely horrible. But what choice did I have?
Hospital car parks are never there for people just having a jolly. In a horrendous situation if you can run in, you run, on your own two legs. Clearly not an option at all in OP's circumstances but it is in the situations you and I describe. In the same way, not everyone who wants to park should be assumed to be in an emergency situation. Some will be, some won't. It's not a human park, it's a car park.

@Soontobe60 I'm sorry to hear that. However in my situation I did know why she was there. As per my update she told me she was there for an appointment, same as I was

There's an area reserved for patient drop off for short periods - I used it, legitimately.
I am not sure why you think my use of language is relevant to distaste for antisocial and selfish behaviour in car parks but that's up to you. I'm not the only one to opine it's a cunt's trick.

They weren't "there first" FFS - the car was on the other side of the carpark.

There are some cheeky feckers out there.....

Yabvu, I'd assume that the fact she's got out of the car already they've been looking for a space for a long time. And yes as pp's have said you're also massively unreasonable to think you're the only person at a HOSPITAL for a stressful reason.

That doesn’t even compare. Bagging a table before you’ve ordered makes sense or you’ll end up with no gable

@FergalforPM cunts are magical, I am proud to have one and feel very lucky. That's that point.

Otherwise, perhaps you have only ever been to one hospital and can't conceive (see what I did there?) that others have different layouts, access and parking requirements?

My original post was to the OP and I explained why I took the action I did - which gave another viewpoint on the type of experience she had had. I stand by it.

I did not have the option you apparently availed yourself of (a convenient short-stay parking space) so your experience has no bearing on mine, or OPs.

I loved my mum very much, I love my children. I acted in their best interests in an emergency not of my making and I did not harm anyone else. Why does that make me a target of your vitriol?

If you haven't got it by now I don't know how I can put it any more clearly. It's selfish and unreasonable and there is no excuse for it.

Hard agree. Everyone is stressed and in a hurry at a hospital. You drive around trying to find a parking space like everyone else. Dumping humans out to help find and reserve a space is immoral.

@FergalforPM I imagine trying to change the focus is as close as you ever get to apologising! 🙄
Have a nice day 😁

Spacestace · Yesterday 17:29
CatchHimDerry · Yesterday 17:27

Maybe they’d been circling for ages hoping for something and had appointments too etc?
This, I was circling for ages and waiting around when going to say goodbye to my dad as he died, I would have absolutely had a passenger jump out and grab a space if I had someone else with me, and I wouldn't have felt bad about”

This. On a shopping street, I’d agree with you but we don’t know anyone else’s story in a hospital car park.

To be clear I am neither apologising nor shifting the focus. I have an opinion which differs from yours. I have nothing to apologise for.

@FergalforPM
Aye right!
😂😆😂😆

I think there’s a massive difference between sending someone to reserve a space when the car isn’t in the car park as some pp’s have said there parents made them do as kids which is just queue jumping and silly because there is no car to use the space at that moment or anything soon, and having a passenger who has arrived in the car park in the car get out and help look for a space. In the second situation the car has arrived in the car park already, it may have even been there first so it hasn’t queue jumped and is ready to take up the space in a matter of moments. It can be really hard to see free spaces in a crowded car park especially in old style lower down cars and standing up taller than parked cars can help or Maybe they had driven by the space, only seen it when they had gone past, couldn’t turn as one way, and so decided to loop round for a better approach.

Hopsital parking is very stressful and there is never enough. I work in a hospital and usually cycle or take the staff bus from a park and ride, however the 3 days per month when I work 12-midnight I can’t use the park at ride as it stops at 8pm, don’t feel safe cycling as it’s gone midnight at the roads are deserted (9 miles, not all lit) and as I only need it 3 days a month I can’t get a staff permit for the staff on site car park (there’s a waiting list prioritised by need) so I have to park in the visitors park. I go extra early as I can be circling for 30min for a spot and feel horrid taking a visitors space. Hospitals could help themselves and keep staff out the visitor car park by keeping their park and rides open later or offering more flexible staff carpark passes (one place I worked in that did it better allowed staff parked in early closing car parks a break at 8pm to move their cars onsite)

Maybe play fair and wait for a space?

I really have no idea what you're on about now, but you have a nice day too.

I did this a few times, many moons ago. Difference was it was a private car park, next to a Royal Mail sorting office. They'd decided it was their dedicated parking and we couldn't park our cars, if they were ahead of us in the queue, a passenger would jog and hold the space.

I can't imagine doing it in a public car park though!

@BelperLawnmower maybe read all my posts?
My mum was actually critically/terminally ill in my car as it turned out - how much longer do you think I should have waited on top of the time I had already spent driving around the hospital site? Should I have just told her to pull herself together and stop complaining? Would you do that to your closest family?

Yanbu. Well done for standing up to the madness

There is no rule on this.people claiming there is, are inventing stuff to suit their narrative.