A parking one!

[Butterflyfluff]

A local car park isn’t huge, you basically drive in and see what spaces there are or wait.

Today there were 2 cars in front of me and I was at the entrance.

The car in the very first space drove out so I was closest to the empty space.

The car at the front of the queue, about 3 spaces in front, with a car in between, decided they wanted this space so the passenger went and stood in it.

AIBU to think that once you’ve driven passed a space, and there are cars behind you, you can’t claim a space that’s behind you and that you can’t actually get to without other cars moving for you?

I think they do this in Paris, but not in the UK. I'm not sure about that, but I think I read about it in a book on Parisian culture.

In the UK it would be considered massively selfish and you could probably just drive very slowly towards the person and carefully nudge them out of the way. (I'm joking, but only slightly)

Oh I actually don’t know how to vote on this.
In a supermarket or shopping centre car park, yes, if you’ve driven past the upcoming space you lose all right to it. You have to pick from the spaces in front of you.

But, if it’s a small car park with a single entrance/exit point, and cars just parked around the edge, I think you get dibs on the spaces in the order in which you are queuing for them. We have a small car park next to the woods near where I live, and this is how everyone works it. First car waiting gets the first space, then next car etc. Unless it’s totally impossible for the first car to get to it. We tend to stay as far back as possible to enable this.

I think for me, it makes a difference if you can drive up past the cars and out a different way. That way, you’ve gone past the space and missed your chance. But if it’s the same entrance exit, there isn’t an “order” to it so you go in order of who arrived first.

I have no idea if this makes sense to anyone else! I just realised it works differently in one type to another in my experience.

The problem is that once you’ve driven past spaces and have other cars behind you, you can’t get back to the first spaces.

You either need to stay right at the entrance or risk driving in and only being able to get to spaces further forward.

I can see both sides of this tbh and think neither of you WBU.

I get that they were first in the queue but when they driven passed the space and have cars behind them surely you can’t expect those people to somehow get out of the way so you can go back to a space you’ve passed

We can't see the layout. In a normal car park I'd say no its whoever is closest gets the space, if they'd wanted they could have stopped closer to the entrance and backed you all up on to the road. I also think sending someone to stand in the space is silly but I don't know why.

If it an SUV then the inadequate driving skills of the driver are probably such they need someone to show them into the space.

Not a reasonable thing to do, though.

I can see their point of view. They were first in the queue, so they should get the first available space.

I never understand how the space reservers think they'll be able to enforce this, they literally can't get to the space without every other car acquiescing to their unreasonableness.
The couple of times it's happened to me all you have to do is sit there and wait for them to move.

If they can't get to the space after driving past it, why would they send a passenger to 'save' it for them to drive to? You said they cannot do this?

Diagram added! 😂

So they could turn and go back to the available space, in which case you should have left it.

I would say the obvious contender for the space was No. 2 as they could reverse back into it.

No. 1 has missed the opportunity.

Number 2 turned the space down as it wasn’t big enough.

In that case, it's yours.

Rubbish diagram I’m afraid OP.
I am with you . If you have gone past it the space belongs to the next first coming up to it

Yep I would have driven into it, she'd have soon moved!!!

Rubbish diagram I’m afraid OP.

Harsh but fair! 😂

Then it's number 3's. Number one has got too impatient and led the queue INTO the car park. They should have waited

I’d have nabbed it straight away, for all I knew there was a space just round that corner that first car could have had. You snooze you lose.

I actually think it depends. If the first driver was aware the car was going to pull out and then drove past it to reverse I would say fine. If they realised after they then they're unlucky and need to move on.

However if I was first in the queue I would have stopped and indicated left to show others I was taking the space and only moved past it when the parked car had moved out then reversed in.

If the first driver was aware the car was going to pull out and then drove past it to reverse I would say fine. If they realised after they then they're unlucky and need to move on.

The first driver didn’t even see the driver who freed up a space initially, as that person only came back from the shops after I joined the queue - it’s just their space was right by the entrance / exit so they could get out easily

I don't agree with it at all

It reminds me of school and bagsying

They could find another space surely?

Ironically, while the passenger was calling me all the names under the sun for trying to drive into the free space, another space came free further up so car number 1 got parked anyway.

I was just interested to see who was right, or what others would have done as I can’t see how that first space could be claimed by driver 1 in the situation that arose.

Car parking spaces are for cars not people. So funny that the passenger went and stood in the space! 😂 What a muppet!

Had this happen on a busy summer's day in a massive car park in Bushy Park about 8/9 years ago maybe. The passenger from a car from another aisle (do car parks have aisles?) went and stood in a space that had just become free very close to where I was waiting. I started driving in and she was telling me it was her space and her husband was just driving round. I just carried on driving in and she moved further into the space. Then told me she wasn't moving and if my car touched her she would call the police for assault or something ridiculous. I stopped the car (only half in the space but enough for other cars to get past luckily) turned the engine off, completely ignored her and got the kids out, while she was muttering on about me not being allowed to park like that. As we walked over to the grass, her husband showed up in his car and then yelled at her for letting me get the space! So I did feel a bit a sorry for her in the end as she clearly had an arsehole husband. Anyway she left the space soon after and started traipsing round the car park for another one, so I just popped back over and parked properly. The stupid thing was though the car park was massive and even though there wasn't any spaces there were people leaving quite often so you just had to wait. Or you could even drive over to the other car park.