Parking Etiquette (Diagram Included)

[ParkingEtiquette]

Just curious, not going to make an issue either way as it's my workplace.

Tight spaces, policy is reverse parking. Red car arrived immediately after green car, saw green car arriving. Should driver of red car wait for driver of green car to get out before reversing or should driver of green car wait for red to park before exiting?

I'm green car and had my driver's door open before red started to reverse but they still kept coming. I jumped out, shut my door and moved round the front of my car.

It was still dark so to be honest it probably would have been safer to wait and I'm probably guilty of doing the same on occasion. I'm just curious as to what the polite thing to do would be.

If you had your door open or already out of the car I would have waited

Looks like my staff car park! I’d wait in my car, only because I’d delay going into work for as long as possible 😂

Came for the diagram - not disappointed, do you freelance?

I'd have waited for you. Not least because you might scratch my car with your car door (and I might run you over and it would be my fault).

I probably would have waited in my car - excellent diagram OP!

Haha, no. I use "Insert, shapes/icons" in Word as I can't draw/design for toffee.

I would have waited in the car, sure i dont think there is a definite right or wrong with this but it would be simpler for me to wait

If you already had your door open, they should have waited.

As you already had your door open, they should have either waited or parked one or two spaces over.

The door scratching point is a good one. At best there is maybe 2 feet between cars and that's if everyone parks perfectly between the lines. You need to open the door but kind of hold it half way while trying to wrangle your body, laptop bag and coffee cup out without the door hitting the car next to you. There's no room to get out, turn round and reach back in for stuff without risking pushing the door too far open and slamming into the adjacent car.

Completely beside the point of your post OP, but has your employer provided adequate lighting in the car park? Maybe raise it as a suggested improvement for employee safety if there's none there, or it needs upgrading.

Another good point, there is lighting and it's adjacent to a street with lights but it is still quite dark just now, even at the back of 8am.

There is also CCTV covering the car park.

A moving vehicle hitting a stationary vehicle or a pedestrian is almost always in the wrong, which is what this situation could have ultimately led to.

If I was red car and you already had your door open I'd probably have parked one space further along tbh. That way nobody has to wait - it is the norm at my workplace.

But if I was green car and red started reversing into the space next to me I'd probably have shut my door and waited if they carried on reversing, as I'd assume they hadn't seen me.

You had me at diagram.

And my oh my what a first class diagram it is. This thread should be used to show the standard of diagram expected.

But to answer your question - sorry, I got distracted by the ❤diagram - it depends who is driving the red car. Barbara from HR? Yeah, i would have opened my door as quick as possible, Katie from reception? I'd have closed my door so we could walk in together and gossip about Barbara

#lighthearted

Great diagram!

I'd encourage colleagues to alternate reversing and pulling straight in b/c you could have more space between driver's side doors.

If you already had your door open, the red car should have waited for you to step out and move away. If I realised the red car was coming, I'd have hastily shut my door and waited it out.

@tarheelbaby

That's not really possible due to the angle of the spaces and there is the wall of a building in front not on my original diagram. Cars would have to go to the end and turn and come back to park front in and reverse all the way back to the exit on leaving.

If you had your door open, I would wait. If you looked like you were mucking about before you got out and I was in a hurry I'd have reversed in.

I don't think there's really a wrong answer apart from actually hitting your door. That would have been very wrong obviously.

Red should have noticed that you had the door open and stopped reversing. Also, since everyone using the car park knows that the spaces are tight it would have been nice of red car to wait for you to get out anyway to give you more room to get out.
However if I was in thee green car and saw red arriving I would probably have waited until red parked because I'd be worried about the exact scenario which happened of red possibly not noticing me opening the door or too impatient to wait or whatever the reason was.

You fail your driving test if you reverse anywhere near a pedestrian so if you were out of course they should have stopped reversing as soon as you jumped out.

But I wouldn't have jumped out in front of a reversing car.

@ImFineItsAllFine
If I was red car and you already had your door open I'd probably have parked one space further along tbh. That way nobody has to wait - it is the norm at my workplace.

Ha, I actually tried this, this morning. There was a car coming into the car park behind me so I kindly, I thought, left a couple of spaces so that they could get parked without waiting.

They ignored the free spaces, waited for me to park, then parked immediately to my right so I had to wait till they parked and then squeeze out. It seems there's no way to do "right".

Polite thing is usually to let the car that arrived first finish parking.
Since the red car was already reversing, the green car should wait and exit after.
Tutuapp 9Apps

The green car did arrive first, I had parked and was exiting the vehicle when the red car arrived and started to reverse back before I'd got properly out of the car.

As I saw you literally parking up I would have waited for you to get out of the car. Easier for everyone!. Also, I would have parked a couple of spaces over - why is the red car making life difficult!!.

I suppose the sensible thing would be for people to park in every second space and by the time the end space is full the drivers of the earlier cars will have got out and later cars can then fill up the empty spaces.

I can't see that working though as everyone wants to park as close to the door as possible.