In the "Just Sayin’ Department"… One of my pet peeves is people who ignore lane markings in large parking lots... like at a mall or, in the case of P-Ville’s largest parking lot, Wally-World. Big corporations go to considerable expense to paint traffic lanes on/in their parking lots, put helpful LARGE YELLOW ARROWS on the asphalt to indicate the fact some lanes are ONE-WAY (surprise!), install stop-signs at parking lot intersections, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yet I continue to see idiots of all ages and both genders completely disregard said lines and traffic rules, in general, whenever they are in a parking lot. These people must have failed kindergarten, coz they simply can’t or won’t stay within the lines when they're coloring driving in a parking lot.
I don’t understand this phenomenon at all. Do people think they’re saving time by driving the
And what prompted this rant? Nothing special, as in a close-call or something similar. I just don't like idiocy.
(Image credits: Escalade Kiddy-Car, Worlds of Wonder; Stocks, Dan in Mr. Leahy’s Class in Beaverton, OR)
I agree with the "traffic" at Walmart. North Plains Mall is equally as bad.
ReplyDeleteYou hit on it Buck! One of my biggest pet peeves. And it's not just in large parking lots.
ReplyDeleteI park in a garage at work. The spots are not large - and I'm annoyed anew every morning when I see the same offenders parked so crooked that no one can park on either side of them.
On a good level of the garage - you know, the one by the exit door.
The inconsiderate bastards.
Hey at least your Wal-Mart has clearly marked arrows our does not.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder how many people have survived to be adults with the level of stupidity that they posses.
Jenny: I think North Plains is WORSE. Maybe even THE worst. I'm surprised there ain't more fender-benders than there are...
ReplyDeleteKris: Yeah, poor parking skills are endemic these days. Makes me wonder how the yahoos who can't seem to park their cars actually survive in traffic. And you're right, yet again: these folks are most definitely inconsiderate bastards.
Ash: I wonder the same thing as you, which brings up the "chlorine in the gene pool" thingie... MORE is needed.
There is always something at the Wal-Mart that can set a person off, seems people shop the same way they drive/park.
ReplyDeleteDo I ever agree with you on this one. If ever there was a time or reason to bring back flogging it is now. There are so many ignorant drivers these days and I think they do it on purpose.
ReplyDeleteI say "Soylent Green" them!!! I say that about all the butt-wipes and creeps that just can't get along with even the simplest of the rules of our society. Makes me mad as hell with as little we ask of the citizenry and some muck that up anyway. Soylent Green them.
ReplyDeleteNow you want to talk about parking lots, there is one here at what is the largest Mall complex in all of America. And from Thanksgiving to New Year, you couldn't get me there at gun point.
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Soylent Green! That fired off a synapse in the remote part of my brain...scary movie, back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what all the driving commotion is about? I thought it was a God given right as an American to drive like a dumba$$?
What's that? You mean we're supposed to drive on the right unless passing?? NO WAY! Who's ever heard of such a thing?? I thought they only did that in Europe? I thought I was supposed to drive at the speed limit (or below) in the left hand lane to keep all the scofflaws from killing us all with their speeding.
Now there's a capital offense!! I personally don't care so much about the low speed environment...just get the hell outta my way when I'm trying to get somewhere!!
Rant over...
SN1
People in parking lots are looking for parking spaces or the quickest way out of the chaos. They are not particularly paying attention to the rules, which are more like guidelines really. It is just a known fact that when you enter the area, you must beware. Park far out and walk. It is good exercise and you avoid the crazies.
ReplyDeleteYup. Whenever I find one of those a-holes parked across TWO spaces, I make sure to huck a lunger on the windshield of their precious can't-let-anyone-within-three-feet-of-her ride.
ReplyDeleteAmy sez: There is always something at the Wal-Mart that can set a person off, seems people shop the same way they drive/park.
ReplyDeleteOoooh... don't get me started down that path, Amy. I have SO many peeves in this space it ain't funny. It all comes back to consideration, though. Or the LACK of same.
Dan sez: I think they do it on purpose.
That thought occurred to me, too. But I rejected it in favor of garden-variety stupidity. Occam's Razor, and all that.
Jimmy T sez: Soylent Green them.
LOL, Jimmy! Like SN1, your reference fired off a few dormant synapses in my ol' brain. But: agreed, whole-heartedly. Especially your bits about how little we ask, and how even that lil bit is just too much for some people.
Buck: I hear ya about rolling road-blocks, but we don't have that particular problem all that much around here... it's an 80 mph world, as you well know. So I'll bitch about parking lots. Coz I CAN.
Lou sez: People in parking lots are looking for parking spaces or the quickest way out of the chaos. They are not particularly paying attention to the rules, which are more like guidelines really.
And these same people are CREATING the chaos by not observing the rules, aren't they? And... rules are RULES, they're NOT optional and never have been.
Jim: Yours is a fitting response to parking lot idiocy.
I was thinking about your post today as I drove (didn't have time to comment yesterday), and noticed the drivers at my WalMart were decent, but the ones on the street around here are nuts. I saw more than a dozen people just totally ignore stop signs. I know those are not optional.
ReplyDelete"...which are more like guidelines really" is a quote from "Pirates of the Caribbean" which was meant to be a joke.
ReplyDeleteSusan sez: I saw more than a dozen people just totally ignore stop signs. I know those are not optional.
ReplyDeleteThat's just dangerous... period, full-stop. I am gratified to hear things are good in your parking lots, though. ;-)
Lou: I completely missed the joke... my apologies. Ya gotta be careful about movie quotes with me, unless they're over 20 years old... which is about the time I quit watching Hollywood's dreck ("dreck" is subjective, of course... that's just My [not so very] Humble Opinion). Movie quotes will fly right over my head, otherwise. I'm just not there.
I hear ya on the parking lot, but what I love is when they refuse to move their carts out of the way for you...even when you say excuse me to them four times...and they just look at you like "what?"
ReplyDeleteThe roads here are less dangerous then the WW parking lot.
Buck, I am not sure what the Traffic Ordnance there in NM, as I have lived away from there for so long but here in PA: Parking lots are free fire zones! The signs, arrows, stripes are all advisory and have no standing in traffic law. Civil law they do, but you have to get a Police Report (no tickets are issued), witness and take them to civil court. A much different affair.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I look at the behavior of people in a place like that as a harbinger of many other attitudes. If they won't abide by such little thinks at the traffic arrows in the road at a parking lot, they most likely won't stop to help you if you are in extremis. Just saying.
BT: Jimmy T sends.
i was on a little Honda Rebel today buzzing around town...i follow this blue hair into the bank...the parking lanes are perpendicular to the sidewalk...she parks at an angle...and not a good angle at that... if a car could curve hers would've.
ReplyDeleteASW sez: I hear ya on the parking lot, but what I love is when they refuse to move their carts out of the way for you...even when you say excuse me to them four times...and they just look at you like "what?"
ReplyDeleteYep. I sure hear THAT... and the reax ("whut?") is perfect, coz all of these people are simply oblivious to their surroundings.
Jimmy: I ain't a traffic law expert by any means, but I thought the "rules f the road" applied, no matter where you are... especially if there are standard traffic signs, markings, etc. Your larger point is well-taken and agreed with.
Jay: I hate to take down fellow Senior Citizens, but those "blue haired" individuals (and gray. and white.) are the cohort that contains the BIGGEST offenders. Just sayin', and all that.
The first words out of Bec when she parks: "Am I inside the lines?"
ReplyDeleteFrequent exhortations once in the store: "Careful, honey. Don't back up. There's someone right behind you."
I herd a number of artists.
(Long ago) I was hit TWICE in parking lots - both times sitting still - by people who didn't think the arrows, stop signs, lanes were for them. Thankfully, I was only bumped around, but it still infuriates me.
ReplyDelete