I park as far away from the venue as possible bc I know someone will park right beside me, and I'm making them exercise.
And you'll be one of the first ones on the road home, instead of being stuck in Event Exit Hell for an hour, or more.
Avoid the busy roads and do a mixture of aggressive and defensive cycling. Take the lane if it's not safe for others to pass, and take side streets instead of busy roads. Your goal is to be seen and avoid the angry drivers.
I bike commuted every day for years and had no problems. I just changed jobs and it's too far away now, but I really miss cycling to work.
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¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We're not cowards, I guess?
Statistically, utility cyclists live longer than drivers. Although I can't find the study itself to be sure, I believe that's considering all factors including car crashes.
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Statistically, you are twice as likely to die riding a bike vs driving.
And you're way, way more likely to die due to complications of a sedentary lifestyle (due to driving instead of cycling), which blows that difference out of the water.
On top of that, the more people bike, the safer it becomes (both because of more/better bicycle infrastructure, and fewer drivers). Statistically, I'm making myself safer by trying to persuade people to try it.
Let Darwin handle this one fam. Their blood will help write proper biking infrastructure bills.
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I carry a large chain and swing it aggressively. Cars pay a lot more attention to you when their property is at risk.
Same with crossing a street, try carrying a brick and see how much more space cars give you.
They threaten me with their giant car, I threaten them back
People who can't find a spot close enough to the front of the building don't try hard enough. I mean, have you tried just parking directly on the sidewalk in front of the doors? Nobody is ever there! It's always an open spot!
Or those spots that they mark with little pictures of wheelchairs. It turns out a car can fit there pretty easily too!
Stoopid cops don't know wheelchair persons can't park their chairs and just walk without them. Why do they mark these then? 😂
Believe it or not, I know the feeling. Took a vacation to Scotland like 10 years ago with the wife-to-be. Didn’t know anything shout the Fringe festival in Edinburgh and ended up there right in the middle of it with our rented car. Got used to driving on the opposite side of the road and car pretty quickly, but I was still remarkably proud of parallel parking in backwards-driving-world surrounded by street performers and tourists and doing it all on the first try. It was beautiful. We were perfectly equidistant from the surrounding cars, exactly 6 inches from the curb, in a manual transmission Jeep Renegade rental we picked up in Glasgow. To this day, it is my greatest parking achievement, without question. Still brings a tear to my eye reminiscing.
Jeep Renegade
All the other traffic probably gave you plenty space because they assumed you were a hairdresser 😂
I never personally understood the amount of focus people put on a good parking space. Unless it's so bad that I have to park in an entirely different lot, I just can't be bothered to care, and I see people getting so worked up over what is usually a minute or two max of walk time difference.
Obviously, some folks don't walk so good and I'm not talking about that. It seems like the default behavior for even able-bodied drivers and it leads to fucking road rage incidents.
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It's a couple factors where I live:
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if you aren't used to walking places because you live in a car dependent city and thus drive everywhere, walking feels bad, so people try to minimize it.
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parking lots usually lack shade so the asphalt bakes under the hot sun, making the walk feels extra bad after the nice cool car AC.
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parking lots and surrounding areas here typically have the bare minimum pedestrian accommodations, so walking is extra unpleasant.
3b) gotta watch out for cars that might hit you, or are belching out smelly exhaust, or radiating heat when you're already sweating. Tolerable at best, and generally not at its best.
Basically, parking lots just suck to be in, so getting the least-sucky spot feels like a celebratory achievement.
I honestly intentionally park far away because I'm less likely to get someone parking way too close. It really annoys my wife, so I'll take an especially close spot if it's available, but I spend so little of my time in the parking lot vs whatever place I'm at that where it is doesn't matter too much.
Even when I was a fat bastard I never cared about having to walk for an extra ten seconds. Now a massive public building like a stadium or even possibly this aquarium, maybe, but these dudes fighting for front spaces in front of a grocery store are just weird.
Dude had a piece of good luck and now he's working it for all the serotonin it's worth.
I am by far not a fuck cars guy but that screams car brain so fucking much. It's like looking into a dystopia.
Also I would be ecstatic about finding a really nice parking space so what do I know
I think you are a fuck cars guy, if this is your opinion.
Cars have their uses, but just as you rightly point out, they're way overused because of lack of better infrastructure.
Fuck cars people are often city lovers who don't understand that not everyone wants neighbors.
Eh, I'm a suburbanite who is annoyed at our already relatively low density neighborhood (thinking of moving to the country), and I absolutely hate driving. I want to get to everything with a bicycle or a train.
You don't have to love cities to hate cars.
I think not having neighbours is only really possible for a small number of people, mostly in agricultural work. If the majority of people didn't want neighbours, we could not sustain the populations that exist, end of story.
Spreading people out is part of the reason why so many counties in the US are going broke, because infrastructure per person gets so much more expensive when compared to property taxes.
Cars are certainly needed in rural areas, but emphasis on the rural. Even modest towns could and can afford small public transport networks if they plan correctly.
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Last year, me and my mom was out driving, I we were hungry and fund a restaurant to have lunch at, someone must just have left because the parking spot closest to the entrance was free and I parked there.
Felt like a movie when the protagonist allways finds a parking spot by the entrance in a full parking lot.
We got a new TV while in lockdown. For about 4 months I would randomly say "Nice TV though".
I wouldn't* be surprised if she didn't drive. My wife has no conception of how difficult even just picking up someone can be, and demonstrate it time and again, standing on the other side of the road, or at a corner where I'll block all trafic if I stop.
Finding a sweet spot right in front of the place we wanna go would be like "well, yeah, you don't expect me to walk, do you?" for her, while I'd probably be as ecstatic as that poor guy.
2 years ago I parked next to the exact same model vehicle as mine and with the same aftermarket tire model. I still remember.
I have a friend like that ....
We'll both be looking at something amazing, like fireworks, a magician, a street performer, a house fire, an air plane crash, a ufo has landed, or a mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion .... and even though he knows full well that the thing we're looking at is so interesting that you can't look away or ignore it, he will still tell me and others around us ...
LOOK AT THAT!, JUST LOOK AT THAT, SEE???, LOOK AT IT!! .... while nudging, holding, turning people at the shoulder and pointing manically .... LOOK AT IT, LOOK, YOU SEE THAT?, LOOK!!! .... even after you acknowledge him and tell him you're looking at it ... LOOK AT IT!, YOU SEE THAT! LOOK!!!
We called those spots TV parking. Because in TV shows, they always get that perfect parking spot
I do the same but that’s because I hate backing out of high traffic areas or having people sit there and wait for me to back out. Back of the lot is the stress free lifestyle
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Amen. I don't mind walking but I do mind driving in busy and chaotic spaces. If I have the option I'll usually park as far away from other cars as physically possible.
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I parked legally in front of the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan once.
Parking is like $40/hour in that area in a garage. Damn straight I'm still talking about the good parking spot.
I’m the primary driver in our household and I don’t have good parking spot luck. Meanwhile, my husband has excellent parking luck. It’s gotten kind of funny actually. Before we really recognized it, he wondered why I didn’t like going to a particular grocery store. It’s because the parking lot is terrible. “You mean you don’t just park up front?” Uh, what? How would I do that exactly when none of those spots are ever free? But on the off chance that he’s driving, there is always, always a spot close to the door. It’s gotten to the point where if we’re going somewhere where the parking is going to be difficult, he drives.