I think Mr. Zink has a fabulous idea. As much as I hate to admit it, I will not go places where parking is difficult. In fact, I'd rather have a decent meal somewhere with tons of parking than have a great meal somewhere where there is no parking. Looking for a parking spot is quite high on my list of things I hate to do.

Is that picture from Baltimore? I've never seen back-in only parking before. Can someone explains why "back-in"? Will those first two vehicles actually get parking tickets?

Does anyone else think that the back-in angled parking is just the stupidest thing?

"Back in Parking" is another invention of government to protect the stupid and incompetent citizens (i.e. all non-politicians) from themselves. The ruling class assumes we are incapable of actually backing out of a parking spot without running into at least three vehicles driving on the road. By making us back in they assume we will only run into one car when pulling forward out of the spot, thereby leaving the insurance companies with additional funds with which more political contributions can be made.

Does anyone else think that the back-in angled parking is just the stupidest thing?

I certainly do. Unfortunately, my neighborhood is in the process of being inflicted with it.

Hampden has angled parking ... I'm pretty sure that's Chestnut Street in the picture, with 36th in the background.

There is actually a very good reason for you to have to back into the angled parking spaces instead of pulling straight in. If you are backing out of the space your ability to see cars driving on the road is practically zero or zero if you are parked next to another car, van, minivan or truck. Driving forward out of the space allows you to have a better view of oncoming traffic sooner.

Yep, that's Hampden. We were there on New Year's Eve. In order to back into a spot, the driver has to block traffic in both directions. It's so annoying. Plus, I think I am much more likely to hit one car backing into a spot than any cars backing out.

Does anyone else think that the back-in angled parking is just the stupidest thing?

I do! I do!

Being, ahem... a certain age, my eyesight and depth perception aint what they used to be. Angled in back in parking is an exercise in torture for me! And, having said that, I can parallel park with the best of 'em! Maybe it's because I parallel park frequently but seldom have to not just back in, but back in at an angle. I have enough problems pulling into a spot without being at some odd angle.

Downtown Panama City has angled parking. Probably why, in nearly three years, I've never been downtown.

One problem with back-in parking is that if one car is "off" the correct angle, the next car will probably be more "off" and by the end of the block you are virtually at a right angle to the curb. This is due to the fact that you don't use the painted marks (you probably can't see them), you use the side of the car next to you and try to get parallel to it. But many cars are wider at the rear than the front, so you are changing the angle, and so on, and so on...

RiE - which brings up a whole different parking rant for me - Land Yachts!!! I'll come out of whatever restaurant or business I'm in to find my little car sandwiched between the most enormous SUVs available to man at this time. How am I suppossed to see ANYTHING as I back out past them? Even more annoying is the idiot in the giant SUV making a left that has to pull way up past me so that I can't see when I'm making a right and have to wait for them to turn just so that I can know it's safe to go! Why do people have to do that? I'm in a friggin little car, YOU can see past me! It's almost up there with my people who are making a left but don't want to put on their turn signal until the light changes and they have a whole line of backed up traffic behind 'em. Yes, I AM speaking of Smith Ave/Greenspring Ave!

Joyce, have you been drinking tonight? Someone sounds awful surly! ; )

I'm with Joyce W. on the land yachts. I usually park far from the door of whatever grocery store I'm going to so that I can find a parking spot where I can pull through, between two reasonably-sized vehicles (and hope to heaven they are still there when I leave so I can see what I'm doing!) Perhaps there should be designated "road hog parking only," so the rest of us can catch a break.

I get that the back-in parking makes for a safer exit from the parking space, but doesn't it also make for a more dangerous entrance.? Isn't this just trading one problem for another, rather than solving a problem?

mmmcorn - no drinking, perhaps I should have been. Just caught up with a good rant! :)

There are some city neighborhoods where angle parking developed without government direction. People just started doing it. No doubt it does increase the number of spots over parallel parking.

As to the idea of reducing checks to offset cab prices, wouldn't valet parking be a better option?

Dahlink,
That's my car you see parked all by its lonesome over in the empty corner. I'm happy to push a grocery cart over long stretches of parking lot in order to avoid the "convenient" spaces near the store entrance.

Robert-

Valet parking would be more expensive and I would have a problem with valets giving the keys back to customers who have been drinking. I can pay for cab fares seven days a week instead of just having valets on the weekend. By paying for cab fares, it helps out with parking for residents and it allows people to go out and drink and not have to worry about driving and trying to find parking spots in the city.

Valet parking means you still have to put those vehicles somewhere. Paying cab fare means the vehicles stay home.

I've heard people complain that the parking valets park cars illegally in their neighbourhoods.

Laura Lee, we can give each other the secret Sandbox wave next time we see each other in the far corner of the grocery store parking lot!

Why am I picturing a secret Sandbox wave as something involving kicking back and scratching with one's legs?

You mean the Sandbox wave isn't each member standing up one after another and waving his/her hands in the air, then sitting back down?

(I'm entirely open to a better description than that. It is the first time I've ever tried to describe "The Wave." Harder than I thought when I started the sentence.)

Pur, Huckas and whatever other nightmare bars are on Boston Street now (well, Huckas closed recently, but something equally horrid will replace it immediately) illegally valet park land yachts in the neighborhood all the time. Normal, human-sized cars would be bad enough, but God forbid we show up at Pur on a Friday night without our designer 35-foot truck.