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The university needs to publish rules about how to obtain and claim a parking spot before someone dies.
So far this semester I’ve been in two altercations. One where I just pointed my finger at the girl in the other car, wide-eyed, while mouthing the word “No!” and pulling into my parking place. Maybe we had seen it at the same time, but I was closer.
The other because I parked again in a space that clearly had my name on it, but the girl sat behind my car, rolled her window down and waited for me to get out. I hesitated, but got my things together and got out of my car, as I tried to avoid displaying any behaviors similar to that of a feral cat. I got out and explained to her why I’m not really the not-so-lady-like name she called me. The spot was clearly mine and not hers. I think she understood my point because the last time she called me a mean name, she said it with slightly less conviction.
I walked away knowing the chances were pretty good that I would have a nice long indentation from the tip of a key down the side of my car. I didn’t care because I actually found a parking spot — something for which I would trade an entire car door.
Most people know the unwritten rules. Did she honestly not know that you can’t sit in the middle of the road and make every single person go around you while you’re looking for someone to follow to their car?
When someone finally came, the soon to be open spot was just behind this unfriendly young woman. She would have had to pull back in order to obtain the spot. Did she really expect me to back up — with other cars behind me — to give her the spot? It was mine; it clearly belonged to my car. I didn’t have to make people move in order to claim it. I was able to pull right in.
OK maybe if I had backed up one inch she could have backed in. Maybe, but in my rule book if you have to turn your head more than 90 degrees to look at the dead center of the parking space, it no longer could be claimed by you. Maybe that’s not correct. There are no official rules on the matter. What else can I do but make up my own?
I honestly think the rules I’ve made up make a whole lot of sense, anyway. I’ve given them an abnormal amount of thought. I’m a “problem solver,” so it’s all I think about when I’m driving around for 45 minutes looking for a place, because I missed that beautiful, elusive, five-minute window when the heavens open and students stream into the parking garages.
There is always the whole aspect of following people who are walking through the garages, trying to analyze whether they are coming or going. So you ask them. Maybe you even offer to drive them to their car, which is quite a common practice. What’s going to happen when serial killers realize this is common practice? We’re all up on the “help me find my puppy” line, but our parents apparently didn’t think to tell us not to get into someone’s car who asks. “Wanna get in my car?” It seems too obvious to be deviant.
I’ve always been completely obsessed with parking, so our on-campus parking desperation magnifies that. I’m always looking for the perfect spot.
9 comments
If you want A&SF dollars to go to parking garages, you need to take it up with the state legislature.@most recent Anonymous
If it is only a 5 minute drive away, that means it is only a 20 minute (at most) bike ride away. This gives you 10 extra minutes on your schedule to go to the bathroom or grab a snack. :)
Whats with those new electric car parking spaces? where did ucf get the money to build those pointless spaces with outlets?? The only car I have seen in these spaces had that friendly green parking ticket on the windshield cuz it wasnt an electric car. Really what college student has an electric car that ucf had to spend pointless money to build them designated parking?? UCF STOP WASTING MONEY AND BUILD SOME GARAGES!!!!