Car Parks.....why do people do this?

[Wacky Racer]

OK, I know this has been covered umpteen times on PH, but I would be interested in some new opinions.

Large empty tarmaced car park, with (say) 500 marked out spaces.

Car A parks up in the far right hand corner space. (for example)

Car B comes along five minutes later and parks right next to car A, with 499 spaces to choose from.

Is it safety in numbers or what?

Is this something YOU would do?

To be fair, car B isn't actually doing anything wrong, or illegal, so is it even an issue?

I just find it rather strange...................

[V8forweekends]

I don't do this, but I often wonder why people do. Then again I struggle to understand a lot of things other drivers do.

[Terminator X]

I have a special space in my local Tesco car park where others can't get too close even when parked next to me. Annoys me when someone else parks there though

TX.

[Dodsy]

Terminator X said:

I have a special space in my local Tesco car park where others can't get too close even when parked next to me. Annoys me when someone else parks there though

TX.

Same here - there are 4 spaces that are larger than the others due to the layout of the car park. And they are a fair distance from the entrance so should always be empty so why do people keep using them grrrr

[Debaser]

Some people need to park alongside other cars so they know they're 'straight'.

[V8forweekends]

Dodsy said:

Terminator X said:

I have a special space in my local Tesco car park where others can't get too close even when parked next to me. Annoys me when someone else parks there though

TX.

Same here - there are 4 spaces that are larger than the others due to the layout of the car park. And they are a fair distance from the entrance so should always be empty so why do people keep using them grrrr

Both of those are very easy to understand if you think about it.

[PanzerCommander]

Debaser said:

Some people need to park alongside other cars so they know they're 'straight'.

I think this is the real reason in a lot of cases.

[Jasandjules]

Debaser said:

Some people need to park alongside other cars so they know they're 'straight'.

Yep. Or just in the space. Without a car to "aim against" they spread across the spaces in error..

[Fidd]

It is recognized behaviour, sometimes known the 'herding effect' or 'herd behaviour'.


Taken from Wiki ;

- "Benign" herding behaviors may occur frequently in everyday decisions based on learning from the information of others, as when a person on the street decides which of two restaurants to dine in. Suppose that both look appealing, but both are empty because it is early evening; so at random, this person chooses restaurant A. Soon a couple walks down the same street in search of a place to eat. They see that restaurant A has customers while B is empty, and choose A on the assumption that having customers makes it the better choice. And so on with other passersby into the evening, with restaurant A doing more business that night than B. This phenomenon is also referred as an information cascade. -


In car parks sometimes peoples sheer laziness will overcome this effect - parking as far away as possible from the supermarket door for example does help !

Edited by Fidd on Sunday 28th December 12:56

[ARH]

Find a nice looking well kept car parked on its own in a car park. That will be the best place to park as you know at least one side will be parked next to someone who won't bash their door against your car.

[lufbramatt]

ugh this winds me up. Especially after having a PDR man round, so both sides of the car are mirror straight. My day job is doing surfacing on 3D CAD so I spend my whole time getting reflections in surfaces perfect, you end up noticing every little tiny dent in the side of a car instantly.

There's a couple of spaces in the multi-storey at bluewater that are single spaces with a concrete wall on one side and the driving lane on the other. I enjoy shopping trips so much more when I get one of those spaces

[PowerslideSWE]

Ï often find very small cars snuggled up next to my E38 750, maybe they like to feel safe if they're parked up next to something sturdy

I've also long harbored the suspicion that cars are pack animals, and they don't like to be parked alone in a large car park..

But seriously, I wonder the same, WHY park up close to my car when the parking garage is empty? Human behaviour is strange in a lot of ways.

[GavinPearson]

ARH said:

Find a nice looking well kept car parked on its own in a car park. That will be the best place to park as you know at least one side will be parked next to someone who won't bash their door against your car.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^.

I find it tends to matter very little what the brand of well kept car is, you're judging the mentality of the driver, not the size of the wallet.

There are also a lot of prestige vehicles riddled in dents, and they're best avoided.

[anonymous-user]

Perhaps it could be a case of damage limitation. The car parked first isn't moving and is a known quantity; all they are going to do is reverse out and you are in control of the space left between you and them. Park next to it and hope that the person who parks on the other side of you is also a considerate and careful parker (is that a word)?

On the other hand, bang it into a totally empty section and you run the risk of returning to it and seeing a battered Toyota Hi-Lux on one side and a ratty Citroen Picasso millimetres away on the other. Anything that looks like the school-run battle bus with child seats in the back gets a wide berth from me, unless it's the Parent & Child spaces and even then I'm cautious.

I can picture all too clearly a rear door being thrown wide open in order to get the little cherubs in while trying to stop the trolley running into other parked cars.

[john2443]

Debaser said:

Some people need to park alongside other cars so they know they're 'straight'.

So gays park their cars away from others? - you heard it here first folks

[TheEnd]

Neatness too.

If you gathered two bricks and put them in the garage, you'd put them both next to each other, on top of each other etc.

[T5R+]

I have long given up on hoping to return to my remotely parked car (ie far end of the car park) and not find somebody parked adjacent BUT what still baffles me.....If I park it at the extreme of a line of bays with tyres on the white line WHY OH WHY does the fukcwit have to park close to me rather than centrally in their bay

BTW - do others also "spot" like minded remote parkers or "saddos" as the better half calls them.

Edited by T5R+ on Sunday 28th December 16:38

[Patch888]

I hate this. You park your motor in an empty area of the car park only to come out of the supermarket a few minutes later and find a van parked right up against it. The whole row can be empty but it still happens

[Hoofy]

V8forweekends said:

I don't do this, but I often wonder why people do. Then again I struggle to understand a lot of things other drivers do.

[Mabbs9]

Phil303 said:

Perhaps it could be a case of damage limitation. The car parked first isn't moving and is a known quantity; all they are going to do is reverse out and you are in control of the space left between you and them. Park next to it and hope that the person who parks on the other side of you is also a considerate and careful parker (is that a word)?

On the other hand, bang it into a totally empty section and you run the risk of returning to it and seeing a battered Toyota Hi-Lux on one side and a ratty Citroen Picasso millimetres away on the other. Anything that looks like the school-run battle bus with child seats in the back gets a wide berth from me, unless it's the Parent & Child spaces and even then I'm cautious.

I can picture all too clearly a rear door being thrown wide open in order to get the little cherubs in while trying to stop the trolley running into other parked cars.

I agree, I do it sometimes in my carpark at work. Better the devil you know.