According to U.S.A. Today, today, the average driver spends 17 hours per year trying to find a parking spot.
It wastes fuel, time, clean air, patience, and impedes traffic and business.
I’m rural, so I can’t relate too much. However, I grab a parking spot in the boonies when I get near my destinations. I don’t look for the close spot and I hoof it. If it’s too far I keep a folding bike in my trunk. I look at it as an opportunity to get more exercise.
Does parking waste your time? Are you about average? CSA
People are lazy… They circle getting the closest spot they can. Then when they come out with their grocery cart they unload the cart and leave the cart right there…The cart return caddy is less then 20’ away.
I found a prime.parking spot at our local shopping mall. It was the first place in the aisle by the entrance. It is such a.great parking place that I left my car there and took the bus home. I now take the bus back and forth to the mall so that.I can keep my good parking place.
The only place I’m a little picky with a parking spot is our parking garage at work. If I can’t find a spot either on the downhill or flat areas, I’ll go up to the roof. After 10+ hour shifts in a hospital, my legs and knees hurt like hell…
I’m of the… park far away from the madding crowd, and walk… school, but I have known people like that. Many years ago–when I was an adolescent–I had a friend who would drive in circles in a very narrowly-defined area of a store’s parking lot for perhaps 20 minutes in order to get a parking space that was only ~50 feet from the store’s entrance.
It didn’t matter how often I pointed out to him that there were many empty spaces on the other side of the traffic lane, because he would still just drive around that one small area, stalking people who were walking to their car.
No, he was not handicapped, so at the time I decided that he was just lazy, but he must have wasted–literally–20 hours each year by doing what he did.
I finally concluded that he just lacked reasoning skill and/or good judgment, and when he later became addicted to gambling, that pretty-much bore-out my conclusion.
There are truly handicapped/disabled people, through no fault of their own, who need to park close. My mother is truly disabled. I think it’s great that parking is provided for them. Who knows? That could be me, someday.
However, correct me if I’m wrong, it seems some folks consider it to be an entitlement/rite of passage or old-age perk to get a permit to park close.
I’ve got painful hip joints (not in need of replacement) and an arthritic knee, and all those other aches and pains we get (Rub some dirt in it, Pilgrim!). Some days are worse than others. At times I limp. But, I stay active riding a bicycle several miles (at least 7) every day or playing 18 holes of golf, literally running at times. I enter 5Ks, once in a while.
I meet the pain head-on and deal with it. I swear I’d be disabled if I gave in to the pain and babied myself. I’m from the use it or lose it camp when it comes to my being mobile. I will put myself through a daily endurance contest as long as I can.
I’ve kept a log book for 5 years now and make an entry each day (it makes me accountable.). Extra body weight is an enemy to mobility and I monitor it carefully on a controlled diet.
Parking “out,” rather than close, is an opportunity to help oneself remain healthy. CSA
As I get older, I have friends, some younger than I am, who have mobility problems. I do everything possible to get them as close to the destination as possible. If these friends bring along a handicap hang tag, it helps.
As for me, I am thankful at age 75 that I still walk well. I let the younger set have the good parking places. I park on the back of parking lots to show the younger generation some real geezer power.
Somewhat off the subject, but the last minivan I bought has power sliding doors. I got a.good price because I bought it off the lot, rather than ordering a bare bones minivan. Now, I wouldn’t buy a minivan without this feature. It is so useful in getting my friends with mobility problems in and out.
@Triedaq I like your geezer power reference.I am like you I still can walk & get around well at 72. I have no mobility problem’s. If I have someone with me who has problem’s I drop them off at the door & then go park.
I certainly hope that you didn’t interpret my comment to mean that I don’t think there should be special parking for the handicapped, because if you did interpret my comment in that manner then your misinterpretation would be…YUGE.
When I had a fractured foot several years ago, I was very grateful for the temporary (3 month) handicapped parking permit that I was able to use. At this point, I thank God that I am healthy enough at the age of 69 to not currently need that type of parking permit, but if and when the need again arises, I hope that one of these permits will still be available.
Yes, some days the pains are worse than others, but even yesterday–when my back and right hip were very painful–I still managed to walk almost 3 miles–in 90 degree heat, with high humidity. I have to admit that I didn’t walk at my usual very brisk pace yesterday, but under the circumstances I think that I still managed to walk longer and further than many younger people do on a daily basis.
That reminds me of a late Great Aunt who was still very active and vital up to her early 90s.
When she would speak of her friends from church who were very ill and/or unable to move around on their own, she would always say something to the effect of, “I really feel sorry for those old people”. The irony of the situation is that the “old people” to whom she referred were usually about 10 years younger than she was.
To a very great extent, someone’s functional age is a state of mind.
Presuming this is accurate, it’s still an average, with the above average probably being in urban (or at least more densely populated) areas where mass transit probably keeps it from being higher and would probably lower it more if people were to use it.
@Renegade I am trying to find a job because I want to retire from retirement. I have gotten involved in so many things that I have a hard time keeping up. Also, as was discussed in another current thread where personal finances were brought up, I didn’t save for retirement. When I was working, Mrs. Triedaq gave me $2.50 a week so I could have coffee with my geezer buddies. A cup of coffee on campus was 50¢. One of my friends found we could get coffee at McDonald’s for 25¢ with our senior citizen discounts. Instead of saving that $1.25 each week, I would blow it on Friday for a cinamon roll. Now I have to go to the mission for.a cup of coffee.
No, I didn’t perceive that at all, never even considered it. I fully understand that I could be in need of such parking at any given moment, temporarily or permanently, believe me.
Yes, it is. I’m a young guy like you and I’ll be your age in 4 months. My wife is 9+ years younger than I and after one of my more rigorous work-outs, I jokingly say, “Not bad for an old guy on Medicare, eh?” I’ve even got her exercising more (and enjoying it).
I run around the golf course and on leagues play with guys literally 1/3 my age. Many of them ride in golf carts (to help carry beer and cigarettes?) and I often have to wait for them to catch up. We do have several of the guys well over 70 who walk, though. I can’t play if I ride. Why would I even want to?
Relating this to cars and parking, I park in the spot farthest from the club house and my Tuesday partner, also a walker, parks right next to me.
Invariably, on the Monday a.m. Senior’s League (we shot-gun start) I’ll have to run a half mile to the starting tee at the farthest corners of course (most of the others drive carts) before I begin running around the 18 holes. I have to admit that I feel like a nap when I get home. CSA
Similarly, when I take one of my power-walks through D&R Canal State Park, I invariably leave far younger people than me in my dust. However, I do realize that they have priorities far more important than walking–in pristine silence, in a beautiful environment–at a rapid pace. Most of those far-slower, far-younger people are more focused on carrying-on cell phone conversations and puffing on cigarettes during their walks than they are in getting a genuine Cardiovascular workout.
To return this to an automotive theme, on my last visit to that state park, my census of the cars in the parking lot was as follows:
Toyota–2
Lexus–1
Subaru–2
Honda–2
Chevrolet–1
Ford–1
Mazda–1
The absence of Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Mercedes-Benzes causes me to wonder how much walking the owners of those cars actually do.
I don’t have a problem walking from a distant parking spot at the store. I do worry about my daughters in downtown Baltimore. They live just outside the business district, a fun place to live, but not as safe as out here in the suburbs where I live. They live in row homes with on street parking. Parking is so difficult that they have parking passes to allow them to park on the blocks surrounding their homes. Several women together is safer, but they have to park and sometimes walk a couple blocks to their houses alone. They haven’t had problems yet, but there are unsavory people that occasionally bother the neighbors, and sometimes worse. This could be any large or midsize city; they all have the same problems. I prefer that they drive around and wait for a close parking spot, no matter if it takes a half hour or more. After dark for sure, but any time of the day can be problematic.
Yeah I love to walk and yes cannot believe the people cruising the parking lot looking to park closer, to go work out on a treadmill, though I do not go to chicago that often, I would guess 10 to 15 min looking for a parking space would not be unusual. The one I love, went to go see blue man group, no parking after dusk, now that could be 4: 30 in the winter, or 9:30 in the summer, so I called the PD, yes once it gets dark we issue tickets, Can’t be parking on a public street in the dark I guess
