Community Chat

[Kitlynn]

I know this sounds like I am being crabby but in my opinion I feel like the days of people being courteous and respecting other drivers are long gone. It seems everyone is in a hurry to get where they are going and they don't care who what gets in their way. They speed, cut people off, tail gate, don't use turn signals and are on their phones constantly. It use to be that drivers just automatically would wait on someone backing out or pulling into a parking space. They always gave pedestrians the right of way. Followed at a safe distance and on and on. Of course I live in a suburb of Denver and there is no time day or night the traffic is not thick. However I still try to be courteous to other drivers and my motto is " if I am in that big of a hurry I should have left home sooner."

[shopperqvc]

Here we have "hit & Run" most every night. They sideswipe your car in front of your own home. You don't know your car has been damaged until the next time you go out. My neighbor found out she had a couple thousand dollars worth of damage to the front end of her car when she was on her way out to go to work. She ended up late and had to rent a car to get there.

People! They have no respect for life or property today. Most of these never do get caught unless they damage their own car so much it won't keep running.

[aubnwa01]

My least favorite place to park is my local Costco. 

A few years back, I was sitting in the lane waiting for a car to back out of a space & an older lady started her car & put it in reverse & backed out without so much a glance to see if there was anyone around.  I'd been sitting there waiting for a good 30 seconds.  I saw her start her car & saw her back-up lights come on & laid on my horn & she backed right into my car anyway!   She did admit it was her fault & she hadn't been paying attention & her insurance covered the repairs of my car.

Another time, an older man started backing out of a parking spot as I was approaching on foot.  I did see his back-up lights, but it's pretty noisy & hard to tell when someone had started their engine.  I was just watching him to see if he would even glance to see if there was someone coming down the lane on foot or in a car & he never looked in the mirror or turned his head.  As he was backing out, I was standing right by his driver's side door glaring down at him as he backed out beside me & he glanced up & noticed me & I could tell I'd scared the daylights out of him!

I now try & park along the side of the bulding at Costco or out in the hinterlands.

[NicksmomESQ]

   I seldom pull into a space .As stated by another poster I usually pull through to face out.So I can just drive out. This way I can see what's in front of me instead of what's behind.

  People are in to much of a hurry these days.The roads & parking lots  are very congested. I encounter accidents & crazy drivers all the time. When I go out with DH he drives.

[GCR18]

I don't have problems with other cars when backing out.  I have problems with people walking behind the car once it's starting to move.  I can't figure out why people feel the need to walk closely behind the parked cars.  I'm just about rolling and have to slam on the brakes.  

[Icegoddess]

I am so afrid of hitting a child in parking lots I crawl through.  And people and their kids just walk behind your car even when you're backing out.  

Another thing that bothers me is people honking because I don't rush to turn right on red.  We have a several intersections where a lot of U-turns happen and they get the right-of-way unless I actually have the green light.  So, I'm not going if those folks have a left-turn arrow because they might be U-turning.  One, in particular is very busy with people trying to get into the Starbucks. 

Everybody is in such a rush these days.  

[on the bay]

I also like to pull in to pull thru so I am facing out or back in.

The problem with backing in is sometimes the lot and spaces are so small it would take a long time to back in and people are in such a rush they don't want to wait for you.

If I have to back out, I do it an inch at a time now because one time I was backing out and as others have said, I looked right and left and behind but by the time I pulled out a woman and her children just appeared behind me and she was frightened and scolded me that I could have hit her and her children!

And I could have!

So terrifying how our lives could have been changed and I don't know how I would have lived with hurting or killing someone.

I am most afraid of the stories of running over grandchildren playing in the parking lot. Older cars do not have those big rear view video things. We can't be too careful!

Ditto with walking behind cars.

Most parking lots are not made very well with respect to pedestrian safety!

[Isobel Archer]

I seem to have the opposite problem - people who back up without looking at all.

The other day, I was in a line of cars looking for a space and the car next to me  - that I was directly behind - started to back up.  I honked and the driver appeared amazed that I was there.

Whenever I see backup lights, I try to get out of the way as quickly as possible.

[PamfromCT]

I park as far out in a lot as I can.  There is one shopping center in our town that is “cray-cray,” as my GC would call it.  If you were to try to back out of a space, slowly and carefully, there is always some idiot walking through the lot, right behind your car.  Never paying attention, close to your bumper, likely yakking on their cell phone.  I am amazed there never has been a tragedy in that lot.  

[Boehm Collector]

@Warrior2022  .. I was  just talking about this with my DH last night.  There is a parking lot in our town that is notorious for this,   It happens ALL the time ..... not just on an isolated incident here and there.   Just yesterday two cars in a row did that as I was backing out of my space.