Today’s guest post comes from Clyde.
Twenty years ago (Can it be 20 years?) when my partner and I started working together, we got into a fun argument about how to find a spot in parking lots.
The Clyde Method: find the first empty spot that looks about as close to the door as you are likely to get.
The John Method: drive around to find a spot as close as possible to the entrance.
Do you use the Clyde Method or the John Method for parking?
Our debate was over which of us had a more efficient method, which of us wasted more time: my longer walk or his longer drive. After three of four years of this, I was driving across Massachusetts, the eastern half of which is a full parking lot, when I heard WGBH public radio doing a report right to the heart of the matter. A graduate student in math at MIT was looking for a thesis project. He and his wife had the exact same difference in their parking methods and same debate. He developed a sound method for measuring it and found a mathematically-sound answer to the question. As it happens his model has applications for measuring and improving traffic flow and parking.
Wonder what his study found? I’ll tell you at the end of the day—maybe.
Today my parking quandaries are focused more on handicapped parking. My wife has a tag, which is in its way more of a problem than a solution. It was wonderful when we went to visit our son in California, and maybe now when we go to Seattle. Before we had the tag, we were with him in San Diego years ago visiting all the wonderful sights of that city, all with huge parking lots, when he declared that his parents were at that awkward in-between stage, old and slow moving but not yet old enough for a handicapped parking tag.
My problems with handicapped parking are fourfold, all exacerbated by my bad back which makes it impossible for me to turn my head very far:
- Handicapped parking is always at the busiest place in the parking lot, right by the entrance with heavy foot and vehicle traffic.
- Handicapped spots almost always require you to back out; they have that post with the blue sign at the front of them.
- Many of the other people who park in those spots simply should not be driving anymore. So you have to be ready to dodge them.
- Many of those who park in the spots have large vehicles, some because they are wheelchair vans, but many are just large vehicles.
A neighbor of mine says that at the local car dealership where he works the most popular sale is for extended cab full-size pickups, often to those with handicapped parking rights. Because I drive a small Scion black box, I frequently have to back out blind into unseen busy foot and vehicular traffic. Scary.
I have a problem leaving parking spots almost anywhere in a busy lot because of the tunnel vision caused by so many Intimida-look-alikes, many of them in the winter with snow plows. I usually drop my wife and her walker at the door and then park far out in the lot with my car facing out. Sometimes my waif of a car still ends up hidden between two bullies.
There is another problem with handicapped parking only a few places have solved, which does not effect us. The cart corrals are out in the middle of the parking lot. So what is then the benefit of the handicapped parking? Some people just leave the cart right there, and it often rolls into a parking spot, blocking it from the next handicapped driver to come along. I have seen some non-handicapped people just leave their unloaded cart in an empty handicapped spot. Two new large busy parking lots have been built here, neither of which provided a cart corral by the handicapped parking. As usual in America it is the appearance of things that matters more than the actual results.
But I have a moral question for you to solve for me. You would be surprised how often this occurs. Some parking lots have very large numbers of handicapped parking spots, often many sitting unused on a busy day. I pull into a busy parking lot with several handicapped spots available. However, also right by those spots is a non-blue spot.
Which should I take?
To which community, the handicapped or the non-handicapped, should I try to be fair?
Trail Baboon 
Clyde – my vote goes for the non-handicapped spot since you can always drop your wife off at the door when you go shopping. My vote is a bit biased by knowing at least three individuals who at one time qualified for a temporary handicapped parking sticker but who’ve long since not needed it
but still renew it each year. It simply offends me to know that most with the sticker really need it yet there are those who take advantage of it long after the need is gone. One is a girlfriend who survived lung cancer four years ago. The chemo cause temporary neuropathy in her feet, but this condition resolved itself at least two years ago and she still takes a handicapped parking spot on every outing.
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great savings at parking meters though
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Shoot, why didn’t I think of that?
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CB – 5:30 in the morning and you’ve already mentioned what I had thought would be #5 on Clyde’s list. The people who park in handicapped spots who are not entitled. Gotta get up early in the morning to get a jump on this baboon crowd.
Clyde – since I have luckily never needed to park in handicap parking, I would never have thought of the shopping cart conundrum. And I suspect this is how it happens in every parking lot across the land; the person who designs the parking lot and the layout of the handicap spaces has never had to use a handicap space. This is the same problem as the person who designed the paper towel holders at my office – clearly this person has never changed a roll of paper towels in his/her life (you have to rip the old cardboard roll off before you can take the dowel out to put the new roll on)!
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Cb, that’s just inexcusable. I can understand, maybe, that someone who has never needed a handicap sticker might not be thoughtful enough to realize that their selfishness could be causing someone with a handicap a problem. But once you’ve been in that situation, there’s just no justification for it.
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i think the question is a good one we all face in another 20 or 30 years when we are old like clyde. we should start thinking about these things now. and how do you wear those bibs that keep you form dribbling down the front of your shirt.
i think the answer to the parking lot loyalties are a great topic. my mom who should no longer be allowed to drive goes up to almost a month now betwen accidents where someone hits the corner of her car, bumper , side panel, scrapes the side with white paint. and she is often found spending afternoons backing out of parking spots. foreward then back then forward again then back again, whatelse does she have to do with her life anyway? parking lots are like a hand eye coordination test for old people.
the drawing today is fantastic clyde, the intimada is wonderful with the lights on top. dont you love those guys who have the lights put onthe roofs of their trucks? they usually do that at the same time as they have the gun racks put in the back window. the snow plows are out now too and those are great for parking lot companions. in eden prairie we are the land of cadillac escalades in pearl white with 40 something former barbie dolls with blonde pony tails under baseball caps and hockey mom stickers on the back windows and yes the do have lipstick.
i am of the clyde method school of parking lots philosophy absolutely. the idea of driving fro 5 minutes to get 50 feet closer is enough to make me scream. i have been in situations where after new years resolutions are resolved and before february shows on the calandar at the health club parking lot at 5 pm there are no alternatives but to follow a person form the front door of the club t their car and wait for them to open the rear hatch put their dirty workout bag in the rear and then get in adjust the mirror put on their lipstick and go to pick up their kids form day care.
by the way clyde my son the baseball idiot says we are making outstanding trades in trying to rebuild the tins and should be fine next year. not his year next year. out standing third base prospect a five tool ball player who will be ready soon and now we have 4 or 5 pitches to fill in the voids. span and revere were good but we will be ok. good moves in his view.
thanks for the guest blog. did you and sandy decide to stay put or are you still looking?
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tim–a move is an open debate as of yet. But going to Evan is not an option it seems.
Bill Bryson comments on how in America how people try to park as close to the door as possible so they can then rush off to their gym.
I did do a pastel rather uncharacteristic of me based on a photo my son took on a Seattle street early one morning. It’s just down from the cows. It is also the only picture I have done that my son likes. It is going to be his if I can figure out how to ship a pastel.
http://birchwoodhill.wordpress.com/
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This reminded me of a quote from Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence:
“It was one of the great livery-stableman’s
most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans
want to get away from amusement even more
quickly than they want to get to it.”
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Funny!
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tim, does your son like the free agent pitcher they just signed?
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Their pitchers better be awfully good because they do not have single good major league level outfielder defensive outfielder, depending on what you call Willingham and only Willingham can hit at the major league level.
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Yes, the Hammer can hit – but most people agree that his defense is subpar at best.
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Forgot to answer the actual question. Go for the non-blue spot. I’m a stickler for these spots, partly because it’s just not right if you don’t need those spots and partly because I would be mortified to get a ticket and have it on my record that I parked in a handicap spot. At my office there is a string of seven spots, I assume based on the number of people working in the building. In the 18 years I’ve worked in this building, there has never been one spot in use at any given time (always for an employee who just had foot or knee or hip surgery). I never even park in these spots if I go into the office on the weekend!
AND – I’m a Clyde-parker. I feel silly driving around and around just trying to a closer spot.
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never been MORE than one spot in use…. gotta review these things before I hit Post!
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Just curious, vs, how do you feel about using the toilets designated for people with handicaps?
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PJ – If there is no one else in the bathroom, I sometimes use the bigger stall. I figure that with the stall, I’ll be out in 25 seconds if someone comes in the bathroom who needs it. W/ the parking, you’re not going to be out of that parking spot for a while.
If it is a long line of folks waiting and the handicap stall is the next open, then I go for it.
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I don’t use the bigger stall if there’s another regular one open, but I have no qualms using it if there isn’t. And of course, when there’s line, whichever stall opens next is the one I use.
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I avoid the handicap bathroom stalls – especially at work. If it’s the only one open, I’ll use it, but otherwise not. This is not altruism. This is short legs and feet that don’t touch if I use the higher-placed toilet seat/bowl.
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The handicapped stall is great for a mom with 2-3 young girls! You can fit everyone in one stall – thus avoiding wondering how the 3-year old is doing while you’re helping the 2-year old.
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Good morning. I almost never see all of the handicap parking spots filled in any parking lot. I would think that usually you wouldn’t be taking a space that someone with a handicap sticker needs if you took the handicap spot instead of the other one. You would be doing people like me a favor by leaving the regular parking spot open because I ride with a person who likes to drive around to find the best spot.
I always hear the comment that there are too many spaces set aside for the handicapped as we ride around looking for the closet spot to the door. If you left the spot empty by the handicapped spots that be good from my point of view. That’s the spot the person I am riding with would take and I wouldn’t have to hear all that complaining about all those empty handicapped spots.
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My issue from when my son needed handicapped parking was snow removal.Many times the lot isn’t shoveled but relies on coverage of the spots by regularly parked cars. If the accessible spots are empty they fill with snow/ice. The minimum number of special spots is determined by a formula in law.
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Now that I have thought a little more about my answer, I think that it would be best to not use the handicapped spot. There might be plenty of handicapper spots, but that could change and there may be times when they are all filled. I can put up with a little complaining about the empty handicapped spots from the person doing the driving. That just adds to the spice of life, right? Life would be kind of bland without some complaining thrown in.
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Great drawing, and topic, Clyde. Well done.
There are some places I don’t shop simply because their parking lots are too chaotic to negotiate safely. And, because I’m retired, I have the luxury of shopping when fewer people are apt to be in the stores. I have always thought of this strategy as reducing my risk for being hit in a parking lot, but perhaps I’m wrong. If it’s the old folks with stiff necks, impaired vision, and who knows what other handicaps that are frequenting the stores at these times, perhaps I’m actually increasing my chances of being hit? That’s a sobering thought!
I too, use Clyde’s method of parking, and, when alone, I never use parking spots reserved for the handicapped. Even when I had a handicapped sticker when I had my knee replaced, I didn’t use it much, partly because of the cart corral issue. It’s more important to me to be close to the cart corral than the entrance to a store as I deem it more dangerous to be walking any distance behind parked cars to return the cart to a corral. I regularly take a couple of handicapped friends shopping. Neither can walk very far or fast, so I drop them off at the front door and then park the car.
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When my mom was on her own, she liked it when someone left a cart right next to the blue spot (she had a sticker) – then she could use the cart as her walker the whole time.
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To answer your question, Clyde, take the blue spot. Chances are that there are more open handicap spaces close to the entrance than there a regular spaces. I’m guessing that for every person who uses a handicapped sticker illegitimately, there is a person with a handicap who doesn’t have a sticker.
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I have been known to report cars parked in handicapped spots without a sticker or sign hanging on the mirror. Makes me nuts. My mom kept the mirror hanger my dad got in his last years – the DMV guy decided to give him one that wouldn’t expire vs. one that was only good for a few months. At the time she didn’t figure she would ever use it, she got around just fine. She does, however, occasionally make use of it now that her arthritis is making walking more of a challenge. It only comes out when there isn’t other nearby parking and she would have to walk a distance that is unmanageable. She does, however, try to frequent places where parking lots are small, groceries are carried out (no cart corral to find) and stores navigable with minimum walking (our local Kowalski’s is a favorite as it is smallish, parking is always close, and they carry out her bags).
In Clyde’s situation, I would take the unmarked spot – especially if it avoided the post so he could drive forward rather than backing out. Even without your issues with twisting and turning and such, as another small car owner (I drive a VW Beetle), I hate backing out from between giant cars. I have been known to park farther away from a store entrance so I could park near other short cars or at least away from the giant Intimidas.
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I don’t have a consistent strategy – sometimes I employ the John method if the day is cold and windy. I dislike trudging across a large parking lot in the wind. Otherwise, though, I’m pretty unconcerned about getting close. Time walking to and from the car is not really wasted – it’s a calorie-burning exercise.
My aim is often to choose a spot that will make it easy to find the car. Mine, like Clyde’s, can be hard to spot among the monster trucks and SUV’s. The parking lot at Target in particular seems to be designed to hide cars. So when I’m there I drive to the sparsely populated outer reaches and leave half a dozen spaces between the nearest car and mine.
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I know a little about the problems of handicapped people from helping my parents when they were not in good shape near the end of their lives. My Dad used his engineering skills to develop good ways to get my mother into a car from a wheel chair and then out of the car into the wheel chair. He ended up buying a wheelchair van and also worked out the best way to make use of this vehicle for transporting my mother. I do try to be pay some attention to the needs of people who have trouble walking as a result of seeing the problems that my mother had getting around with a walker and a wheelchair.
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OT – anyone know the reason behind Mike P’s mysterious absence from the RH stream?
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hope he got some time off to do his own thing. i saw city muse was playing a ouple of spots this weekend and maybe they are stuck. lets hope they didnt find a computer to feed the computer
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City Mouse and a new derivation thereof called Crankbait, including Mike, has been playing around Mankato recently. Maybe he’s taking some time off from RH.
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Let’s hope Mike is still holding down his job. I am no longer a regular listener to RH. I do listen to it from time to time and I think it is a good source of music to have available when other things that I like are not available or when I want a break where I can just listen to the good music Mike programs. I think MPR does not put a replacement in for Mike when he isn’t there and he might just be on a vacation. However, as we know, you can’t necessarily count on MPR to continue with the kind programing that some of us like.
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I have a terrible time getting RH to stream properly. It mostly refuses to play after 7 a.m. or after 10 minutes, whichever comes first. It’s VERY frustrating because it used to work consistently and it will stop in the middle of a beautiful song. I listen to Folk Alley instead. I have fewer streaming issues with that.
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Krista, RH has just upgraded their servers. I think it has greatly improved the streaming.
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I just tried RH again yesterday to see how it is doing.. It breaks up all the time, as does, MPR classical. I get a bad signal from the tower and I get a bad signal from the stream. I listen to radio from Itunes. It never breaks up ever. Not sure how all this works. But I have given up on MPR entirely. I like the Itunes choices.
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with pagoda or spotify you can custom make lists that go with a mood, simon and garfunkle on one list bach cello concerto on the other and they build around like music. i have a john prine one, a george gershwin one, etc…
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I listen to Radio Heartland on iTunes and it never quits; streams perfectly.
You can’t find it IN iTunes, you have to go to the RH page and tell it to play using iTunes. Then save it in there and after that, just open it from iTunes.
I’ve been having an ADD week since last week. This to that to that other thing and back to this but detour over here first for that and then around back to that first thing. Repeat.
Lego Tournament at the college this weekend then maybe my brain will settle down.
Squirrel! Shiny Squirrel!!
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in the snow
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Never mind, call off the search parties. He’s back.
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I’ll bet his ears were burning
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I just try to do whatever is faster, so I can shorten my shopping trip. Our Walmart is usually teeming with vehicles, with huge oil field trucks and campers parked in the spots farthest from the store. That leaves some spaces in the middle of the lot between very large pickups. I am happy to report that I almost never see vehicles in the handicapped spaces without handicapped stickers or plates.
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I’m not fussy about where I park. I take the first available spot, if possible near the cart corral. I’m a little like Anna about those without handicaps who use the designated handicapped spaces. I drove a handicapped van equipped with a green tag, a state license plate, and a wheelchair lift through a parking ramp near the Mayo Clinic yesterday. I forgot all about the option of actually using the handicapped spaces and went all the way to the 5th level before finding a regular spot. Fortunately, they have this cool subway there which takes you under the street and into the Clinic. We had a wheelchair patient with an eye appointment. He was warm and protected for all but about 25 feet. It worked out well.
The day went well, too, for anyone who is interested. I’m feeling more optimistic about the job. I worked with the house lead worker and his behavior was more respectful and open. He made zero comments about the lack of applicants for my job; zero insinuations that I would have an issue with someone. I guess there are a couple of people who are threatened by me for reasons I can’t control. I think it all boiled down to the difference between 30 hours a week and 40. They had posted the job for 30 hours a week and no one applied. They posted it for 40 hours a week and I insisted on 40. I got the job. Onward!
Great job today, Clyde! I love the drawings. That’s how I feel when I drive my Honda Civic just about anywhere.
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Yay, another Civic owner! Mine is a DX hatchback from 1995. I love her to pieces–and intend to drive her until she does fall completely apart.
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I had a ’92 Civic DX hatchback before my current Civic 4-door. I LOVED my little ’92 hatchback, named “Miler.” It had 250,000 miles when the engine finally needed major work. I sold it for $100 and some young guys took it, fixed it, souped it all up to their liking and it’s still on the road.
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I also drove my Civic hatchback until she started to disintegrate (16 years). Her name was Civetta (little owl in Italian) – red. I was sad when I finally had to shop for a new car and the same model was out of my price range!
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Excellent
Hope the jr high clique goes back to passing notes( i suppose they text today) and leave you alone. Worse than being ignored is being forced to deal with twits
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🙂
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Just a reminder, anybody passing through the Mayo clinic and if you have a break in the day shoot me an email since I’m in Rochester. I’m always open to meeting people from the trail. Or if you have questions about anything. I’ll try to help out.
bk hain at aol . com
Onward, Krista!
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Thanks, Ben!
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Lots of material in this post, Clyde. I empathize with your tiny car issues in a big-car world–I drive a subcompact, so instead of looking for my car in the parking lot I look for the space that appears to be unoccupied, and that’s always where she is. My dad was a devoted John-method parker; Mom would complain that he took longer trying to find the closest possible spot than it would have taken us to walk from the far end. Even in bad weather, I prefer to park in the less-busy and less-occupied parts of the lot for safety reasons, due once again to the tiny car and the inability of SUV drivers to bend their necks to look that far down. This time of year, I try my best to avoid parking lots altogether, since everyone seems to be in a blind buying panic from Black Friday onward. One of my least favorite lots any time of year is the Lunds on Ford Parkway, which I would like to patronize if I didn’t fear for my life. No one seems to be able to figure out who has the right-of-way. My roommate and I have had more close calls in that lot than on the interstate.
As for the moral conundrum, I say choose the safest and easiest spot for you to park and exit from. If that’s the regular spot, I’m sure the rest of us temporarily able-bodied types can walk, and who knows, maybe it’ll make someone think twice about spending money they oughtn’t if they can’t find a parking spot near the store.
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After having a tag for three years (this one good for 5 years), I could write a whole treatise on the issue of handicapped parking. I spend a lot of time focusing on this as I drive her to malls, grocery stores, post offices (which are way short on handicapped spots), clinics, etc. I could even argue it’s on the whole a bad idea, but I may get to that later in the day.
A few things: 1) I repeat as in above, why make a group of people who have poor driving skills, as many with tags are, park in the worst place to manage a car, right at the busy entrance to a grocery store or Target. It’s amazing more accidents do not happen. I have seen parking lots designed to avoid this. One of our Hy-Vees is sheer chaos at the entrance. 2) Who is assigning the number of blue spots? Barnes & Noble, a wonderful gathering place for the elderly and handicapped, in our mall has 2 blue spots. TWO! ONLY TWO!. (Neither of which I ever use by the way.) Across the mall at Sheels Sporting Goods there are 36 blue spots. Huh? Many who come to B&N come with chairs of various kinds. The B&N managers could care less. Say it’s not their decision. I argue not for us but for the others.
3) I see few people without tags or plates in the blue spots and I bet they are people like us who forgot to hang it. Far more often I see people push their carts into the blue spots. 4) Related topic: so many people leave the tags on their mirror, contrary to state law and what it says right on the tag, which gives them a nice fat blind spot. An old man, you know how we old men can be, chewed me out when he saw me hang the tag. He insisted I was required to leave it up. I read the tag to him and he told me his tag did not say that.
5) My usual pattern is to drop Sandy off at the door, but I have to get out her walker, unless she can use a cart in the store. Sometimes this creates congestion. The same when I come get her. I would have her walk out to the car but the cars going by her and the rough ground makes her unsteady, unless she is taking out a cart.
More later. Good comments, folks.
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There have been many times when I have driven my mom somewhere that it was easier to drop her off at the entrance and park farther away rather than use her handicapped tag. She walks with a cane, so she can maneuver out of the car herself, but you’re absolutely right about the location of some of the spots. It’s less dangerous to drop her off at the curb and park vs. asking her to navigate the parking lot traffic. I’d be willing to bet, too, that my buddy from high school who uses a wheelchair accessible van would gladly park farther away if the spots were big enough to accommodate his lift, especially if it meant he was less likely to be backing off the lift into parking lot traffic. Guessing it’s good, too, that he’s married to an able-bodied woman who can get the carts back to the corral…can’t imagine trying to make that maneuver from a wheelchair, especially this time of year.
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OT – Just wanted to alert Clyde, that tonight at 7 PM, tpt is showing a program about growing up on a farm. It’s told from the perspective of a boy growing up in rural Wisconsin. Probably has lots of experiences that mirror your story.
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Thanks. PBS?
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tpt2 . I guess it’s the same thing as PBS?
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Yes, Used to be my favorite channel until they made it all cooking shows, or nearly. But my cable provider cannot get me a clear signal on it. ERRRR!!!
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Clyde, can you get KSMQ from Austin? It’s PBS, but I actually like it better. I get it on channel 8.
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We have two bad cable choices here. Charter, which is terrible and expensive, and Hickory Tech, which is slightly less terrible and just as expensive. Charter carries Channel 8 but only Channel 2 and not the other TPT channels. I am with Hicktech. I want to drop TV and the land phone line entirely. My wife gets upset at the idea. We are paying a lot of money to allow charities to be able to call us and for her to watch HGTV, Wheel of Fortune and Drew Carey (whats that game show?). I watch a little but only to have some company. I would gladly give it up, but there are unnamed issues involved here, about not changing things in our house . . .
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The local PBS station used to be called “Channel 2” and “KTCA.” It is now TPT, There are three TPT channels: the first has the basic PBS programming (with a lot of children’s programming during the day); the Life channel is about travel, cooking, gardening, crafts, etc.; the Minnesota channel is about local stuff and includes Venture North, various nature programs and some crushingly boring panel discussions.
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lazarus has arisen
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Here’s what tpt says about the program.
A Farm Story is a portrait of a farm boy’s childhood in rural Wisconsin, told through his personal memories and photos. Narrator and renowned author Jerry Apps recounts one-room country schools, making hay, threshing bees, cucumber picking, swimming at the lake and much more. While the stories are his own, they are familiar and heart-warming. “A Farm Story” is a program you will want to share with children and grandchildren form as Jerry Apps puts it, “Remembering where we have been can help us see where we are going.”
A Farm Story premieres Tuesday, December 11 at 7:00pm on tpt 2.
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Caught the first 20 minutes and then had to go pick up Teenager. Anybody know if it will be on again?
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Silly question, vs. This is tpt; of course, it will be on again, and again, and again. Just kidding, but seriously, I’m sure it will be. Except for all those pledge breaks, very nice show.
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The land remembers by Ben somebody is the story of growing up in the Minnesota Wisconsin Iowa corner of the world. Nice nice story
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Read it more than once. Set in Iowa, not far from NE Iowa. Excellent writer.
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Oops. Set in Wisconsin. Gays Mill. Drove through there this summer on purpose.
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The author is Ben Logan. This book is a classic of American nature writing. It was published at the same time as Sand County Almanac and has some of the same fresh insights that Leopold’s book made. Some readers will see commonalities with Clyde’s book.
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Well, hello, buddy. Yes, similar, but he was raised two generations ahead of me and it a memoir, not fiction. Excellent book. Excellent.
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As I think about it, it has a lot in common with your book, about parents who managed in a difficult and different time.
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One copy at the HC Lib… 2 requests at this point (including mine). Thanks – and nice to hear from you, Steve.
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Make that 3 requests.
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Welcome back, Steve!
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ben logan wrote two or three books about the same stories. he wasnt finished when he originally thought he was and i was glad. cant remember the details but enjoyed the second as much as the first
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Steve gave me that book after the tree cutting party at his house. I enjoyed it very much and passed it on to my sister. Lots of memories and things we both could relate too.
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Treatise Part 2: The biggest misusers of blue spots are people like me, who have a tag for someone else. I see a lot of able-bodied folks parking in blue and I think that’s why. So easy to do it. I do now and then, but only when there are lots of blue spots open at a time when I know there will not be any showing up. Many, who should be sensitive to the needs of the handicapped, are taking limited spots in busy times. I think that’s what I am seeing. But I can be in a rush for my wife. I have had to rush over to Target or to Walgrens or CVS (all within a mile of me) to get something Sandy needs right away, such as a drug. Then I have used a spot when it is busy because I am truly in a rush.
In answer to my second question, I take the blue spot when there are many empty. I sometimes see young mothers in poor weather carrying a young baby from a way out in the lot and hope she or those who may have a need we do not see gets the spot I left open in nonblue.
Crystal Bay is right about those who have them who should give them up and abuse them. MN has twice cut way back on the qualifications to get one, but it is still a doctor who decides, most of the time anyway.
Another conundrum: I drop my wife off at PT and park in adjoining lot for a separate but jointly owned clinic. I have decided that almost everyone there qualifies for a blue tag. I see that most of the able drivers park way out from the door after dropping the rider. How do you make a whole lot blue? What logic is there in that?
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Where I went to my TP appointments they had free valet parking to accommodate those of us who could drive but not walk far. Eliminated the need for all blue parking spots.
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nice
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I can only think of one thing that TP stands for, PJ, and I’m pretty sure that’s not what sort of appointments you had. I’m never very good at acronyms; you’re going to get my brain to wake up (whether I want it to or not) as i try to figure this one out.
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I assume she means PT physical therapy, but a place with valet parking may have another term maybe something Latin: Therapus physicalus, or maybe she’s thinking in Danish.
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Who said she was thinking? Obviously she was not. She meant PT for physical therapy.
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Heehee. What is it Danish?
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Ha! I really wasn’t trying to make a big deal of the typo, PJ. I was just sitting here thinking, TP? Toilet Paper? Nooooooooooooo, it can’t be that. Well, what is it? It didn’t occur to me that you meant PT.
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Edith, I was on automatic pilot, fingers typing, brain not engaged. When you asked the question, I still didn’t get it until Clyde responded. I love his idea of “therapus physicalus” as a term for physical therapy at a place that offers valet parking. Very cleaver, Clyde.
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Fysioterapi
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🙂
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Physical therapy? I thought PT stood for Pain and Torture.
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So then TP would stand for Torture & Pain.
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Unless it’s really nasty weather, or I’m in a big rush, I park as far away from the door as I can – to get more walking in! Esp. now that it’s treacherous to take a walk in the park, etc. In the summer I take any little piece of shade (I dislike even car A/C) I can find, which is alway clear out…
If I am in a rush, I will drive around to find a space facing out, where I can leave without backing up. And I will walk between the double rows of cars whenever possible, to avoid walking in harm’s way, where the cars are going to back out without looking first!
Oh, and to answer… I say take the blue spot, IF there is a large number of blue spaces, since it leaves another “good” spot for someone else.
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Clyde, I always enjoy your posts. I especially like your drawings; I think you’ve said before that you’re not that talented at drawing, but I really, really enjoy them. They make me smile.
I’m going to try to answer your main question. My principles say that those who are more vulnerable deserve to be looked out for more than others. Here’s an example: if a car, a bicyclist, and a pedestrian all come to a 4-way stop sign at about the same time, the biker should not fly through the stop sign as the ped is walking across the street – because that person could be hurt by a bicyclist hitting them. And the person driving the car should be sure to not endanger either the biker or the pedestrian because both of them would be hurt badly if the car hit them. I get worried about our society when I see that everyone is out for themselves and in simple, everyday things such as driving, the most vulnerable people (such as young children or handicapped people) are put in danger because the person who is least vulnerable (such as a person in a car) doesn’t want to slow down or stop to allow someone in a wheelchair or a mother with young children cross the street or parking lot. It seems to me that a healthy society looks out for the vulnerable and—despite things like handicapped parking spots and lifts on the metro transit buses for people in wheelchairs—it seems that lots of people don’t seem to realize that there are other people in the world who also have rights. So – I think that when deciding about parking, you should do what is best for the more vulnerable people – the handicapped. However, I know that trying to be fair doesn’t always work out in real life, so as long as you drive and park with concern for others i.e. don’t act like you’re going to run them over, I’ll be happy.
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To answer your other question about the Clyde method or John method of finding a parking spot – I do neither.
I tend to park fairly far away because I think it’s a waste of time to drive around and around trying to find a spot that’s a few feet closer to the store or clinic, not to mention it adds to pollution to have so many cars idling in the parking lot (idling cars can also create more ice in the winter) and if a car is waiting for your spot as you pull out, that can slow things down because if their car is too close, it can be harder to pull out of the parking spot (I’ve seen that happen at Trader Joe’s and the driver that was waiting for the spot then backed up – without looking behind her – to allow the parked car to pull out. Not a smart idea when 4 cars are backed up behind you…you should at least check your mirror).
As long as I’m able-bodied, I think I’ll stick to my method.
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towanda
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Love the line “How many of them hormones are you takin’, honey?” Towanda, indeed.
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Love it, PJ!
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Treatise #3: I have seen parking lots in CA and I think Arizona that were much better. The handicapped spots were off to the side of the building with a separate entrance or a good wide sidewalk up to the nearby front door. One is just off to the side of the lot and no one can drive in front of the door. One of the issues I notice is that the parking is just not good for those in wheelchair vans. They need much bigger spots and they should be in a separate category of tags. Someone mentioned this today, how hard it is to get the chair out of the back into traffic. Often they cannot get the kind of blue spot with space on the side.
I saw a lot in San Jose that had sidewalks down the middle between the rows of cars. I think every lot needs that. Two weeks ago an MSU student almost walked into the front of my car because she was texting walking down the lane. I had no where to go. I honked at her just as she got there.
I do not know how to deal with all the elderly driving who should not be. Watching handicapped parking makes you more aware of the issue for sure. Last week the woman ahead of me at Cub left without bagging her groceries. I went and got her. Then she took only part. By then I could bag up the rest of hers and chase her down. Then I saw her in the lot confused. So I asked. She could not find her car. It had an alarm button on the key, which she did not know about. Her car was in a blue spot 10 feet from us.
Parking: so what else have I got to think about driving my wife around?
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i have done that. i get shopping for stuff checked off my list in my brian as i am paying for it then on to the next thing. hello…………….. i can hardly wait for the altzheimers to kick in. i should look into preventative stuff cause i believe i am a candidate.
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We all think that. Until we are around people with real issues. this woman had real issues.
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Been waiting to see what you would come up with.
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Me too! That wasn’t my guess, but I’m not going to tell you what my guess was. Ha!
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Oh man, Ricky Nelson – sigh… Wonder when that was?
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Fearless Leader just sent me a funny email on this. Do you want to know what the research said about the Clyde Method versus The John Method? (I believe it will take only a little bit of though to figure out what his research proved.)
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Just found out I am going to be gone for the evening, hope not into the night. So here’s the answer. The mathematicians research showed that over the year the Clyde and John methods evened out.
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The John Method, however, would have consumed more gasoline and resulted in more wear and tear on car parts, making it therefore more expensive.
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It also has the potential of being more stressful for the driver, depending on how fanatical you are about getting the best parking spot possible (defined as “as close to the door as possible”). If someone “steals” your spot, you could get high blood pressure from getting stressed about it.
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Snap!
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“The three major administrative problems on a campus are sex for the students, athletics for the alumni, and parking for the faculty.” Robert M. Hutchins
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An OT: I am getting rid of things in various ways. I have a few pieces of Lake Superior driftwood I was going to use in carvings. However, I cannot carve and I need to jettison. So if anyone has any interest in it, let me know and I will photograph it so you can see. It’s some weathered gray branches and some very richly weather junks of sawed lumber I picked up on our beach on the Shore. Oh, free of course. We’ll figure out a way to transfer it, unless of course you are Renee.
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Sounds nice, Clyde…but I am also trying to clear out stuff. I have a horror of becoming like my parents with piles of stuff nearly to the ceiling.
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I’d like to see photos.
I have a project in mind that requires some sort of mounting board for five small hooks made out of spoon handles. Would any of the sawn lumber work for it? A piece about 8 inches by a couple of feet or so would probably be an ideal size.
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I do not think so, but I will photograph it tomorrow and email you the picture. (I have your email address.)
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My my – 111 posted replies… you seem to have struck a nerve, Clyde! And who knew there were so many Honda Civic people!
I have no business considering taking on driftwood, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the pictures too, Clyde – I could at least hold it for tim till he has room for it.
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Will do.
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Too many good responses for me to come up with anything original.
I dealt with blue parking spots when driving my mother’s van. I never noticed the downsides of their placement but visiting once or twice a year and making minimal trips out wasn’t much of a sample. The lift on the side meant no problem with back exits.
Because I do feel protective of blue spots, I’d say park in the non-blue spots if you personally don’t need a blue spot at the moment.
I suppose I’m more of a Clyder than a Johner. I don’t stress too much about where I park but remembering where it’s parked can be a challenge. I once walked back and forth across the Southtown parking lot an insane number of times, convinced that my car had been stolen.
P.S. I have a 98 Civic. I read recently that that exact model is the 2nd most frequently stolen.
Mere minutes ’til 12:12:12 on 12/12/12 and the post before mine was #112.
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