Friday, June 16, 2006

Are You A Backer-inner?

In the years I have been driving, I have noticed that there are people who just plain ol' pull into parking spaces (me) AND people who back into parking spaces.

The building I work in has a parking lot behind it where I, myself, park. It's the closest parking to my cubicle.

But methinks a sinister vibe lurks in yon parking area. At the rearmost part of said parking area, against the trees, seems to be one of planet Earth's nexuses, causing many employees to back into their parking spaces.

Either that or it is a prime example of monkey-see-monkey-do peer pressure.

I had to go by Quest Diagnostics in Melbourne this morning 'cause one of my Dr.s wanted yet another blood test (fasting of course, I'm HONGRY!) to help get me straightened out.

Anyhoo, I got to work after most everyone else and as I drove past 'the back row' I noticed that only one person out of about a dozen or so vehicles was pulled in. All the rest were backed in.

I wonder why.

My Big Brother was one of these people. I always chalked it up to him being a truck driver. He was expert at backing 18 wheelers into places I couldn't have put one driving forward. I never actually asked him why he backed in to places in his car.

There must be more to it. I notice that the backer-inners tend to drive either trucks, suvs, or sports cars. I even noticed this morning at Quest Diagnostics, while being drained of my precious blood, that someone who worked there had backed in. Their car was one of those spiffy lookin' Chrysler 300 cars. It's a sedan but they ARE sporty.

So I'm thinkin' that the type of person who prefers to back in is a sporty/competitive type person.

What do you think? Any backer-inners out there who can give me a clue here?

I just pull in forward and worry about getting out later. It's not like any of us are super heroes who need that extra few seconds when leaving to save damsels in distress or anything.


And first cousin to the backer-inners of the world are the pull-throughers.

Number One Daughter is one of these.

Say you are parking in the vast expanse that is the typical Wally World parking lot. They are usually 'straight' parking places as opposed to 'angled' parking places. I pull forward into these parking places and park in my space, EVEN IF THE SPACE IN FRONT OF ME IS EMPTY. I do NOT pull through.

Number One Daughter, if she is with me will shout 'Go through! Go through!'

But I don't.

Not only that, if the space in front of me is still open when I get out, I'll back out of my parking place instead of going forward through the other space.

Number One Daughter thinks I'm wrong. A freak.

I disagree.


Since I'm on the subject of parking…

What compels some people to circle repeatedly through a parking lot, hoping for a close-in parking place? You can be half finished with your shopping before these people even find an acceptable parking space.

My thinking is that these are the intensely competitive types. I've seen my own Big Sis do this, though I don't know if she always does it.



Am I a slug in human form, because I don't back in, I don't pull through, and I just go ahead and park out in Eastern Mongolia and just hoof it in to the store?

1 comment:

Emily said...

I just recently started test driving out in my Dad's car (with him in it, since I still only have my learner's). All I can say is so far all I've done (or attempted) is parking beside the curb - I either am like, 3 feet away from it or have rolled right on top of it! Lol...hopefully I'll get it eventually.

And I saw on tv once that apparently it's better to back into a space, because if you hit another car while pulling out - it's your fault. So backing in is better because then you can see straight ahead when you're coming out of a parking space instead of looking behind- reducing chances of collisions.

I wonder if there are any specific personality traits to people who drive automatics and people who drive standards. All I can say is I'm an automatic person...standards scare me.