Fender Bender

There has been quite a problem with parking on the street just outside our apartment complex. The driveway to the apartments is at the end of a dead-end street. In order to create more parking spots, people have taken to parking their cars diagonally at the end of the street instead of parallel. That leaves just barely enough room for one vehicle to pass out of the apartment complex.

There used to be a sign that said "parallel parking only" but someone ripped it out and threw it in a nearby yard. If a car is approaching the apartment complex from the street and you want to leave, you have to negotiate who is going first. And if you have a big SUV (fortunately I do not), well good luck to you.

This parking situation has bugged me for years. I keep meaning to call parking enforcement and do something about it, but I have done nothing.

Last Sunday night while trying to get out of the driveway I had to negotiate space with a car coming in. My focus was several yards ahead on the incoming vehicle and the space between that car and the parked cars next to it. While trying to judge that distance I didn't notice that I was too close to a big pickup truck who had parked diagonally and was sticking way out into the street. There was a crash of metal on glass (my right-hand mirror taking out the pickup's taillight) and a scraping sound as the right rear bumper scraped my right side door. Arghh!!!

It's a little like closing the barn door after the horse got out, but now I will have to take action on that parking situation. Who knows, if I can effect change maybe a fire truck will be able to get past those parked cars and we can save the apartments from fire. Or, it will just make me feel better.