Parking Predicaments
June 25th, 2010 | Published in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Author: Gerald Callo (4 Articles)
Gerald is the groupwide graphic designer technician for Advance Strategies based out of the HOK Houston office. He is part of the marketing team and is responsible for ensuring the brand and graphic standards are the way they should to be. He pretty much makes things prettier. He was born in Michigan, but his parents hated the debilitating cold cold weather of the NCR, so after a year they moved to the energy capital of the world, Houston and has lived there ever since. Gerald graduated from the University of Houston (go coogs!) majoring in graphic design with a minor in marketing. When not at the Williams Tower, he likes to endulge himself in miscellanous design related activities, museum going and eating. One of his pet peeves are the double spacing after a period. It's just old school.
When driving to the office, overtime everyone develops their own set of best practices and habits which help streamline arriving and leaving from the office. Getting to the office without any traffic issues and or having a stress free drive helps start the day on the right foot.
But this week i’ve had two interesting incidents with driver x vying for the same spot which left me irked to start the day. I’m not one of those people who park in the first open space. I’ve strategically picked out specific spots to where i want to park. I have my option A, B and C-they all consist parking next to walls to minimize scratches and dings. With my option A spot, it’s a friendly battle ground to get to the spot first, but I sware, if car x arrives the same time and i’m right behind, the other driver x will deliberately take option A spot. Normally, if the car x arrives first they may or may not take my option A spot. Car x is definitely aware of my fondness of this spot. It’s kinda annoying, but hey it’s not a reserved spot and it’s on a first come first serve basis thus leading me to option b or c. In the end, it’s a friendly battle at who gets it, gets it.
My situation reminds me of the car ongoing feud between Mr. Bean’s vs. the Blue Three-wheeled Car sans the road rage:
See more of Mr Bean vs the three-wheeler incidents here.
Our office garage is a ten-story (more if you count the below ground levels), multi-entrance, confusing maze, disaster of a building which has a heli-pad atop and attaches to the building with a sky bridge. With my specific spots i’ve cut down on the searching for it after a busy day. Consistency is key! I remember when i first started, there were times when it took longer than expected.
Some others best practices i do include are:
- Avoiding the am and pm rush hours. Leaving at 5:30pm equals extra minutes of idling on the downramp in line waiting to leave. Not fun.
- Go slow and drive with your headlights on. The garage has tight corners, packs cars in like sardines, is dimly lit and others drive like maniacs when leaving. This can help prevent accidents. I’ve had many close calls.
- Stay away from those giant pick-up trucks. If you park behind one it will be one of those 15 point turns when backing out.
Has anyone else been in other parking predicaments, lately?
June 28th, 2010 at 1:01 pm (#)
My pet parking peeve, besides those huge pick ups that stick out, is drivers who go the wrong way on short between-floor ramps, all clearly marked as one-way. I also never park near the ramps for fear of backing out into an oncoming car.