Parking garage boop

[TexturedSoyProtein]

Behold, the entrance to the garage at the office building where I do my physical therapy!

The pedestrian entrance to the garage is that opening under the awning between the stairs and elevators. I love that awning on rainy days. The handicap spaces are right by this entrance. I don't have a handicap parking placard, but I am thinking about getting one. In the meantime, to minimize my walking, I park upstairs by the elevator, because all the other spaces near the handicap spaces are reserved.

Another way to minimize my walking is I walk along the wall from the elevator door to the garage entrance, except sometimes/often people park too close to the wall in the handicap spaces, where I can't squeeze between their cars and the wall. When this happens I have to walk oh so much farther around the back of those cars.

Today, my path was most assuredly blocked, both by a Toyota RAV4 that had backed dat ass up basically all the way to the wall, and by this Kia Sportage that was physically in contact with the wall, but apparently undamaged.

I like to think the Sportage driver pulled juuuuuuuuuust enough into the space to touch the wall without crunching their bumper. If only we all could be so skilled at gently touching parking garage walls with our front bumpers. On second thought, I think I'd rather not risk it.

[frinesi2]

You KNOW that parking sensor was screaming bloody murder during that whole maneuver

[TexturedSoyProtein]

@frinesi2 Oh hey look at that it does have parking sensors. The driver was probably like, "this thing always beeps at me when I still have room left, I'm gonna keep going!"

[RamblinRover]

"Today, little electronic asshole - today is the day you go to the edge. I... I am in charge here, not you."

[MasterMario]

@frinesi2 It must not have had automatic braking either to get that close. My friends new Ram freaks out and brakes abruptly anytime it senses something behind it, including twigs from a bush growing into the driveway a little bit.

[TexturedSoyProtein]

@mastermario It's my understanding that parking sensors sometimes/often are not tied into cars' other safety nannies. The auto emergency braking stuff tends to rely on some combination of camera and radar sensor shared with active cruise. If they crept up toward the wall slowly it may not have triggered the AEB.

[flatisflat]

@texturedsoyprotein I actually imagine / wonder what the situation was before they put it in Park and took their foot off the brake; how the car may have settled against the pillar at that moment.

[RamblinRover]

@flatisflat Lots of bumpers have maybe a quarter inch of "dimple" they they're willing to flex before they contact the foam at all. Probably never felt it. Look at the tire: I suspect he kept going until he felt the tire contact, and was just really, really lucky that that corresponded to his bumper gently touching.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@frinesi2 It was an extremely well planned playful bump on the parking sensor to put it in its place.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@ramblinrover Someone is really bad at placing parking bump stops. And someone is very very good at painting concrete walls. Look at the sharp edge of painted to unpainted. I'm impressed.

[flatisflat]

@ramblinrover ah yes, the classic 'parking gauge by obstruction' rule.

[TexturedSoyProtein]

@whoistheleader said in Parking garage boop:

@ramblinrover Someone is really bad at placing parking bump stops.

The parking blocks should definitely be farther from the wall. Sportages don't exactly have huge front overhangs. Other cars would likely hit the wall before the tires hit the parking block.

[WhoIsTheLeader]

@texturedsoyprotein And the parking stops are usually intended to allow room for people to walk between a wall and cars. You especially see them around handicap spots and other areas with high foot traffic. Seems like it defeats the point to have it so close to the wall.

[RamblinRover]

@texturedsoyprotein About the only cars made less than 90 years ago that would hit the blocks first most of the time would be American barges of the late '50s through early '60s, because the design philosophy was to offset the handling complications of a giant engine and wallowy rear suspension by putting the engine directly on/behind the front wheels and putting zero body ahead of it.

I am reasonably certain this garage was not designed with the '60 Pontiac Ventura in mind.

[Tripper]

@frinesi2 flat line for the last second or two

[Urambo Tauro]

@texturedsoyprotein Maybe the driver did leave a tiny bit of room, only to have it roll forward upon placing it in Park and releasing the brake pedal?

[TexturedSoyProtein]

@urambo-tauro Usually when I leave an automatic transmission car in park and take my foot off the brake it rolls backwards before the parking pawl in the transmission catches. At least my wife's CX-5 behaves this way.

[Urambo Tauro]

@texturedsoyprotein Well, that's not gonna depend on the vehicle so much as the slope (if any) it's parked on. It's common for parking pawls to have a little bit of play and roll slightly downhill before coming to a rest (If you don't use the parking brake, that is). Although I guess some newer vehicles might be programmed to engage their electric parking brake automatically now...