Someone parked his or her car in a way that makes it hard for you to exit your garage. Write a very angry note.
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m a German Frau that was unfortunately born into the body of a woman from the United States. This is less apparent on the East Coast, esp. in New York, where efficiency and ordinances are generally adhered to, but on the West Coast, especially Northern California, I get a bit nuts about the fact that people do not understand basic rules and yes, common sense about things, like oh say…parking. German and New York parking ordinances tend to be strict about parking and yes, they are complicated at times (see here), but people understand that if you don’t obey them, you risk a fine or even a tow. In California, it seems to be a free for all when it comes to parking convenience vs actual laws/other’s inconvenience, which is why you see signs like this in San Francisco:
My other pet peeve is that what constitutes a “compact vehicle” seems to be extremely difficult concept for many California drivers to comprehend. Our local garages have plenty of large-sized spaces, but you will invariably see someone with a SUV or large pickup truck squeeze into spaces that were obviously sized for your average sedan or VW bug. And which are clearly marked COMPACT in bold letters. Back when I drove a Sentra (clearly a compact car) I came back from shopping to find that some thoughtless individual had parked their oversized pickup truck in the compact space to the left of my vehicle. Their truck was so large it did not fit in the space and I could not open my driver’s side door. I had to enter on the passenger side, and climb over the middle console to get into the driver’s seat. I was not happy and yes, I left the owner a rather pointed note. I don’t remember the exact words but it went something like this:
Dear truck owner. I would like to inform you that your oversized truck , in fact, is not a compact vehicle and therefore, should not be parking in spaces marked as such. According to Wikipedia, a compact vehicle is one that is between 100 inches and 109 inches long. I do not have a measuring tape, but I bet your truck exceeds that length considerably. Due to your inability to consider the actual size of your vehicle, I was forced to invoke long forgotten gymnastic abilities from high school and climb in from the passenger side to enter my vehicle. In the future, please be aware you are not a compact car, so do not park in spaces marked as such.
Love and kisses,
A Compact car driver.
skullwoman 