People who Can't Park Their Car Annoys Me

A lot of things annoy me (and maybe you too), from Muni buses running late or no-shows, to those who feel it's OK to cross the street against a red light. Those are puny versus what annoys me the most in this city, those who park like dimwits.

You've probably seen them before and they'd likely frustrated you when you are hunting for a parking space; they enjoy flouting with the law, and unlikely to get a ticket from the parking cops since it's not street cleaning day. I've already had a few close calls with illegally parked cars, especially in narrow streets like on Fulton near USF where the lanes get so narrow, that if a car parked in a tow-away zone, I'd likely lose my passenger side mirror.

My only relief from these parking clowns is to humiliate them on the internet by posting a photo of their car on Flickr. Call the parking cops? Haaa haaa haaa, yeah right.

Here's some great ones I caught on camera:

This idiot thought it was cool to pin me in my legal parking space while he/she decided to also park in a tow away zone next to Forest Hill Station.


This BART station agent at Daly City thought it was cool to park in two reserved parking spaces. Just to make it more amusing, I caught BART officials four times at Daly City and continued to humiliate them online until they changed their ways.


There's a general rule about street parking, if the other cars are parked 45 degrees, drivers shouldn't park 90 degrees. This idiot alone took out the parking space on the left. I've been begging the city to paint 45 degree parking stripes along Font Blvd. near SF State for a long time.


I'm waiting for the day the SF Fire Department has to smash the windows of a car parked next to a hydrant to run a hose through it. Other agencies have done it before.


Parking hogs are the worst ever. Sure, they can comply with the laws about parking legally (e.g. curbing wheels and no more than 18 inches from the curb), but the unofficial rule is to never take more than one parking space. In this photo, one of my neighbors is an asshole and it really pissed me off because there was no other spaces available on my block.

Want to see more photos I've taken to humiliate people?

• Parking hog photos
• Idiot parking photos

When pedestrian common sense goes out the window

Scariest thing happened today. It was just about 30 minutes ago where I stopped at an intersection, looked both ways, and here comes some jogger darting across the street while my car is in motion, and luckily I hit my brakes just in time to not hit the guy.

And I'm thinking to myself... where is your common sense? He was wearing iPod earphones, jogging down the street, AND wearing a dark red sweatshirt!

Come on folks, you need to use some common sense when running, jogging, or even walking at night in the city.

1. Don't run or jog while listening to your iPod when crossing the street. Remember the Muni advertisement campaign of listening for vehicle sounds before you cross the street?
2. Wear some damn bright colors at night! That guy was wearing a very dark red shirt, and that doesn't reflect well to light. Wear at least a white colored shirt or jacket, or even better, spend a few bucks for a bright orange safety vest. $3 for a vest, or a $5,000 hospital bill? Every Halloween, the news TV folks remind kids to carry a flashlight and wear bright colors, for adults, take the message SERIOUSLY 365 days a year.
   
3. WALK across the street, don't run. That's the same as starting to cross the street when the countdown clock is ticking away, you risk getting hit when you realize you have two seconds left and you dart across the rest of the intersection. If a pedestrian darts a crosswalk, and times it perfectly with a driver who very recently scanned the crosswalk and thought it was clear, BANG! This is similar bicyclists who think it's OK to run red lights and stop signs and the car driver thinks going through the intersection is OK, and then WHAM.
   
4. Make eye contact with the driver, if you don't make eye contact, don't risk it.
5. Lastly, just don't exercise outdoors at night. It's like that Simpson's Halloween episode when Ned Flanders was doing his night fog walk and Marge hit him with the car. I hear having sex is exercise, why not stick to that? And if you are single, get a fleshlight.
   

So basically, for you pedestrians, make yourself obvious. Drivers at night makes themselves obvious by turning on their headlights (in which we may get ticketed for a burned out bulb), so why don't you pedestrians do the same by making it easier for you to spot?

As for me, my lesson is to look more carefully for stupid pedestrians.