It's an additional benefit of parking like that but not the reason it was done. And there's a hell of a difference between me not caring about my car and me not caring about selfish asshats who think it's ok to scratch my car. Accidentally scratch it and fess up 99% of the time I'll let it slide, try and get away with it and it's a whole different story.
The problem is people don't care. Here, they open the door until it hits something. You can tell they are about to ding a car because when they open their door to get in, their entire hand is on the INSIDE of the door. They will never catch the door in time to stop it from hitting somebody else's.
Sometimes I think I should just drive an old Land Rover, with scaffolding tubes for bumpers. If someone hits it in a car park, their vehicle will come off much worse than mine!
I would agree with the posts saying it's a problem with the current driving test. The new drivers of today know how to do set pieces, but as soon as you put them in a dynamic situation (e.g. car is slightly further forward than usual) they simply break down / continue oblivious.
The driving test as a whole is ridiculous to boot. Hazard perception with the FoV of someone wearing blinkers, a written test you can pass without reading a highway code, and a practical test that really doesn't teach you ****. They tried to correct for it, around here at least, by adding a 10 minute "unsupervised" drive to the test. Basically the instructor gives you a destination and you have to get there in ten minutes or there about, but that doesn't account for the fact that driving standards after passing the test are nowhere near what is considered test standard. There was some chatter being banded about regarding mandatory re-tests every X years, but no one in the ADI group could agree on anything last I heard.
Added to the fact that driving schools concentrate on teaching how to pass the test as opposed to driving, you get the perfect storm of newly qualified drivers with little real world driving skill.
I knew a girl who passed her test but was frightened to park in any spaces that she had to reverse out of. She would drive around car parks for hours looking for a space that she could drive forward into and then depart driving forwards only! Total muppet..... but yeah. Some people can't park for sh!t
Passed my HGV class 1 test 2nd time but was to scared to drive a loaded vehicle as apparently it's a completely different ball game. They should have included that sort of thing in the test, including hitching and unhitching a trailer.
My Dad and I are always saying this, not just when we see bad parking, but also bad driving. Get a big old snotter, fit it with RSJs on every side and just wait for the numpties to ruin they're cars when they bash you,
Also works great when you're pissed off with those who ignore "keep clear" or box junctions and block you in, particularly the TD5 90, would shake in a most satisfyingly angry manner when revved. The front bumper is just a painted, galvanised C section with fancy curvy bits at the ends.
I don't blame the driving schools, it simply highlights the flaws in the current testing/competency procedure. It is entirely possible for learners to pass their test with having never driven on a motorway, spent less than 10 hours behind the wheel, having never driven in the rain, or having never driven at night. City dwellers will be unlikely to have driven in the countryside, and rural folks are highly unlikely to have driven in the town centre before being assessed. As for parking, in the test you wont exactly be taken into a busy Tesco and asked park whilst avoiding the roaming trolleys. The route to test is not representative of everyday driving.
Seems to me that the test, is probably testing the wrong things... Not uncommon to find a test of what can be easily measured, instead of what matters. And you can't include motorways in the test, there are lots of parts of the country with no motorways. It was a few years after I passed before I drove on one for that reason. Don't they have skidpan exercises in the test in one of the Scandinavian countries? That seems a good idea to me.
All very true, my instructor used to teach police advanced driving skills so im happy to say I was taught well. Got taken out plently of times at dusk, night, rain sleet even got caught out in some snow. Now they dont seem to know what to do even in the rain. They are taught to drive in fair weather on quiet roads. You tell them to drive in snow they will run off crying. These Crash courses you can get even the name fills me with dread.
The problem isn't with the tests. It's the amount of care people take while driving. There's so many people driving with a phone to their ears, I'm still wondering if the penalty is still in place. In car parks, it's the carelessness that causes problems. If everyone slowed down and looked, it's easy to see if they are going to hit. I am instructing my wife to learn to drive by getting her to drive everywhere we go during the weekends. She has more than 1000 miles "under her belt", yet I still don't feel she is ready. Passing the practical test is a daunting task.
This is a newish phenomenon (esp. connected smart phones), and it is quite disturbing seeing the sheer number of people driving along with their head tilted down into their lap. And yes, carelessness, and a disregard for other road users seems to be a thing now (most likely due to the large increase in road users over the years) but not being fully equipped for the open road certainly doesn't help.
