[I ♥ cats]

I can't stand when people park in the fire lane or up against a curb in a parking lot (instead of in a regular parking space) and block other cars from driving through - how are they so special that they have the "right" to do that? It's never even crossed my mind to park in one of these places. If there was an emergency of some sort, MAYBE I could see parking there, but so far all the people I've seen parking like this are obviously in no rush at all. I think I'm such a rule-follower that it bothers me to see other people parking in the wrong place.

[Fleurdelys]

Sorry, I am probably someone who bothers you. I do not park my car in a fire lane and leave. But I have been stopping in the fire lane while waiting for DD to get out of class. I have had to learn to be more patient when driving in my city (suberb of large city) when delivery trucks double park. There is very limited parking spaces and when the delivery trucks need to make a delivery there is no place for them. I have learned to be more tolerant and observant trying not to get stuck behind them.

[I ♥ cats]

Fleurdelys - no, that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about - you are still IN the car, which is a little different. It also sounds like you're on a street. I'm talking about people who just create their own space by parking wherever and leave the car there. Lots of times their cars turn what was a two lane area in a parking lot into one lane.

[rachelmpd]

I live in a Condo building with a community garage. We have a community of town homes right next to us. You pull out of the garage and you are at the town homes. You need to almost immediately turn a corner that you can barely see. I almost hit someone the other day because they were sitting parked in the fire lane. Then to pull out of the driveway of the entire complex again you can barely see. So those red spots next to the driveway protect people from those who come barreling around the corner.

[funkster]

And once in a great while they get "schooled!"
My DH is a firefighter and if someone is in the fire lane when they respond, they just pull the trucks and equipment up all around them. Then the driver is in a hurry to leave, but he/she has to wait until the emergency is over-usually a false alarm. And they are not so happy to have all that stuff near their car.

I was forwarded a pic of NYC fire fighters responding to an actual fire. A car was blocking the fire hydrant, so they broke out both front windows of the car, driver and passenger, and placed the hose through the front seat of the car. Bet they never blocked a fire hydrant again! Some lessons are hard!

[Moana Mel]

I'm with you, Cats. People do that here all the time at the grocery store, the post office, the bank, the library. And when you've parked properly and you're walking across the lot to enter the building, they take off at that moment right in front of you and cut you off. It's the white zone that's for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only, not the red zone.

store by my house people do this all the time. It drives me bonkers. I actually asked a person one day why they were so special to park there and they said they had a child in the car. They had gone into the store and left the kid in the car, parked in the fire lane. I called the cops. They got a ticket for parking in the fire lane and something for endangering their child. We have bus stops right outside the grocery stores and a lot of elderly that shop there and take the bus. When people are in the fire lane and the bus comes up the drivers will lay on the horn if someone is in the car. If no one is in the car they will call the cops.