Comments on: "The people in these photos park like they're fleeing the zombie apocalypse"

"The people in these photos park like they're fleeing the zombie apocalypse"

prize bull octorok — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:07:54 -0800

Kazakhstan: Bad Parking Capital of the World?

The Atlantic reports on "the sheer insanity of Kazakhstan's parking habits" showcased in the popular Almaty-based web site, I Parked Like an Ass.

By: kmz

kmz — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:12:53 -0800

Pfft. They've obviously never visited Beijing.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:13:49 -0800

Kazakhs are hardly alone in that regard. Even Parisians park like that.

By: scblackman

scblackman — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:14:37 -0800

We lived in Kostanai, KZ for 2 months while adopting our daughter. I can definitely attest to this. We not only saw tons of crappy parking from our 5th floor post-Soviet era block housing, but we saw plenty of accidents.

By: k8t

k8t — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:17:18 -0800

This is a developing country with money THING.

By: FirstMateKate

FirstMateKate — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:19:41 -0800

Does Kazakhstan not have parking tickets? Because if those sames stunts were pulled in Chicago, the driver would owe their house in fines.

By: obscurator

obscurator — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:23:58 -0800

Verrr' [not] nice.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:24:19 -0800

Looking at all those curb hops it looks more like "wheel bearing and suspension replacement capital of the world".

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:25:40 -0800

I work with a few Kazak's, they emphatically confirmed the accuracy of the site, in very funny ways. Funny people those Kazak's.

By: kafziel

kafziel — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:28:26 -0800

Borat reference.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:29:48 -0800

wow does that just look like a grimy, unappealing place to exist. eep.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:30:08 -0800

This is nothing. Come to South Philadelphia. You'll see cars just hanging out in the middle of a narrow side street.

By: Keith Talent

Keith Talent — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:32:13 -0800

In my experience most people around the world park like this. North America is the outrider of strange behaviour. We were in Italy earlier this year and we coined the phrase Sicilian style parking which we use here at home, spots that would be perfectly acceptable in Sicily, but not here. Half of those pictures look like economical use of precious urban space, rather than bad parking. Well except the Hummer, he's an asshat.

By: mochapickle

mochapickle — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:33:26 -0800

The motorcycle one makes sense. I've often started to pull into a space that looked empty, only to find a bike sitting there and sometimes traffic has inched too close to back up comfortable. Parking further out like that would make them easier to see.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:34:24 -0800

Come on, try Lisbon.

By: mcstayinskool

mcstayinskool — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:35:28 -0800

It's probably important to note that the author of this article, Max Fisher, did not even finish his studies at Rushmore.

By: computech_apolloniajames

computech_apolloniajames — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:39:24 -0800

This looks like a job for youparklikeacunt.com!

By: empath

empath — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:40:48 -0800

Does Kazakhstan not have parking tickets? Because if those sames stunts were pulled in Chicago, the driver would owe their house in fines. In my experience, enforcing traffic laws of any kind is not a priority in most of the developing world. I have seen drivers pull stunts on a near daily basis in central America in full view of cops that would have put them in jail in the us.

By: Ruthless Bunny

Ruthless Bunny — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:41:13 -0800

You will never have a friend like Gazprom. I don't know. It seemed appropriate.

By: Malor

Malor — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:48:51 -0800

Yeah, a few of those seem like intelligent solutions, not problems. The sideways motorcycle is taking up one space, the same as a car, and he/she is entitled to it as much as a car would be. And the black car with the license "A 999 DYM" may be in an actual driveway; it's hard to tell with all the snow, but that might be a spot where cars are supposed to park, and he's just a little off center. If so, big deal. And the very lead picture? He's sideways. So what? It doesn't look like he sticks out any further than the other parkers, and he's not blocking a spot where people would normally walk. It looks like it wasn't necessary for him to park that way, but we don't know what's changed about the situation since he left the car there. Doesn't seem like a very good lead photo for the article.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:50:23 -0800

wow does that just look like a grimy, unappealing place to exist. eep.

That's an incredibly rude and unnecessary thing to say. I'm sure your own country is just so darn fucking wonderful, right?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:04:40 -0800

Really, defending the dude who parked halfway across the curb on the grass?

By: 256

256 — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:20:03 -0800

wow does that just look like a grimy, unappealing place to exist. I challenge you to present a collection of random parking lots in winter from any country (that has a winter) and make it look particularly appealing. And yes, as a motorcyclist, I can attest that that parking job serves the particular purpose of not having somebody pull into the space and notice the bike in it too late. I wouldn't park quite that far out, as you risk being bumped if one of the guys next to leaves and someone new pulls in. Avoiding "fender benders" is a big part of motorcycle parking. When someone bumps your Volvo at 3 kph while parking, it leaves a scratch on your bumper and annoys you. When someone bumps your bike at 3 kph, it knocks it over and does potentially catastrophic damage.

By: phunniemee

phunniemee — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:21:10 -0800

wow does that just look like a grimy, unappealing place to exist. eep. Really? Looks to me like 90% of the neighborhoods here in Chicago. Welcome to urban life. Like, I'm sure you can find some really, really grimy, unappealing pictures of Khazakhstan, and perhaps more so than in a lot of places, but this really isn't the photoset on which to be making that call.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:26:19 -0800

Can we just turn over Khazakhstan to the Kardashians so we can more easily ignore both? Come on, Kardashistan just SOUNDS better...

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:30:08 -0800

Man, I have friends in Kazakhstan (in Atyrau) and they tell me that it is indeed an unappealing place to live. The winter goes down to -40. The summer goes up to 100F. They're holed up in their house much of the year. My friend says the drivers are so crazy they are afraid to drive so they always use a taxi - to go anywhere. Fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to find and extremely expensive. When they last came to the UK all they wanted was green salads because, they said, they missed fresh greens so much. Of course I'm just going by what my friends told me. I trust them but, on the other hand, they moved there directly after living in the 4th arrondissement in Paris, so they may also be undergoing severe culture shock.

By: Mojojojo

Mojojojo — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:13:54 -0800

I don't know: Traffic laws in the Philippines are just friendly suggestions.

By: mannequito

mannequito — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:25:14 -0800

Sweet. This gives me a chance to re-tell one of my favorite travel stories, which I'll just copy and paste from the comment I made almost exactly a year ago!: the funniest thing I saw on my first visit to Spain was during siesta in a tiny town down on the Mediterranean. A guy driving a medium sized truck was parked sideways across the road, blocking the entire narrow street, and passed out on the steering wheel. It was like his watch beeped to let him know it was siesta-time and he just pulled the e-brake and fell forwards.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:28:48 -0800

The winter goes down to -40. The summer goes up to 100F. They're holed up in their house much of the year. Those are the record temperatures. The averages are perfectly on par with huge swathes of North America. Your friends are wusses.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:57:35 -0800

That's an incredibly rude and unnecessary thing to say. I'm sure your own country is just so darn fucking wonderful, right? oh i'm fairly sure I've said the very same thing about Chicago on numerous occasions..

By: ninjew

ninjew — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:04:32 -0800

shit I just realized everyone in this thread hates me now. EDIT WINDOW. yes, I have seen cars and street scenes like this in Chicago which I why I know how unappealing it is. and yes if you parked in Chicago like this, the city would do you the favor of correctly parking your vehicle, in an impound lot. which you'll find out about a week later, after you report it stolen because they don't even bother to tell you and you have to pay them $1,000 to get it back.

By: GenjiandProust

GenjiandProust — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:26:03 -0800

To be fair, it might just be one really bad parker who happens to own a lot of cars....

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:00:42 -0800

Vengeance.

By: candyland

candyland — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 18:42:34 -0800

I thought the bad parking capital of the world was Southie.

By: Inspector.Gadget

Inspector.Gadget — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:57:06 -0800

In a parallel life, I keyed the shit out of this car for a solid 10 minutes.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:19:57 -0800

Blazecock Pileon: "This is nothing. Come to South Philadelphia. You'll see cars just hanging out in the middle of a narrow side street." Hey, you know why? Cause, what, you got somewhere to go? Like you and... and... your Toyota... fuckin' Corolla got fuckin' things to do? Meanwhile I'm busting my hump on the wharf to pay for my ma's meds and you gotta gimme grief the one time -- the one time -- I double park only because she called earlier and she said her heart was hurting her. Jeeeezus, your fuckin' lordship.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:20:17 -0800

God, I miss Philly.

By: vidur

vidur — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:24:24 -0800

I prefer English Russia for this sort of stuff.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:19:38 -0800

This is nothing, at least these people are trying to park. At home, in the west of Ireland people just stop their cars in the road and leave them there. If they're in town they'll put their blinkers on, so they won't get a ticket (this doesn't work Ma, I'm looking at you). And not just for a moment, for ages. If you ask them to move it, they will cheerfully. Just far enough to let your car by usually then they abandon it again. I have seen people stop in the road, get out and go to dinner in a nice sit down restaurant before. They'll block your driveway as soon as blink too. Day after day after day. It drives tourists and newcomers to complete aneurysms.

By: fshgrl

fshgrl — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:24:44 -0800

The best is when you find you're double parked in so you go into all the shops to find the driver of the other car and finally you do and it's a nicely dressed older lady who looks at you in utter astonishment. "Sure I left you room to get out!" she says. "Well, I can't" you say. So she wraps up her conversation in an unhurried fashion and accompanies you out and then says "but I did!" and you say, "Missus, I'd have to drive down the pavement in from of the guards shop, go around the post box there and cut through the corner of that garden" and she says "ah right so you don't need me to move my car so?".

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:46:53 -0800

Unfortunately, there is no World Bank or International Monetary Fund study on comparative parking practices across nations, no ranking of the world's countries by the politeness and orderliness of their drivers' habit Funny you should say this:

We study cultural norms and legal enforcement in controlling corruption by analyzing the parking behavior of United Nations officials in Manhattan. Until 2002, diplomatic immunity protected UN diplomats from parking enforcement actions, so diplomats' actions were constrained by cultural norms alone. We find a strong effect of corruption norms: diplomats from high-corruption countries (on the basis of existing survey-based indices) accumulated significantly more unpaid parking violations. In 2002, enforcement authorities acquired the right to confiscate diplomatic license plates of violators. Unpaid violations dropped sharply in response. Cultural norms and (particularly in this context) legal enforcement are both important determinants of corruption.

Park Violations Rank #34 of 149 nations: Kazakhstan

By: jiawen

jiawen — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:32:31 -0800

I don't get what's wrong with some of those parking jobs. This one, for example. Does someone need access to that pole? Do people need to jump out of that window? Some of the parking seems like it's actually downright considerate -- trying to get out of the traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian, by going onto some dirt that otherwise wouldn't care. If you want bad parking, see the vast scooter farms engulfing any given sidewalk in urban Taiwan.

By: moammargaret

moammargaret — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 06:39:57 -0800

What's surprising is that this these pictures are basically displays of antisocial behavior, not desperate attempts to create a parking space where none exists. Does not augur well for the future of the country.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:04:15 -0800

Does not augur well for the future of the country. How does SEVEN GOLD MEDALS augur?

By: We had a deal, Kyle

We had a deal, Kyle — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:16:00 -0800

Also this one is adorable.