FancyParking

December 19, 2005 4:16 PM

Have you ever walked through a parking lot, and gazed in awe at how certain cars have parked? Maybe you never knew how to describe it before. You've referred to it as Backwards Parking, Read End Parking, Front Wheels Out, and even Wrong Way Parking.

It's called Fancy Parking. (via)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow (37 comments total)

Uh Oh.
posted by docpops at 4:21 PM on December 19, 2005

Have you ever come up with a funny name for something that no one really cared about, and then went on to create an entire website around the subject?

It's called Fancy Parking.
posted by milnak at 4:21 PM on December 19, 2005

Boy, I haven't see a site that uses images for all it's text in a long time . . .
posted by jeremias at 4:22 PM on December 19, 2005

oh my golly goodness. There's a website devoted to reverse parking. But why, is the question many are asking. Why on earth would anyone go to so much trouble? Is it funny? Informative? Satirical? Commercial? Does it have any point whatsoever? Is it perhaps nihilistic? Or trying to prove some deeper point about the world?
posted by wilful at 4:24 PM on December 19, 2005

I'm a fan of Method #3. There's nothing quite like zooming backwards down a crowded parking lot at 20-30mph just to get that spot a ways back.
posted by mikeweeney at 4:25 PM on December 19, 2005

Yeah, nice images. What? Text is too good for you?
posted by bshort at 4:25 PM on December 19, 2005

This was fancy a few weeks ago. But it's still a funny site.
posted by Happydaz at 4:27 PM on December 19, 2005

They got the name for #4 wrong, that move is called "the pull thru".
posted by sexymofo at 4:40 PM on December 19, 2005

talk about celebrating the mundane...
posted by crunchland at 4:41 PM on December 19, 2005

I've read numerous trashy novels where the cops, PIs, or crooks park ass in so they can move out in a hurry.

I don't know if this happens in reality or only in the shared realm of action novels.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 4:45 PM on December 19, 2005

"The Crazy Straw" was kind of funny.
posted by MrBadExample at 4:47 PM on December 19, 2005

Inspired by an equally inane Ask MeFi thread...
posted by fixedgear at 4:48 PM on December 19, 2005

Yeah we covered it pretty well in AskMe just last week.
posted by parallax7d at 4:51 PM on December 19, 2005

Oh sorry, missed the [via] part.
posted by parallax7d at 4:52 PM on December 19, 2005

My bike goes uphill as well as down.
posted by dash_slot- at 4:54 PM on December 19, 2005

What the fuck? Is today a Bitch About Bad Motorists Website day or something?
posted by c13 at 4:55 PM on December 19, 2005

Wow, I've been fancy parking for a while now without even knowing it. Fanciness must run in my blood or something.
posted by clevershark at 4:58 PM on December 19, 2005

Call me naive -- I won't answer to that name, but that doesn't matter right now -- but I've parked that way for years and never knew it was "fancy." I just knew it would let me escape just a little bit faster than the others when it came time to go home from work.
posted by Seabird at 4:59 PM on December 19, 2005

Metafilter: where crooks park ass in
posted by arakasi at 4:59 PM on December 19, 2005

I don't know about 'awe', but I regularly gaze in horror at some people's attempts at parking.
posted by pompomtom at 5:01 PM on December 19, 2005

"The sidewalk's for regular walking, not for fancy walking."

kinda goes for parking lots and parking too
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 5:02 PM on December 19, 2005

I do fancy parking so that I don't have to do that fancy leaving.
posted by stirfry at 5:07 PM on December 19, 2005

I bet these people have debated the Seinfeld episode ad nauseum.
posted by fenriq at 5:09 PM on December 19, 2005

It's just much easier to back into an empty space when arriving, than back out into what could be a moving vehicle when leaving.
posted by clevershark at 5:09 PM on December 19, 2005

Fancy Parking is also the dumbest name I think I've ever heard, unless its the name of a punk band. Fancy Parking, more like taking a moment to park better so you can get out faster and easier.
posted by fenriq at 5:10 PM on December 19, 2005

In my family the pull-thru has been codified as the Opposite George, Sr. rule: "If you can pull through, you must pull through."

The fact that my dad grew up in the Bronx and didn't learn to drive till he was 35 has served as no small source of amusement to his smug suburban spawn.
posted by Opposite George at 5:14 PM on December 19, 2005

I was wondering the other day why some lots forbid this.
posted by 2sheets at 5:17 PM on December 19, 2005

Well first of all, the email address on this site references [e-mail]. I'm not sure how many other mefi's out there have spent any time valet'ing, but those of us who have will appreciate the 'back-in' park.

It's hard to explain I suppose, but we take a lot of pride in a row full of expensive cars lined up, just so... especially the VIP's. Then again most of us are car buff's who like driving cars we'll never own in a million years.

Besides, there's actually a very good reason why we back in besides looks -- it's safer. When you're backing into a space you only have to worry about what's going on in that space, whereas if you've parked front-in, you need to worry about everything that's going on in the lot when you're backing out. Make sense?

I will back into most spaces with my own car, because after doing it thousands of times with thousands of different vehicles, It comes as naturally as pulling in. And yes, it's also a subtle 'a valet owns this car' to any other valet who may walk by. We all do it, even on our offtimes, for I would think pretty much the same reasons as I've outlined above.

Now whether or not I would have devoted an entire website to it, or called 'fancy' parking (this has gotta be a brit website) is another thing.
posted by WetherMan at 5:24 PM on December 19, 2005

Sorry to say I didn't see any reference to the spiritual father of fancy parking, On The Road's Dean Moriarty [scroll down]:

He was "the most fantastic parking-lot attendant in the world," Sal Paradise says in On the Road. He "can back a car forty miles an hour into a tight squeeze and stop at the wall, jump out, race among fenders, leap into another car, circle it fifty miles an hour in a narrow space, back swiftly into a tight spot, hump, snap the car with the emergency so that you see it bounce as he flies out; then .?.?. leap into a newly arrived car before the owner's half out, leap literally under him as he steps out, starts the car with the door flapping, and roar off to the next available spot, arc, pop in, brake, out, run."

posted by Opposite George at 5:26 PM on December 19, 2005

I clicked on this one thinking it would be about all those (fancy) car owners who deliberately park across three spaces so they can't possibly get dents in their doors or something. Or at least a complaint about the SUV, truck and van owners who never seem to be able to park properly... just over the line enough to make the parking space on either side too narrow for anyone but a Smart car owner. Or... well, I could go on.

As rant sites go, this one was pretty tame.
posted by Zinger at 5:33 PM on December 19, 2005

Unless you are in fact a valet parking a car in a private garage/lot, it ain't Fancy Parking, folks, it's Asshole Parking (except maybe the "pull through" if executed quickly and efficiently). I can't count the number of times I have been made to wait in an over-crowded lot while some self-absorbed jerk in front of me takes several tries to get the whole back-in thing right, while the myself and the people behind me have to stew in our juices (waiting to pass said "Fancy Parker", not take the space). It's even worse when there are signs clearly posted every 3 spaces or so that instruct drivers to park front-in ONLY and people still try to get away with this. There's a special place in hell for them.
posted by turtlegirl at 5:35 PM on December 19, 2005 [1 favorite]

turtlegirl -- er, I recommend the valium?
posted by clevershark at 5:42 PM on December 19, 2005

You don't want to have sex with a fancy parker. Trust me.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:43 PM on December 19, 2005

up next - fancy pantsing
posted by isopraxis at 5:45 PM on December 19, 2005

(this has gotta be a brit website)

Irony meter shoots to 11.
posted by dash_slot- at 5:49 PM on December 19, 2005

So, it's better to have to dodge all those turtlepeople who can't see what's coming (namely you) while they're backing out of spaces that they so righteously pulled head-on into. Because, of course, they have to get most of the way out into the travel lane before they can see what the hell is going on around them. So you and all the people behind you, etc., etc. have to deal with the turtlepeople's lack of foresight. But no, it isn't Fancy Parking, nor is it Asshole Parking, either, unless you're a turtleperson, of course, in which case you get to call people names based on your stewing in your own juices and all.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:52 PM on December 19, 2005

You don't want to have sex with a fancy parker.

Don't listen to this person. Some of fancy parkers are also cunning linguists.
posted by neuron at 5:56 PM on December 19, 2005