Pleased that this post has gotten so much reaction -- though almost all of it has been on my Facebook page where I posted a link to this column.
Here's a sampling:
1. "I work in construction. Over the years, my teams have put 10s of millions of miles on the road. Something like 30-50% of motor vehicle incidents involve backing. Consider how many miles (of the total) we put on vehicles that involve backing. Many incidents, few miles. The solution is to minimize or eliminate backing entirely. If we must back, it’s far safer to pull up, eyeball the stall, and back in. I appreciate you getting the word out."
2. "I'm sorry but I'm anti backing in. It blocks up the lot much more than backing out. And it's inconvenient to load up your groceries. I just don't get it."
3. "It's definitely a lot easier to back into a parking space than to back out into traffic coming from both directions with opposing parkers trying to back out from the other side."
4. "Not a fan of backing in. The people who do it don’t seem to know the courtesy of using a signal parking lot, so let the person behind them know what they’re doing."
The response has confirmed my suspicion that when I write about random, quirky topics, it'll strike a chord with folks, since so much of life involves random, quirky things like backing up our cars.
A future topic I am mulling over: my wife's strong view (bordering on militaristic insistence) that when I buy fruit, I do so in even increments only. Two or four applies: good. Three or five: very, very bad. I mean.....huh?
I think doing so in an Oak Park Village lot or Village garage is illegal. So you better pick and choose your lot wisely before you wisely back in.
Pleased that this post has gotten so much reaction -- though almost all of it has been on my Facebook page where I posted a link to this column.
Here's a sampling:
1. "I work in construction. Over the years, my teams have put 10s of millions of miles on the road. Something like 30-50% of motor vehicle incidents involve backing. Consider how many miles (of the total) we put on vehicles that involve backing. Many incidents, few miles. The solution is to minimize or eliminate backing entirely. If we must back, it’s far safer to pull up, eyeball the stall, and back in. I appreciate you getting the word out."
2. "I'm sorry but I'm anti backing in. It blocks up the lot much more than backing out. And it's inconvenient to load up your groceries. I just don't get it."
3. "It's definitely a lot easier to back into a parking space than to back out into traffic coming from both directions with opposing parkers trying to back out from the other side."
4. "Not a fan of backing in. The people who do it don’t seem to know the courtesy of using a signal parking lot, so let the person behind them know what they’re doing."
The response has confirmed my suspicion that when I write about random, quirky topics, it'll strike a chord with folks, since so much of life involves random, quirky things like backing up our cars.
A future topic I am mulling over: my wife's strong view (bordering on militaristic insistence) that when I buy fruit, I do so in even increments only. Two or four applies: good. Three or five: very, very bad. I mean.....huh?