Talon Marks Online Opinion
The Cerritos College parking lot can be a civilized area to park our vehicles, or it can be a wild, uncontrollable jungle, free of rules and common courtesy.
We’ve all seen these situations: waiting hours for a parking spot only for someone who just arrived at the parking lot to take the spot we’ve been waiting for with a complete lack of consideration, the driver who, after sitting in his car for 15 minutes barely turns on his car to leave and of course, who can forget the one person who tells us the three words we hate hearing in our concrete jungle: “I’m not leaving.”
There needs to be a code of etiquette when approaching our parking lots that needs to be observed by all Cerritos College students without exception.
Thankfully, one has finally been created.
By observing these rules, behavior and processes in the parking lot, we can make things better for all of us.
- Observe the “waiting rule”
There are many occasions where, in hopes of finding an ideal parking spot, we park our cars on the side of a lane in order to scope out a good place to park. This is known as the “waiting rule.”
We wait for what seems like an eternity, and just when we find a spot, someone comes from behind and takes the spot we’ve been waiting for with complete disregard to us.
As an incoming driver, be considerate to those who have been waiting because chances are that they’ve been in that spot for a minimum of 10 minutes.
If you see a car waiting in a lane and another car is coming out of its spot, just drive past the two cars and let the waiting driver take his rightful spot.
The next time you think about taking a spot from another driver, just think: would you want someone to do that to you?
You never know, if by taking that person’s parking spot, you’ve made him late for his class, which can lead to more severe consequences.
- Sitting = loitering
It’s perfectly understandable that as a student, you might have time in between classes where you have nothing to do.
Your friends might have all left for the day and you’ve got nothing to do and your only option is to hang out in your car.
From a personal standpoint, this could very well be considered a form of loitering, if the proper procedures are not observed.
If you are going into your car to sit and relax and there is a car waiting for a spot, please let the driver know that you are not leaving as soon as you see the driver look at you to indicate his potential retrieval of your spot.
Not doing so confuses the other driver and he does not know if you’re just sitting in your car to give him a hard time, which can lead to a bad incident fueled by a driver’s worst enemy: road rage.
- You’re not leaving? Get your stuff and get out.
Telling another driver you’re not leaving doesn’t just apply to sitting in your car; you may just need to get something out of your car for your next class.
When this is the case, communicating with the other driver is still required to avoid confusion and anger.
And please, don’t wait until the driver looks at you; it’s abundantly obvious that he’s waiting for you under the assumption of you leaving, so the least you can do is let him know you aren’t leaving as soon as you hear the beep of your car alarm turn off.
In short, just get your things, let the driver know you’re not going anywhere and go about your day. Your car isn’t going anywhere, so don’t worry about standing there for 15 minutes to protect it.
These are three basic rules that, if followed, can make finding parking on campus a much easier experience.
Let’s pull in to the lot, throw our turn signal on and have a nice day.
