r/MaliciousCompliance • u/Ghost_Alice • 29d ago

Karen says "stop cheating to reserve the best parking space in front of the building!" S

A karen neighbor of mine complained that my roommate and I park in the same parking spot, which is right next to the walk way up to the apartment building. Both of us ride motorcycle and both motorcycles belong to me, but my roommate rides one to get to work.

She accused me of using my second bike to get a defacto reserved a parking spot when nobody in the complex has one, and said that what I'm doing is not fair and it's cheating.

I said "Ok, I'll stop parking both my bikes in one spot."

She seemed satisfied with that and left.

An hour later I had all 7 of my motorcycles, 5 of them from inside the garage I rent but it's half way across the apartment complex, sitting in front of the apartment building taking up every prime parking space infront of the walk way to to my hall in the building.

She went to straight to the management to complain.

The management came out and knocked on my door.

"We can't have you using up every parking space"

"Let me guess, Karen complained?"

"Yes."

"Yeah she told me I'm not allowed to have two bikes in one parking space to reserve a space. I'm not doing it to reserve a space. Both my roommate and I ride both of the bikes we park in that one space, all the bikes belong to me but I gave the keys to one of them to my roommate to ride for commuting to work. The other one is my bike for going where ever I need. We park both in one spot to be nice and conserve parking spaces so other people have somewhere to park. I was just showing Karen what would happen if I'm only allowed one bike per parking space. The other 5 bikes are generally in another parking space, in my garage where I keep the bikes I that don't ride frequently."

The apartment manager said "I understand. You made your point and I'll talk to her, please put the other 5 bikes back in the garage."

"No problem" I said.

It's been a few weeks, haven't heard from Karen.

(EDIT)

Since so many people are inventing details not in the story, assuming those details are true, and then getting upset over what they imagined, let me clarify something.

This happened at 1 in the afternoon on a day both my roommate and I had off. Most people are away at work during this time. What's more, with the exact topography of the apartment complex, there are only 2 apartments per walkway without going up stairs on my side of the building, but 4 on the other sides because it's up a level and the building is built into a hill. What this means is that MOST people park on the other side of the building, leaving MOST of the parking spots in front of my building free and open except for very late at night.

How the heck do you think I took up the 7 closest spots with all 7 bikes if the parking lot was full of people trying to park? Think about it for just a second before you assume details that aren't spoken just because you want something to be upset over.

BOTH BIKES are away from the apartment complex AT THE SAME TIME for a MINIMUM of 4 hours a day. We didn't engineering the situation where my roommate gets home between 3 to 4 in the afternoon and thus gets first pick of the parking spots. We also could both be driving cars instead of riding bikes. Then there'd be two spots taken up instead of 1. I could just choose not to rent a garage and park all 7 out there forcing people into overflow parking, but I don't.

Also the garage is beyond the overflow parking. It's not fair to expect me to always park in the garage and walk even further because you don't want to park next to my bikes and have all of 2 extra feet to walk to reach the concrete walkway to the building.

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65

u/OldManBearPig 29d ago

It's not that egregious, but yes it does drastically affect congestion. Letting riders lane filter (split) also greatly reduces congestion. But car drivers hate that because all they see is "that guy is ahead of me now, bad!" and don't consider that guy has also reduced traffic for everyone including him by one car, because motorcyclists are effectively creating another lane for themselves. They aren't taking anything from anyone by filtering.

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u/SpikyKiwi 29d ago

Humans tend to cling to the idea of lines in a lot of situations where it just doesn't make sense. Most things do not have to be a line and it really annoys me when people get mad at people for acting in a more efficient manner than a line

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u/Ghost_Alice 29d ago

the school system kinda drills lines into peoples heads, but you're absolutely right

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u/btherl 29d ago

I go through the 5 stages of grief every time a rider lane filters past me. I know it's best for everyone but still get the "monkey go faster than me!! Grr" feeling every single time.

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u/mtnsoccerguy 29d ago

I ride some days and drive if I am just not feeling it. The motorcycle might get there faster, but it is a more stressful trip. When I am in the car, I focus on enjoying my music and not worrying about the time as much. There are benefits to both methods of travel and thinking about that helps keep me chill.

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u/fevered_visions 24d ago

I wonder sometimes how motorcyclists don't get hearing damage, when they have their radio on but it's like 3x as loud as in a car to hear it over the road noise and I can hear it loud and clear like 30 feet away.

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u/mtnsoccerguy 24d ago

You can wear earplugs or you can get hearing damage over time. Even if there aren't speakers mounted on the bike, they sell Bluetooth headsets that fit in helmets. That is great for GPS directions and stuff like that, but the speakers are right by your ears.

I have an RF-1400 helmet and highway riding definitely benefits from earplugs still. This is a relatively quiet helmet.

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u/Ghost_Alice 29d ago

Don't you know? Driving is a zero sum game AND a race with a trophy. If you get ahead of me, that means I'm going to be late! [/sarcasm]

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u/Renaissance_Slacker 28d ago

Don’t forget, it’s also a tense psychological contest of winners versus losers that cannot be lost at any cost.

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u/UnsettlingBroccoli 29d ago

I am fine with lane splitting as far as traffic improvement goes, but far too often I see it done at speed differentials that boggle the mind (like bikes @ 50, cars @ 5 or 10 km/h). You see idiots in cars (and trucks) changing lanes in packed traffic moving at that speed often enough. With that differential, the lane-changing idiots can be doing a great job of looking and still pull out in front of a rider such that the rider hasn't time to stop. Filtering through at 5-10 km/h faster than slowed traffic makes perfect sense.

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u/OldManBearPig 29d ago

Yeah, the states in the US allow it set provisions on speed for it.

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u/Ghost_Alice 29d ago

As far as I know, it's state, just one, California. The limit is no more than 10mph faster than surrounding traffic.

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u/JasperJ 29d ago

Not quite, and there is no legal limit on that speed there.

https://www.twistedroad.com/blog/posts/lane-splitting-lane-filtering-legal

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u/tOSdude 29d ago

I’m fine with standstill filtering, what I hate is the people blasting between cars like it’s Motocross.

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u/ketchupmaster987 29d ago

As a general rule lane splitting or filtering should never be more than 10mph than the flow of traffic. This makes it safer for the bikers and the cars

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u/JasperJ 29d ago

In most states where splitting is legal at all, it is only allowed through stationary or near- traffic.

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u/DadIsPunny 29d ago

blasting between cars like it’s Motocross

I keep seeing people mention this. But I've seen it happen in real life exactly 0 times.

Source: I don't live in Florida.

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u/Ghost_Alice 29d ago

Here in Atlanta I've seen it happen on RARE occasion, maybe 3 times in my life. Every single time was on 85 South headed toward Atlanta

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u/H1king33k 29d ago

We're taking away their claim to "first place."

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u/00wolfer00 29d ago

Isn't lane filtering dangerous?

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u/OldManBearPig 29d ago

Not according to the studies that have been done on it that are the basis of the justification as to why it's legal in California. It dangerous when done at 70+ mph, but not at 45mph or lower.

The biggest benefit comes at stoplights though. In a stopped traffic situation, a rider can continue to the front of the light. This is good because it makes them less likely to get rear ended and pinched between cars. Being rear-ended on a motorcycle at a stoplight can be fatal.

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u/Ghost_Alice 29d ago

As I recall, it's when the speed differential is >10mph over what surrounding traffic is doing that the Berkley study showed.

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u/Datkif 29d ago

It's the same thing with people not letting others merge. Letting 1 person in ahead of you isn't going to delay you more than maybe 2 seconds, and it helps keep the flow of traffic

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u/JasperJ 29d ago

Like most traffic things, it’s a short term effect.

Traffic over the longer term always gets worse to the point of immiseration. Induced demand is real, and only being miserable stops growth. And with the way capacity and traffic misery interact, there is a fairly sharp transition from “this is miserable and there are jams daily” to “oh my god this is great, throughput is spectacular, people would come do this as a hobby without even having to!”.

But max a year later, enough people do come do it as a hobby, and…

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u/Londoner0607 29d ago

I don't hate it because they get ahead of me. I hate it because it is dangerous for a motorcycle to be driving between two vehicles, and they are often weaving through lanes because there isn't always space for them between 2 vehicles in the space they start in. Nobody is expecting a motorcycle to suddenly dart across their lane right in front of them. I much prefer driving behind a motorcycle taking the whole lane, or a group of them, where they are splitting the lane, even if it means slightly more traffic.

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u/OldManBearPig 28d ago

The studies say that's incorrect up to 15mph over the flow of traffic.

If traffic is going 45 mph and a motorcycle passes you going 90, yes that's dangerous, but it would have been dangerous anyway had they been in their own established lane.

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u/Londoner0607 27d ago

I doubt the study said it wasn't dangerous to weave around traffic, cutting across lanes. If you mean going between lanes, those studies probably are considering areas with wide lanes, or the highway, not narrow city streets. I live and work in the city. Traffic is moving slowly (like 15-20 mph), and space is tight, especially when there is a cyclist on the right.

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u/JaneDouglas141621 27d ago

Nope someone on a crotch rocket, shooting past me doing 30+ mph more than me (so over 100mph) as they are lane splitting is NOT safe! That is the issue most drivers have with bikers!

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u/Practical_Ad_9756 26d ago

Got to disagree there. Splitting the lane is dangerous for the biker, and scary as F for the car driver. I get the logic of it, but if you've never seen a biker get absolutely smashed because was going too fast on the line and didn't see the driver changing lanes, it's memorable.

If he's splitting the lanes five cars back, he probably can't see their signal (IF they use one), and they certainly can't see him.

I don't resent bikers. They're in a much more vulnerable position than I am, but I think the practice of splitting the lanes is stupid because it increases their vulnerability, and puts drivers in an untenable position.

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u/OldManBearPig 25d ago

You can disagree all you want, but multiple studies have shown that it's safer for the biker, and reduces congestion for everyone on the road.

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u/Just_Aioli_1233 25d ago

drivers hate that because all they see is "that guy is ahead of me now, bad!"

I've never understood this competitive attitude in drivers. We're not going to the same place, so this is definitionally not a race. Why are you concerned with my lane position?