This may seem like a somewhat unrelated post, and maybe it is. But for the past few weeks, every single day, one thing has been bothering us.
A few weeks back, Cofounder Andy noticed a mysterious phenomenon in the parking lot of the building the 500 Startups office is in.
One row in the parking lot has almost all the cars parked facing out, even though the most logical thing for a car parking there would be to park facing in. Here’s what I mean:
Say you're driving down into the parking lot...
You turn the corner...
And bam!
Almost every car is facing out. Why?
Seriously? Why?!
One theory we’ve come up with is that people drive around and then park facing out. But why would you do that? Why not just drive in? We’ve bounced tons of ideas back and forth, and we’re stumped. Do you think you can help us figure out why?
P.S. While you’re busy thinking, perhaps you should join an alumni lunch club or an intern lunch club to enlist assistant detectives. Just a thought. I mean, you just might find your next co-founder or even better, the perfect laser tag buddy. You can thank us later (we take cash and cookies).
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UPDATE:
Someone has proposed the theory: “The parking spots are not angled, so it is tighter turning right into the spots. It is easier to just turn left a bit and then reverse into the spots.” This would make sense if only the cars in the first few parking spots near the parking lot entrance were facing out, but almost ALL the cars, even the ones in the spots farthest away from the parking lot entrance, are parked facing out. And this happens every. single. day.
I’m sure everyone pulls through. And by doing so they may have to go extra lengths in the am but they can get out quicker in the evening when it is more important
aka when it’s time to get beer and dinner
Is there another entrance on the other side?
no, it wraps around and goes down to the 2nd level parking
No, there’s only one entrance.
Also, it’s probably helpful when pulling out, to be able to see – so not only easier to pull through, but also when leaving, backing up, people coming around the corner are risk of hitting you. From picture #2, it does appear people pull in face first at the far wall.
We need a little more data I think to really analyze this. And that data should be available in a visual.ly display, of course. It is #500Strong after all.
Turning in is only logical if you are really bad driver and can’t do a simple K turn in a parking lot the size of a nuclear bunker. If, however, you are slightly more capable than an average Joe, which I assume is the case for the 500 legion, then you go the extra mile to efficiently (see Melissa’s response above).
I’m pretty sure everyone wants to use their cool rear-view camera and park assist. You can’t do that if you simply drive into the space
The theory is: they came in earlier in the day and are coming “down” the parking lot. They don’t cross the “stop” sign you showed. They see empty spaces in their current parking spot as well the ones just behind their current parking spot. They enter through the parking spot just behind the current parking spot and drive straight into the current spot – so that they can leave by just driving straight and not having to reverse
Hang out one morning and evening when people come in and see what happens.
Yeah, I always park facing out (but that could be an old military habbit)…so, I’m gonna go with the following theory: It’s the valet parking staff