This morning I was parked in a one way street, with parallel parking down both sides. A woman turned up in a MG. I think it was a MG3 (like the Rover 25). The space immediately opposite me was clear, so she decided to park there. Now these spaces are big (a Volvo V70 estate had just parked, with no problems, in front of me), and the car behind where she was trying to park was well to the rear of its space, so she had almost a bay and a half of space. After about four aborted attempts, where she never got more than half her car in the bay, she gave up and drove a little further up the road.
There was a bay at the end, immediately butting on to the double yellow lines, making parking a doddle. She parked there, with half her car width out in the road. She then got out of the car, realised how far she had to walk to the kerb, so got back in and after three more attempts, got her wheels inside the marked box. Except she hadn't. Her front wheels were outside the bay, on the yellow lines. She got out, went to the machine to buy her ticket, and on her return spotted her problem. She then got back in, and after a bit of shunting back and forth, finally got all four wheels inside the marked box.
The entire escapade provided 20 minutes of entertainment for me. Now I am not the best at parallel parking, but if I was that bad I think I would have parked somewhere open, and walked to the shops. Or even taken public transport. She is obviously someone who will benefit from self driving cars!
