Local Burrito Place Accidentally Creates An IQ Test (1 Viewer)

[Vince Maskeeper]

A Chipotle Restaurant Here in Kent has Accidentally Created An IQ Test!

The restaurant is situated on a state route, a busy road. The driveway for the place is a loop around that is one way, it loops you to the back of the restaurant (where there are a number of parking spaces), and back out to the road (along the driveway on the way out are some additional parking spots).

When you enter however- there is an interesting area...

On the right is a fence, just beyond that fence is a pizza place next door. Because of fire codes, the area right against the side of the pizza place is a fire lane- and thus cannot be a parking area. So the Chipotle people marked off the area with a striped box that says NO PARKING.





But, this created the IQ test. You see, the stripes are approximately the size of a parking space (actually a good foot too narrow and about a foot too shallow if you really pay attention)-- and since the NO PARKING message only appears every so often- people are actually parking in the narrow striped areas between the words NO PARKING.

Despite being clearly marked off as shown in the diagram above, people still seem to think as long as they don't park on the actual WORDS "no parking", that it's fine.

I've been tempted to do one of two things:

1) Try to figure out what these people THINK is going on-- Stand around outside and wait for people to come back to their cars, and ask them why, exactly, they would figure the parking lot would have a couple of small squares they couldn't park within, but could park next to.
2) Come up with a small slip of paper congratulating them for failing the Chipotle IQ test, and pointing them to a website which laughs at them mercilessly.

Every time I go to get a burrito and see one or two people parked in these skinny striped spots between the GIANT words no parking- very careful to not actually park on the words themselves, and it makes me laugh.

-Vince

 

[Brian Kleinke]

Wow #2 would be quite funny!

 

[Philip_G]

there's a reason no parking areas like fire lanes and the ends of rows are hashed through with yellow stripes
what color is the curb in front of the fire lane? did they paint it red with white no parking all the way along?

 

[MarcVH]

Well, the painted lines are potentially confusing. If you don't see the solid yellow line along the bottom of the area (e.g. because your own hood blocks the line of sight -- likely, particularly if you drive an SUV) then the spots between the "NO PARKING" words do look exactly like parking spaces. They should add some slanted lines in the opposite direction to make a crosshatch figure, or something.

The spots being a foot too small probably don't get any notice because people are used to the special "compact cars who don't mind door dings" parking spots that are so common these days.

Is there also signage along the fence indicating there's no parking there? If not, how do people know not to park there if there's snow on the ground?

 

[Jay Taylor]

Vince,

Your #2 option reminds me of cards we used to carry in case someone parked on the stripe in our crowded parking lot at work. It read:

Congratulations on finding 2 parking spaces.
The rest of us couldn't even find 1.
******* _ _ _HOLE! *******

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> Despite being clearly marked off as shown in the diagram above, people still seem to think as long as they don't park on the actual WORDS "no parking", that it's fine.

I think the paint job is potentially confusing & should be made more obvious, if the goal is to prevent people from parking there. Hint: put the stripes closer together, like 2 or 3 feet, so it doesn't look like spots.

I know of some businesses that have several handicapped spots up front, with one or more regular spots (because they are too narrow for handicapped parking). Even though the handicapped spots are individually marked, people seem to think the regular spots next to them are also zoned handicapped, & rarely park there.

 

[BrianW]

Our local Pappa John's Pizza really does have legitimate parking spaces adjacent to a couple of No Parking zones, just like in your picture, except the parking spaces are normally sized, and there's no solid yellow line in front of them.

The No Parking areas are simply reserved parking spots for their delivery people, which makes perfect sense to me.

If someone proposed that as a theory, would they pass or fail your IQ test? Or would they summarily fail just for parking there?

 

[Joe Szott]

The way I've seen places correct this is to actually put up vertical signs that say "No Parking, Fire Lane" at the curb there so that folks who pull into the spot are actually looking right at the vertical sign. A lot like what you see in Malls and such with Handicapped spots, the blue vertical metal signs.

Then if folks pull in it isn't because they are stupid, it's because they just don't care...

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Trick question! It looks to me like the lines painted in the NO PARKING area are intentionally misleading.

Why would they paint parking-space-sized and -shaped areas there? If they left out the diagonal lines, there would be one large rectangular area with the words NO PARKING repeated twice, much less ambiguous in my opinion.

 

[Dheiner]

So, Vince, have you figured out the problem yet?

 

[BrettB]

Vince, I think you're being too hard on the people who are parking in these spots. As others have suggested, there should be a rectangle with more closely spaced cross hatching throughout, preferably in the opposite direction that a normal parking stripe would run. IMO, the person(s)who painted up this no-parking zone is(are) more deserving of your attention.

However, I would like to officially nominate your thread title for Best AHL Thread Title (2003).

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

I dunno- I apologize to anyone who this might offend- but I really think that any marking beyond this really elevates it to a "for dummies" approach. I've discussed this with several friends and co-workers who eat there- and all seemed to know by the boxed out marking at the front edge that the entire area was no parking (and even if not, it would be easily extrapolated given the position of the area labelled no parking).

But see, that's the point of the "IQ test" part- you're not given a clear answer- it might be left a little ambigious, and you have to think about it-- and I'm just curious to talk to the people who chose to park there and see their logic.

Although, there might be additional signs posted, never looked all that close- since the painted lines seemed SCREAMINGLY obvious to me.

Again- I wouldn't disagree that it could be more blatent- but then again, I never thought coffee cups needed to proclaim that the contents are hot.

 

[Tommy Ceez]

I definatly would park there. Its not my responsibility to know your areas zoning laws and I could beat that ticket in about 3 seconds flat. If its not clearly marked Im taking the spot, put a card on my window.

 

[Jay Taylor]

Then only bikers would park there.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I'm just considering this from an "interface design" perspective. If you create a rectangular area on a computer screen that is grey with a beveled edge, the user will be inclined to press it.

Likewise, if there is a diamond-shaped, car-sized area bounded by yellow lines, folks will be inclined to park there. The solid yellow diagonal lines to the left and right of the NO PARKING area look like boundaries to me.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The solution is simple, remove the lines within the "No Parking" space. There's no confusion inside the space which only has "No Parking" on display in that space.

 

[BrianW]

I've seen local burrito places accidentally create lots of things, but never an IQ test.

 

[MickeS]

I probably would have parked there. Who knows why there's "no parking" next to it, I don't investigate the cause of all road restrictions. If there's a square that looks like a parking space and it's in a parking lot area, it's natural to assume that it's a parking space.

/Mike

 

[Charles J P]

Yep, just based on what is in the diagram, I'd park there. Now, if the curb is painted, or it said fire lane instead of no parking...

 

[Joe Szott]

I really think that any marking beyond this really elevates it to a "for dummies" approach

Vince - you been on the roadways for very long? Maybe Ohio is different but here in Denver, we need to clearly post everything for the Dummies so they can help explain it to the Idiots. Us regular folk don't want to deal with an Idiot, we'd rather stay home and enjoy some quality HT!

Tommy - The ticket isn't the problem, it's the fire truck that either smashes your car out of the way to park there, or the firemen that break all your windows to pass a 200' hose through your car and pump a couple thousand gallons through it. Believe me, they consider it a perk of the job (and they are by law immune from reproach for any damage caused)...