Parallel Parking—Riga Style
Parking space in Riga is as tight as almost any place in the world. Think Boston on a Red Sox or Celtics game day or UNH almost any Monday through Thursday class day. Riga is a city of almost one million people, just under half the population of the country. The Old Town, like some parts of Boston, consists of small, narrow streets with no on-street parking. Unlike Boston, there are no public parking garages that we’ve seen anywhere in the city. Until independence was reestablished here 15 years ago, there were significantly fewer personal automobiles in the country. Since independence auto sales in Latvia, including many high end vehicles, have boomed. Parallel parking is often a challenge even for those of us with lots of driving experience. Have you ever tried to sideslip into a parallel space that was just a bit too short for the vehicle? Oh, add to the picture an absence of parking meters and no clearly demarcated, white-lined spaces on these streets. Rigans do pay for parking—there are ticket boxes every half-block or so, but nothing to designate one space from the next. So, when faced with this situation, here’s the Riga approach. Pull up next to the car either in front of or just behind the space you’ve decided to occupy. Angle the car headfirst into the space if you’re approaching from behind, or back into the space from the front so that in either case one wheel of your vehicle goes 3-5 feet up onto the sidewalk. If there’s room, proceed in drive and reverse to move the vehicle into a parallel position. If the space is small, leave the car angled with one corner a few feet onto the sidewalk. The accompanying picture illustrates the technique. They do use wheel “boots” for illegally parked cars, a gaudy hot pink color, but I’ve yet to see one on an angled-in “parallel-parked” car.
rej
Parking space in Riga is as tight as almost any place in the world. Think Boston on a Red Sox or Celtics game day or UNH almost any Monday through Thursday class day. Riga is a city of almost one million people, just under half the population of the country. The Old Town, like some parts of Boston, consists of small, narrow streets with no on-street parking. Unlike Boston, there are no public parking garages that we’ve seen anywhere in the city. Until independence was reestablished here 15 years ago, there were significantly fewer personal automobiles in the country. Since independence auto sales in Latvia, including many high end vehicles, have boomed. Parallel parking is often a challenge even for those of us with lots of driving experience. Have you ever tried to sideslip into a parallel space that was just a bit too short for the vehicle? Oh, add to the picture an absence of parking meters and no clearly demarcated, white-lined spaces on these streets. Rigans do pay for parking—there are ticket boxes every half-block or so, but nothing to designate one space from the next. So, when faced with this situation, here’s the Riga approach. Pull up next to the car either in front of or just behind the space you’ve decided to occupy. Angle the car headfirst into the space if you’re approaching from behind, or back into the space from the front so that in either case one wheel of your vehicle goes 3-5 feet up onto the sidewalk. If there’s room, proceed in drive and reverse to move the vehicle into a parallel position. If the space is small, leave the car angled with one corner a few feet onto the sidewalk. The accompanying picture illustrates the technique. They do use wheel “boots” for illegally parked cars, a gaudy hot pink color, but I’ve yet to see one on an angled-in “parallel-parked” car.
rej
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