Shame Game – Why Welsh Drivers are Addicted to Outing Bad Parkers
One in three (30 per cent) drivers in Wales shame bad parkers by leaving notes on their cars, research reveals.
We’re a nation known for being reserved – and when it comes to bad parking we’re no different.
Despite shying away from public confrontation – online used car marketplace heycar reveals four in five people (80 per cent) in Wales won’t have an argument over a poorly parked motor – it turns out us Brits aren’t backwards in coming forwards when it comes to note writing.
As demonstrated by our round-up (below) of the best passive aggressive notes, motorists love to hide behind a well written letter on a windscreen and avoid a face to face confrontation.
A survey commissioned by heycar discovered a range of tactics Brits use to reserve a parking space.
These include: waiting for a space to become available and then quickly moving their car, parking too close to a car, or blocking their own drive to make a point, badly parking their own car, warning their neighbours not to take their ‘spot’, putting chains across and even “yelling at my neighbour not to park there”.
However the data shows young people in Wales are more likely to shame on social media – with one in four 17-24 year olds admitting they have posted pictures online after spotting a parking fail. Whereas just one per cent of over 55-year-olds saying they would post pictures online.
Social Media Shaming for Bad Parking
This comes as hundreds of thousands of people flock to Facebook groups that feature hilarious parking errors daily.
More than 2,400 people follow a page called ‘Bad Parking UK’ and 11,000 social media users tap into ‘Parking like a P***k UK’ during their daily Facebook scrolls.
Meanwhile, ‘Parking like a T**t UK’ has more than 47,000 followers with multiple daily posts exposing British motorists and their parking skills – but there are also regional variants, with the Swansea variant alone boasting 9,200 very active followers.
Creator of ‘Parking like a T**t’ in Swansea, who wished to remain anonymous, said:
“Both bad driving and bad parking really winds me up. It’s so selfish, you get one guy taking up 4 spaces so three other people can’t park – and don’t even get me started on parking in disabled bays. I understand some disabilities are invisible but lots of able bodied people use the spaces because they are too lazy to walk, leaving badge holders and genuinely disabled people struggling. I wanted to rant somewhere so I created the page – judging by the huge amount of followers, photographs and interaction it gets, it seems I’m not alone!”
Instagram, too has it’s fair share of parking-related shames. The latest count on Instagram for #parkingfail totals more than 56,000 with a gob-smacking amount of pictures making their way into bad parking history.
Whilst just one in six (15 per cent) of the over 55s admit to parking illegally at some point in their lives – a third of 16 to 24-year-olds admit they have been forced into parking on double yellow lines on occasion.
Mat Moakes, CEO of heycar, said:
“Getting straight to the point has never been a strength of British people – we’re just too reserved as a nation to be comfortable with face to face confrontations – and that’s exactly what we’ve found in our research
“We all want the easiest life, whether it’s choosing your perfect car or finding a spot to park it in.”
heycar – a new online marketplace for used cars – is on a mission to bring greater trust and transparency to one of the UK economy’s largest retail sectors.
Last week (22nd October) it emerged 50 vehicles were removed from residential streets in Manchester following a crackdown on holidaymakers’ cars parked near the city’s airport – amid reports cars that had been left have been vandalised by residents.
While residents complained of intimidating holidaymakers, several posts emerged showing those living in Wythenshawe had steered clear of a simple note – and gone to the extreme of PAINTING comments on cars.
The best passive aggressive notes to date
In a bid to encourage a more ‘British’ response – heycar take a look at the best passive aggressive notes to date.
Whoever left me this note really just ruined my day and yes I was in a rush my parking is never this bad ? pic.twitter.com/JyZqUeeZHJ
— Kyala ? (@shutuphappy) 30 September 2019
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en-gb”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Noting the council only issues “fines” for parking without a permit between 8&8. It’s not a clear way where they do tow cars! <a href=”https://t.co/qrBWAAOyN9″>pic.twitter.com/qrBWAAOyN9</a></p>— Timothy Kaye (@MrTimothyKaye) <a href=”https://twitter.com/MrTimothyKaye/status/1185155282403504129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>18 October 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en-gb”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Also this. Same street. Week before. <a href=”https://t.co/TWmsWfBVkH”>pic.twitter.com/TWmsWfBVkH</a></p>— Comus (@TheUnbearableB) <a href=”https://twitter.com/TheUnbearableB/status/1185150472254119936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>18 October 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en-gb”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Good spelling <a href=”https://t.co/3BPyd8BcQs”>pic.twitter.com/3BPyd8BcQs</a></p>— bertie (@silverf6) <a href=”https://twitter.com/silverf6/status/1185180117808668677?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>18 October 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en-gb”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>I got annoyed with this Mercedes as it wasn't the first time they'd parked over the keep clear. Safe to say they haven't done it since. <a href=”https://t.co/RdbBZ7IlVD”>pic.twitter.com/RdbBZ7IlVD</a></p>— Andrew Young (@Andy__Young) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Andy__Young/status/1185382538493222913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>19 October 2019</a></blockquote>
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