Is there a reason people think it’s safe or acceptable to speed in a parking garage?  It’s not just the garage I’m in now at my current work.  It seems to be the norm anywhere there’s a multi-level garage.  People take the corners like they’re running an Indy car and if there aren’t speed bumps in the straightaways, they’ve got the car running at unsafe speeds.  I’m surprised we don’t hear more about fender benders or the accidental running over of pedestrians within these garages.

I try to use extreme caution in order not to run others over while in a garage.  Instead of flooring my car like some of these nimrods, my foot is on the brake pedal, not actually using it but ready at any moment to slam on the brakes.  There are so many blindspots in parking garages that it’s ludicrous to drive so recklessly fast like a lot of people do.  Note to the crazy driving society – if you hear your tires screech as you’re turning a corner, you’re going too fast.

Parking garages really are dank, depressing places.  Obviously function has to take precedence over form when it comes to structures that have to hold thousands of tons of vehicle mass.  Has anyone ever been in a parking garage that is pleasing to look at?  They’re all alike – concrete slabs of ugliness, but as long as the damn things don’t collapse, people don’t care what it looks like.

One essential task when starting a new job is to understand how to navigate the parking deck.  Since my short term memory is about as useful as a bikini in Edmonton in February, I try to park in the same general area each day.  Another tactic I use is to find the place that usually has spaces by the time I get to work and also gets me out of the parking structure as quickly as possible.  If the parking garage is 7 stories tall, I want to be as low as possible so I don’t have to make 25 turns just to get out of the deck each day.  I never understood why people would drive so far up a structure, adding a few minutes to their commute each way.

Oh, and one more thing - unless you're old or frail or have a physical condition, if you take the garage elevator to go just one floor, you're simply lazy.