Friday Funny: The Worst Parking Habits in the World

You may have heard of the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan for the "enlightened authoritarianism" of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, or as the world's largest landlocked country. It's now earning a well-deserved reputation for its parking habits.

1 minute read

August 17, 2012, 2:00 PM PDT

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Max Fisher brings to our attention some photos of outrageously horrible parking jobs selected from the 1,500-plus photos displayed on the popular Kazakh website, "I Parked Like an Ass."

According to Fisher the website was the creation of a disgruntled driver from the city of Almaty named Roman Slegin. "Slegin's site, which has three staffers, has become so popular that
Almaty police have offered to verify the photos and 'bring charges
against persistent offenders,' according to Radio Free Europe, which also notes there are similar citizen-meter-maid sites in the U.S., Lebanon, and the U.K."

"None
of them comes close to the sheer insanity of Kazakhstan's parking
habits, as documented. The people in these photos park like they're
fleeing the zombie apocalypse. Putting your front wheel a few feet deep
on the sidewalk -- or your entire car, for that matter -- seems
widespread. So does parking, perpendicular to traffic, in the middle of
an active lane."

Fisher even ventures some theories (aside from the zombie one) on how such poor habits arose.  

Tuesday, August 14, 2012 in The Atlantic

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