Drunk driving is a cardinal commuting sin. The vast majority of people acknowledge it is wrong and many go out of their way not to do it.
But morality can get fuzzy when circumstances get complicated. And a common human tendency is to correct our judgment to some form of, “I’ll be fine.” Too many people use that filter when they have been drinking.
Hence, the topic of this piece is the quandary of not being fit to drive while in a timed-parking situation. The rigidity of parking enforcement can cause more instances of imperfect humans auto-correcting and trying to drive.
Given how dependent Atlantans are on cars, finding parking at primo, busy establishments can be hard. Businesses and municipalities have to be strict on long-term parking to optimize the limited space. But if an evening doesn’t go as planned – if the driver and passengers all, say, have more beverages than they anticipated and want to get home safely – then they are left with a predicament: move their cars or get a ticket.
Of course, people stuck in this scenario should not shrug and then try to tough out an inebriated drive. Absolutely not. But the prospect inevitably causes this.
This issue was not one I had considered before, until it happened to my wife, Momo, and me. We had each been in past situations individually where the experience had gotten,– how we politely might say, more involved than we expected. The respective spouse dropped what they were doing, took a rideshare, and met the other spouse to bring the car home.
On the chilly Wednesday night of December 4th, we decided to drive less than a mile to a nice Chamblee restaurant for my birthday. We debated walking, but the cold cut to the bone. I underestimated the amount of alcohol that accompanied the chef’s tasting menu and we both decided early in the meal that walking home was our only option. We had left our car in a retail parking deck (and did we ever patronize that retailer!).
Momo and I made the brisk .8-mile walk home and I turned around and did it again the next morning, before 7 a.m., to retrieve the car. To my disappointment, we got tagged with a $55 ticket for parking overnight.
Initially, my first thought was, “Okay. Fair enough. We took a risk and got dinged.” But I quickly had an epiphany: What were we supposed to do? Should we have woken a friend or my mom and had them take a rideshare over and then drive us home, and then rideshare themselves back home?
We established beforehand that no one should actually try to drive themselves; that is illegal and highly dangerous.
My guess would be that conundrums such as this happen often and, unfortunately, people sometimes decide that the lesser of two evils is driving inebriated. Even people who really know it is wrong will sometimes make that fateful choic:e “I’ll be okay. It’s just a short distance.”
The best advice: Do not plan on taking the car if a certain amount of drinking is going to be part of the proceedings. But maybe, just maybe, could parking providers also provide some relief here? Could people who have had too much to drink grab a yellow “I’m Sorry. The D.D. Drank.” slip and put it under the windshield wipers?
The problem, of course, is that people would abuse this or they would plan poorly and have to pull the “oops, drunk” card too often. Spaces would stay clogged.
I decided to appeal my fine. While our Ford Edge, affectionately named Edna, did spend the night almost a mile away from home, I did retrieve her well before the business reopened the next day. Isn’t that the purpose of enforcing this? We did not occupy a spot that another customer would have used during business hours.
I made my case to the private parking company and their artificial intelligence flatly denied it. They will get their $55 without any more of a fight. But I can’t shake the dilemma that this enforcement creates.
Hopefully this will bring some light to it – for both patrons and lot owners. And next time we will walk, or stick to water.
Doug Turnbull has covered Atlanta traffic for more than 20 years and written “Gridlock Guy” since 2017. Doug also co-hosts the “Five to Go Podcast,” a weekly deep dive on stories in motorsports. Contact him at fireballturnbull@gmail.com.
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