Parking Lot Madness

Why do parking lots seem to have their own rules that are independent of reality?

I see people circling parking lots looking for a good spot. Often this means using 15 minutes of $3.50 a gallon gas to get 20-40 yards closer to the entrance of a building. If you have a legitimate reason to be close, you should have a disabled parking permit. Otherwise, the extra minute or two of walking is probably good exercise for you.

In a normal parking lot, the arrows are there to direct traffic. It is always odd to see people going the wrong way down one way lanes in a parking lot. Haven't they noticed that it is hard to get into the spaces when you go the wrong way? I find it more amusing when people get upset that you are in their way when they go against the traffic flow.

Recently, I came across a parking lot where the people that run it must have lost their minds. They decided that their Atlanta parking lot was more like Europe. They reversed the arrows to change the traffic flow inside their gated lot! Once you turn into their property, start using the left side for travel...except where they decided to make certain parts one way. While this would be confusing for most people, they took their mysterious patterns to new levels by not marking parts of it at all where there was a two lane loop.

Just to make this more special, the confusing parking lot is at a senior citizens' apartment building. The perfect place to confuse the drivers. Nothing like mind games for 70 year old drivers. Maybe next month they will start projecting images of kids running in front of the cars to see if the old folks will have heart attacks.

I imagine personal injury lawyers will set up shop just outside their fence.