Kazakhstan Drivers Criticized for Bad Parking Habits

By | 15 August, 2012

With economic growth comes a lot of benefits. But it seems accelerated development also comes with some pitfalls. Take for instance traffic and parking. A growing economy comes with increased incomes and standards of living. More people can buy cars, and more people find the need to park in the city. But sometimes this comes with serious problems, especially if the people involved don’t exactly have nice driving or parking habits.

We've heard of parallel parking, but this is parallel to which line exactly? (Photo credit: I park like an ass)

A website based in Kazakhstan documents instances like this. I Park Like an Ass currently has about 1,500 photos of “atrocious parking habits” that are said to be common in the country,  The Atlantic‘s Mark Fisher writes. From stretch Hummers perpendicularly-parked on the street eating up an entire lane, to cars squeezing inside unimaginable spaces, the site has it all.

Unfortunately, there is no World Bank or International Monetary Fund study on comparative parking practices across nations, no ranking of the world’s countries by the politeness and orderliness of their drivers’ habits. But, if there were, you might expect Kazakhstan to rank near the bottom, based on the popular Kazakh website, “I Parked Like an Ass.”

Every nation has its bad drivers, I’m sure. There are even studies that cite Manila, New Delhi and Beijing as among the worst cities for driving. But as for parking, well with the photos on I Parked Like an Ass, I think that’s worth a study in itself.



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