Honestly, how difficult can it be? Every day while driving on or around campus, I feel as if people's brains are riding shotgun instead of being put to use in their head.
I know, I know - the tirade that's forthcoming is one that I'm sure you and your friends have each and every day. It's a rant that's almost as periodical as breakfast, lunch and dinner, but nothing has ever been done about it.
Parking and driving a car is not that difficult, yet drivers tend to forget basic rules of the roads and parking lots more often than not.
After spending the past two and a half years driving near this campus, I've realized that apparently it's rather complicated to park straight or know what to do at a four-way stop. So here are a few lessons to refresh and get everyone up to speed in case something has slipped the mind in the past few years.
I'll get the most obnoxious, annoying and downright aggravating problem out of the way first, so we can set a nice tone and mood - it's quite obvious a nice chunk of students can't park.
I'm not talking parallel parking or anything of that nature, but simple, good ol' fashioned regular "straight in-between two lines" parking. This sounds incredibly ridiculous, but how many times have you seen a car parked crooked, forcing all of the other cars to park the same way?
It happens all the time in my apartment's parking lot. If the lines are straight, park in between them, it's actually quite simple. After turning into the spot, if your car is crooked, back up and straighten it out. It takes five seconds. Literally five seconds. Go ahead, time yourself. Even if you're the laziest person on the face of the Earth, you can still pull this off.
Quick other lazy side-note - I swear to God himself (and all of those other religions higher beings as well), if I see one more non-handicapped person in the Art and Journalism Building wait a few minutes for the elevator, only to get off on the second floor, I think I might have to go crazy. Really, it's one flight of stairs. Hell, even walking up all of the stairs isn't all that difficult.
Switching gears from laziness to pure stupidity, let's move on to four-way stops. Four-way stops shouldn't be that hard, right? If you can count to four, you can manage a four-way stop, however, especially at the intersection Neely and New York avenues, people tend to forget basic math and either sit there staring at one another for a decade or drive out of turn.
If you drive up with two other cars sitting at the intersection, you would be the third in line to drive after the other two have gone. If you come to the intersection with no cars, don't sit there and wait for another car to join you and stare at them like they should be going. Wow, amazingly simple, right?
Last but not least, when driving around a bend in the road, stay on your own side. The bend at the intersection of Riverside Avenue and Reserve Street is a prime example of this. I don't know what it is that makes drivers come over into the other lane with half of their car, but stop it. Watch where you're at on the road and don't force another driver up on the curb because you're afraid of driving too close to your curb on the bend.
This has probably been the most ridiculously obvious column I've ever written, but sometimes the fundamentals are screwed up more than anything else.
Just ask the men's basketball team.
Ryan Smith is a senior journalism major and writes 'Don't Take This Too Seriously' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Ryan at bsurjsmith@gmail.com.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
