R.O.W.

I've noticed an interesting parking behavior here that I used to see in Spain and think "that is so un-American -- you'd never see that in the states." Shows you how much I know!

I was at Alba Pizzeria on Ditmars, overlooking the street in their little bay window. If you click on this link, you can see the window, and click-drag to the left or right to see what kind of street Ditmars is: two lanes (one each way) and parking.

Well, there's parking but not much. These spaces are always taken. It happened twice while I was eating lunch that a car or truck in the right of way would just stop dead in their tracks and the driver would get out without putting on any blinkers and head into the pizzeria to grab a slice! The other cars had to just go around. I thought that was so bizarre; being from Texas where most businesses have room to park in front of them, you don't see that behavior so often. I mean, the R.O.W. is sacred - driving only.

On the one hand I understand it. The situation here is very similar to Spain: there's very little space within urban areas and no extra room to park anywhere, so if a delivery truck has something to drop off, they just park in the road and the other drivers deal with it. On the other hand, though, these people could have pulled off onto the side street which has must less traffic. At the very least they could put their hazard lights or blinkers on!

What's more amazing is to be on a bus that's negotiating a street like this. They depend on the cooperation of drivers going the opposite direction to leave room for them as they veer around obstacles.