Parking Lots.

After reading Dick Johnson's article...I have to ask this.

Has anyone ever been hit, almost hit, clipped, or seen someone hit, almost hit, or clipped while inside an amusement park, parking lot?

I'd bet walking to yourt car could present more danger then riding a roller coaster... "could," not will...

I ask this after seeing some idiots race each other out of a certain amusement park's parking lot. And nearly hitting a guy who was walking to his car.

I watched a parking attendant try to get himself run over once. Seriously. He was standing dead-center in front of the car, 3" from the bumper, waving at the driver to proceed, with a look on his face that said, "You idiot, can't you see I'm telling you to proceed?". The driver, known here as ShivringTim, understandably refused to proceed until the attendant got out of the way. :)

I've seen a few collisions, usually rear-enders, on the Cedar Point Causeway. Usually not on the Causeway itself, but on the road between the end of the causeway and US-6. Never actually seen it happen, but I've seen the results and had to wait in the traffic jams.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Back when WOF had trams, I got to see cars get clipped a few times when the driver didn't swing wide enough....crunch.

Heck, why not fight against traffic deaths period. How about this fact, 1.26 million people were killed in car accidents in 200, the last year statistic were avalible. I think these people need to get their priorities straight.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

I saw a car rear end a motorcycle and send the driver flying about 20 feet at the Cedar Point Toll Boths. Luckily the guy was alright but was a bit mad.

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Mike
Favorite Wood: Viper at SFGAM,Shivering Timbers
Favorite Steel: Magnum and Raging Bull

They had cars in the year 200?
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If you have a problem with clones, the solution is real simple—Stop traveling.

Dang it I-Fan you beat me to it. :)

Coaster895,you'd be pretty mad too seeing your only mode of transportation home from the park get totalled by some idiot who just couldn't wait to get through the gates & into the parking lot,it must've been a long walk home for that guy.

Actually, I've always had a similar problem to what RideMan describes at SFMM. Every time I go there, I always feel like I'm going to end up smacking into one of the parking lot attendants.

Now, I know it's a whole lot like how roller coasters work...you get the illusion that something horrible is going to happen while in reality everything is fine. The attendants do this the entire day, and have a much better view of what's going on than I do. However, on the other hand, it would certainly make me feel a little less nervous if they would just stand a foot or two away from the arc I have to take to get into the parking spot. I really don't feel like clipping some poor dope's knees with the corner of my bumper...

Sort of changing the subject here, how come more parks don't invest in parking garages a-la IoA? That park's lots are models of efficiency and are respected in the entire parking study industry as one of the best projects of all time.

It seems to me that rather than spend all the big bucks on a coaster year after year, some corporations we all know and love that need to improve their relations with their customers might do well to spend next year's Hypercoaster money on a nice, well-lit, well-run, easy to navigate parking garage. And the addition of a garage on a certain peninsula would easily end the Cedar-Point-Does-Not-Have-A-Space-Problem argument!

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"You know we got a good thing goin and I don't wanna see it end" --Reel Big Fish
-- Brett

Seems lately that parking lot shootings are becoming popular at Paramount parks. There have certainly been more of them than coaster-related deaths.

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-Vater
Have you ridden a Toboggan?

Just a week before I went to work at WDW a child had fallen out of one of the parking lot trams. The mother, frantic of course, jumped out after him. The mother was run over and had both of her legs crushed. The child, other than a few minor scrapes and bruises, was fine.

Moral of the story? The parking lot tram at WDW is more dangerous than any of the rides on property. Ban parking trams!!!!!

Pitt designer,

I have a feeling it has to do with land value -vs- parking deck costs. For most parks the land is worth less than the cost of building a deck (which is astronomically expensive.)

The few parks that do have decks (Universal Hollywood, Florida, Disneyland Resort) do so because they could never have bought enough land to do what they wanted to do otherwise. Part of me wouldn't be surprised to see a multi level structure go in at Cedar Point SOMEDAY, but then again if space for more rides was the most important thing to them they wouldn't have put in Lighthouse Point, would they?

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Maihama, Maihama Desu

I don't recall the exacty figures, but a parking place in a deck costs roughly 10 times as much as a parking place in a lot. A parking place in a deck is expensive enough that a park can justify one only if it is a year around park and has a shortage of land for parking.

I agree...a situation that allowed year round usage would probably be necessary. For parks next to sports or event arenas, sharing could occur, but then you have a whole logistics nightmare if the two entities overlap dates.

I don't see the financial value of adding one that only get's used 7 months a year.

If I recall, cost of a flat parking space $1000-2000. Cost of a parking garage space $15,000-18,000. Obviously, if you have the land you will use flat parking. Also from a standpoint of business economics, at typical parking fees, you need to rent out a garage space nearly every day all year to justify the investment.

Spend all that money on parking, yet idiots exit in excess of Mach 1.

I wonder what that guy felt like, when he was almost taken out by some idiot driving a 1967 Mustang. You're walking to your car, and some idiot turns a corner, skids, and almost takes you out...within a matter of 2-3 feet.

Do police ever set up random speed checks within amusement park parking lots? They'd nail so many people!

Police cannot issue tickets in parking lots, as it is private property.

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--George H
---Superman the ride...coming to a SF park near you soon...
Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

They sure as heck can issue tickets in a parking lot and do it all the time. They wont get you for speeding, but they will get you for reckless driving or some other charge like that. I have seen people pulled over numerous times in grocery store parking lots or leaving store lots when they spin their wheels in a lot. Also, I believe if the owner of a lot gives the city permission to ticket speeders in their lot that the police can issue as many tix as they want. I would think an amusement park would want to do that for safety reasons. I know at Six Flags Great America I always see a few City of Gurnee cruisers on the property every time I visit.

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Bob Hansen
Resident Airtime Whore

ok...I should have been a little more verbose and stated "for speeding" you caught me on that one.

But as far as seeing Village of Gurnee police cars at SFGAm, every time I have seen them, usually they were summoned by the park for "other issues" and not for traffic enforcement...but as others say around here, YMMV.

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--George H
---Superman the ride...coming to a SF park near you soon...
Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

Seeing as the Cedar Point police force is an accredited department, they can not only enforce laws, they can make arrests.

Don't mess with them.