Parking–it’s something that most of us do every day.
And you know what?
It’s not a hard thing to do… like at all.
I’d be willing to bet that when you pull your car into a parking lot and slide into an open space, you don’t even touch the white lines, do you?
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Me neither.
But some people just aren’t as skilled as you and me.
Some people are what I like to call “parking challenged.”
You’d think that something you do on day 1 of learning to drive would be second nature to all drivers at this point.
Unfortunately not.
Case and point… this guy right here.
Melissa gets it.
So when The Southlake Department of Public Safety got tired of seeing terrible parkers, they came up with a brilliant idea.
Fliers.
But not just any fliers.
These fliers are meant to be colored on.
The be colored on “between the lines” to be exact.
This is the police department’s hilarious way to encourage those less-than-impressive parkers to step up their game.
Because honestly, nobody likes a bad parker.
Especially when they park poorly next to a handicapped spot.
I mean really, how inconsiderate can you get?
The Southlake Police had seen enough, and rather than just let that frustration build and build, they decided to have some fun with it.
Now, to be fair, I have received a parking ticket or two in my day–and I’d bet that you have too.
But that’s ok, we’re not alone.
According to Complus Data, in 2018 over 11.7 million parking tickets were issued in New York City alone.
And here’s the thing.
When I get a parking ticket, I’m usually pretty pissed off.
I once got so pissed off that I snatched the ticket off of my windshield, took the ticket out of the ticket sleeve, and put the sleeve on the windshield of a cop car that happened to be parked across the street from me.
Because it was past 6 o’clock when I did this and because I thought that the spot I was in stopped being monitored at that time, I left my truck there and walked to a brewery nearby to meet up with a friend.
When I got back to my truck, I noticed that I had another ticket on my windshield, flapping in the wind.
I snatched it up and saw that it was another ticket for the same violation.
Turns out that the parking was enforced until 9 o’clock, not 6.
Let’s just say I learned my lesson on that one.
But had the cop left a little coloring sheet that sarcastically pointed out that I was no better at staying within the lines than a kindergartener, I think I would have learned my lesson the first time.
Because one thing that playful sarcasm can do is build a connection between two people.
Once you joke around with someone, you’ve broken past that barrier from strangers into friends, or at least acquaintances.
Ayn N., an educator quoted on the site, We Are Teachers, says that “I think sarcasm, when done lovingly, can be one of the best ways to develop a connection.
By using the coloring pages, the cops in Southlake, Texas are able to come across not as jerk cops giving out parking tickets, but as regular people just trying to do their job.
And that makes the recipients of the tickets much more willing to obey the parking rules in the future.
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