'Park Like an A**hole'? Website Is Watching You

Nov. 12, 2010— -- You know who you are.

Maybe you're the person who takes up two parking spaces so the precious Volvo won't get dinged. Or perhaps you're the "I'll just be in for a minute" driver who takes up a handicapped spot.

Possibly you're even the person who squeezes in so tight to the next car that the other person's only hope for getting in to their own vehicle is shimmying through the back hatch.

But with the popularity of an anti-bad parking website growing, don't be surprised to find an admonishing note left on your car telling you that you've parked "like an a**hole."

"It's like, 'Really?'" said Andy, creator of youparklikeana**hole.com. "'You're in your own little world here?'"

Click here to view some outrageous parking jobs.

Andy, a Rochester, N.Y.-area elementary school art teacher, created youparklikeana**hole.com -- his site doesn't use the family-friendly asterisks -- in 2006 as a project for his grad-school Web design class. He did not want his last name used, afraid one of the people who have sent him threats after finding notes on their cars may make good on their promises.

The site grew slowly, mostly patronized by just family and friends at first. A mention on Digg.com in December 2006 spiked his membership, which has ebbed and flowed the last two years. But recently, more people have been paying attention.

He now gets 1,000 visitors a day and photos from around the world. One man even wrote to ask his permission to translate the entire site into Portuguese -- then went ahead with it even when Andy hadn't responded yet.

"It's kind of flattering," Andy said, but he admitted he "ripped into him" before allowing the Portuguese site to continue.

Among the most popular features are printable notices that users can leave on windshields of offending victims. To date, there have been about 176,000 downloads -- 3,000 in just the past six days.

Users get two choices -- one that simply states the name of the Web site and another that offers a little more detail.

"Parking is far too limited in our overcrowded streets and parking lots, and you happened to park like an a**hole," the more detailed notice reads. "Go to the above website to see why someone else thought you parked like an a**hole. Don't be too offended, we all do it one time or another -- it just so happens you got caught."

Just above the printed lecture are eight common parking offenses with check-mark boxes next to them. The choices include, "Two spots, one car," "ummm... a little too close," "diagonal parking: not so cool car," "that's a compact?" and simply "other."

Andy said he's planning to add another choice soon for people who abuse handicapped parking spots.

'Park Like an A**hole' Website Reaches Iraq

The site also features a photo gallery of some laughably bad parking jobs. Well, laughable for anyone not trying to park their cars nearby.

One of his favorite submissions came from a member of the U.S. military.

"He put a notice on an Iraqi car in an Iraqi street," he said proudly.

Other popular parking no-nos came in the form of SUVs trying to squeeze into spots meant to house compact cars and drivers who thought their particular cars deserved two, maybe even three spots.

Andy said the idea for the project was born after countless nights looking for street parking when he was living in an apartment in Rochester, N.Y. Often, he said, one driver wouldn't pull his car up to where the curb met a driveway, leaving a six-foot space "that kind of screwed up the whole street from one person."

"It was like, 'C'mon, we don't have a place to park,'" he said. "'Please just move up.'"

Though Andy now lives outside city limits with his very own driveway, he still sympathizes with those less parking-fortunate than him.

He even sympathizes, though maybe a little less so, with the less than happy recipients of his website's notices.

"I had a whole paragraph about how someone's mother was sick and they ran into the hospital," he said.

Other rants he's had e-mailed to him, included, "You made my mom cry," and a sarcastic, "I bet your mom is proud of you."

Andy said his mom actually is proud of him, and added that the site was meant to be light-hearted.

"I feel bad, but it's just a joke," he said. "It's not really supposed to be hurtful."

Andy said he's now waiting to accomplish one of two goals he's set for himself since creating the website.

He's either waiting to "come full circle" and have a notice left on his own windshield, he said, "or get on Letterman."