As most of you know, parking at SIU in the morning is stressful and chaotic. It appears that many of us have come to create our own rules of parking etiquette which often conflict with other people’s understanding of the rules. For this reason, we decided to make public the proper etiquette involved in parking at SIU. Before we describe the rules of parking, we must define the vocabulary. Cruisers:the cars that fly through the parking lots in search of a vacant space or someone just about to leave. Stalkers:the cars that slowly drive behind people as they walk toward their cars. Vultures:the cars that sit idling at the ends of rows, causing chaos and hoping someone will vacate one of their spaces. Cheaters:the cars who spot people walking through the parking lot and offer them a ride to their car. Be advised that allowing a cheater to drive you to your car is not recommended, since it is not safe to accept rides from strangers.

The rules:1. While it appears unfair, the cheaters are always entitled to the space vacated by the person they delivered.

2. The vultures get parking priority over the stalkers and cruisers. As a vulture, the first car to a row gets any space vacated in the row. Therefore, if a car at the opposite end of the row also decides to become a vulture, she/ he will get the second space that is vacated, regardless of the proximity of the first vacated space, and thus creating an alternating system.

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3. The stalkers get any vacated spaces not protected by vultures or obtained by cheaters.

4. The lowest priority parkers are the cruisers who are entitled to any space not covered by vultures or obtained by cheaters or stalkers.

We hope that rules of parking etiquette help alleviate some of the confusion, dirty looks, and/ or fights. Happy Parking!!

Samuel Rubenzahl, Graduate Student, Psychology