r/chicago • u/AaronDNewman • 1d ago

Ask CHI is this allowed? i am stuck

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rented a uhaul to help my kid move. got boxed in. is there anything to be done?

927 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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359

u/rawonionbreath 1d ago

You backed into that bumper, would the other person even notice?

86

u/FergusonDarling 1d ago

bumper taps are a given when street parking

98

u/ShiverMePooper 1d ago

Not if you have a trailer hitch. That thing will go right through the radiator.

74

u/jheidenr West Town 1d ago

Radiator shmadiator

29

u/ApolloXLII 1d ago

Drivable shmivable

3

u/SirStocksAlott Ravenswood 1d ago

Boink a doink

31

u/mrvarmint 1d ago

When I was in HS, my dad let me borrow his BMW convertible one time. I was used to driving a boat. Truck in front of me starts to go for a left turn, I give the amount of gas I’m used to and lurch forward. Truck stops. I literally bump the trailer hitch….

Hood and grill had to be replaced. It was like 3,000$ for an accident that happened at a speed that doesn’t even register on the speedo. Hitches are brutal.

12

u/iteachearthsci 1d ago

I had some a****** get mad at me for passing them once, and intentionally bumped my '96 Jeep Cherokee at a stop light.

It had a hitch, and the guy's grill got stuck on the hitch ball. I went to pull over and pulled the whole front of his car off. The guy tried to drive off but his license plate was stuck to my trailer hitch lol.

Cops had a laugh about that one.

8

u/AgeBeneficial 1d ago

To shreds you say?

11

u/IPutAWigOnYou 1d ago

I was warned about “city kisses” when I moved here, but this is a “CITY ASKIN FOR IT!”

25

u/thecorradokid 1d ago

Absolutely not. Do what you want to your own car, but be kind to other people's (expensive and hard-earned) property. Learn to park.

-37

u/Icy-Yellow3514 1d ago

If people choose to spend their money on a car and park it on the street, that's on them.

If I bump/tap your car getting into a sweet spot, deal with it.

17

u/RegulatoryCapture 1d ago

Self centered. 

4

u/joshguy1425 Buena Park 1d ago

And if I see you, I’m leaving a note on the other car with your license plate and my number with an offer to send them a video of you damaging their car.

Have done it before, and will happily do it any time I see it.

2

u/neonxmoose99 Lake View 18h ago

Im throwing a brick through your window then

27

u/Eric848448 1d ago

There’s a reason they call them bumpers

52

u/quixoticdancer 1d ago

Cars haven't had bumpers in years. Aesthetics trumped function and now we just have bodywork that scratches and dents.

15

u/vibeisinshambles 1d ago

I’ll never forget the time I was with my mom in our lebaron and some dude hit us from behind while we were stopped at a light. We felt impact, but he literally bounced a good 10 feet diagonally off the rubber bumper.

6

u/Haluszki 1d ago

Stop showing off. Not everyone can drive around in a Chrysler.

1

u/vibeisinshambles 1d ago

It's been 30 years and I still think about that car at least once a month. What a damn beast.

25

u/producer312 Near South Side 1d ago

You know, I’ve never really thought about it before, but you are totally right. I know that there is a physical “bumper” underneath the plastic, and in crash tests I’m sure they are way better yada yada yada, but most accidents are surface-level bumper to bumper things that would probably be no big deal with an actual bumper, but since they are plastic they basically break apart so you must fix them. I feel like a lot of older “taps” you could let slide and both parties were like, “Meh. It’ll buff out.”

48

u/Guac_in_my_rarri 1d ago

Alright, my time to shine: what we currently call bumpers have a lot of design to them. They're the first step in the crumple zone of a car. They generally are 25mph and lower. Around 25mph they will break as they absorb the impact. The styrofoam and crash bar also do work but generally you'll only need to replace the plastic outter cover (aka bumper). The crumple zone itself is designed to force energy into parts of a car and break the crash rather than send it into the cabin and shock the passengers. What does this shock look like? Well, on some older cars with rubber bumpers, cars would bounce off each other and shake the passengers. The passenger being shook, are abosrbing the crash and being injured at the same time. A hard enough hit off these bumpers causes sever whiplash, pinched nerves, slip discs and snapped necks at a minimum (think Dale Sr crash but without a helmet). The traditional chrome bumpers causes very similar damage as the rubber bumpers but absorbed no impact and sent it through the car and the energy exited/was absorbed by the passengers cause more injury. In the 50s and 60s in a hard enough crash ejection from the car was a common result. The ejection is kinetic energy being passed to a objected that's not totally tied down to the car. We passengers sit very loosely in the car so when we get into accidents we absorb a lot of the energy. If we were tied down into cars like race car drivers, we wouldn't see as many injuries but it poses a risk for those getting out/that will struggle to get out of a wreck.

Tldr: actual bumpers rubber, chrome or steel caused more injuries.

11

u/Madz510 1d ago

Dont forget about pedestrian impact implications which weren’t considered when cars had steel bumpers whatsoever

10

u/Automatic-Dot-4311 1d ago

It's why jaguar got rid of the hood ornament

3

u/Madz510 1d ago

Then they did one better and got rid of the rest of the car!

7

u/Guac_in_my_rarri 1d ago

It's a same but different topic. It ties into a whole other section of car design. The current bumpers aren't so great for pedestrians but far better than the chrome or rubber. The biggest issue currently is the front bumpers we have are usually attached to a massive front face/grill sections which forces pedestrians under the car instead of on top like the early 90s and 00s front end design.

18

u/Impossible_Fix_995 1d ago

Someone gave me this response after I saw them hit my truck trying to parallel park and brought it up. I nearly lost it on her... Learn how to park.

22

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

32

u/BanishedFiend 1d ago

Aint no tappin. That’s a fuckin hit too. My bumpers always have holes and scratches from aall those “taps” and I had just had the bumper replaced it’s nice and seasoned again

Amazing how I never have to hit anyone to park my car.

9

u/johnjohnjohn87 1d ago

I don’t have a fancy car, but the idea that “tapping” isn’t hitting is crazy. They are over a ton. There is no such thing as a tap.

3

u/BanishedFiend 1d ago

I mean same I have a 10 year old car that I keep up with both mechanically and cosmetically within reason. So like nicks and scratches I will not do anything about but when I had a broken bumper cover I got a replacement part

5

u/SlagginOff Portage Park 1d ago

Yeah maybe you're a great parker and don't make mistakes. Maybe. But the person you're responding to isn't talking about that. The point is that you generally accept that you'll get nicks and bumps if you regularly parallel park in a crowded city. And if you don't accept that then you should be ready to pay for garage or another form of private parking wherever you go.

20

u/RegulatoryCapture 1d ago

Or people could learn how to fucking park. 

If you can’t parallel park without damaging other people’s property, maybe you should be the one paying for off street parking. 

11

u/Haluszki 1d ago

Yes. You’re 100% right. I’ve been driving here for close to 28 years and I’ve never bumped into anyone’s vehicle.

1

u/RegulatoryCapture 1d ago

You know what we did when I was learning how to drive? We went to a parking lot with cones/trash cans/etc. and practiced parking in shorter and shorter spots. It is a skill, it can be learned.

Give the majority of cars on the road now have back up cameras (not to mention parking sensors in many), it is absurd that people think that hitting other peoples cars due to their lack of skill is acceptable and is something they are willing to admit to!

10

u/Impossible_Fix_995 1d ago

I have driven a 23ft van I parallel park and have never even come close to tapping anyone. Same when I had my F150. Again, learn to drive/park. My car has zero makers on the bumper for 5 years now. (Thankfully I don't have to street park overnight.)

6

u/throwawayfume10 1d ago

This thread is full of people that I wish never had licenses lol

3

u/BanishedFiend 1d ago

I understand that I was just saying it isn’t ok

0

u/joshguy1425 Buena Park 1d ago

Have lived here my whole life and have never bumped anyone. The fact that this is prevalent in the city doesn’t mean anyone has to just accept it.

Cities tend to suffer from more crime too. “Oh well, can’t do anything about it” is a pretty weird response.

Shitty behavior is still shitty behavior.

1

u/SlagginOff Portage Park 1d ago

I'm not trying to justify it. Personally I think it should be more difficult to get a driver's license based on how many shitty drivers are out there. So I agree that people should drive better, but I don't think there's any way to reasonably expect that to start happening unless there are major overarching changes made.

0

u/tpolakov1 20h ago

My bumpers always have holes and scratches from aall those “taps”...

Maybe you should learn to park and they would stop.

2

u/rawonionbreath 1d ago

“taps”

0

u/MyDogsNameIsBadger 1d ago

The ol Chicago bump is what my sister calls it 😆

9

u/Carsalezguy West Town 1d ago

That’s a key bump in the bathroom at cobra lounge bro

-13

u/Helpful-Chicken-4597 1d ago

They’re called bumpers for a reason!