Drivers showed off their parallel parking chops in Pittsburgh.
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Drivers → show → Pittsburgh
The winner did it in 6 seconds
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winner → do → seconds
Pittsburgh’s Parallel Parking Championship is silly, competitive fun, organizer says
Parallel parking is perhaps among many people’s least favourite part about driving.
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parking → say → driving
But Dan Leber loves it.
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Leber → love → it
So much so, that he founded and organized the Pittsburgh Parallel Parking Championship.
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he → found → Championship
His first event in 2021 drew around 30 participants.
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event → draw → participants
This year, nearly 200 people competed.
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people → compete → ?
The idea of watching other people park might sound mundane, but Leber says it’s more exciting than it seems.
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it → watch → ?
At the event, participants drive their vehicles into a parallel-parking space and are assigned points for accuracy, speed, and style.
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participants → drive → accuracy
To make things more interesting, Leber and his wife's vehicles are used as markers for drivers to park between.
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drivers → make → markers
They've been damaged before, but Leber says he's not precious about it.
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he → damage → it
Other cities have got in on the action as well, with competitions taking place in Portland and Philadelphia.
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competitions → get → Portland
Leber says he’s proud he helped create a low-stakes, but fun way for adults to compete against each other.
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adults → say → other
He spoke to As It Happens host Nil Köksal about why he’s passionate about parallel parking.
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he → speak → parking
Dan, what did Clay Hartley do to make him this year's Pittsburgh parallel parking champ?
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him → do → what
He did a great job at parallel parking.
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He → do → parking
The space is 20 feet, I think he parked in six seconds, which is remarkably quick.
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which → think → seconds
I feel like it was something like 10 or 12 centimetres to the curb, so it was an impressive job.
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it → feel → curb
I thought I was pretty good, but six seconds is fast.
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seconds → think → ?
Is that the fastest you've ever seen in all your years doing this?
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you → see → this
I feel like the fastest is under four or five seconds.
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fastest → feel → ?
The formula someone told me ages ago when I was first learning to drive made it much easier for me.
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it → tell → me
If you can stay calm and the space is a little bit roomy.
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space → stay → ?
Do you have a formula that you tell people who are still nervous?
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who → have → people
If people are interested, I kind of give away the secret to winning the contest, which is you have to be lined up and you get one shot.
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you → give → shot
Like you need to whip the car in there, hope that you're within, say six or seven inches of the curb, and then stop.
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you → need → curb
There are so many people who get close and then they put the car in drive and pull up a foot and try to turn in and it's like you just lost it.
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you → be → it
You mentioned how long your championship has been around.
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championship → mention → ?
There are competitors now and I want to read you a quote from a recent article in Rodent Track.
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I → be → Track
“Pittsburgh's championship is arguably the loosest run event, as it falls short of banning back-up cameras and parking sensors.”
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it → fall → cameras
How do you respond to that description?
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you → respond → description
I think that's hilarious that you bring that quote up because I saw that.
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I → think → that
I am so proud that we are the first to do this and it kind of originated in Pittsburgh.
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it → do → Pittsburgh
It's really fun to see how it evolves in other cities because each competition is different.
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competition → see → cities
But truthfully, I totally disagree with that sentiment.
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I → disagree → sentiment
One of the comments we get most often is people talking about technology in cars, like self-parking and back-up sensors and cameras, and the reality is, when you've seen 700 nearly cars park and you understand the flow of how that works.
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that → get → flow
It's so clear that the folks who rely on those car aids they don't do well, they don't win, they don't come in second place.
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they → rely → place
It's because they just don't feel the car well enough to do it quickly enough.
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car → feel → it
Certainly you can park well, but it's not gonna take you to the top.
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it → park → top
The extra time it would take and the efficiency that we would lose in having to cover cameras and explain to [competitors] turn all the stuff off is not worth it, and the truth is that it just doesn't help you.
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it → take → you
…and 16 more, not listed.
The Aporia
