OT? Getting out of a parking lot when you're trapped in. (2025 Update)

I bet a piece of heavy Berber carpet about 4x8 works wonders. That is what I see the parking lot people use. (Really a rubber mat like a stress mat). I do think most of them are a comb and if your buddy stands on one end he can hold them down. If I think about it, next time I am in a rent a car parking lot I will try it.

Different brands and models. Most have each spick spring loaded ( Delta ) some are groups of two. Then you have the motorize ones that can be put at the exits lets say that are all tied together and connect to the motor through a gear reducer and a 3/4 by 1 1/2 inch steel bar stock lever so you would need to be very overweight to get them down. Before I retired we were installing more wedge style gates for customers and doing away with spicks

Different brands and models. Most have each spike spring loaded ( Delta ) some are groups of two. Then you have the motorize ones that can be put at the exits lets say , that are all tied together and connect to the motor through a gear reducer and a 3/4 by 1 1/2 inch steel bar stock lever so you would need to be very overweight to get them down. Before I retired we were installing more wedge style gates for customers and doing away with spikes

That's awesome.

A democrat would have to carry around an oxy-acetylene gas axe in their trunk to defeat that gate.

Thought it was illegal to do away with spicks.

Out for the evening, probaby won't have many materials.

OTOH, I can look around and see if they left something there. Why do the parking lot people you look at need to use anything?

That would be great, but Mark seems to be in the business and he's not so encouraging.

BTW, I don't really expect this will happen. I was trying to give some advice to a tourist about a garage meant mostly for day use and all-night use that I guess from what the web said allowed entrance all night but no exit after 8PM until 6AM when employees came back. What would he do if he had to drive somewhere before 6? What would I do? But I haven't actually seen a garage like that.

Wow. Usenet is wonderful. What were the odds someone would read my post who had actual experience with these things. Who installed them, so he knew how they were made. Thanks for the first=hand information.

LIke I said in my other reply, I've never seen one where you can't pay to get out all night, and I never have to leave before 6 (and rarely park in a public garage all night.) But I like to be prepared anyhow.

Once I walked by a building that when I looked, turned out to be a US embassy, and they had, to keep vehicles out, a big solid looking thing the width of the driveway that hinged and lifted up more than a foot or more. They also had mirrors on rollers so they could look under vehicles for bombs. I left before they thought I was a spy.

On 2019-02-17 10:13 a.m., Mark wrote: <CHOP>

That looks like an amazing barrier but I wonder how it handles snow? I can imagine it filling with snow while raised and then jamming when lowers.

I had a situation several years ago staying at a small independent hotel in Arizona that gate-locked the parking lot overnight. It was not located in the best part of town and I guess they'd had problems in the past.

Due to a family emergency, I needed to leave immediately at 3:00 in the morning. When I went to check out, the counter guy said he had no way to unlock the gate. I told him it was urgent that I got out of the lot right then and he amazingly said there was nothing he could do. It's hard to imagine that I was the first guest who needed to exit their parking lot overnight.

I ended up putting the front bumper of my rental car up against the gate and slowly pushed until it broke and I could move it aside and open a path out.

At least the owner was smart enough not to try to add repair charges to my credit card!

It only raises when something needs to be stopped. The snow will be blocked by the vehicle it just destroyed.

I was looking at from the view of it being raised until an authorized vehicle is allowed to enter.

Park somewhere else? Uber?

God only knows. What would either of you do when the cops arrest you for theft of services with your car stuck on those spikes?

I thought you just described one that you found and which was the source of the questions. Me, if I was worried that I might need the car at 3AM, I'd find another place to park.

Trying to defeat the spikes and getting arrested doesn't sound like a way to be prepared. Being prepared is finding somewhere else to park where your car is available 24/7 if that's what you need.

What if they have to go out at 3AM? I bet they don't have a problem.

Ours are all remotely monitored, mostly by the one monitoring operation, so they can call the cops when someone trys to f*ck over their system at any time.

Bit difficult to predict when someone you care about might have a medical emergency in the middle of the night.

Every once in a while you encounter something unbelievably stupid. A hotel with a parking lot where you can't get out 24/7 fits that bill. It's perhaps even more amazing that there is a guy at the front desk at

The woman keeps saying, but how much does the steak cost? The cashier keeps saying it's 12.78 less $3.91 off. (I'm just using those numbers, they are approximately what it was). Woman keeps saying, but how much does the steak cost. This went on and on, she had to call over the manager and she couldn't satisfy the woman. Neither of them apparently had a calculator or a piece of paper and pencil to give her the answer, but that wouldn't have mattered, she insisted that it should be shown on the piece of paper that's printed out. Mind you most stores do it this way and this one is a very popular chain that's been that way for decades. It took a good ten minutes to get this moron out of the aisle. I could have gone and started over in another line, but I admit I was getting some enjoyment out of watching this stupidity.

IDK, suppose the pushing resulted in a bill for $400 and he decided to pursue it, including filing criminal charges? It would be an intersting case.

Unlikely when it’s a medical emergency by someone you care about and you want to be able to get there before they die and the carpark has been locked up overnight.

There are times when they will want to let people drive over the spikes, like if the whole lot is leased out. I know I have seen rubber mats over spikes before tho at special events.

I do all of the grocery shopping here and I never see a discount like that show up in the price on the tape. It is always another line with the discount showing up as a minus just like you describe If it is a BoGo it will show both items rung up full price and one subtracted on the next line..

Most of those gates are designed with a break away part that fails before you break anything expensive. He did the right thing giving it a gentle shove. If you hit it hard it will be inertia and the impact that causes damage, not just pushing it open. My wife had gates at the HOA she managed and they were always having some sort of drama there. Something was broken about once a week. Swing arms are supposed to be using plastic nuts so they come off without bending and swing gates have a soft metal shear pin in the swing arm bell crank. Of course if someone uses hard steel there, something else will break.

A lot of them will have a photo eye and if you can break that beam, the gate will open.