It’s no secret that teenagers tend to skew towards the less talented side of drivers, but the majority of parking featured on Summit’s bad parking Instagram account is anything but accidental. Every driver needs a place to park, so why not push the limits? Some of these notable encounters include cars parked horizontally across lines and atop momentous dirt piles. The account’s presence has gamified another monotonous part of the school day, encouraging a culture of poor parking. Anyone can contribute images from the lot, and followers vote daily to determine the most rebellious vehicle positionings. 

Similar accounts have flooded social media as of late, inspiring others to bring the fad to their own schools. Across town, @BendHighParkingJobs on Instagram recalls seeing “a TikTok of people starting the account for their school,” and thinking, “it’d be hilarious if we did it too since our school has bad parking.”

One might expect parking quality to improve as a result, but that’s certainly not the trend at Summit. Poor parking has greatly multiplied as a result, with @BadParkingSummit (who wishes to keep their identity anonymous) noting, “a large increase in it since we started the page.”

Although cars perched upon grassy sidewalks may be thought of as a safety concern, responses from the student body and administrators seem to be positive. Summit’s parking account describes the trend as “something everyone experiences,” and “a positive way to bring people together in a way they weren’t before.”

Especially in the times of Covid, anything that unites students has been widely embraced. The identity of both account’s owners is widely unknown, leading to a trend that avoids the polarization between various friend groups. At Bend High, teachers have even been known to follow the account, an indication that its presence is more than welcome among peers.

Like each and every phase, it’s inevitable that bad parking will eventually fade into just another extinguished trend. For the meantime, @BadParkingSummit’s presence provides a simple addition to school culture that entertains the majority of students.