How To Park Your Car And How Not To Park Your Car + Red Barchetta Makes Sense

[Amarr HM]

I'd like to see a demonstration or at least a diagram on how backing in takes less time than going straight in.  Maybe I can learn something and become one of those back-in douches.

I wouldn't say it's quicker, but it's only the time it takes the car to drive past the space slower.. which is what, two seconds? The time saving part is being able to drive straight out later on, this is always better than either reversing out or driving front in.

[jakonovski]

Someone attempting to park their car t-boned my Fiat, also parked, a few years ago. She said it was hard to see in the rain.

[Khaldun]

There's a difference between parking spaces that are slanted towards a traffic flow and straight 90 degree spaces. Someone who works hard to back into a slanted space against the traffic flow can't really do it quickly--the whole point of the space is to turn into it.

I don't really care about backing in vs. not backing in, though. The thing that makes me white-hot angry are douchebags who take up more than one space. That's basically unforgiveable, whether it's the "I am doing it on purpose so you won't scratch my beautiful car, peons" or the "I have no idea what I'm doing so I didn't even notice that I took up two spaces" people.

[Rasix]

My best friend in high school would do this with his 70 Chevelle.  He'd back in angled taking up two spaces.  So he was crooked, backed in, and double parked. 

He really didn't need to do this.  The spaces here are huge and the guy was a great driver.  He parked his parents massive Chrysler into a very difficult garage situation on a daily basis.

[Lantyssa]

Some of us are spatially challenged on a good day.  No amount of practice will help when I can't figure out where the back half of my car ever is.  (I have enough trouble with the front.)

Unfortunately not driving isn't an option around here.  I wish it was, but I can't afford a chauffeur and there's no disability category for 'shitty' drivers.

[Yegolev]

I wouldn't say it's quicker, but it's only the time it takes the car to drive past the space slower.. which is what, two seconds? The time saving part is being able to drive straight out later on, this is always better than either reversing out or driving front in.

OK, I'll give this some trials and let you know how it goes, using angry.bob's description.  I don't have any slowdowns with my current method, but I do understand the physics of car movement.

My best friend in high school would do this with his 70 Chevelle.  He'd back in angled taking up two spaces.  So he was crooked, backed in, and double parked. 

He really didn't need to do this.  The spaces here are huge and the guy was a great driver.  He parked his parents massive Chrysler into a very difficult garage situation on a daily basis.

I suspect your friend was more concerned about the other drivers than his own skill.

[Amarr HM]

Discussion over here -

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-back-up-into-parking-spaces





You can see the reverse park has the benefit of a cleaner entry, you need to swing out a bit wider to do the forward park cleanly.

It also has the benefit of being able to drive straight out. This isn't just for convenience though, it's also a safety issue especially in a busy car park. You're more likely to see other traffic as well as pedestrians when you're directly facing them.

When you have a kid in the back, reversing out into traffic doesn't bear thinking about.

[Khaldun]

Sorry, but that cuts both ways. Either we accept that backing up is *always* harder and carries visibility risks or that it never is (if you're skilled). E.g., if you're backing into a space, you're potentially just as likely to miss a pedestrian crossing through that space just as you start to back in (it happens in busy lots) as you are to not see pedestrians as you back out. It's marginally more likely that someone's going to cross in front of your egress as you back out than as you back in, but if one's a source of risk, the other's a source of risk.

I will say that it's somewhat easier to go out forward in a parking space that is on the street as opposed to one in a parking lot if the street itself is extremely high-volume. But then in that case it's harder to get the assholes in traffic behind you to not tailgate so closely that you can back in. One makes it harder to get into the space you've chosen unless other drivers are paying attention and are not assholes; the other makes it harder to get out of that space unless other drivers are paying attention and are not assholes.

[Amarr HM]

That's another point - reversing in allows you to inspect the space as you drive by, you can make sure it's not filled with motorbikes, smart cars, wheelie bins, mini-skips, broken glass and so forth. The hard part isn't the reversing it's the detection, you want to know what's behind you when you reverse.

[Bunk]

I'm exactly the same, I've always backed in to my spot in my parkade just for the sake of practice. (how the hell is parkade not in the spellcheck?)

I also intentionally always parallel parked properly as if it was a tight spot, even on a wide open road, just for the practice. Years later, I can now actually park competently.


I once watched a couple in an SUV trying to park in the underground parking lot at a local Asian mall. She pulled a third in, and then tried to adjust two feet at a time, back and forth for about five minutes. It was so bad I just sat in my car and watched. After the five minutes, with the truck still on a 45 degree angle and only a third of the way in, she puts the truck in park and gets out and switches seats with her husband. It still took him four adjustments to get it straight, but he did get it in there eventually. There was a good two feet of space on either side of the truck.

That is no way intended to disparage the parking abilities of women or Asians in general, but oh man working in Richmond BC can be um... 

[Samwise]

Sorry, but that cuts both ways.

I'm not deeply invested in this, but no, you're wrong.  In either case, the fact that the pivot point (the back wheels) is further into the space makes it faster, IF you know what you're doing and don't fuck up (this is a big if -- even if backing in is better under optimal conditions, you're better off using a suboptimal technique you're good at than a theoretically optimal technique you can't execute).

Just imagine the car spinning around the back wheels as it pulls out of the space.  That means the front half of the car is the one that's rotating.  If the front half of the car is closer to the "exit", it's able to clear the cars to either side as it rotates.  If it's further inside, it's more likely to hit something to the sides while you're still in the space (unless you stop, readjust, etc).  The same is true when pulling out OR pulling in because in either case the pivot point is in the same place; it's got nothing to do with the DIRECTION, it's all about the POSITION.

Again, I don't really care, park however the fuck you want as long as you can do it without getting in my way.  But the geometry of this is not hard to understand.

[angry.bob]

Reverse parking classic

[Samwise]

Another way to think about it is that when you parallel park, if you're ANY good at parallel parking (i.e. you can do it with precision rather than requiring two car lengths to maneuver in), you almost certainly back into it, starting your turn as soon as the back of your car lines up with the back of the car in front of the space.  It's the same exact logic -- when you back in, you can pivot your car around the other car as you pull into the spot.  If you try to pull in forward (so that you're coming around the car behind the space), you can't start your turn as early, because your nose will run right into the other car -- which means it's impossible to get into the space in a single motion.  Right?  And when you leave the space, you pull out going forward, because your nose will cover the sideways distance faster (again, because the pivot is the back wheels) and so you'll have an easier time clearing the car in front of you before you hit it.  If you tried to back out, you'd have a very hard time clearing the car behind you without doing a lot of readjusting.

Perpendicular parking has the exact same issue -- if you pull in forward and it's a tight space, you need to swing wide to get yourself lined up before you're close to the other cars, otherwise you'll hit them.  And when you pull out going backward, you need to get most of the way backed out before you can start turning, otherwise your nose will hit them before you're out.  If you pull in backward and pull out forward, you can make the pivot a lot tighter and therefore do it without weaving all over two lanes of traffic.

[lamaros]

Reversing in to an unoccupied parking spot, which you know is empty as you have just driven past it, is far safer than reversing out of a park in to traffic. Especially in parking lots with a lot of pedestrians.

Its also easier to park accurately, provided you have a real wheel drive car, which most do.

Edit: Shitty drivers with take three hours to reverse out of a park as they would three hours to reverse in to it (unless the lanes are massive), so there's no real time difference either.

[Paelos]

I watched a guy in a fucking huge SUV mess this up on the parking garage again today. And readjust twice.

Another dollar in the jar, nutjobs.

[Yegolev]

Give yourself another $0.25 whenever they change back to "drive" then "reverse".

[Samwise]

Give yourself another $0.25 whenever they change back to "drive" then "reverse".

The best thing about driving a stick shift on hills is that you don't have to change gears when making adjustments like that.     Freaks out passengers who don't know what a clutch is.

[Mosesandstick]

Reverse parking classic

Someone needs to tell Ab this is what to expect in South East Asia.

[Samwise]

Reverse parking classic

Someone needs to tell Ab this is what to expect in South East Asia.

I have been in this exact situation, put my hazard blinkers on, got out of my car, and proceeded to (politely but firmly) guide the driver through the process of parking their fucking car.  Once I can see that it's going to take them longer to park their car unguided than it will take me to get out of my car and back in, just getting out of the car and helping them becomes the most efficient use of my time.

[Malakili]

All of you are missing the the real way to park - find a pull through spot.

[Polysorbate80]

All of you are missing the the real way to park - find a pull through spot.

If you can't find a spot, make your own!

[Yegolev]

All of you are missing the the real way to park - find a pull through spot.

You're the first one to mention this since I mentioned it.  I usually do not pull through since I think it is unexpected.

[Evildrider]

I prefer to pull out.

[Teleku]

[Cheddar]

I drive a van.  My biggest fear is running over a short person or child.  Pulling through is my usual preferance.

Seriously, a 30 second wait thread? 

[NowhereMan]

Reverse parking classic

Someone needs to tell Ab this is what to expect in South East Asia.

This is what to expect in Singapore. In South East Asia proper you just stop outside the place you want to be and leave the car. Maybe put your hazards on if you won't be a long time.

[apocrypha]

Some British observations.

Supermarket car parking spaces here are too small. US-style idiotically over-sized vehicles are proliferating at a rapid pace here. If I back into a space in the supermarket chances are I won't be able to get to my car boot to put my shopping away when I leave.

Same with most corporate car parks. I can't get camera & lighting gear out of the boot of my car when it's surrounded by vehicular behomoths, so backing into spaces is no good for me most of the time.

However, in car parks, people walk behind you when you're reversing. I don't know why. They never, ever walk in front of a slow-moving car when it's going forwards, but something in a lot of people's brains seems to short out when you're backing out of a space. After much thought, my theory is that most people are total fucking idiots. So I have to choose between backing into a space and not risking running morons over when I leave, or going forwards into a space and actually being able to get stuff out of my car.

Oh and you have to learn how to parallel park in the UK, especially if you don't live in a major city. It's not hard and anyone trying to do it forwards shouldn't be doing it at all.

[Chimpy]

The thing I don't get about the British is that they parallel park in the opposite direction as traffic flows on that side of the street. Totally freaks me out seeing cars parallel parked nose to nose on the same side of the street.

[01101010]

The thing I don't get about the British is that they parallel park in the opposite direction as traffic flows on that side of the street. Totally freaks me out seeing cars parallel parked nose to nose on the same side of the street.

They do this in Pittsburgh as well.

[apocrypha]

The thing I don't get about the British is that they parallel park in the opposite direction as traffic flows on that side of the street. Totally freaks me out seeing cars parallel parked nose to nose on the same side of the street.

AFAIK that's an illegal manoeuvre. Certainly pulling into a space the wrong way like that is illegal. I refer you to my "most people are total fucking idiots" theory.

[lamaros]

Yeah that's illegal in Australia too. Will get you a ticket for parking too far from the curb.

[Amarr HM]

I tried to do that in Australia once and was given a telling off by my passengers, I had no idea it was illegal.

[K9]

A friend of mine gave me a lift last week in his mercedes which has automatic parallel parking; being in the car while it parked itself, with his hands off the wheel was a pretty spooky experience. The car did a damn good job of it though.

[Paelos]

I drive a van.  My biggest fear is running over a short person or child.  Pulling through is my usual preferance.

Seriously, a 30 second wait thread? 

It wasn't made, it was a tangent the mods split off because they didn't like it cluttering whatever the hell we were talking about before that was just as silly.

In any case, petty annoyance threads will only become more popular. We're old now. This is the new Sparta.

[Samwise]

A friend of mine gave me a lift last week in his mercedes which has automatic parallel parking; being in the car while it parked itself, with his hands off the wheel was a pretty spooky experience. The car did a damn good job of it though.

Back when I first learned to parallel park I wondered why nobody had made a car yet that would just execute the correct sequence of steps at the push of a button.  Glad somebody finally got off their butt.