It's easy to back into a parking space in an SUV/van because you don't have to worry about side traffic in the back. Backing OUT of a parking space, you have to get over halfway out before you can see to the sides, at which point you might already be in a wreck.

Parallel parking has always been difficult for me. It took me many many hours with my mother in my car, yelling back and forth "I got it." "You're to close." You're too far away." I'm FINE. Let me do it." Till I finally got the concept down. It's a LOT about practice. I failed my first drivers test. Honestly I believe the woman (I had 3 other friends who were excellent drivers and she failed them too.) didn't believe in letting a kid pass the first time around. She failed me because I was too CLOSE to the curb. Dunno how that happens but anyway. The second time I took the test I knew one of my weaker points the first time had been the parallel parking piece. So when I went to take the test I had practice so many hours I couldn't even count them. The guy got the rest of the test out of the way first. Finally he had me parallel park. ON AN EMPTY street. I was relieved and irritated at the same time. Here I'd perfected my parallel parking technique and wasn't given a chance to show off the HOURS of practice. I passed and I guess that was my main goal. The practice has now set in me in good stead. I still hate parallel parking (especially with a stick) but when necessary I know how to do it without being too close to any other car or the curb for that matter. Now I tend to get a little picky and if my front wheel is 6 inches away from the curb while the back in only 2 I tend to futz with things going back and forth till it's perfect. I'm sure there've been a few people inside stores watching my waffling the car over something so insignificant. Oh well. At least you can say I'm not one of those who parks diagonally between straight lines in a parking lot. And I AM one of those "soccer mom's with 3 and 4 kids in the car".

I discovered years ago that a person's parking skills are inversely proportional to the size (and cost) of their vehicle.

I don't drive an SUV (I switch between a Camry and a Lancer, both sedans) but I reverse into parking spaces 99% of the time, and I reverse into my driveway. I find it easier and quicker and even more accurate for me to reverse in than to go head-first. In fact if I go in head first I often have to reverse out again to straighten up. It also makes leaving the car park so much easier, just drive on out.

Reversing in is safer since you're more visible to other drivers when you're doing it (because you go from the road into the space, so they see you the whole time). Reversing out is hard because other drivers don't always see your reverse lights, and you can't always see someone else until you're halfway out of the space. But this is all personal preference, that's just how I like to do it. If someone can go forward in and reverse out without any problems (99% of people can do it just fine) then everything's peachy :)

what i've been doing lately is finding the nicest car in the lot and parking beside it because you know they aren't going to be careless with their car. or there's parking beside a curb... that way at least one side of my car is "protected".

however, honestly... the worst parking job in the world doesn't bug me as bad as someone leaving their shopping cart in the middle of the lot.

seriously... wtf? i can't think of anything more inconsiderate than someone leaving a shopping cart someplace that is "convenient for them" but obviously in the way of everyone else. okay, i better stop talking about this before i get really pissed.

have a nice day. :)

I love watching someone back in and out of a space trying to get an equal spacing between them and the two vehicles beside them, but they don't do anything correctly in terms of making this happen...they will back in and out ten times before they give up and have to squeeze out their door because they are so close to one of the vehicles..it's hilarious!

it's alot easier for a bigger car to back in and drive straight out. When you are trying to reverse a massive car out of a carpark it can be a bitch with all the cars coming and stuff. It's easier the other way.

I thought you folks would like this,

http://twypo.com/etc/misc/parking.jpg

(see this thread)

I put that in the same drawer with the force that pulls your bicycle off the edge of a sidewalk curb no matter how much weight you try to move "uphill". It's like a gravity well caused by distant black holes. I can't point to the source but I can see the effect in any parking lot.

Just a few weeks ago my brother and I watched a couple do the parking hokey pokey in a Staples lot. Full daylight, no kids, the woman wasn't screaming, they were just impaired. The guy must have become frustrated, or they just decided the store wasn't important so he tried to leave. I say tried, because even that didn't work too well. He slowly pulled forward in a wide arc (not nearly at the steering limit) and bonked into a pickup that was parked at the edge of the lot. We blinked at each other and got his plates as he backed away and drove off. Had he turned just slightly tighter he'd have cleared the pickup easily.

"Fascinating"

I remember taking driver's ed (after already having been taught first on a stick) and having the instructor tell me that I didn't really have to have just parallel parked it. Then he proceeded to tell me that he didn't even know how to do it.

That was the moment I realized just why I hate driving: The other people on the road don't know how to drive, let alone park. But when the instructors themselves don't know how to handle a car properly it's a sign that the whole system needs an overhaul.

edit- slimsam1, that is awesome. I feel like printing off a bunch of those to keep in my car.

i wonder what the figures would be comparing non-injury parking lot accidents to normal street/highway?
i see alot of fender beders in parking lots

I have a thing about parking, and it drives my wife craZy! I'll pull in first, back out, straighten up, pull in, crack the door to inspect the line positioning for straightness, then ask the wife to do the same thing. People who park me in so I can't get in the car get either an earful of new, inventive cursewords, or they get a note (if I have paper with me.)

I can park pretty good for driving a huge van. Its just the other people that can't park!

I don't really think the manner in which people park is all that important. I mean, people aren't causing accidents or injuring others by parking a little crooked. Is it a pain in the ass when someone is coming into your spot? Sure. Is it such a big deal that I would publish an article on it? No way. Get a life dude.

^^^--- Bad Parker Above Alert! ---^^^

Get my pitchfork.

uh yeah, hello places with limited parking like parking garages you need to be able to park. I cant stand it when I go to school and I have to pass 10 good parking spaces to get to one bad parking space all because some 'tards park all messed up. I love it when the Crown Vic on Dubs parks in like 4 parking spaces or the SUV who takes up the 2 spaces backing in because hes in a rush..

forget parallel parking, theres 6 spaces in front of someone, or too close or halfway out in the street...

Im a parking Nazi, I have to be STRAIGHT and in the MIDDLE of the space

I cant stand it when people leave their wheels turned either. I fear theyre going to run into me.

Its hard to explain until you have to do it. But...

This one is basically a matter of geometry. SUVs and trucks have a longer wheelbase, and since (usually) only the front set of wheels turn, you naturally have a larger turning radius. This means you have to start your turns earlier to make it in. Since the back wheels dont turn, you are basically pivoting on your back axel. If you line the front of the car up with the spot, so that at full steering lock you will just make it in, the back wheels are still even with the car next to you. When pulling forward into a spot, the front will rotate in, but the back wont do much, so the side of your truck will pull in and hit the bumper of the car in the next spot.

Now, when backing in, you can align your back axle with the spot you want to enter. The fron swings around and you dont hafta worry aobut hitting anything on the side.

That didn't explain well, so maybe some really crude pictures will. The front of the truck is pointing to the right --->

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...7/f55db500.jpg
See.... when pulling in your truck might hit the guy next to you. The isle is rarely wide enough to get far enough away to make it work.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...8/f55db4fa.jpg
When backing in, this isn't an issue . When pulling back out, the aisle is wider than the spot, so you have room to make the turn when pulling forward.


Maybe that didn't help at all, but once you have to drive a full size truck, it doesn't take long to realize you often HAVE to back in if you want to park.

I don't know where you live but plenty of bad parkers here in NYC can reduce drastically the already small amount of parking available.

Personally I think the article is more of a social commentarty about how people only care about themselves and fuck the rest of the community.

I think I do a reasonably good job of parking, especially after my daily driver was a 1963 Dodge pickup for about 9 years. That plus my job at the auto body shop, where I had to squeeze as many vehicles inside the shop as possible before closing at night, gave me some fairly decent skills. My parking skill undergoes a drastic reduction when I get tired though - it's embarassing! Still, I don't see how people can go around leaving their vehicles to shoddily parked. Have they no pride? It's mystifying. I had a job in our local downtown shopping area where the street is one-way, and I used to get a lot of entertainment out of watching people try to parallel park on the left side of the street. They'd go at it six, seven times in a row and still mess it up, leaving their cars all askew and halfway into the next spot. I must have watched dozens of people scrape their wheels on the curb, it was an endless parade of parking mishaps. Why this was so difficult is just baffling.

Awesome, Peryn. As crudely drawn as that is, it makes perfect sense. :thumbsup: :lol:

I'm glad everyone here is a perfect parker, where are all of you when I go to the mall?

It's parking, get over it. You have no idea what the conditions were when the person you are all pissed of at were like when he parked. Maybe the guy next to him parked all fucked up and the only way they could fit in is if they also parked bad. Leaving notes or swearing at someone is so immature.

That "article" was the worst self-rightous wanking I've read in quite some time. The writer needs to get a life (or more interesting material to stroke his ego to).

Bad parking has a cascading effect too. The guy next to your space parks bad, so you have to go into the space off center so you can get out. The next guy up has to park off center. Even when the bad parker leaves, his bad parking legacy remains. It is one of my pet peeves too.

I can park good. I'm kinda anal about it, I try to park exactly between each line. If I don't get it right, I back out and try again. :|

Ever since I've had to park on the street I've greatly improved my parallel parking while noticing some bad/inconsiderate parking. But I also realize that a lot of the times it is because of the cascading effect. At times when I go back to my car, it looks like it was me that was at fault for the bad parking.

I drive a Ford Taurus, and I try to find a space where I can pull through every time. I also tend to park further away from the destination. Why? I'm not the greatest parker, and I don't want to fuck over everybody else. I'm always inside the lines, but still.

I live in the suburbs, so my parallel parking skills are a little weak (not that I hit cars or take up too much space, but it takes me longer and I pass up spaces others might take). But otherwise my driving skills are very strong. I do work with people who have grown up in cities and they still cannot park, so parking like all skills, is something that you have to want to learn.

the cascading parking effect just makes me park far away.. I hate squeezing into some space and making it hard for me to get in/out or for someone else to get in/out.

Oh well.. I get exercize...

Wow. What a great thread. I begin my input with a recount of my first driving experience: My dad's full-bed extended cab '95 Chevrolet Silverado through main street in my home town during rush hour. That's how I learned to drive. I took my drivers test in a '92 Ford Escort (if it weren't the wagon, it would be smaller than a Civic), and did well on the paralell parking. I drove the 'scort for a couple of years, and I loved having a small, manuverable car. When the brake lines rusted out on that one, I started driving my '96 Olds Cutlass Supreme 2-door. It's a huge car, and you can't really see out of the back. I have learned to park fine in it, but for some reason, I can park a truck or an SUV so much easier for some reason.

I do hate people who can't park. I'm gonna start leaving notes.

I always do that and almost hit someone one time...but it was only one time, and you never walk behind a fullsize chevy van when its in reverse :rolleyes:

I cringe at the thought of a double parker!!! :p

hahaha yeah, I dont walk behind cars when theyre backing up, nobody looks anymore.

I get a thrill out of watching parking enforcement write tickets, on Thursday at school I had to pass up 5 good spaces because people were over the line

Truer words were never spoken!

Just as Peryn says, as soon as you drive a full size truck you'll learn that backing in is the only way to go.

It works just like parallel parking...you always back in to parallel park...at least you're supposed too.

I think it is a situation where people don't care how they park or they park badly on purpose.

My parents do that. I always tell them to put the carriage in the corral, and they say "It's that kid's job". Yeah, just like it's my job at the fast food restaurant to pick up trays, trash, and broken salt shakers. People make it my job.

When I learned to drive, many years ago, I spent countless hours learning how to parallel park and became quite proficient at it. Parking lots are a different story. Where I live, they have been narrowing parking spaces to get a few more dollars out of each lot. This means that with a full sized car, I am parked with my wheels on the lines. Unless I park in an end space, I can barely open the doors. This does lead to a lot of very bad parking. The only solution I have found for me is to park is a lesser used part of the lot. My point is that some of the terrible parking in lots is the fault of the lot design and the rest is the fault of poor driving.

i'm not the best at parking either and I never learned how to parallel park because it wasn't in the test. I've been able to avoid parallel parking because I just park in parking lots or parking garages.

I think im rather good at parking, maybe better at angled than straight, but still decent either way. Parallel parking, now thats a different story, ive maybe had to do it twice and it took like 20 mins to do it and it still looked like crap. Im also starting to back into spaces, but only if theres no one behind me in the space, cuz i cant see where the ass end of my car ends, so i stop where i think its right, and the nose of my car is like 2 feet out of the space. Im getting better though. I also really hate it when 2 SUVs park beside me so i cant see shit when i back out. I usually just go slowly, and i just think, "ok, this is the point where theyve got to see me by now" so ill just go for it. As maybe stated before, a lot of bad parking probably starts from one person parking bad, and everyone else parks bad because of them.

Wow, really? I was so nervous about that test. My mum and I practised it for hours the day before, and I am proud to say, I am pretty good at it. Backing out around corners, however, is another story.

I've lived on two pretty busy streets where parking was kerbside and tight. Unless you want to park two streets away and hike, your parking skills sharpen up pretty good. And it's really not that hard, once you do it a few times. It's one of those things you need to be able to do without thinking about.