Yes.
I learned to drive in Manhattan. Stick shift. No problem.
I got my license in 1998 in NH and they did not require it, since it’s rarely needed. They tested backing into a space so my teacher drilled that into me, but it didn’t really stick. (Or become automatic, hee!)
I learned parallel parking just enough to be dangerous and I definitely cannot do it and won’t try. OK, if there were a gun to my head, I know the concept enough to get off the street but it wouldn’t be pretty.
Yes! One of first jobs was as runner for a radio station. I had to park all over downtown which is 90% street parking. I learned quickly how to parallel park all the different station vehicles including the remote van with trailer.
I’ve always been good at it, right up until I bought a Prius. I don’t know why the damn thing is so difficult to park, whether it’s parallel or straight in. Probably because you can’t see the corners on the bloody thing. It’s one reason I’m glad to be rid of it.
I used to be great at it despite the fact that it is the least common parking method required. At one stage I started counting how many times in a row I could reverse into a spot in one move and not have to straighten the wheels so I could just pull straight back out. I once managed 13 in a row. Over many weeks.
A couple of years ago I got a two door hatchback and I cannot for the life of me get the angles right reverse parking. Two days ago I was trying to reverse into a spot in heavy traffic and had to give up rather than hold everyone up.
I will use this post as incentive to go and work the angles out. I assume it’s the absence of the door pillar that is throwing me out.
I have to do it every day, more or less. My parking spot in the garage in my apartment building basically requires the same maneuvers as parallel parking to get into.
I parallel park on the street all the time too. I’m also pretty good at turning an SUV around on a narrow dirt road with no place to pull off.
Yeah, another Chicagoan. If you live here and drive at all ever, you need to be able to parallel. Give me my workplace’s full sized extension van or my friend’s tiny Fiat. No problem. I’m also one of those who sees people from the sticks trying to parallel, and will stop to watch. It’s damn funny.
Decidedly not. I don’t have good depth perception, and I can’t think of a time when I’ve had to even attempt it in the past 15 years. NH isn’t filled with parking spaces that require it once you get off college campuses, that’s for sure.
It requires typically male spatial relations plus an awareness of how they change over time. For that reason, I suspect it’s not typically well taught. “Real” men don’t see a need to explain the subtleties.
I haven’t had to parallel park in years. I live in a suburban area with plenty of parking lots. If I have to drive into town, I can find a parking garage off the street. If I tried to parallel park, it would take a lot of patience from myself and the other drivers around me and I couldn’t always count on their patience.
Good Day. 
I lived for 12 years with street parking only on a very crowded one way street. I used to be a parallel parking fucking master. Like, world class level. That was 10+ years ago. Now I’m just exceptionally good at it.
I’ve always driven relatively small cars but (I am not exaggerating) I used to routinely parallel park with less than six inches of clearance front and back. I find it’s actually easier to park on the left side of the street because you’re closer to the curb, but when parking is limited and the side of the street you can park on changes once a week, you get really good at parallel parking on both sides.
I’m like this. I just got my first car with a rear-view camera last year. I totally lose perception of space when I’m trying to navigate by a video screen.
I had a Prius as a rental car once. Hated it*. The rear view was awful. I’m glad I didn’t have to parallel park it. It had terrible blind spots, and a dark rear window, that was small, and angled in a way that caused some kind of weird visual effect that made it even harder to see than it should have. There’s a car that needs a back-up camera.
My little Spark has one. I don’t use it much, but it did help me park within inches of my stepfather’s Focus.
*Also, because I used it almost totally for highway driving, I used a lot of gas-- little savings.
I haven’t parallel parked since my driving test. I suspect I could not do it.
I’m good at it. 99% of the time I get it right, the other 1% I have to have another go. I generally avoid doing it though because I don’t like stopping in the middle of traffic and backing up. Makes me feel vulnerable to an inattentive driver.
I don’t think I’ve properly done a parallel parking since my driving test 10 years ago.
I sometimes have to try twice on a tight spot, but it’s basically impossible to drive where I live without getting pretty decent at it. Almost all parking is on street and very competetive.
My mother, on the other hand, is one of them from the sticks that just can’t do it at all. She won’t even try now, when she comes to visit, she’ll just get out the car and let my dad or me do it.
I haven’t had to parallel park in decades, but when I lived in Philadelphia I did every day. I used to brag about getting my car into a space smaller than the vehicle.
My pontoon trailer is thirty feet long and I can back it pretty proficiently.
Brooklyn resident here. We live or die by our parallel parking skills.
When I leased my car I was told it would be an extra $40 a month for a back-up camera and I declined it. After a few depth perception experiments you remember the depths of your car and don’t really need the camera.
Who here can parallel park while holding up traffic on a busy street? One mistake and you have at least five cars who start honking at you and then everyone looks out their windows to see what the commotion is about and soon the whole street is looking at the idiot holding up traffic.