This. ZosterSandstorm lists a number of good reasons for backing in (which really shouldn’t take more than a couple seconds longer than pulling in forward) but it’s 99% this. When I’m backing into a parking spot, I’m moving into a relatively controlled space that I have already seen ! As opposed to backing into an uncontrolled lane where cars and people are moving and sometimes hard to see.
Could a child dash into my parking space between the time I scope it out and the time I back in? Yes, conceivably. But let’s be realistic. The chances are far, far greater in the parking lot lane. I see close calls all the time when cars are backing out.
You’re reversing into traffic and you’re sitting at the end of the vehicle that is furthest from the emerging end, and you may be flanked by vehicles that obstruct your view of any oncoming traffic. Do you even drive?
I reverse park, don’t have a reversing camera, feel I am reasonably competetant doing so though I admit there are occasions where I need a second attempt.
Maybe it is a different in culture (I am in the UK) here safety tends to be prioritised over efficiency, and our cars are generally smaller (coming out of a parking space forwards unless you are next to a commercial van or something you can nearly always see over the bonnet/hood of the cars next to you).
I am now retired but my employer insisted everyone reverse parked in the car park, at my church, reverse parking is encouraged. I think people tend to forward park either because it is quicker or they struggle to reverse but I have not heard anyone complain about people reverse parking.
On many occasions I have had people attempt to reverse out of a parking space into me the last one was about a week ago. While I am driving through the car park, either looking for a space or leaving someone reverses out of their space oblivious to the fact they are about to hit me. Fortunately on each occasion I have been able to hit the horn and/or breaks to avoid a collision. I have also had to jump out of the way while walking though a car park as someone reverses out of there space unaware you are in their path.
I would much rather wait 30 seconds for someone to reverse park and clear my path than have someone wreck my car and/or me by reversing out into me.
By the way, not to hijack, but people always ask paramedics “what was your worst-ever call?” and I always tell them, “oh they’re all different really, there’s no actual ‘worst.’ “ It’s only kind of a lie. But the same one pops into my head every time I give that answer. It was a backing-up-out-of-a-parking-spot accident. So maybe I’m biased.
After decades of driving without a backup camera, and doing just fine, I eventually got a vehicle with the technology.
The very first time backing out of my driveway with the new car, and using the backup camera, I put a nice scratch in the driver’s door from a hose reel handle.
I propose to use parking behavior as a direct measure of delayed gratification, a cultural trait recognized by psychologists and economists as contributing to people’s economic success. Specifically, I argue that people who park their cars back-in as opposed to head-in embody a culture of delayed gratification. Backing into a parking space requires more time and effort, but it will enable the driver to exit more easily, safely, and quickly in the future. The feasibility of collecting parking behavior data across countries provides a new and viable way to overcome the limitation of relying on attitudinal or experimental data to measure the culture and behaviors of delayed gratification. I tested my hypothesis using parking data collected from four major emerging economies—the BRIC countries—and two advanced economies—Taiwan and the U.S. Results show that there is a strong positive relationship between back-in parking and labor productivity gains, which is a main engine of economic development.
And that’s really where a lot of the objection seems to come from - people view long-term thinking as a sort of overly masculine or geeky trait, mocking back-in parkers as thinking they need to be “prepared for emergencies” or something, when really it’s just basic awareness of the flow of time and space and the ability to resist eating the marshmallow now. Look at the dipshit in the NYtimes article three posts above, smearing rational parkers as the uncool “middle-aged guys” who are living in fear of “gun violence” - ludicrous slander from a bad driver who, as I’ve noted, has failed to complete the elementary school curriculum.
No it isn’t! I know you THINK this way, but that’s the entire issue. The area you are backing into is full of TRAFFIC GOING PERPENDICULAR TO YOUR CAR, comprised of other cars, pedestrians, and more. It is not in any sense whatsoever “open to you.” You are getting tunnel vision on “parked cars per unit area that I can avoid scraping against” - the concern of the shitty driver (no one who deserves to keep a driver’s license should ever be dinging a stationary vehicle anyway) and the vehicular narcissist (worried more about damaging your paint or paying someone’s body shop claim than running over a fucking child or any of the other disasters that happen while backing up into the flow of traffic).
I’m surprised at the responders who say they use their rear camera for backing. Or their mirrors. Or the windows. Do you actually use ONLY your rear camera when backing? I might be crazily insecure or something, but I use all 3. Probably check each at least twice when backing out of my driveway. Seems similar to changing lanes after checking your mirrors, without doing a shoulder check. Even if you PREFER looking out the back window, why wouldn’t you make use of the additional info the rear camera gives you? And mine (I assume most) gives the helpful turning radius lines, and the green/yellow/red indicators when you near an impediment.
And the folk who commented about running things/people over in reverse or drive, my Subaru supposedly automatically brakes to avoid that. No, I’ve never tested it out by speeding towards a wall, but one time I forgot that I had placed my bike in the driveway behind my car. When I later got in the car and started backing up, it automatically braked. Seems like a pretty good system. And this from a guy who often decries new technology.
I think most people use all three. I used to mostly rely on looking over my shoulder (habit, from not having a rear camera) but my new car has really shitty rear visibility, and it’s just not close to safe to back it up without using the camera and the side mirrors. I still glance over my shoulder out of habit, but there’s literally nothing i can see doing that that i can’t see better with either the camera or the mirrors.
I started back-in parking w/my F150 when I was getting to the train station parking lot really early; it was easy to back in with basically nobody there, but when I left there were more folks in the parking lot, so it felt safer to pull out forward. Over time, that spread to a lot of my non-train station parking, though I will often park farther away if that lets me pull through.
I don’t use the backup camera, I think it would disorient me & feel blinkered.
It’s not, though. When they back out at the end of the session, they may be timid, slow, and inept about it, but they don’t back out part way, pull back in, back out part way, pull back in, ad infinitum
Maybe car parks (or drivers) are different where you live, but I often see people backing out of a space and needing to effect a multi-point turn in the lane to get on their way. Maybe that doesn’t take as long as the thing you’re describing with a really hesitant person reversing into a space, but I don’t think I have seen that very often either.
No, it is not confusing. My car creates an image of itself as if seen from about 30’ overhead and then uses the 4 cameras (two are on the side mirrors) to compose an image of the area around it. There is some weird distortion, but when backing into a parking space, it is easy for me to see the lines and get the car centered.
I was hearing someone complaining that every time they put their car in reverse, the backup screen keeps showing a movie of someone getting run over.
That sounds like a less than ideal way to operate. With a normal car, you end up filling the garage with exhaust when backing into it and again when leaving it. That could ultimately be rather unhealthy. I currently drive an EV, so it would be a great idea – except, my charger would not be able to reach because of my car’s design.
Not only is it not confusing, it’s so fabulous that having used it once, in a test drive, I’ve been looking for it ever since. Sadly, is wasn’t available in any of the cars i test drove this time around. Maybe if i buy another car or will have it.
I also wonder if parking space width plays a role. Personally, I’m not great at backing up. But it seems the recent trend is for spaces to be getting narrower and narrower. As much as I dislike hughe trucks/SUVs, I almost marvel at how they are able to fit into such spaces. As a mediocre backer-upper, the idea of backing into one of those narrow spaces is beyond my comprehension. Yes, I anticipate folk will now post how it is easier to back in than pull in. Not for me. And I don’t care to put in the practice to master that skill.