The cars you’re parking between aren’t moving.
One of my female coworkers/friends always backs into her parking spot. She drives a compact car. I’m pretty sure she does it since she actually DID back into someone’s car once while backing out of her parking spot last year… she said she looked down to fiddle with the radio and next thing she knew it she’d hit the rear of another friend’s brand-new Lexus! :smack: (She went back into the office and humbly explained things to the owner of the other car and paid the $1000 it cost to get it fixed, of course.)
So now, she always backs in. I suppose it’s logical… if you back into a spot there’s not likely to be someone rushing up behind you while you’re doing it. You’re probably more likely to pay attention to what you’re doing while you’re parking, as opposed to unparking (I know my mind is more on getting home at the end of the day). Basically, there’s going to be less going on behind you while backing IN than backing OUT.
I never thought of it as a guy thing, although I am a guy.
I usually back in when I can. The hazard of oncoming traffic is so much greater when you leave a parking spot, as opposed to entering it, it just makes more sense to be facing foward when you leave. When backing in, you don’t have to worry a great deal about families and straggling tots being in the little space you are about to back into; but backing out there are all sorts of things you could hit if you’re not careful.
Depending on the surroundings, I sometimes back in.
While it is harder than pulling in forwards, it’s easier to leave forwards than to back out. So it feels like a form of delayed gratification.
I’m a guy, but I drive very un-macho econoboxes.
Yep. I don’t have a large vehicle, but I hate backing out of a parking space. I’m turning my head to the right, left, and around, not to mention checking 3 mirrors. Half the time, when I’m halfway out of the spot, someone will be behind me.
Besides, when I back in, anyone in the area will be paying attention to me. Cuz they see I’m an old lady and they get out of my way. Old ladies can’t drive in reverse for shit, ya know.
I back in because where I park at work, the sun will be facing the rear of my car as I leave, putting the steering wheel in shade. No burned hands. Also, I often pull through so I don’t have to back out. I feel very vulnerable since there are often SUVs or trucks on either side obscuring the view.
StG
I sometimes do one, and sometimes the other. I mean, arriving or departing, you’ll need to back up one of the ways. Backing up into a parking spot is just as easy as backing out for me, so why not get it over with the first time? The only time I will never back in is when I’m shopping and will need easy access to the trunk.
Well, what pisses me off is the way people drive in parking lots, without any regard for people who might be trying to back out, but happen to have gotten stuck beside some monster truck or SUV, so that no matter how many times you have tried to turn and watch for both sides you are nevertheless at the mercy of someone driving through as you inch out, hoping noone will hit you, because if they do it is your fault whether they could have stopped or not. I prefer not having to back out whether I am in one of those diagonal spaces or not. I just feel a lot safer and, more important, I think I am a lot safer.
Btw, I wasn’t in the wrong direction going in because I pulled through an empty space.
Its an allegory for anal sex.
Yes, this is one of my pet peeves. Or they pull in forward from a spot in the next lane.
I recently completed my annual defensive driving refresher. Regardless that I’m required to back in all agency vehicles, it was our guest speaker who pushed hard for back-in parking all the time, even with our private vehicles. She is the head trauma nurse for a major hospital. She told us the incidents of backing up accidents has skyrocketed in recent years, mostly because rear visibility of vehicles is terrible. SUVs and other big vehicles are the worst. The blind spot for an average SUV is something like 20 feet when children are involved.
She said the best way to park is drive through both parking spots so you don’t have to back in. When the question was raised this isn’t always possible she had a quick answer - don’t park so close to the front entrance! Park far enough away so you can drive through and walk to the entrance. It’s healthier that way.
That’s the reason I almost always back in. There are very few times where I find myself in the car and really want to get out of it, and many, many times where I just want to get the hell out of dodge. Backing in can also provide a reason to listen to the final piano solo on “I Would Do Anything For Love”, or to hear the very end of an NPR story.
I’ll pull forward in a diagonal space–my car has a very small turning radius and it’s no problem to get out and be going the correct way in the lot.
I don’t usually back into parking spaces; although reading this tread has made the practice make more sense. I would say about 90% of the Japanese people here back into spaces, which has always annoyed me because they always hold up a line of traffic while doing so, but I shall be less annoyed in the future.
Because I would rather back into an empty parking spot than into traffic.
It’s a lot easier to go in forward and back out. The safety isn’t an issue in parking lots – people are looking out for movement to begin with. And when you back into the space, you often end up too close to the next space, so others can’t get out of their car.
I will pull through on occasion but never if I see any car looking for a space. Nothing is more annoying to find a space and head for it and find someone pulling into it from the other side. Generally, though, I pull through leaving more often than when arriving.
Even worse: the idiots who park diagonally across two spaces. Usually, they at least don’t try it when parking is scarce, but, really, what’s the point of that?
Yeah, it seems obvious to me.
I need to reverse one time. I’d rather do it into an empty space than a lane of traffic.
When I get to work, if there’s a car behind me, and I’m at my space, I’ll pull in forward, instead of forcing him to come to a halt while I back in. But otherwise. . .it’s beep beep beep.
I back into my spot in the afternoon, so that the building behind me blocks out the afternoon sun. If I back in I am in full shade by the time I leave, and the interior temperature of my car is probably down to about 100-110 F. If I pull nose in I can’t get the interior of my car all into the shade. If I were driving a pickup I’d nose in, but my car has no rear and a bit of front. When that’s not a consideration then I pull in nose first.
My wife’s care ( a Volvo station wagon) has very poor visibility backing up. So I usually back into a parking space, knowing how much space I have and being relatively sure that nothing is moving into my blind spot. Then I can see better when I pull out forward. If I backed out when leaving, I can’t necessarily see other cars that are coming (I’ve actually backed into a car who was backing out of the space across the aisle from me, because I couldn’t see her).
I’d never really given much thought to it before, but this pretty well sums up my feelings.
My wife teases me all the time about how I will take any opportunity to back in, but there really is a huge difference in the level of stress, relatively speaking, involved in pulling forward out of a space versus the neck-craning and wariness (particularly when parked between SUVs – which, in suburban LA, is always a possibility) that comes with trying to back out in a busy parking lot.
I drive a p.o.s.* and, when I think about it, I back in to make it easy to jumpstart my car if necessary.
*piece of shit