I just don’t get it. Who are these people and what motivates them to act in such a jackass way?
In my apartment’s parking garage, over 90% of people pull in to their parking spots front first, like the quick, easy, normal, rational way to do it. But around 10% of people feel the urge to stop in the middle of the parking garage, hold up everyone driving behind them, as they try to back in to their parking spot. So the front of their car faces outwards. It takes 20-30 seconds longer, as everyone behind them is held up… waiting for them to sloooowly back in. There are no advantages to parking in reverse. You don’t get out faster or easier (and if you think you do, then you shouldn’t be driving in the first place). Even if you did get out faster, who would trade 20-30 seconds of slowing yourself down while simultaneously being rude to other people for saving a few seconds at some unspecified time in the future?
I do not get it. Even if nobody were driving behind me, I wouldn’t feel the ridiculous urge to park my car in its spot rear-end first. If doing so meant I’d be inconveniencing one or more other people (holding them up behind me as I back in) I wouldn’t do it even if there were a tangible advantage. Most people just pull in to their spot as quickly as possible if someone is behind them.
So who are these back-in parkers? About 1 in 10 people are such ridiculous assholes they slow themselves down just to screw with and annoy other people.
The only theory I have is that this is some sort of animalistic dominance display. I.e. “You will stay there and wait for ME to park before you drive past ME to your own spot. You will not go past ME until I slowly back MY car into MY spot and park it in a regal, kingly manner, facing outward so I can watch you be inconvenienced from my actions.” Dominance plus narcissism.
So, screwing with other people and giving yourself a good view of it. That’s the only explanation I can come up with. Am I right? The only other possible theory I can come up with is that there’s some urban legend upon which these people are relying. Like they heard somewhere that backing in to your parking spot will save you 30% on gas. Or your car can’t/won’t be stolen if it’s parked backwards. Something ridiculous like that.
I do it when it makes unloading easier, or when parking in my driveway in winter. The snowbanks are easier to negotiate before other cars park on the street or in the driveway opposite us.
The time cost is either paid pulling in or pulling out. It’s a zero sum game.
They’re not thinking about parking, they’re thinking about the next time they have to get out. They’ll get out easier, faster, and safer because they’re already looking to the incoming traffic instead of reversing to it.
Also, I’m surprised and wonder how much younger than me you are (less than 30?) or if you’ve had a lot of experience in road trips or what not, as in some places it IS required to park backing up.
If you’ve ever tried to back out onto a street when two monster SUVs have parked on either side of you, you would appreciate it. You have a fighting chance of seeing whether the road is clear to pull out into.
If you think waiting for someone to back into a parking space takes time, what about the dance you do when you pull out and can’t see the road? You slowly back up inch by inch hoping nobody slams into you and if you’re lucky enough to have traffic stop for you while you back out, the first guy waiting gets tired of the inch-by-inch bit and then decides to just pass you and you slam on the brakes and wait again hoping the traffic is clear and pull out inch-by-inch.
I’ve heard a driver’s ed instructor, actually IIRC 2 of them, claim it is safer to back in due to the view you have, and the visibility other drivers have of your intended action while in reverse (as opposed to backing out) and so your travel in reverse is when traffic is already stopped because they are unable to pass you.
I do think it does take longer however for back in parking, more precision is needed then in backing out.
There have been dozens of threads on this. Some ended in the Pit, some in GD, most in IMHO.
Suffice it to say that the OPs opinion, though largely not based in facts, is the majority.
A skilful backer-inner can safely do the combined parking & leaving maneuver faster than a skilful park-nose-firster. An incompetent at either method is a hazard to navigation.
Some places backing in is prohibited for legit reasons, not just fiat. And in other places it’s required for legit reasons, not just fiat.
Many large fleet operators require backing in unless prohibited. Because their statistics clearly show it’s safer.
So much for facts.
IMO the biggest advantage to nose first is that it doesn’t surprise the clueless driver behind you. IOW, when the herd is mostly stupid, you to have to act stupid to get along with them.
Maybe they’re fans of doing things slowly? They might write checks, leave a cooked joint of meat to ‘rest’ the required time, never use speed dial, send mail by post, wash all their clothes by hand, etc.
There’s no way the most skilled driver in the world can back in faster than someone can park straight in. It takes one whole extra move. Maybe it won’t take them 30 seconds, but it takes longer no question about it. Not opinion.
In our office garage back-in parking is forbidden between 8:15 and 8:45. Other times it’s allowed. That’s because most of the ~600 cars arrive in that time slot and one idiot trying to back into a space on the fourth floor can cause a back-up all the way down to the street. A very busy downtown street. The spaces are extremely narrow, it’s much quicker to back out than back in.
There are always a few idiots who ignore the rules, get into fights with people behind them. Our mailroom and printshop staff are assigned to enforce the restrictions.
That said there are definitely circumstances where even in our garage, it would be safer to be pulling out head first than backing out between 5:00 and 5:30 if you are between two SUVs. If you want to do that, get there before 8:15.
When someone opens a Thread in GQ using Pit language, is it then appropriate to use Pit language to respond? Seems it should be.
People who back into parking spaces don’t always do it when there are cars waiting behind them. You only notice it happening when others are waiting behind them because if you weren’t there you wouldn’t see it.
kaltkalt, if I lived in your apartment building I would not alter your perception of reality one bit. Why? Because I would pull in to my parking space when there were cars behind me and I would back into my parking space when there are no cars behind me. Still, you’d walk past my backed in car on one day and say “Hey! This asshole made people wait behind him!” but on some other day you’d walk past my car parked front end first and you’d say, “Ah! This guy’s one of the sane people just like me!”
Pulling forward out of a parking space is by far the best way to pull out of a parking space. The only way to set this up is to back into the parking space to begin with, which is not at all difficult and you’re not backing into moving traffic (which you’re doing when you’re backing out of a parking space). Still, the ease of pulling out of your space later on may not, as a benefit, outweigh the hassle of backing up traffic while parking to begin with.
So, I weigh the two against one another when parking. Lots of people do. You just don’t see them.
I think this is where the problem lies - competence. Sure you see the odd “skilful backer-inner” and can marvel at their skills but to offset her will be 20 incompetent backer-inners with a yawning gulf in time taken between the two extremes. It’s almost as though there is a law that only allows you to reverse park if you are useless at it. In the case of nose-firsters the poor drivers are only marginally worse than the good ones. It isn’t a high performance art.
At least the jackass OP was composed before any explanations had been given (also all the OPs return posts have consisted of “LA!LA!LA!LA!LA! Fingers in my ears!!!”), but your jackass post, jezzaOZ, comes after plenty of people have offered valid explanations for the practice.
But you’re forgetting to evaluate how well the unskilled nose-firster performs when they inevitably have to back out into traffic. If they’re unskilled at pulling into a parking space, I can guarantee you they suck at backing out into traffic.
backing in makes it HARDER for thieves to access the trunk. Since it’s a zero sum gain then it doesn’t matter whether it takes longer to enter or longer to exit the the spot.