Want to do an interesting sociological experiment? Drive by your local firehouse. Chances are you’ll find 100% pickup trucks, 100% backed into the parking spots.
Just an observation, but it must be worth SOMETHING!
and that BIG RED truck is usually backed in too… 
pickup trucks? in Texas…naw, you must be thinkin about someplace else.
Next you’ll be claiming most of them trucks have gun racks in the back glass.
Don’t mind me, I’m just yankin your chain. 
BTW: Our local VFD truck has a gunrack in it.
Gee no one has mentioned slow times at the auto body shop.
Boss “Hey Vic. Go over to the super mart and drum us up some buisness.”
Vic “How do I do that boss”.
Boss “Oh just let somebody back into you.”
Parking just sux! i mean, sometimes your spot on, and sometimes is takes you, what feels like a million years, just to get your car in straight.
Good news - the new Toyota Prius has an optional self parking system! Incidentally, this system seems to be designed only for backward parking.
I dont think i need THAT much assistance, just saying that you get your good days and you get your bad days.
One other reason that hasn’t been touched on is that parking spaces seem to be getting narrower and narrower these days.
Add to that the fact that people don’t always park their car directly in the middle of the space, and you frequently have the situation where the only space available will have only enough room for your car and one door-width.
parking head-first in the middle means that you (and your right-hand neighbor) now can barely get out of /into your cars.
By pulling in backwards, you can position yourself so that you driver-side door abuts that of the car next to you while your passenger-side door faces the passenger-side door of the other side.
Since the chances are good that there will only be one occupant (the driver), you can ensure that you (and the other driver) can still get into your car.
The grocery shop parking lot, where I spend a lot of my time is crowded with people, all who assume right of way. It takes more time finding people, especially kids, behind me, even looking backward every conceivable way possibe. and still I am afraid of running over someone. Parking , backing in, eliminates that problem.
By the way, what techniques do you all use to back in straight? Sometimes I have difficulty with that.
I roll down the window to position my tires parallel to and about 1’ away from the line. Never fails.
As the wife of a volunteer firefighter, I can tell you this is 100% true. Well, the vehicles will be 95% pickup trucks, and 5% other cars, but yep, they’ll all be backed in.
And my husband even has me backing into parking spaces now, after nearly 10 years of marriage. I have to back into our garage, because of the shelving on the one side, but I’ve just gotten used to backing in to parking spaces, too. It’s easy to do, and I prefer being able to pull out head first.
Side-view mirrors are our friends…
Barry
In Japan I discovered that in parking buildings it is mostly illegal to park front in.