Thanks! IIHS does a lot of good research and I’m persuaded by statistics. It’s good to know these systems are helping. if they’ve published any studies, I’d love to read some.
I went to a presentation from IIHS/HLDI yesterday, and asked about how much of the stuff they present to the industry is published publicly, and the answer was, “not much, we mostly give it to member companies”. So I’m sad to say i can’t point you the the web page with all that work. But they do publish some high level summaries, which you might be able to find if you poke around their web site.
Honestly, I think the people who back their cars into parking spaces just want to spite me. They know I’m not particularly skilled in the art of parking a car. They know I don’t have great spatial awareness. But they really get a big charge out of shoving their mad skills in my face. They know that looking at a car that has been backed into its space will simply remind me how stressful it would be for me if I tried the same maneuver.
@Snooooopy’s comment made me wonder about something that might be related. I’m a back-in parker (almost 100% of the time), and I’m also pretty good at parallel parking. I expect to get it right (parallel parking, that is) the first time, every time, such that when I have to readjust, I’m a little annoyed with myself.
Do other back-in parkers feel this way about parallel parking too?
Nope. I suck at parallel parking, not because of the mechanics of it, but because my eyes are misaligned, so I have no depth perception.
But for backing in, the camera makes it simple, and for a long vehicle like a truck it is almost a necessity.
Nope, i suck at parking.
I can get parallel parking right on the first try about 3/4 of the time. Back-in parking is a lot easier, even without cameras.
It strikes me as a Null Hypothesis because you gain nothing. It may be a “faster getaway”, but it is a much slower, trickier parking job than just pulling right in. There really is no quantitative difference.
Not true! Yeah, there might not be any difference in total time for either method, but before I retired, it didn’t matter to me how much time I took to park when I arrived. I wanted to get out of the parking structure at quitting time as fast as I could at the end of the day, however! Did I save time? No. Did I make better use of my time? Yes. Or at least in my mind I did. Same thinking holds for parking in a lot of places even in retirement.
I think I’m better at parallel parking than back in parking. I can back into the space okay but then look & I’m not evenly spaced between the cars on either side so I have to pull forward & adjust side to side some in an effort to prevent door dings from others when they leave.
This morning, I saw a person blocking the aisle at a parking garage for at least a minute while three or so cars were waiting patiently beside her. She had to have a passenger get out of the car to spot her. She was, of course, trying to drive straight in and seemingly could not grasp that the aisle wasn’t wide enough to pull her car straight into the spot. Sure, about half the other cars pulled straight in but I’m equally sure they did so when the spot next to them was empty. Some of the front in parkers may discover they can’t pull out without scraping the cars next to them at the end of the day.
I’m a back in parker and also a very good parallel parker. At least one state (Maryland) stopped testing parallel parking but does back in parking. They believe both parking tests demonstrate the same skills.
Huh. I’m much better at back in parking than at parallel parking.
What is rear wheel cheat?
There are many times when there’s a good chance that you have much more time to back into a parking space before an event, versus trying to back out (with a line of cars blocking you waiting to exit) later. Being able to leave straight out forces the other cars to let you out. I always back in before sporting events and concerts. I read almost none of this thread, so apologies if someone already mentioned this.
When driving a long vehicle like a bus or truck, the rear wheels “cut the corner” when you turn. And the sharper the turn, the more that’s true. Such that, for example, a truck’s cab making a right turn with the front wheels close to the curb will necessarily drag it’s rear wheels up onto the sidewalk and perhaps take out pedestrians or traffic light stanchions. The longer the vehicle the bigger the issue.
In the case of a car going nose-first into a parking space, many drivers don’t seem to grok that the rear wheels do not follow the path of the fronts. Leading to their rear corner on the inside of their entry turn ending up closer to the adjacent car than expected. including close enough to collide.
About 15 people, but there’s strength in numbers. 
No apologies necessary! 
)
I understand and agree with most of the points the “pro rear park” people say. I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t because my goal every time I enter a parking lot is to find a parking space that also has the space in front of it open. This way, I have the convenience of pulling right in, but I also move forward and occupy the space in front of me so that I also have the convenience of pulling straight out. I’ll even park a few spaces farther from the store so I can do just that. That’s, “having your cake and eating it too”!!
Fwiw, as a sometimes back in parker, i would never bother to do it if there are pull-through spaces available.
I mostly park in small lots without many empty spaces. I think the decision-making is different if you mostly park in vast lots and have the option of finding lots of easy spaces just by parking a little farther away.
(Hey, i restricted the cars i considered buying to those no longer or wider than my existing car, just because the parking lots i use are often challenging.)
Ah. I’m familiar with that problem, but don’t understand exactly what “cheat” means in this situation. Is that the amount that the rear wheel is off?
And rear wheel parking mitigates that problem. So I’m confused why it wasn’t allowed.
I suspect the etymology (truck drivers are generally not English scholars) is that the rear wheels “cheat” by cutting the corner and so taking a shortcut. So the driver needs to steer their turns widely so when the rears do cheat by cutting the corner, they’ve been given room to pull their cheat without climbing the curb.