I’m in a car pool for work. I found this really pretty shocking, but none of the other three driver can park in a right angle marked space without pulling it in and getting it wrong, backing up to adjust their angle, and pulling in again. None of them appear to be dangerous drivers on the streets. They stay in their lanes, stop where they’re supposed to, signal their turns, etc. Yet for some reason they can’t, while driving 3 miles an hour, make a 90 degree turn and stop between 2 lines that are maybe 3 or 4 feet wider than our cars. And it doesn’t even help if the adjoining spaces are both empty.
I’ve noticed that very few drivers making a right turn in an intersection will stay in the right lane. They end up a lane or two over to the left – most often they go as wide as they are able and end up in the farthest left available lane. Maybe these 2 things are related, I dunno.
I think I’m a good and safe driver, but I never thought I had any special driving skills, except perhaps some more awareness to keep me out of accidents. But clearly I was wrong – apparently I’m ready for NASCAR.
Jesus fuckin’ Christ. I’m getting road ragey as a passenger in a parking lot. This can’t be good for me.
You think you’ve got it bad… Imagine being a passenger in this small blue car? The driver can certainly park; it’s getting out of the parking space (and lot) that seems to cause trouble…
Wow! The driver appears to have no idea where the car is going to go when he turns the wheel while in reverse. It was too painful to watch until the end.
Once I saw a little old man pulling up to a booth at the entrance to a parking ramp. He hit the booth. He backed up and turned, then pulled forward and hit the booth AGAIN. Then the booth attendant came out, I thought maybe to chase the guy away, but no, he started giving the guy hand signals to get him safely through the entry lane. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he hit a half dozen cars once he got in – it’s a pretty snug space and a lot darker inside than out.
You’ve met my dad?! The man has been driving a minivan for 20 years and still hasn’t figured out that vans have a different turning radius then sedans. Being in his van while he’s trying to park is terrifying. It’s a slow motion disaster. Pulls in, pulls out. Tries to get between the lines. Back and forth. Back and forth. All the while I’m waiting for crunch and screech of metal on metal. I have no idea how he has any paint left on the sides of his vehicle.
Not only do vans have a different turning radius, but they also have a different center-of-turn locus, relative to the driver.
In a typical sedan, the driver sits well aft of the front wheels. In a typical sedan, the driver sits right above the front axle, or just a little bit aft of that. So if a driver is accustomed to driving a sedan, and tries to make a right turn in a van, following the curb around, he is likely to drive right over the sidewalk instead. Takes a bit of getting used to.
I rented a van once to move some furniture. The rental yard was on a smallish side street. I had never driven a van before. I was wise enough to drive around a few blocks on the little side streets to get the feel of it before venturing out onto the main thoroughfare.
Well I can drive, and I can park. In fact, when I lived in a house with no garage and lots of cars, I got very, very good at parallel parking. In and out.
But you don’t want to see me back up more than one car length. Or rather, I don’t want you to see.
I always shovel my driveway really quickly after a snow because I do NOT want to see my aimless tire tracks as I weave down the driveway, it’s embarrassing.
Now, just recently I pulled into a small and crowded lot and parked with no problem. Upon leaving I realized that I either had to somehow turn my car around completely, or else back out through an arch and alongside a brick building on one side and a fence on the other. And then after all that, I would be backing out onto a major artery. So I turned it around. It took approximately as long as the thing with that blue car. I made a couple of questionable decisions and had to reset a couple of times.
I sure hope there was not a security camera.
Oddly, there are some cars that I have trouble pulling into a right-angle space. Once I got a new car and it seemed like I just couldn’t get it in there straight, and then I could, and I don’t know what I did to change things. Took about a week. Other than that, it seemed to drive just like any other car. Then, after that, I got a small SUV, same problem, again for about a week. ???
90% of the time I can parallel park like a pro; eyeball the space, judge it sufficient, pull past the space, glide elegantly back in, then a short pull forward to equalise the space back and front.
The other 10% though; hoo boy. Once it goes wrong, it goes badly wrong, and I end up leaving the space, the street, and preferably the county, never to return.
Everyone else in the world would take this opportunity for a glorious celebratory driving victory, but you, unfortunately, ended up with the only three people in the world who cannot park easily. The world weeps in frustration with you. I cannot imagine the pain that you must be feeling.
I cannot offer any solution to your problem, however I would personally just let out a really big sigh at the end of the trip.
When it’s your turn to drive, make sure to point out when you park how good you are and how to do it with multiple instructions. You can say that it’s how your daddy taught you how to do it and they will think that’s cute.
I guess I’m another rare good Parker. If I was driving that little blue car in the video I would have simply backed my ass next to the yellow jeep, then forward facing the exit and straight out. I actually tend to park straighter at the first attempt in reverse than pulling in forward, which is a rare talent. I have spine issues so I use the side mirrors and backup camera, which may freak people out. But it works.
I credit my skill to growing up in a family of truck drivers. After a few years of observing big rigs backing trailers into docks using only side mirrors I absorbed the technique.
However, there was one time when the corporate travel agent booked me into a shitty motel on a business trip. It had a tiny underground parking lot. The first morning I had to leave for the client site was awful. I discovered that the garage was too small to turn around in, there were no empty spots to back into. I had to back out of my space, back up the driving lane, up the entry ramp where I couldn’t see oncoming traffic or pedestrians, and back into the street. I got out with no injuries to anyone no thanks to the motel, but moved myself to a better hotel that same day.
It appears the driver of the wagon pulls back in to let the little blue car go. If that was me, I would have gotten out of my car, kicked the driver out of the little blue car, moved it in such a way that they could drive straight out & then get back in my car & depart as that would be faster. I’ve done that before. Bonus: You not only get out faster but your road rage comes off in a way that the other driver sincerely thanks you for your assistance.
Taught myself to parallel park by looking at diagrams on the Internet and visualizing it in my head when parking our minivan.
Dad tried to teach me how to parallel park his tiny stick-shift in front of the house using the trash cans to delineate where other cars would be against a pretend curb.
Any maneuver that requires making a plan before you start instead of generally pointing the car towards where you want it to be is beyond most drivers.
I once had a car (1966 Meteor) that could not pull straight into a right angled parking spot. Fortunately, I soon realized this was the case and developed a habit of turning in behind the car past my spot then backing up and pulling straight in. If only Hummers and F350s came with instructions.
I couldn’t figure out how to put it as well as you have.