Tuesday, February 15, 2011

TACTICAL PARKING:  Tom Vanderbilt ask why more people don't back into parking spaces. As one person puts it, "When backing in, I have to drive past the slot, then back in. On my way past it, I can look in the slot to ensure it is clear. I have situational awareness, so it is pretty safe to back in. When I leave, I just have to drive out and that is safer than backing out. If I don't back in, when I leave I have to back out into what is basically unknown traffic."

Is this true? Is it really, as transportation engineer John Nawn puts it, "almost always safer to back into spaces rather than back out of them"?

42 comments:

  1. Roger8:36 AM

    But backing into a small enclosed space is much higher-risk than backing into a wide open lane.

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  2. I don't drive often, but I never back into a space, though for ease, I do often seek out a situation where I can pull through an empty space into a second space and not have to back out.

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  3. ctoan8:55 AM

    It's what they encourage at my engineering office-- "Back in for safety!" And at a client's industrial site, it's mandatory.

    I always back into my driveway, for ease of driving out. And in parking spaces when I can, though I prefer backing up to my right over my left, and I prefer backing into parking spaces that don't back onto other cars, i.e., the edge of lots where it's a curb or wall behind me.

    And while it's an enclosed space, it's a known enclosed space, while backing into a wide open lane has a number of unknowns that are harder to see--pedestrians, on-coming traffice from either direction.

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  4. Joseph Finn8:58 AM

    I'll be right back.  I need to make some popcorn for watching this discussion. Meanwhile, this scholarly article might help.

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  5. Fred App9:00 AM

    Backing in may be safer -- but only if you can do it well. My experience is that people drive better looking forward than backward. Going backwards, they're almost always crooked or too close to one side or another.

    I'll give you an analogy: You're less likely to pull a hamstring running backward than running forward. But you're more likely to trip over your feet.

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  6. girard319:33 AM

    I'm too lazy to back in.

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  7. Tosy and Cosh9:39 AM

    I'll say it. I don't think I could back into a spot with cars on either side. Not well, anyway.

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  8. Like Matt, I love the pull-through.  I don't back into spots often, but I should probably start doing it more.  I drive a Mazda 6 sedan, the driver's seat of which is kind of low to the ground.  I can't count the number of times I wind up parked next to an SUV, or between two SUVs, and have absolutely zero line of sight for oncoming traffic when I'm backing out of a spot.  I basically have to inch my way out and just hope for the best.  I've had a lot of near misses with cars speeding by (which is a whole other subject).

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  9. christy in nyc9:54 AM

    I can barely park straight going in forward. I wish angled parking were more common in the US, at least in lots.

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  10. Andrew9:58 AM

    Basically, drivers are always more confident, aware and in control when driving forward rather than in reverse. Not a surprise. This is why getting a pull-through parking space is such a rare and coveted event: you get to park and pull out driving forward. And whether to drive in forward or back into a parking space depends on the location. If you're going to back out into a busy street or high-traffic area, backing into the spot is safer. If you're in a pretty empty, large parking lot, driving forward into the spot maximizes safety. For each driver, the threshold where the benefits of driving forward in or out of the space depends on their comfort level and the visibility out of their car.*

    But for parallel parking (ala Finn's scholarly article) backing in is always the correct way. (Though using a second parking space or fire hydrant space to drive forward to park may result in better parking.)

    *Pet peeve of many newer cars that I've rented: visibility can be getting worse. In almost all newish cars, the driver's side A-pillar causes me more problems than some of the older cars I've driven. Has anyone else noticed this?

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  11. christy in nyc9:58 AM

    To address the question more directly: I think backing in probably increases the likelihood of something happening, but that something is almost always going to be something like scratching or bumping a parked car at a very slow speed. Whereas backing out may cause fewer incidents overall, those incidents when they happen have a higher likelihood of involving a pedestrian or a cyclist or another moving vehicle.

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  12. Andrew, when I went car shopping last summer, I was looking for a hatchback/wagon and I definitely noticed a trend in newer models to smaller rear windows and larger rear pillars.  Part of it is that it gives the top back end that rounded shape that's en vogue right now, but it KILLS visiblity.

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  13. One of the problems with backing into a spot is that you DO have to go past the spot to get into it.  In parking lots in this town, that's seen as giving up your right to the spot.  Parking can be a competitive sport sometimes.

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  14. And don't get me started on the people who don't understand that if I'm going to parallel park into a spot that I DO have to pull past it and that they shouldn't pull up right on my bumper.  I have a turn signal AND reverse lights on, you blankety-blank, filth-flarn, dadgum jerk.

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  15. Marsha10:23 AM

    Amen to both those things. If you're in a crowded parking lot, there's no way you can pull past the spot to back into it without someone taking the spot. And if the parking lot isn't crowded, then you just do the pull through. Ergo, the number of situations in which you both can and would back into a parking lot spot is small.

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  16. DonBoy10:28 AM

    Dear pull-through lovers:  you know what's really, really, infuriating?  When I'm heading for a spot from half a row away and somebody pulls into it from the other side.

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  17. Dan Suitor10:33 AM

    The way I see it, back out (rather than in) gives me a bigger target to hit. Backing in requires me to do some parking calculus that I inevitably derive wrong, whereas backing out into the big wide world is a lot easier.

    And, for the record, I always try to pull through whenever possible.

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  18. spacewoman10:49 AM

    Everyone loves to hate the minivan, but my Odyssey's rearview camera is the best thing that ever happened to backing up.  You can't go wrong.

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  19. Just for the record, I've been in situations where as I've been pulling through I've seen someone who wants to get into the spot forwards.  Even when I've beaten them to the forward spot, I do the courteous thing and back up into the rear spot.

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  20. Adam C.10:56 AM

    Agree that it's situational.  I wouldn't back into a spot at the supermarket parking lot when I'm going for the big weekend shopping run, for example, because then I'm going to have a hassle getting the bags into the back.  Likewise at the garden center when I'm picking up big bags of stuff.  But if I think backing out when I leave will be difficult, and the conditions are right (with pull-through opportunity being the biggest factor), then I'll back in.

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  21. DonBoy10:59 AM

    Much obliged, thanks!

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  22. Yeah, sometimes it's absolutely necessary.  For example, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra gives concerts occasionally at an orchestra hall near where I live.  After a Saturday night concert, the traffic getting out of the parking garage is quite heavy and people aren't exactly generous about letting other cars into the barely-moving stream.  If you don't back in when you get there, you might as well not even bother trying to leave until everyone else has cleared out, and most people seem to realize this.

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  23. BTW, Head House Square near me now has mandatory reverse-angle parking. I hate it.

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  24. Adam C.11:22 AM

    Yep.  Same is true at Citizens Bank Park.

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  25. I only back in when parallel parking, but since I learned to drive in my dad's 1970 Chevy Malibu, which is a boat, I am pretty good at parallel parking no matter what vehicle I'm driving.

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  26. I prefer to back into a spot for safety purposes, but for many of the reasons above (usually accessibility to my trunk), I don't.  My sister, who works on naval bases, always has to back in, so evacuations can happen faster. 

    Honestly, I think it's just a skill that people lack.

    (p.s. I teach parallel parking and standard transmission, if needed.  On your car, not mine.)

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  27. I was going to say the same thing.  If you want a parking space in the roller-derby-that-is-Atlanta, you damned well better grab it without going past.  Obviously, when you have to parallel park, you must go past the spot, but as it happens, there's not that much parallel parking in Atlanta relative to, say, Chicago.

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  28. I learned parallel parking on the late80s minivan.  But my first real car, and the one I took to a college campus filled with street parking was a 1975 Dodge Dart Swinger.  And my freshman year roommate had a Honda CRX that she was unable to parallel park.  I openly mocked and ridiculed her.

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  29. Heather K12:29 PM

    My zipcar experience seems to anecdoteally support this.  All the cars have teeny tiny back windows, all of them, across the spectrum.  People still use that window right?

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  30. Yes.  This.  These, rather.  All of them. 

    High as your situational awareness may be, you cannot count on the situational awareness of the jerks behind you.  Even when you can, you cannot count on said jerks to do the right thing rather than leveraging their situational awareness to swoop on your spot.

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  31. If you'll be returning to your car with a ton of stuff to put in your trunk, it's easier to have your trunk accessible to said stuff.

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  32. The Other Kate1:09 PM

    I love the pull through and will occasionally do a situational back-in like those described above, but my gut reaction to habital backer-inners is that they are selfish weirdos intent on prioritizing their own getaway and making parking more difficult for the rest of us with their tilty misalignment. Or that they are fussbudgets and worryworts. I should perhaps reexamine these bigoted assumptions. 

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  33. christy in nyc1:44 PM

    Yes I meant to say that as well. If people actually did it more, it wouldn't seem harder after a while. Just like with parallel parking.

    Speaking of which, I totally parallel parked my dad's Chevy Silverado on a tiny street two days after the big Christmas snowstorm! I'm still impressed with myself over that.

    Otherwise though this thread is stressing me out and I'm so grateful I don't own a car. My only humble request to drivers is to stop at stop signs and not stop where there's not a stop sign.

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  34. Jenn.1:59 PM

    This is true.  I used to park in a parking garage that mandated that you back into spots.  Some of the spots were really quite tight, even with my little Ford Escort.  (I'm sure that some of y'all remember Roxie, the red Escort, right?)  I got to be really good at maneuvering my little car backwards, at least while I was still parking there.  Then I moved to Atlanta, and....

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  35. JIM BELL2:11 PM

    Look at my new avatar.  I never back in.  Too dangerous.  I'm a terrible driver.

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  36. janet2:48 PM

    I drive a cargo van and back into lots of places, including up my driveway every time I come home. I had to learn to maneuver this thing at art shows during set up and tear down, around artists whose own large vehicles and paraphenalia were askew all around. As with anything, practice begets proficiency.

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  37. Slick5:34 PM

    I think the car you learned to drive in totally dictates your lifelong proficiency at parallel/back-in parking (yes, I am willing to say LIFELONG).  Having learned on a 1976 Pugeot station wagon with no power steering, I can parallel park absolute anything in the spot the size of a VW bug.  Hated it when I was 16 but will forever be grateful to my 20 foot boat.

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  38. Slick5:34 PM

    I think the car you learned to drive in totally dictates your lifelong proficiency at parallel/back-in parking (yes, I am willing to say LIFELONG).  Having learned on a 1976 Pugeot station wagon with no power steering, I can parallel park absolute anything in the spot the size of a VW bug.  Hated it when I was 16 but will forever be grateful to my 20 foot boat.

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  39. Slick5:34 PM

    I think the car you learned to drive in totally dictates your lifelong proficiency at parallel/back-in parking (yes, I am willing to say LIFELONG).  Having learned on a 1976 Pugeot station wagon with no power steering, I can parallel park absolute anything in the spot the size of a VW bug.  Hated it when I was 16 but will forever be grateful to my 20 foot boat.

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  40. Anonymous7:14 PM

    Big proponent of back-in parking, and only in the last 5 years. i noticed my boss did it all the time and one day I asked him why... "Because I dont trust other people stop if they see me slowing backing out of a spot where I can't see whats coming." And it made perfect sense. Around the same time I witnessed first-hand from my office window two cars collide in the exact scenario he was describing.*

    But as mentioned, situational parking is the bain of my leisure time hockey playing. To get my gear out of the Liberty, I do have to pull in nose first. And in the parking lot of a very large public sports complex, the amount of children running through the parking lot unhinged is downright frightening, and has made for some close calls when I have to back out of the spot.

    *Like a good citizen, I quickly ran down with my business cards and explained that I witnessed the entire event. The insurance company did follow up with me.

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  41. Travis7:16 PM

    <span>Big proponent of back-in parking, and only in the last 5 years. i noticed my boss did it all the time and one day I asked him why... "Because I dont trust other people stop if they see me slowing backing out of a spot where I can't see whats coming." And it made perfect sense. Around the same time I witnessed first-hand from my office window two cars collide in the exact scenario he was describing.*  
     
    But as mentioned, situational parking is the bain of my leisure time hockey playing. To get my gear out of the Liberty, I do have to pull in nose first. And in the parking lot of a very large public sports complex, the amount of children running through the parking lot unhinged is downright frightening, and has made for some close calls when I have to back out of the spot.  
     
    *Like a good citizen, I quickly ran down with my business cards and explained that I witnessed the entire event. The insurance company did follow up with me.</span>

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  42. Marsha11:41 AM

    On our second date my husband parallel parked my car for me in a spot that I still believe was actually two feet smaller than my car. I would have married him on the spot.

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