I am typically awful at reverse parking. Given the length of maybe 3 buses, I can just about manage it without constant forwarding and reversing to get in close enough to the kerb. I only feel comfortable even trying this, however, on a quiet deserted road where there is no chance of me holding up any other vehicles.
I therefore have immense admiration for those who can, with confidence and with traffic behind, suddenly signal left and perform a deft one-move parking manoevre that leaves them perfectly parked between the 2 cars.
On the other hand, I really don't understand those who will also start the above manoevre with confidence, but then hold up all the traffic behind them for a considerable time, whilst they (like I would if I had the confidence) move forward and backwards, in and out, for an age, seemingly oblivious to the growing queue behind them.
HF
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Line up as teabelly says. Then turn as you reverse so that your rear wing is aiming about 2 foot along the kerb towards you from the car behind.
When that tyre is about a foot or so from the kerb put full opposite lock on and the front should slot in lining the car up parallel with the kerb, about 9 inches away. (mind your front wing on the car in front.
If it goes wrong don\'t try and edge your way in, it doesn\'t work and it\'ll take forever; simply pull back out of the space, line up and repeat. Taking Tom\'s advice with the cones is good, but use more than two cones so that you can represent the width of the already parked \"vehicles\" as well, since that is the issue really, not the small gap.
If you\'re still struggling, then start with the car parked in the space and come out of the space to end double parked with the \"vehicle\" in front. That should give you a reasonable (but not completely accurate) idea of the path you need to follow to reverse in to the same space.
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You might also want to try following these steps. (steps are for parking on the right. For parking on the left modify accordingly)
1) Pull up to the car in front so there is half a meter distance between you and the car on your right hand side. You must be PARALLEL with the car on your side.
2) Reverse STRAIGHT until from your point of view, it looks like that the back seats of your car are aligned with the rear bumper of the car on your right
3) Carry on reversing but now on FULL lock, until the drivers side mirror is aligned with the rear bumper of the car in front
4) Once the mirror is aligned, FULL lock to the other direction, and continue to reverse until the right hand side of your front bumper is aligned with the centre of the rear bomber of the car in front. Then start to ease back the steering to the centre and just play with it to get the car straight. Bingo, you are home and dry
by the way don?t expect to be able to reverse park in a single go. Many people, irrespective of their experience will rarely be able to get a perfect parallel park in a single reverse action, and may need to `adjust? the car once its in. Hope this helps, but if this doesn?t I suggest nonetheless you use the main idea of this which is to set yourself ?pointers? in your car so that based on where they are relative to the other cars, you know what do to. This way it becomes much easier.
Amin
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Clariman, may I apologise for the utter drivel that I was waffling on about before? What I meant to say was on the lines of Amin's excellent post.
Must have been sniffing too many petrol fumes today...;-)
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I read an article on this very subject at the weekend. It was in Saturday Times (wash my mouth out...!!!) and went like this...
"ONE of the oldest axioms of male driving folklore, that women do not know how to park properly, has been exposed at last as a myth: the formula for the perfect parallel-parking manoeuvre has been calculated by a female mathematician.
The scientific secret of manoeuvring your car into a tight space has been revealed by Rebecca Hoyle, of Surrey University, who has worked out a series of equations that will, apparently, get a Volvo estate into a Mini-sized gap.
The formula, which Dr Hoyle calculated after performing a mathematical analysis known as a shape in motion study, helps a driver to perform the consummate S-shaped manoeuvre, leaving the wheels flush with the kerb, but not so close that it is impossible to get out. It will work for any vehicle and any roadside gap, telling the driver whether or not it is worth even trying to fit into a particularly tight space.
Written out in full, the formula reads: p=r-w/2,g)-w+2r+b,f )-w+2r-fg max((r+w/2)²+f²,(r+w/2)²+b²)£min((2r)²,(r+w/2+k)²).
It takes into account the width of the car at the widest point (w), the midpoint between the axles (c), the distance from c to the front (f) and back (b) of the car, the minimum radius of the turning circle (r), the distance from the parallel car at the outset (p), the optimal distance from the kerb at the finish (k) and the distance from the car front at the finish (fg).
Though the sums look fiendishly complex, and you may think you need a maths A level to understand them, their message can be boiled down into a few simple tips that could save scores of bumps and scratches.
?First, you want to find a space that?s at least one and a half times as long as your car,? said Adrian Webb of esure, the car insurance company that sponsored the research.
?You want to start turning as soon as your back bumper is adjacent to the parking space. Then you lock the steering wheel towards the kerb, and go back until you get to an angle of exactly 45 degrees with the kerb.
?Then you turn the wheel to a full lock the other way. As the front of your vehicle approaches the kerb, straighten the wheel. If you turn too late, you will hit the kerb. If you turn too early, you will park too far away from the kerb.?
Thanks to the Times...
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Its worth mentioning the experimental system developed by BMW (I think) that uses sensors looking forwards and sideways measuring gaps in parked vehicles to determine if the space is big enough, if so you plonk your vehicle alongside, press a button and the car does the rest on auto, don't even have to turn the wheel.
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