I once heard “to keep your tailgate from being stolen” but that seems like it’d be a rare case.
Because, unless you’re driving a forklift, the point of a vehicle’s rotation is in line with the rear wheels, meaning you can take turns at a much more acute angle when reversing than going forwards. Which makes backing into spaces much easier.
Notice that most of the half-assed parking jobs you see are generally people who have driven forward and left the car parked at a diagonal half out of the space, because getting the vehicle lined up in that situation is more difficult.
Easy and safe.
How is it “safe” compared to pulling straight in?
It’s not. Over here there are signs everywhere saying “please only park in forwards” because they’re sick of dented and scraped cars and cars that have been parked askew and take up two places.
How is parking between two cars safer than pullong out backwards not between two cars? It’s not as if you’re pulling out onto a main road.
That sounds like a skill issue. Maybe local drivers ed should be updated instead
Because afterwards you are not back into traffic going backwards with poorer vision
Parking lots aren’t “traffic”.
Anywhere vehicles regularly travel is “traffic”
Not even just vehicles. People are traffic, bicycles are traffic, runaway shopping carts are traffic.
The parking space is ideally a controlled area, i.e. you can readily assume it is free of other vehicular traffic. The same cannot be said for backing out of a space into the travel lanes through the parking lot.
I’m forever telling my children to pay attention in car parks because they are full of moving cars.
You can see what is in front of you easier than you can see what is behind you. Over all you have left blind spots in front of you than you do behind you.
Safer when pulling out of parking stall. Less blind spots.
Although I don’t back in. I drive through from one spot to the next in front of me. So I can drive out.
The only issue with pulling-through in a parking lot is one-way lanes with angled spots (the majority of parking lots in my area) because then you’re pulling forward against the flow of traffic or have to make an extremely sharp turn upon exiting. It’d be fine with straight spots or two-way lanes, but people still do it in the former circumstance and end up driving the wrong way.
The old pull-through. Some places insist on putting those damn concrete Toblerone blocks in front of you to prevent that sort of thing.
Keep a watchful eye when doing so, because I have seen many an argument break out in a parking lot when someone was trying to pull through at the same time someone else who couldn’t see them was trying to pull in to the same space from the outer side. Bonus points if they boop noses in the process. Somehow nobody ever seems to arrive at the simple conclusion, in such cases, of party A just reversing a couple of feet back into the first space to let party B take the second one.
Oooh la-la, fancy parking.
Me too, whenever possible, otherwise I back in to show off my superior driving (and parking) skills.
I knew a girl in high school who was pulling through a spot too fast and got into a head on collision. Now I’m so paranoid about pulling through
Don’t do this a motel or an apartment complex, the carbon monoxide can end up in people’s A/C intake.
I think those rules are more about loud exhaust pointing straight at people’s windows and those fuckers who leave their trailer hitch attached and have it sticking out across the sidewalk at shin height. CO isn’t going to reach any sort of concentration where it will he harmful just from backing in near an AC unit.
I think the point is to discourage keeping your car running in front of the only fresh air intake into a small space. A good example would be people that warm their car up for 5-10 minutes or more to drive it in the winter. That amount would at the very least make a person sick.
AC units do not typically pull in outside air.
Besides that it is safer, I don’t hit my front splitter on the curb.
For years, I worked in a large building that required all employees and visitors to back in for a few safety reasons, with approximately 600 spaces and an almost full lot most weekdays. It was stated in our safety training that it was easier to see other people and vehicles when exiting facing forward and faster evacuation in times of extreme emergency. It had the benefit that it did seem to quicken flow of traffic when everyone left around the same time at the end of the day.
If a parking spot is straight, I tend to back in for those reasons, but if it is an angled spot, it typically denotes a singular directional flow, and it makes more sense to pull in and back out.
When you are approaching a parking spot you’re already looking everywhere and can find obstacles as you back in. If you drive into a parking spot backing out may have issues because you may not have seen obstacles that would be in the way. We are not always as observant approaching our vehicle as we are when we have already been driving it. Plus, it’s a whole lot easier to get back out of the parking spot if you can just drive away.
Simply having to sit and watch as morons poorly attempt to back in suggests they don’t have a good grasp of their surroundings.
In Australia, you’re considered at fault for reversing accidents. Backing out is riskier.
Obviously so everyone knows I’m better than them
I swear part of it is regional. In the mid-Atlantic region - low volume lot, perpendicular spaces, maybe 1/2 full at max - you can watch people spend minutes faffing around to back into a spot.
It’s just easier to get out, you even have to park like that when taking the exam.
I drive a large pickup truck for work. With the backup camera, it is WAY WAY WAY easier to back into a tight spot than to pull head in. I pretty much always back the truck in.
I first learned how to drive on these old pickup trucks at a summer camp I worked for as a teenager.
The nice old fella who maintained the trucks (and who, not incidentally, taught me how to drive) said to do it that way and would get disappointed if you didn’t.
So, I guess it’s because I first learned it that way, but also because I don’t want to disappoint Alan (who may or may not be dead by now, I’m not sure.)
Easier to get in Easier to get out Safer (was trained to do it) Why do you pull in forwards?
Literally easier to pull straight in and stay centered between other vehicles. The literally easier to back out since there’s far more space available in the parking lot lane I’m backing out into.
Never had an issue with this in my life. Never hit a car, never took forever to do it, never hit anyone, and cannot believe the mental gymnastics people do to convince themselves backing in is somehow better.
Because you have more control and visibility both when you get in and get out.
In and out of the parking spot right?
Actually having to sit and watch these morons attempt to back in in the first place says otherwise.
Now imagine having to sit and wait and watch them back out instead. Ugh.
People back out into wide open thoroughfare far more easily and quickly than their shitty backing in between two vehicles.
I wait longer for back-in’s every time than I do for back-out’s.
Sounds like projection.
Lol you cant park? that’s soooo uncool.
Go practice.
I can and have parallel parked a giant van on a busy downtown LA road very quickly. I passed my original driving test in one of the largest SUVs on the market at that time (my parents were idiotically obsessed with large vehicles. I’ve driven some of the largest rental box vans. I have zero crashes on my record. I also know how to drive a manual and have changed timing belts and do my own oil and who fucking cares cause I know you don’t.
Not projection. Fuck people who back in. Especially when they suck at it. Especially especially when they suck at it in a pointlessly oversized vehicle.
