When don't more people reverse park at the supermarket, for example, or when entering their drives?
A road near me is super busy but ~90 % of residents don't reverse into their relatively small drives (with no space to turn around). Consequently, they are all awkwardly, and riskily, reversing out onto a busy road. It's painful to watch sometimes.
My local supermarket is similar; drivers reverse out with many expecting people walking or driving past to get out of their way.
If you reverse into a parking spot at the supermarket then you can't put your shopping into the boot.
Supermarkets, people want to put shopping into their car boots so why would you reverse in.
As for home, you either hold up traffic/wait for cars to stop going around you so you can reverse in, or wait for a gap/someone to stop so you can reverse out.
I'd say it's probably easier to make a gap reversing out than it is to swing out into a busy road from a position stopped on the side of the road.
If I reverse park at the supermarket I find it difficult to put my shopping in the boot because I'm bumper to bumper with another car.
If you reverse park at the supermarket, how are you supposed to put the shopping in the boot?
And if you want to reverse into your drive, how do you deal with the driver behind you who doesn't give you space to do so?
I don't think you've thought this through.
I don't understand why we have an aversion to herringbone parking in the UK. It works very effectively.
Mind you, I did see some 24 carat pilchards reverse parking into herringbone spaces in Costco yesterday...
People who reverse park in supermarkets are on my "list" for when I'm in charge.
Have you seen some people’s attempts to reverse park?
You’d think they were trying to dock the international space station
Duh people, get a Porsche. Shopping goes in the front. Simples.
It's a disciplinary offence not to reverse park at one of the big employers near here.
I try to do it where I can.
You have to inconvenience other drivers either reversing in or reversing out of a drive. I'd rather be holding up traffic I'm fully aware of and reversing into the drive than into a busy road with cars passing that I can't easily see approaching.
Reverse parking when you need to access the boot can be a pain though.
Whoever designed the bloody EV spaces at Maccy D’s in Cribbs Causeway needs shooting. You drive round the one way system,then they are positioned at an angle. If you could drive straight into them it would be great, but a lot of cars have charging point at the rear , which means you have to try to do a 3 pointer with Billy Bunters racing past , desperate to inhale their food whilst you are manoeuvring.
I reverse park everytime(even at supermarket(just leave enough space to access boot)
People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so !!
It's easy to load a boot full of shopping at the supermarket if you leave a small gap. Who literally parks bumper to bumper? Is it as easy? No? Is it safer? Yes.
As for myths about reverse parking: Yes it's harder to reverse park and you may have to wait for traffic to clear or overtake you, but it's much easier and safer to drive fwd out into traffic than to reverse into traffic. The inconvenience of reversing in is more than balanced by the ease and safety of driving fwd into traffic.
I would also add when I did a defensive driving course years ago we were taught to always reverse park.
Reverse park at our local Tesco
All the footpaths go between the rows of cars.
At Aldi..... You'll be lucky to get a space to park in that's marked on the floor.
At m+s you'll be reversing against a wall.
I like reverse parking as it gives you clear and unobstructed vision of exiting between other parked cars in an area this is constantly changing...
The amount of folk you see reversing out like the world owes them a favour.....those that reverse off drive ways into busy traffic daily are on my list.
Couple of the supermarkets near me have the paths between, so you can reverse and have easy access to the boot, but folk still go nose first, badly, then reverse out into traffic all the time.
It's just a way of life now, lots of older folk are not comfortable reversing, or checking a main road / roundabout / pavement is clear before moving out onto it.
It’s mandatory worldwide at all my employer’s sites, apparently pretty much eliminates carpark accidents. Also got me in the habit
People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so !!
Unpopular opinion.....but if you can't manuver your vehicle........
See also. Caravannners at services who can't reverse and folk with their neighbours trailer borrowed for the tip run who are taking up all the spaces by going int parallel to the tip because they can't reverse.....
Always reverse drive in the supermarket... you just carry the bags a few metres. The occasions I don't I always regret it as getting out- It's easier to reverse in as well once you've practiced a few times
It's been close to mandatory most places I've worked the last 20 years
Reverse parking, or pulling through a double-length space in such a way that you pull out forwards is the natural way to me, as it's much MUCH safer in terms of what you can see coming when you leave. It's also easier to get the car a) straight and b) central in the space. I take the point that it makes it a bit harder to put stuff in the boot at the supermarket, but I'll take that every time over running someone down, or being smacked on the rear wing by the dickhead coming down the carpark at 25mph. And most times, the bags go in through the rear doors into the footwell in our car anyway, which is equally easy or difficult regardless of which way you're pulled into the space. Stops 'em falling over on the way home, innit. You'd never reverse out of a side street/give-way onto the main drag unless you were a bit of a dafty (OK, almost never), so why do it on a carpark?
It also winds my other half up, so that's another bonus in itself.
At home, we live on a cul-de-sac, so it's a complete non-issue.
Edit - the last 2 or 3 posts appeared while I was typing the above. Very much that, it's mandatory at all sites at work, operational or offices, therefore it just comes naturally.
+1 about the old folks. Almost got run over two days in a row at my local Sainsbury's on the 'level crossings' by old guys in Hondas. I doubt they even saw me; they certainly didn't even seem to check for pedestrians. Sometimes I think I should seize car keys...
@wbo yeah, that was my experience in many corporate car parks - mandatory reverse parking.
i_scoff_cake
Free MemberAlmost got run over two days in a row at my local Sainsbury’s on the ‘level crossings’ by old guys in Hondas. I doubt they even saw me; they certainly didn’t even seem to check for pedestrians. Sometimes I think I should seize car keys…
Yeah, that's our local shop round the corner, dropped kerb but you take your life in your hands if you try and pull the pedestrians have the right of way card!
Sainsbury’s on the ‘level crossings’ by old guys in Hondas
They were probably expecting trains not humans
People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so
This.
And if you want to reverse into your drive, how do you deal with the driver behind you who doesn’t give you space to do so?
You wait a few seconds but at least you can see them and they can see you. Unlike the morons reversing out onto a (more) major thoroughfare.
I don’t think you’ve thought this through.
Nonsense 🙂
And if you want to reverse into your drive, how do you deal with the driver behind you who doesn’t give you space to do so?
I'd have no issue waiting. Their clearly in a rush.
All feels a bit stepford wives when I go into one of those corporate car parks
I'm with you OP. People don't reverse park because they're generally shit drivers. (yeah, that's you reader, bite me 😁)
Reverse into a protected space rather than out into free traffic/clueless padestrians.
You can manoeuvre easier with the steering wheels pushing the nose out wide rather than narrowing the entry angle.
Your car looks better from the front rather than the back, so present its best aspect.
Unless it's a herringbone/angled space there's no good reason to reverse park.
Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back then all you reverse parkers might learn something.
I got told off in the USA for reverse parking by a cop, he wanted to be able to see number plates and they were only mandatory on the back of vehicles in the state I was in
Ooh I'm glad the post-Christmas middle-aged angst threads have started!
I live in a dead-end street about 6 houses long.
Everyone except me and Briefcase* including my partner, to my horror, drives down the street forwards and parks forwards, meaning they have to reverse out of a street between terraced houses and a pavement into a busy road each time.
That's just dangerous/thoughtless.
Not only that, but they pull up during the day all nice and easy, then the street inevitably fills later on, and they're left sometimes with no option but to try and reverse out of their space, mounting the kerb, back, forwards, back, forwards, dangerously close to my reversed in van
This sometimes in the early hours of the morning too.
How they don't learn from the hassle of getting out of a space or the road itself and reverse in next time I'll never know.
As mentioned above, do your reversing while you 'control' the traffic and know what's there. Doing it later into unknowns is dim.
*Inbetweeners reference
Doesn't that just prove why you should reverse park? I have my turning wheels at the front, therefore that's the last bit to go in, first out
Only sensible drivers reverse park everywhere. In short supply these days as shown by several posts above. Prioritising getting shopping into boot over general safety and awareness of others? Not at all selfish.
Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back then all you reverse parkers might learn something.
Now there's a statement that's not been thought through.......
I could bother to explain but I get the feeling I'd be out numbered here & can't be arsed with taking the time vs people who've already made their mind up.
Had some daft bint reverse out of a carpark space into the side of us the other day.
I'd stopped to wait for another car, my other half shouted so I pulled forward and they hit the rear/wheel bumper and pushed us round.
Apparently she couldn't see us. Rear screen was fogged up. Grr.
Actually reverse parking doesn't really work in that carpark for loading.
Reverse parking, or pulling through a double-length space in such a way that you pull out forwards is the natural way to me
Grrrr to the pull-throughers.
I look down a line, see a space, note no-one else in that line looking to nab it, drive down preparing to reverse park and then you appear literally out of nowhere and steal it.
I reverse park everytime(even at supermarket(just leave enough space to access boot)
It’s easy to load a boot full of shopping at the supermarket if you leave a small gap.
So you empty your trolley in front of the car, then carrying your shopping bags (possibly several trips) squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car due to numpties parking too close then get round to the boot providing no-one has parked behind you while you were shopping closing the gap you thoughtfully left for yourself?
People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so
How do they get out of the space?
I could bother to explain but I get the feeling I’d be out numbered here & can’t be arsed with taking the time vs people who’ve already made their mind up.
Rear steer is far more manuverable
Reversing around your warehouse is unsafe.
Steer Wheels go on the back to resolve that.
- reverse Parker and qualified 15 ton forklift driver
Only sensible drivers reverse park everywhere
Surely sensible drivers assess the situation and choose the best option for the given circumstances. Always doing one thing regardless doesn't sound too sensible
I only reverse park, because it's easier:
Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back
If I'm at the supermarket, I don't reverse so far back that there's only a few inches between my car and the wall/next car (but I don't have an estate, so there isn't an issue with car length to worry about). On the days I drive to work, the cars parked at a jaunty angle overlapping the next parking space are always forward parked.
Surely sensible drivers assess the situation
Well, yes I agree, but there aren't many cases where forward parking isn't either easier or safer.
Surely the fork-lift thing is because almost half of the vehicle is in front of the front wheels?
Imagine the tire scrub turning on the spot with 10 ton bearing down directly on your turning wheels. +The percentage of counterweight not born by the fixed wheel at that point
As an asside. When a 15t rear forklift tire goes pop....... In a dusty yard it looks like a mushroom cloud and people don't half run.
but there aren’t many cases where forward parking is
n’teither easier or safer.
FTFY.
Easier going in perhaps, but when you have to reverse back out again it's rarely either of those things. Turning out from a car park space, your nose swings out sideways risking a collision with car to your side. You're sat towards the front of the car so you have to get most of the car out of the bay / your drive before you have any visibility of what you're reversing into.
So you empty your trolley in front of the car, then carrying your shopping bags (possibly several trips) squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car due to numpties parking too close then get round to the boot providing no-one has parked behind you while you were shopping closing the gap you thoughtfully left for yourself?
...hoping that the car park is perfectly level so your trolley doesn't run away while you are on one of said trips.
48 posts on which way round to park a car!
So you empty your trolley in front of the car, then carrying your shopping bags (possibly several trips)...
Crikey. It's about 6 feet. It wasn't all that long ago most people walked home with their shopping or carted it on the bus.
People drive to supermarkets still? 🚲
I've worked for a couple of companies where reverse parking is policy (typically adopted from an O&G division).
Consequently it's my default habit now and it does make life easier, taking an extra minute on arrival to make leaving an easier, safer activity. I'd say I reverse park 90% of the time.
I've not encountered many supermarket carparks where I can't get at the boot having reversed in, there's normally space to load up.
The other thing I'll do is look for the less busy corner of the carpark, where you can often drive through two spaces and avoid having to do any reversing, for the penalty of an extra 20 seconds walking/from to the doors.
Some places don't make it easy and 'Herring bone' or 'chevron' parking, although space efficient in some circumstances, does seem to flummox more "linear thinkers" and still requires them to reverse out (often with a bigger blind spot)...
At the end of the day it would all work better if people were just a bit more patient and considerate when parking, waiting or leaving. Impatient arses beeping at my missus seem to worry and stress her unduly, to the point that she has just given up on parking in a spot that requires a bit of manoeuvring before, and simply driven off (I shit you not)...
Its quicker to speed off after robbing 4 bottles of Bells Whiskey if you have reveresed into the parking bay ( apparently )
Let's not forget though reverse park your t6 with tailgate.
Forget using the boot.
- not an issue for the Berlingo drivers with the split tailgate* ala range rover
*Opening glass window
Why don't our trolleys have footbrakes like they have in the US? Come to that,
squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car due to numpties parking too close
Why don't we have parking bays you can actually fit a car into (like they do in the US)? I can understand it in paid parks, more bays = more revenue, but the three-quarters empty Tesco car park near me has no excuse.
Most people with T6's in this game have their runner to do the shops and so on, usually an Audi or VW Golf R, or they may also opt to use their toureg, but again that's the last option usually and saved for the school runs.
What kind of weirdo drives reverses into a supermarket parking bay??? Straight in, and leave the boot easily accessible when you've got a full trolley. It's not like reversing out of a parking bay in a supermarket parking lot is either hard or dangerous. (And if you find it's either, perhaps you shouldn't be driving?)
And FWIW I always reverse park into the spot outside my home.
I can actually just about turn the family bus round on the drive now we've gone down to 1 car but prefer to reverse in.
Unfortunately, it seems so cunning other drivers don't expect it and I regularly get hooted at, sworn at and close passed while sitting patiently indicating with my reverse light on. Also, unless its very quiet its almost impossible to find a gap in the traffic to swing over to the other kerb and reverse in when coming from the "wrong" direction.
squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car
If you can open your doors I'd suggest a bag of shopping will fit too.
It’s not like reversing out of a parking bay in a supermarket parking lot is either hard or dangerous.
It's riskier is the point. Your visibility is much worse, with more blind spots, etc.
As already noted I think a lot of it comes down to confidence or the perception it’s more difficult when the opposite is true. It took about 5 years before I convinced my now wife of this fact and she generally always reverse parks now.
If you drive into a bay/driveway you are less in control of the situation when you leave and may have to rely on other drivers spotting what you’re doing and yielding.
I live about 4 houses from a 90 degree bend on a main road and there is one house in the other direction before a side road so approaching with my house on the left (same as the side road) and with the sharp bend ahead I often need to indicate quite late and just before I brake as I wait for a clearing to reverse into the drive. I’ve had one person tailgating so aggressively they had to reverse to get past me once we’d both slowed to a stop!
I’d say it’s about 50/50 with the neighbours in terms of who reverse parks. The family right on the corner always drive on and it’s painful seeing them reverse into live traffic when it’s not uncommon for cars arriving at the corner to be doing 50mph+ (which is a whole other thread..)
People don’t reverse park because they’re generally shit drivers.
Probably, but I think a lot of it is that people simply don't understand why and when it is useful to reverse.
The driving test (at least when I did it) taught you how to parallel park, but nobody ever explained why you go into the space backwards.
Similarly watching people shunt their way into a tight space forwards makes me think that it's never occurred to them that it easier to go in backwards.
Forward parking is the sign of a chump. Reversing in makes it easier to get the car in the right position between the lines and is much safer when you leave because you can see more clearly.
The reason a lot of companies are reverse park only is because it's safer- in the US most fleet accidents are in car parks.
The situation described earlier of people driving forward up a small street then reversing out onto the bigger road is illegal. It's a do not in the highway code. Because reversing into traffic, including the lanes in a car park, is stupid.
It’s riskier is the point. Your visibility is much worse, with more blind spots, etc.
Dunno what supermarkets you shop in, but it's hardly risky round here. Pull out slowly, keep an eye out, and you're fine. I suppose if your plan is swing out fast without looking it could be a problem, but then again if that's how you usually drive...
And if you find it’s either, perhaps you shouldn’t be driving?)
It would be statistics that finds its more dangerous not perception.
You park up between two cars.
Both that's cars leave.
The de rigeure t6 van with no windows parks on your left.
A transit on the right.
Now your reversing out blind for most of the manuver.no.matter how slow you move to deny that's more risky than being able to see what's going on ....well.
Unless you gotta ford capri.
The long bonnet means you will still be blind till you clear the rear ofcthe transit.
OK so you are blind for 3 feet not 13ft but you cant see through metal so the risk is 1/3 which is alot safer
You will still get chumps doing 30 in car parks which makes me realy rather cross
Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back then all you reverse parkers might learn something.
I could bother to explain but I get the feeling I’d be out numbered here & can’t be arsed with taking the time vs people who’ve already made their mind up.
Also a forklift driver, and what trail_rat said. Both times.
I would also add when I did a defensive driving course years ago we were taught to always reverse park.
We live in a narrow terraced street with parking on both sides, the only way you can park is reverse parking! You get very proficient very quickly as there is no other option.
Parking ?
Pffft , I press a button and it does it for me 😂
Now your reversing out blind for most of the manuver.no.matter how slow you move to deny that’s more risky than being able to see what’s going on ….well.
Except you've still got to get a metre of car out to see what's going on. By which time the idiot speeding in the car park has already hit you.
That leaves 4/5ths of the lane for them to drive round you.
Reversing leaves at best 1/5th more likely none.
Surely no one should be travelling fast enough in a carpark for reversing out of a space to actually be dangerous?
Fwiw I've never found it dangerous reversing my bike out of the racks, even with a full set of panniers 😉
I pretty much reverse park all the time, it’s a work thing, easy to get your shopping in the boot unless you can’t reverse.
As for home, you either hold up traffic/wait for cars to stop going around you so you can reverse in, or wait for a gap/someone to stop so you can reverse out.
I’d say it’s probably easier to make a gap reversing out than it is to swing out into a busy road from a position stopped on the side of the road.
You should reverse park, in almost all situations. Certainly where you have to reverse back out into traffic if you go nose in.
A vehicle is more manoeuvrable (but less stable) with the steerable wheels at the back. Which btw is the whole point with forklifts, which need a small turning circle and are slow moving, so stability isn’t a problem. This is why it’s hard to get in forwards into a narrow space and folk often take two bites. Which btw holds people up.
But far, far more important is that you can see what is going on for more of the manoeuvre going in backwards. You can see the space behind is clear and that the road you’re on is safe to either side while you go in. And you can see ahead and either side as you drive out.
Reversing out of a space, or worse a driveway, you can’t see what is happening on the road you’re joining til you’re mostly out in it. You just head out blind, relying on “going slowly” and others to make it safe. It’s foolish, and selfish.
Like most poor driving seen on the roads. Result of selfishness and impatience, mostly.
There’s also the small point of the Highway Code (201). Though I realise that’s mostly seen as quaint nowadays.
I saw a guy, last time I was at the shops, slowly and carefully reversing into a space on the end of the row. He was comically not in the space, to the extent that the white line was somewhere midway between the wheels.
So, after sitting a moment he pulled forward, slowly and carefully, into the empty space immediately opposite. But without adjusting the car's alignment at all, so it was still straddling the white line.
At that point he seemed to feel that the job was a good'un, killed the engine, and trundled off in the direction of M&S.
So I guess parking either forward or backwards can be made a hash of if you put your mind to it sufficiently.
It’s easy to load a boot full of shopping at the supermarket if you leave a small gap.
So you empty your trolley in front of the car, then carrying your shopping bags (possibly several trips) squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car due to numpties parking too close then get round to the boot providing no-one has parked behind you while you were shopping closing the gap you thoughtfully left for yourself?
This ^^^
When I used to go and do a big shop at the supermarket, it would often be really busy, so it was a choice of grabbing the first available space, or else driving round and round on the off-chance of finding a drive-through space. And then come back to find someone has driven right up to the boot of the car, making it difficult to not only get the boot open, but put the full, heavy bags in. With my current car, it would likely make it impossible to open the boot, because it opens horizontally, not vertically!
I’m perfectly capable of reversing into spaces, my job for the last five years requires it, but even before then I could do it; the first time I drove my Octavia to Bath, I spotted a handy space in Victoria Park, lined up, reversed in, walked away then looked back just to check, and I had about eighteen inches of space either end!
I’d never parked a car as long as that before. Thing is, these days most cars have reversing sensors, and often cameras as well, so there’s no excuse. I wouldn’t dare to drive into my space at home, it’s difficult enough to drive straight out, I have hedges either side, there’s often a car parked close to my drive, and there’s the dicks who cycle on the footpath…
Unfortunately, it seems so cunning other drivers don’t expect it and I regularly get hooted at, sworn at and close passed while sitting patiently indicating with my reverse light on.
*Sigh* I’ve had that, in order to properly park reversing in I drive down the road a bit, turn around in a side road then drive back up, pull up and get ready to reverse back, with indicator on and in reverse, so reversing lights are on. I’ve still had people come up the road, and stop behind me, doing nothing, so I’ve actually had to get out and ask them why they’re parked right behind me, only to find out they thought I was turning left at the top of the road, which is about thirty metres away! #rollseyes
Dunno what supermarkets you shop in, but it’s hardly risky round here. Pull out slowly, keep an eye out, and you’re fine. I suppose if your plan is swing out fast without looking it could be a problem, but then again if that’s how you usually drive…
Now, now. You're amongst driving gods here, who won't allow obvious inconvenience to get in the way of Making A Point.
Reversing out of a space, or worse a driveway, you can’t see what is happening on the road you’re joining til you’re mostly out in it. You just head out blind, relying on “going slowly” and others to make it safe. It’s foolish, and selfish.
Yeah, but you're doing exactly the same, just in the opposite direction and a metre less of it. Either way you're still depending on everyone else being normal road users (which the vast majority of us are) to avoid getting hit.
There’s also the small point of the Highway Code (201). Though I realise that’s mostly seen as quaint nowadays.
More than quaint, irrelevant. I don't live in the UK 🙂
