First, line your back bumper up with the back bumper of the car in front of the space you want to get into (Figure A).
Put your car in reverse. Turn your steering wheel to the right, but not too sharply, and back up, looking behind you (Figure B). As you reverse, you will gradually increase the sharpness of the wheel turning radius.
The most common parallel parking mistake is to turn the wheel too sharply so that you end up parking perpendicular instead of parallel (Figure B.1).
While backing up, keep your car as close as possible to the rear left corner of the car in front of the parking spot. Next comes the most crucial step. At the appropriate time, turn the wheel to the left slightly more than what it was turned to the right (Figure C). The time will vary in relation to car length, but on my station wagon it is approximately when the unhinged end of the passenger door is in line with the rear bumper of the car in front of the spot. If you do this too early, your car will end up too far from the curb. If you do this too late, you will again end up too perpendicular.
As you continue to keep the rear left corner of the front car close, increase the sharpness of the wheel until the right side of your front bumper just barely clears the front car with your wheel turned as sharp as it goes (Figure D). Continue backing with the front wheel turned to the left as sharp as it goes until you are close to and parallel with the curb. Then normally all you need to do is straighten the wheel and pull forward until you are centered between the two parked cars (because you should be closer to the car behind you). Your rear right tire should never hit the curb, although in my obsession with getting as close to the curb as possible, the side of my tire will often graze it. If your rear end starts to swing away from the curb before your front end is close enough to it, you'll have to straighten the wheel some and make a mental note that you either didn't turn the wheel to the right sharp enough (Fig. B) or turned the wheel to the left too soon (Fig. C). In a tight spot, you will have to stop short of parallel to the curb to prevent the left side of your rear bumper from hitting the car behind you (although I will always argue that’s what bumpers are for). In that case, turn the wheel sharply to the right and pull forward. This will straighten you out and center you. If it doesn't, you probably didn't turn the wheel sharp enough at some point or the spot is too small for you to fit into. Finally, curb the wheel appropriately if you’re on a hill.
I do not subscribe to the “sawing” method, in which you keep going forward and back in an attempt to inch yourself closer to the curb (although you might have to do this to get out of the spot), unless it's to make a very minor adjustment. If you didn’t do it right the first time, it's much easier to just return to the position in Figure A and start over.
Under normal circumstances, all of this should take less than ten seconds in a car. Obviously a van will take longer.
4 comments:
You forgot the whole part about pulling forward until you crash into the car in front of you and then back up until you crash into the car behind you, and repeat this method until you are satisfied that all cars involved have been hit equally. (Your method of parking my car in college).
My method is to ride my bike to work, where I can take an elevator and keep it near me all day long. Yay for me.
i will admit to smashing a few bumpers while parking your car ONCE; I parked your boat much more gently on several other occasions. Besides, that was almost fifteen years ago (while I was uninsurable because of getting into too many accidents in high school)- and I was driving your wasted ass home from six blocks away at the time. hah!
Um. actually it was 3 blocks. But whatever. :)
The Two Most Common Vehicle Accidents
If we take a lesson from well documented fleet vehicle accidents you'll find that the two most frequent vehicle accidents for fleets are: 1. Getting Hit While Parked and 2. The Rear End Collision.
For fleet vehicles in 2006, being hit while parked constituted 23.5% of the reported claims and getting rear ended accounted for 11.3%. This was sourced from Business Fleet, October - 2007.
So, do you think the accident statistics for the average consumer are any different? I doubt it. Fleet vehicles drive millions of miles each year and, with well documented logs, it probably holds true for all drivers on the highway today.
So what do we know about being hit while parked? Here's a few statistics the experts at superbumper.com have compiled about getting hit while parked; 14% of all claims for auto damage involve parking lot collisions; 80% of bumper scratches occur during parking -- usually by the "other guy" and an estimated 30% of drivers feel it's OK to "love tap" your bumper when parallel parking - and those love taps can cost you $400 or more. Keep in mind that half of all collision claims for new model cars are $1,500 or less. "Repair costs for these minor incidents are a major factor in overall collision coverage insurance costs" according to the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety.
And there's lots of information about the rear end collision. It is the most frequent accident on the highway -- 29.7% of all accidents are rear end collisions. 94% of all rear end collisions occur on straight roads, most are direct hits and 75% are less than 10 mph. Rear end collisions account for 38% of all the dollars paid for automobile claims. Every 17 seconds a "reported" rear end collision occurs and every 8.5 seconds there is an "unreported" rear end collision.
Did you ever wonder why there are twice as many unreported accidents as reported ones? Well, one of the factors is that 14.7% of the drivers in the United States are "uninsured". In states like California, Alabama, New Mexico and Arizona it's over 22%! Another factor in unreported accidents is that the typical insurance premium will increase 40% if a claim is made. You can't afford to make a claim anymore.
80% of all rear end collisions are caused by following too close (tailgaters), inattentive drivers, distracted drivers (using cell phones, eating, text messaging, fiddling with the radio or CD player, kids, etc.) and drivers with poor judgment (mostly teenagers and seniors). And nearly 15% of them are uninsured. They won't pay for your damage at all! There's only one thing you can do -- protect yourself.
Jeff Mohr from Mohr Manufacturing says "there are a few products on the market today that will help protect your vehicle from damage caused by getting hit while parked and the rear end collision. Don't let these drivers ruin your day, wreck your vehicle, cripple your family, steal your deductible, lower the resale value of your car or truck or jeopardize your insurance. Check to see what's out there and, if it's less than the cost of your deductible, it's something you definitely should consider."
Jeff is CEO of Mohr Mfg - http://www.superbumper.com is an expert in rear end collisions. The company makes portable, energy absorbing, spare safety bumpers that prevent rear end collision damage caused by Tailgaters, Uninsured Motorists, Bumper To Bumper Traffic, Distracted Drivers, Inattentive Cell Phone Users, Drivers With Poor Judgment, Text Messengers And Lousy, Stinking Parallel Parkers.
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