learning to park

darling.x

I've spent an hour this evening in an empty car park, very close to my home, on my own as i have no one to sit in with me regularly, practising to park.

I was practising both driving into parking spaces, and reversing into parking spaces and i'm useless at it. Sometimes I manage to park in between the white lines, and sometimes I don't. And when I do manage - I'm crooked.

I've got a few questions please.

1. Do I need to know how to reverse into a parking space. Is this on the test.

2. Do I need to have my car straight in the parking space.

3. I don't know if I'm going to explain this properly but here I go: lets take driving into a parking space as an example. Do I do it in one manuover or I take several steps as in edge in a bit, reverse out a bit, go in a bit again, reverse a bit again, and drive in again until I'm happy that I've parked.

4. Do I need to know how to pararell parking.

mikemac

Just take your time, nobody is making you do it in one go every time.

This won't be on your test but you will be asked to reverse around a corner, kinda similar

Even if parking is not on your test, it's a skill you need, especially for parking in busy shopping centres or main streets which you will be doing no matter where you live.
Just take your time, relax

Have you considered getting an instructor to give a few pointers?

Out of interest, is it a large size car or even an SUV?

pickarooney

For each type of parking there's a specific approach. Get someone to show you these a couple of times before getting into bad habits and start getting frustrated and apprehensive. It's actually a lot easier to park when there are cars there as they give you all the reference points you need to get in safely. Whether or not they come up on the test, you'll need to know how to park your car in all types of spaces, so you might as well get it right from the start. Once you get the hang of it, you'll automatically park in a straight line.

Parking perpendicular to the kerb should be done in one go. There's no harm in making two or three attempts but basically once you've misjudged it you need to go back and start the whole manouevre again as trying to make little adjustments just will not work. For forward parking, you need to either line the car up and roll straight in or, more usually, come in at a shallow angle and aim for the back of the car beside your space, turning the wheel at the last moment to slip in straght. Obviously this should be done very slowly, particulalry in the beginning! Again, get someone to show you and take careful note of all the reference points before trying it yourself.

Mr. Presentable

See if you can get a couple of traffic cones and put them at the front ends of the target space to reverse between. It's much easier with a target!

darling.x

I was with my instructor (my third one may I add) since may. Unfortunately she was unable to take me for the past two weeks due to family circumstances. I then texted her this week asking for more lessons, and there was death on her family. So i don't know where i stand with he nowr. She mightn't be able to take me at all for a while. Its up to her to phone me now anyway. but I'm starting with a new instructor next week. He sounded like a lovely chap when i rang him today.

Alanstrainor

darling.x wrote: »

I've spent an hour this evening in an empty car park, very close to my home, on my own as i have no one to sit in with me regularly, practising to park.

I was practising both driving into parking spaces, and reversing into parking spaces and i'm useless at it. Sometimes I manage to park in between the white lines, and sometimes I don't. And when I do manage - I'm crooked.

I've got a few questions please.

1. Do I need to know how to reverse into a parking space. Is this on the test.

2. Do I need to have my car straight in the parking space.

3. I don't know if I'm going to explain this properly but here I go: lets take driving into a parking space as an example. Do I do it in one manuover or I take several steps as in edge in a bit, reverse out a bit, go in a bit again, reverse a bit again, and drive in again until I'm happy that I've parked.

4. Do I need to know how to pararell parking.

1. Nope, this is not on the test.
2. They're not looking for perfection, have it within the lines and just make sure to check your blind spots/mirrors etc where relevant when parking.
3. Generally it'll take more than one reverse manoeuvre to get into a spot, although this is will vary from car park to car park. And it will depend on whether you are reversing in to a space or not.
4. Nope, this is not part of the test, however it's a good thing to know.

As for parking it's into a space, i would always try and reverse in when it's possible, that's just me. let's see if i can draw a diagram! Instead of trying to swing around perpendicular to the space i would do as i've done in the picture, swing the front of the car out, checking to make sure all is clear, and then reverse in.

EDIT: By the way, when returning to the test centre after the test, best thing to do would to be just to park nose in, as it's the easiest. But in most other situations reversing is probably best. Oh, and when you arrive to the test centre on test day, reverse into the space so you can drive straight out.

darling.x

Thanks, the traffic cones are a good idea. Theres road works close to my home. Will I steal traffic cones in the middle of the night. or will i just ask my neighbours for their smelly wheelie bins. Preferably empty ones.

mikemac

Just steal the cones.
Do it now before the college students get them. They seem to have a fascination with stealing them coming back from the pubs :P

darling.x

Alanstrainor, thanks for your picture. I can how reversing into a space the way you showed me would work. I'll try that this weekend. Thanks a millon. You're a saint. Thanks for posting on my other post this morning too.

And thanks to everyone else to.

Devia

Until I got confident about parking between two cars I parked like this:

dr.bollocko

What kind of car do you drive? Hatchbacks with a lot of window space are great cars to learn to park on. Some of the larger cars, saloons etc. and even smaller cars like Yaris's don't offer a lot of visibility to drivers, leaving them relying heavily on mirrors. I traded up recently and had to learn to park all over again. Driving to targets really helps, reversing into an empty space perfectly is a lot more difficult than reversing into a space that is flanked by at least one car.
I love this forum. Gives me hope for a better future for Irish drivers.