do you drive into a parking space or reverse into it

blond45

well i do reverse into a paring space cos i see alot of people reversing out ant hitting another , or both cars reverse out together and smash lights and bumpers etc. its so much safer to reverse into a space. what do you think??hope this is ok for this post.

Anan1

It depends. I generally reverse in, for the reason you mention. But if i'm food shopping, for example, I drive in so I can get at the boot afterwards.

NothingMan

Definitely reverse. I find it awkward to drive straight in. If I drive about a foot past the next car, lock the wheel and reverse straight back. Best and safest way.

NothingMan

Anan1 wrote: »

It depends. I generally reverse in, for the reason you mention. But if i'm food shopping, for example, I drive in so I can get at the boot afterwards.

That is a good point, on occasion I do this also, but I don't do much shopping.

Atomic Pineapple

depends on the parking set up, how much traffic is about, whether its on a town street or a car park, whether I could be bothered reversing in or not.

Doesn't matter whether your driving out or reversing out of a space then either, any driver should be competent enough and have the awareness to safely reverse a car out of a parking spot

GigaByte

Drive in makes it easier to put the shopping into the boot.

If you reverse or drive into a parking space is not going to stop someone else hitting your car.

If you can't reverse out of a parking space without hitting another car I doubt you'll be much good at reversing in without hitting a parked car.

Paulyh

well i tend to drive into spaces cause i am too lazy, and worry about reversing out i get back:D
but i always reverse into my parents driveway, i guess its because they alway do and its just habit at this stage. i dont have a driveway now so its not a problem.
but yes, i agree, its much better reverse into a space. unless you can drive straight through!!! ie. no space backing onto it then i would certainly make sense to drive in.....................what was this thread about again???

Drummerboy08

I normally reverse in to the space, as I never do the shopping......:D

enda1

blond45 wrote: »

well i do reverse into a paring space cos i see alot of people reversing out ant hitting another , or both cars reverse out together and smash lights and bumpers etc. its so much safer to reverse into a space. what do you think??hope this is ok for this post.

Funny point.

I once went for a job interview with an oil exploration company and so they were safety mental cause of the inherently dangerous nature of their work.

Funnily most accidents their employees suffered were as a result of driving, not on the rigs. They could control the conditions much more on the rigs whereas on the roads there are just so many more variables!

So one example of a rule they had was that in their car park (even at their head office) you had to reverse into the car park space. They had a 3 strike rule that if you drove straight in 3 times you were fired!

Also they said that you couldn't bring fresh fruit on to the rig with you cause people in the past had injected alcohol into fruit...

Needless to say I didn't take the job

DanR

Always reverse in. Much safer to pull out in traffic...going forward, as Cowen would say!:)

Voodoomelon

Always reverse in as its near impossible for me to find a space with clearance that actually lets me drive straight in. Makes it so much easier getting out too.

Atomic Pineapple

betafrog wrote: »

Plus, as I understand it, it is better for the car...

interesting, how so?

Mikefitzs

Drive in if you need to access the boot. Reverse in for better view driving out.

blond45

draffodx wrote: »

depends on the parking set up, how much traffic is about, whether its on a town street or a car park, whether I could be bothered reversing in or not.

Doesn't matter whether your driving out or reversing out of a space then either, any driver should be competent enough and have the awareness to safely reverse a car out of a parking spot

today i saw a few reversing out and the car was so foged up he couldnt see where he was going and lashing rain .was he competent driver when he hit a bumper of car that was parked. god yes im with you about knowing how to drive and to reverse safely.but this tool didnt.

Holsten

Ususally drive in, might spice it up with a reverse now and again!

trad

How can I put this without offending people, males reverse in, females drive in.

I supervised the car parks at a daytime event held over a weekend where a large number of cars were coming and going, some staying, some dropping off and collecting.

Had several problems the first day mostly with large people carriers / 4X4's driven by the fairer sex.

Second day got there very early. I put all the male driver to the back of the car park and to a man they reversed in. Put all the female drivers to the front of the car park and left the aisles wider and almost to a woman, they drove in. The net result was there were no parking problems or stuck cars.

daveyboy_1ie

betafrog wrote: »

I always reverse in, prefer the ability to just drive straight out.

Plus, as I understand it, it is better for the car...

Am intrigued now, how so?

granturismo

enda1 wrote: »

So one example of a rule they had was that in their car park (even at their head office) you had to reverse into the car park space. They had a 3 strike rule that if you drove straight in 3 times you were fired!

One pharma company has the same rule - if there is an evacuation and its safe for staff to drive off in their cars, no one has to take ages reversing out of parking space.

Having the rule at head office was probably to make sure staff didnt get any bad habits in case they had to work at field sites.

I'm not defending the policy just trying to suggest possible reason. If someone has to be told twice that they're not parking correctly would you want to work beside them on an oil rig/field?

eden_my_ass

daveyboy_1ie wrote: »

Am intrigued now, how so?

I remember something about reversing a cold engine being worse than first gear....can't remember where...if only there was a search function for the internet

Its friday and I'm tired!

eden_my_ass

betafrog wrote: »

Reversing out of a space when your engine is cold uses up to 25 times more petrol than when it’s warm. Plus the extra time spent with the engine running and cold increases wear.

Doesn't first gear in the cold still use a similarly large factor more fuel than when the engine warms? And why is the engine running longer, reversing out should be one smooth movement, change gear then off....not "much" longer than driving out. I'm not disagreeing with you, just debating the reasoning..

Alun

betafrog wrote: »

It isn't "much" longer no, but it does add up... If you drive to work and then home, thats at least 10 times a week your car spends in that situation, not including shopping trips and other journeys. Also, when you drive out, yes you'll be using first and using about the same amount of fuel and wear, but because you're straight out and driving off, your car will reach it's optimal temperature earlier reducing the amount of wasted fuel and excess wear.

I know some research was done on it and it was estimated that reversing in instead of out 10 times a week would save on average €100 of fuel a year.

€1 of fuel a decade more like. Sounds like a load of bullsh!t to me, it's never going to make that amount of difference if you're not moving for the time it takes to change from reverse to first. Plus, any getting up to optimal temperature is going to take much, much longer than any parking manoeuvre will.

eden_my_ass

betafrog wrote: »

It isn't "much" longer no, but it does add up... If you drive to work and then home, thats at least 10 times a week your car spends in that situation, not including shopping trips and other journeys. Also, when you drive out, yes you'll be using first and using about the same amount of fuel and wear, but because you're straight out and driving off, your car will reach it's optimal temperature earlier reducing the amount of wasted fuel and excess wear.

I know some research was done on it and it was estimated that reversing in instead of out 10 times a week would save on average €100 of fuel a year.

Maybe someone with a better mechanical knowledge could confirm if reverse gear is just in fact a horribly tuned inefficient way to use the engine (which it sounds like if you've ever tried reversing anything more than a few feet!)

The Big Red Button

trad wrote: »

How can I put this without offending people, males reverse in, females drive in.

I'm female, I generally reverse in, and for the record my judgement when driving is better than most of the guys I know. Not just my opinion, they are happy to admit it, and on more than one occasion I have been asked to reverse cars belonging to male friends out of difficult spots that they parked in.

And no, you don't need to worry about offending me. I don't particularly respect the opinions of anyone who maintains such a prejudiced attitude.

Drummerboy08

chatterpillar wrote: »

I'm female, I generally reverse in, and for the record my judgement when driving is better than most of the guys I know. Not just my opinion, they are happy to admit it, and on more than one occasion I have been asked to reverse cars belonging to male friends out of difficult spots that they parked in.

And no, you don't need to worry about offending me. I don't particularly respect the opinions of anyone who maintains such a prejudiced attitude.

:eek:

Shame on your male friends! Fair play to you all the same. Your about the only woman who must be able to park/drive/ properly!*



*I know I have such a predjudged view, but when you take back two cars from two female customers with €4000 worth of damage on each, I have good reason!

Alun

betafrog wrote: »

Fair enough, call it what you will, but I would hope the Institute of Advanced Motorists wouldn't be spreading bull****

http://www.iam.org.uk/fleetirelandabout/News/Driving+Tips/Driving+Tip+Number+16+Reverse+your+fuel+bills.htm

I'll believe it if they can tell me why reversing supposedly uses 25x more fuel than driving forwards. OK reverse is lower geared than first, and there are more parts rotating in the gearbox when in reverse than when driving forwards which might increase drag, but 25x?! Pull the other one.

Plus how far are you driving in each reversing manoeuvre ... maybe 10 metres max? So 10 x 10 per week x 52 weeks per year = 5.2km per year, and they say you're using €100, or 100/1.15 = 86 litres, so 0.86 litres of fuel per manoeuvre? Hmmm, let me think about that again ...

The Big Red Button

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

:eek:

Shame on your male friends! Fair play to you all the same. Your about the only woman who must be able to park/drive/ properly!*



*I know I have such a predjudged view, but when you take back two cars from two female customers with €4000 worth of damage on each, I have good reason!

I'm not the only one though! And if you're basing your view on just two female customers, well that's a pretty limited sample.

I know some very good drivers, both male and female. And I know some very bad drivers, both male and female. I don't automatically assume that every young male is a bad/dangerous driver. It would be nice if you wouldn't automatically assume that, because I'm a woman, I can't drive properly.

Drummerboy08

chatterpillar wrote: »

I'm not the only one though! And if you're basing your view on just two female customers, well that's a pretty limited sample.

I know some very good drivers, both male and female. And I know some very bad drivers, both male and female. I don't automatically assume that every young male is a bad/dangerous driver. It would be nice if you wouldn't automatically assume that, because I'm a woman, I can't drive properly.

A car that comes back from a female driver usually does have mroe damage when compared to a car with a male driver. In saying that, we do get cars back with male drivers in as bad, if not worse condition sometimes.

However, we've also had two 09 Audi A4 clutches replaced, both cars being driven by females. Of all the 09 A4's we put out, it's suspect that the two cars with clutch problems are driven by female drivers.....

So you see, I automatically assume every female driver is bad, unless proven other wise. This is due to the amount of sh/te I have to deal with on a daily basis from mainly female drivers....


No offence intended to you, its just what I'm used to.

Alun

betafrog wrote: »

Mentions nothing about about using more fuel than going forward....

OK, I misread that bit, but then why is driving forward out of a space with a cold engine so much worse than driving out backwards with a cold one? Your engine doesn't magically warm up in the 5 seconds it takes to drive out of a space forwards (or backwards), so after the initial manoeuvre you're back to square one in the same position as the reversing driver.

sudzs

I drive in but then I'm a gurl!!

As for damage to a car, well the hubby and I would have equal driving time in our car and the 3 bits of damage to the paint work have all been caused by him! :P

Twice reversing into low walls and once getting jammed up with a van on a narrow country bridge. :rolleyes:

Atomic Pineapple

sudzs wrote: »

I drive in but then I'm a gurl!!

As for damage to a car, well the hubby and I would have equal driving time in our car and the 3 bits of damage to the paint work have all been caused by him! :P

Twice reversing into low walls and once getting jammed up with a van on a narrow country bridge. :rolleyes:

Husbands dont count, there more than likely stressed out by being married that they forget there a man when there driving and drive like a women :eek:

/walks away

Anan1

Drummerboy08 wrote: »

So you see, I automatically assume every female driver is bad, unless proven other wise. This is due to the amount of sh/te I have to deal with on a daily basis from mainly female drivers....


No offence intended to you, its just what I'm used to.

I seem to remember a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth recently when the RSA made a similar assumption regarding young male drivers. There are many good and many awful drivers to be found among both sexes, let's just leave it at that.

sudzs

draffodx wrote: »

Husbands dont count, there more than likely stressed out by being married that they forget there a man when there driving and drive like a women :eek:

/walks away

Well if he drove a bit more like me, there would be no need to bring the car in to have a t/cut!!!

spartan1

if you have children in the back always reverse in

rain on

My battery was acting the maggot there a while back and I had to get a push a couple of times, never knew when it was going to do it next so started reversing into parking spaces all the time. Got a new battery since but I'm still in the habit of it. I seem to be better at reversing in than driving in anyway. Female btw

Tipsy Mac

I will always park as far as possible from someone with the limited inteligence to reverse in to a parking space when doing grocery shopping, otherwise your bumper or side of the car ends up getting maimed by their trolley or their doors when they are putting groceries in to the car.

GigaByte

betafrog wrote: »

I think the point is that you spend longer with a colder engine if you have to reverse out of the space than you would driving straight out..

Anyway, I'm gonna leave it at that...

If they say you'll save £100 pounds a year by driving out instead of reversing out think of the thousands you'll save by pushing it out!!

cruizer101

Just to point out you are always meant to reverse from major to minor road and not the other way around, and technically a parking spot is minor road compared to the lane in the carpark. I know thats being a bit pedantic on the point but still there is good reason to it.

youtheman

Most of the major oil & gas companies in the UK adopt the 'reverse in' policy. Their logic is that you are more attentive when you arrive for work, it's most probably bright (can be the opposite when you leave) and there is more likely to be a mass exodus at closing up time rather than in the morning. If you are a visitor then the receptionist will ask you have you reversed in.

They also tend to be zealous in other 'safety areas'. You have to have a lid on your coffee cup if you are on the move (in case you spill it), you have to have a hand on the railing when you go up and down stairs. You daren't break the rules as someone will jump out of no-where and nab you.

robbie99

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet but what about those angled carparking spaces like the ones at Liffey Valley?

antomorro-sei

robbie99 wrote: »

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet but what about those angled carparking spaces like the ones at Liffey Valley?

Why? They're dead handy to just reverse in to anyway.

salamander27

Where i used to work everybody (both males and females) would reverse into a parking space to make a quick getaway at the end of the day. In fact it was kinda wierd if you saw somebody face the "wrong" way, and no one would let them out because they'd take forever (almost).

Other than that i,d usually just drive straight into a space. Except outside college when i have to park facing the building for reason unknown even to myself!:o

johndaman66

robbie99 wrote: »

I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet but what about those angled carparking spaces

And I'm a bit surprised parallel parking is not being debated. I find it much much easier to reverse into a parking space if parallel parking. What I do is put on the flashers when I see the space to try to signal to the car behind that I intend to reverse into the spot but all the same I notice that people are so bloody inconsiderate and impatient that they will pull right up behind you not allowing you to complete the maneovure of flash the lights, blow the horn, dangerously overtake, or give you the middle finger etc. I'd say something if I was very slow or poor at it but 95% of the time I'd do it in one efficient go. I notice most if not all my friends and other people tend to drive forward into spaces when parallel parking but tend to often mount the kerb when doing so a lot of the time which is probably a lot of wear and tear on suspension components over a sustained period of driving.

congo_90

To be honest its a toss up. If i have something heavy in the boot i'll reverse up (facing house). If in a rush (again at home) drive straight in.


If it's blanch shopping centre with spaces made for miniture cars and people flexible as a rubber band, I find reversing in is best as makes easy exit.

If I had a choice in my head I'd take pref in paralell parking. Dunno why I just like it.

To be honest it all comes down to mood, conditions (traffic, weather), parking space. I'd like to believe I'm competent enough to park anyway as required though.

P.C.

Whatever is the easiest option.

I have no problem reversing into or out of a space.

All these things about it is worse for the car, it is easier -No.

What ever you are most comfortble with - that is the best option for you.

WexCan

I'm useless at driving straight in to a space - mainly because I can't see the end of my bonnet so I'm terrified I'm going to hit the car beside. So I reverse in. Unless it's one of those angled jobbies which is a bit easier.

bazz26

This is how it is done lads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8IpZMADFE

PaulKK

I always reverse in, for the simple reason that you know exactly whats coming when you are reversing into a space as opposed to reversing out of one.

In car parks there are always going to be loads of people and small children walking around so its much easier to see them when driving out rather than reversing.

Plus it seems to me that it takes people at least twice as long to reverse out of a space than into one, as they need to be more careful due to lack of visibility when reversing out.

Obviously for shopping you have to drive in as you have a trolley etc, but every other time its reverse in for me.

blond45

bazz26 wrote: »

This is how it is done lads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8IpZMADFE

how brilliant is that. bloody mighty. can that be done in our lovely country.

woody33

I love to find a supermarket parking spot I can drive into and across to the drive out space on the other side. If you see what I mean.

dollybird09

I have been driving a good while now but I still just cant parallel park... I have to parallel park every morning for work but on a daily basis I get slagged about my parking cos firstly it takes me so long to get into the space and even then the car can be crooked etc...

I just don't know when I'm close to a car... it's awful!! :-(

blond45

woody33 wrote: »

I love to find a supermarket parking spot I can drive into and across to the drive out space on the other side. If you see what I mean.

aint that dangerous woody. saw a car do that the other day and another car was going into the space he was going into like you said in the above post it was a close hit.