Why do people back into car park spaces.

If its just enough room for your car it wont work unless you back in?

Because in most instances, it's far easier to park your car straight between the lines.

If it's a standard, straight parking space it's fine to reverse in if that's what you wish.

What melts my head is when people muck about trying to reverse into a 'chevron' style car parking space (ie Liffey Valley). These are specifically designed to 'drive in/reverse out'.

I usually use Brown Thomas car park as it’s handily located for me to get to but for my favorite shops too..although it can be tight it’s easier to reverse into a space at 3 pm then to try to reverse out of one at 5.30pm with everyone trying to get out of there, you have cars, pedestrians getting to cars.... all behind you....get a space with two free ones beside each other reverse in drive straight out, piss easy and simple.

Either way is fine usually.

What doesn't make any sense whatsoever is reversing into a parking spot in a supermarket car park where there are 2 rows of spaces joined together. Surely you need to use the boot if you get a trolley, why not make it easy and have the boot poking out?

Safety of other people. You drive up, you can see any people/ obstacles/ hazards, reverse in with full knowledge. When leaving, you then have as clear a vision of what is coming either side when you're there (e.g. somebody barreling around the car park to just swing into a space). Exactly the same reasons you should reverse into a driveway - assuming you can't turn off road.

Some companies insist on it, to the degree you could lose your access to the car park.

..

It's only more work for crappy drivers.

Agreed. They can be tough to get out of the wheel arches.

I've visited many an industrial setting in the U.K. where reverse parking was compulsory.

The idea being that at the beginning of your day/shift, you are fresher and more alert, whereas at the end of your working day/shift, you might not be as attentive as you were 8-9-10-12 hours previously. You also get a good view of the area around the space when you approach it, to see if anybody/anything is in the way, as you reverse in immediately when you arrive on scene.

When leaving the space, you might spend 10-60 seconds or longer after getting in the car before you actually start moving, and anything could have appeared on scene in that time to cause an obstruction etc...

In the vast majority of situations, its not that difficult or dangerous to reverse out of a space so I don't really see the benefit of reversing into it, especially when it takes so much longer and you're making other drivers wait.

It's easier, safer and makes entering back out in to traffic safer and easier.

Reversing out is a lot quicker as you're reversing in a straight line. It's not the same as reversing in where the person is turning and making adjustments. It takes some people several attempts to get in.

It's handier alright if you forget, or don't care, that there might be other road/carpark users.

Reversing into a space is easier, quicker and neater than driving into it. You'd need more adjustments to get the car straight when driving in if you can't do it when reversing in

You must think that a lot on any given day

Even when you can't see them? That's some skill!