Why do people back into car park spaces.

One of my pet hates are car parks deliberately laid out to encourage the habit of people driving straight forward into parking slots. It panders to a dangerous habit. The other thing that furls my brow is someone reversing out in front of me in a carpark or on street parking and they haven't a fecking clue what's behind, they just back out blindly and hope you'll stop for them.

On the plus side it often amuses me to reverse into a parking space and then on coming back later, see several adjacent cars likewise parked thus. People are like sheep in that way, they'll copy what other drivers have done.

If I had my way, I'd slap a hefty fine and penalty points on lazy parkers who insist on reversing back into the traffic flow!!!

Why don't you focus on the thing that you have control of, your car, rather than the parked cars either side that aren't moving.

The rear wheels following the front wheels simply can't follow as tight an arc as steerable front wheels following the back wheels, so unless the driver is completely incompetent, reversing in will always get you into a tighter space than turning nose into either a perpendicular or parallel space. With herringbone, nose in always.

You're looking at parking in isolation from exiting the space there

 the information is clearer (direct vision, obstacle closer proximity to driver) 

You drive past the space, get a good view in make sure its empty and add a lot of confidence to the limited view you'll have in the mirrors and reversing camera, swing your front wheels away from the space, reverse in with a single movement with the most precise control possible in a typical car. When you need to leave, you have the best view possible to safely exit.

Compated to being completely unsighted as to whats in the space, a shopping trolley, a moped, etc... as you come around the car on the near side of the space already half way in, who the **** left that there, **** moron, etc, etc.... Even if you make it in in one swing, there's no way you're straight unless the space and/or the road/aisle are huge so you're reversing back out into a zone thats in control of oncoming traffic, a space that you would have been in control of if you had reversed in. Rinse and repeat for leaving the space, the amount of uncertainty that develops in a large open space, with passing traffic, in the time it takes to get into the car, start the engine, select reverse and start to move off vs when you have an opportunity to have a full check of the space you're going to move into, quick flick into reverse and bobs your teapot.

All that said, if I'm parking all day on a cold winters day, I'll try to park facing south west or west as the risk of a frosted windscreen on return is minimised.

A little off topic but how many people actually use this method when reversing into a spot between two cars, even your car length + say 4 ft enables it to be done in two manoeuvres, reverse in and pull up. I see dozens of people positioning their car properly but neglecting to turn the steering wheel before reversing in, they then drive off and leave a nice spot for me.

Its definitely easier IMO to drive into a parking space as you are sitting in the front looking through a windscreen, I sometimes drive in and sometimes reverse in but always reverse into my driveway as its on a pretty busy road.

I live in NZ and it is not the law, I dont know where you heard that. Next to nobody here reverses into a park

Part 2 is correct, it is illegal to park against the flow of traffic

To be fair, the vast majority of the time when I park, it's either shopping and I need to put things into the boot, or working and I need to take things out of the boot. It just makes more sense to drive in in those cases.

That's absolutely the way to parallel park.

Parallel park: reverse in.

Chevron park: drive in

Perpendicular park: reverse by preference, but driving in is ok

So you've never been in a busy carpark, that would explain a lot about your understanding of the reasons why reversing out of a space is riskier than reversing in.

If you look back through the comments that's what some of them are saying. So therefore it has to be a wind up, there can't be people that stupid among us, I refuse to believe it!

There is a superiority thing there alright. A similar thread popped up not so long ago where someone described reversing in as bit of an "alpha move". Most people I see in shopping centres drive in front ways. It just makes more sense when you need to load the boot.

That's an outstandingly convoluted way of justifying your (ridiculous) position.

You reverse in because it's safer to drive out. It's that simple.

99% of the time, whatever way you go into a 90° parking space, you'll exit it in the opposite manner, and driving out of a parking space is multiples safer than reversing out.

reversing in is required by some companies; i worked for a turbine company that serviced the oil and gas industry and reversing in was the rule no matter in which country we worked. same applies here. The airline I work for insists on reverse in, unless parallel parking is available. Works well.