Do you park (your car) backwards?

I drive a "big truck" (stretch cab w/ a full 8' bed) and really don't undertand the advantage of backing it. Pull in...back in...it's the same difference if a similar arc is swung.

But...

When I used to be a working stiff I'd back in at work. People filter into work slowly and spaced out in the morning...so parking can typically be done leisurely. i.e. Backing in wont pizz someone off. But everyone leaves at the same time at 5pm. Being nose out makes a quick escape far easier.

To me, that's the main advantage of backing in.
 
N801BH said:
I agree...

And for the ones who get/got ticketed for backing in.. My guess is those states are the ones with rear tags only and the cops can't see if the tag is expired simply by driving by... IMHO..
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It was a local ordinance. IL requires both fronts and rear tags, though the current sticker does only go in the back.
 
I'm not sure how backing into a parking spot equates with parking backwards. That would assume that the parking space has a designated front and rear direction that is supposed to be adhered to.

But semantics aside there are a couple of good reasons to back into a space.

1. You must either back into the space or back out of it. If you back into it, you can easily see other vehicles in the parking lot lane you are in. In other words, you have traffic in sight. If you back out rather than backing in, you are less likely to see the traffic. It is a safety issue.

2. Overhang. The front wheels are right at the front of the vehicle whereas the rear wheels are not right at the rear. This means that if you are backing into a spot with one of those concrete blocks that prevent you from going any deeper, you can go deeper if you back in. Of course, that means you might be overhanging a sidewalk or another parking space but many drivers prefer that to having their vehicle stick out into traffic.
 
I drive a mini SUV with a hatch. It much easier to open it if it's not up against someone else's bumper. But that's not why I don't generally back in. It never occurs to me to do so. I will sometimes not pull through the space if I think I am going to be opening the hatch later, though.
 
timwinters said:
I drive a "big truck" (stretch cab w/ a full 8' bed) and really don't undertand the advantage of backing it. Pull in...back in...it's the same difference if a similar arc is swung.
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Except ... It's not the same. You reverse the position of the steering vs. non-steering axle.

Turning forward, the trailing axle tracks inside the lead axle. It won't always clear the adjacent car, even though front made it in.

Backing in, the trailing axle tracks outside the lead axle. If you clear the rear wheel, the front will also make it.

Try it.
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
Except ... It's not the same...

Backing in, the trailing axle tracks outside the lead axle. If you clear the rear wheel, the front will also make it.

Try it.
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You're right. It's not the same. But pulling in, you can arc the front axle out past the next space and then back in. You can't do that backing it.

Both ways have similarly effective..but different...techniques.
 
I drive a full size pickup almost always back in. I worked for UPS for 11 years not as a driver (although I drove some and delivered plenty of packages). The drill into you ALWAYS back in. When you get there you know the spot is clear you are looking at it. You don't know what may have gotten behind you while you were delivering the parcel.
 
gprellwitz said:
It was a local ordinance. IL requires both fronts and rear tags, though the current sticker does only go in the back.
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Weird. I hope they have that posted, that's a pretty obscure ordinance... unfair enough to have it at all, doubly so if they're enforcing it on unsuspecting visitors to the town.
 
gprellwitz said:
It was a local ordinance. IL requires both fronts and rear tags, though the current sticker does only go in the back.
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There is the answer right there......

Illinois. Land of dead voters and bizzare laws......

And.... The cops ARE looking for current /expired stickers.. Hence the pull in position requirement....:idea:
 
timwinters said:
You're right. It's not the same. But pulling in, you can arc the front axle out past the next space and then back in. You can't do that backing it.

Both ways have similarly effective..but different...techniques.
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I can back in to a spot on a much narrower lane than I can pull forward in.
 
I have a crew cab long bed f350, I back in at my house. I have to or else it will stick out in the street, when I back in the bed goes in the grass a bit. When I'm out in public I try to park far out in the parking lot. I'm too lazy to back in or deal with tight spaces. Yes I'm that douche who takes up 2 spaces
 
Criitter7 said:
I have a crew cab long bed f350, I back in at my house. I have to or else it will stick out in the street, when I back in the bed goes in the grass a bit. When I'm out in public I try to park far out in the parking lot. I'm too lazy to back in or deal with tight spaces. Yes I'm that douche who takes up 2 spaces
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Same here except mine is a crew cab long bed 4x4 dually Chevy.

One day I parked at Lowes taking up 2 spaces because it is really just too big for 1 car space. While in the store, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) walked up to me. She apparently came to Lowes with her brother after I had parked and gone in. I hadn't met her brother before. While she and her brother were walking in her brother saw my parking (not knowing it was my truck) and said to her "some jackass doesn't know how to park his truck". I met him in the store that day.
 
Criitter7 said:
I have a crew cab long bed f350, I back in at my house. I have to or else it will stick out in the street, when I back in the bed goes in the grass a bit. When I'm out in public I try to park far out in the parking lot. I'm too lazy to back in or deal with tight spaces. Yes I'm that douche who takes up 2 spaces
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I too am one of "those" people who park WAY out of the way. You know, where the tub-a-lards with handicap stickers need to park to walk off all the fat.;)..

What gets me is when I pick a spot away from anyone to prevent idiots from opening their doors ( ding ) my truck and I come out and the parking lot is still half empty and there are vehicles parked on each side of me..:mad2:

I do confess.. I will walk around my truck looking for damage, and if there is even one small ding ....I admit.. There has been more then one occasion where the perp received a caved in door panel from a swift kick from my boot....:mad:
 
FORANE said:
Same here except mine is a crew cab long bed 4x4 dually Chevy.

One day I parked at Lowes taking up 2 spaces because it is really just too big for 1 car space. While in the store, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) walked up to me. She apparently came to Lowes with her brother after I had parked and gone in. I hadn't met her brother before. While she and her brother were walking in her brother saw my parking (not knowing it was my truck) and said to her "some jackass doesn't know how to park his truck". I met him in the store that day.
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I'm a firm believer lowes and Home Depot need to have spots right by the door reserved for pick up trucks. Like compact car parking but for men.
 
Criitter7 said:
I'm a firm believer lowes and Home Depot need to have spots right by the door reserved for pick up trucks. Like compact car parking but for men.
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I remember a Lowes that had pull-through spots for the contractors with their work trailers.
 
I back in as well, for the most part. However, the rear view camera and the tow mirrors on my '08 F-150 make it a breeze to back in quickly. Much easier to maneuver in tight quarters, especially if you have lots of large trucks/SUVs across from each other limiting the open space.
 
Phoenix said:
I got a ticket in PA once for backing into a spot. Not driving related came back to my truck and had the ticket under the wiper. Not backing into a spot, not just a bad idea. It's the law. No idea what the justification is, Vanity? Enforcing the lowest common parking ability? Safety?:rolleyes::mad2::sad:
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If they have to tow, they want to be able to lift the rear drive wheels, locked by the transmission in "Park". Old parking ordnance that does not address FWD vehicles. I wonder how that works with AWD.
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
I back in when parking at home. Out in public, it just depends.
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I back in against a fence row at work.
I back into my driveway, it's just long enough from sidewalk to garage door for my truck.

I look for "drive through" parking when out shopping and park far enough away from bozos that can't park within the lines or are not "straight" in their spot. If they didn't go in straight, they are not coming out straight.
 
BillTIZ said:
Same as NV, but I've never had a front plate on the truck.
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In Missouri, larger pickup trucks (3/4 & 1 ton) have only a front plate. No back plate. They assume you'll be pulling a trailer much of the time.

When I was working, on occasion I'd get pulled over and questioned about it in other, non-bordering, states.
 
Biggest problem with backing in is people in such a hurry and not noticing what you are doing steal your parking place!
Can't back in if someone is within 100' of you!
 
If you back into a spot with a sidewalk, remember that the bed of your truck sticks over the sidewalk and blocks it for pedestrians or anyone in a wheel chair. In our parking lots, if a truck bed blocks the sidewalk, we tow it. We had a person in a wheel chair try to get by in the rain and got stuck when his wheel went off the sidewalk.

I don't care what way you park, but do not block the sidewalk at any of our properties or your truck will be gone when you get back. And yes, our lots are properly posted.

One more thing - that trailer hitch and ball stick out even more and very uncomfortable to bash you shin on!!
 
rockwoodrv9a said:
If you back into a spot with a sidewalk, remember that the bed of your truck sticks over the sidewalk and blocks it for pedestrians or anyone in a wheel chair. In our parking lots, if a truck bed blocks the sidewalk, we tow it. We had a person in a wheel chair try to get by in the rain and got stuck when his wheel went off the sidewalk.

I don't care what way you park, but do not block the sidewalk at any of our properties or your truck will be gone when you get back. And yes, our lots are properly posted.

One more thing - that trailer hitch and ball stick out even more and very uncomfortable to bash you shin on!!
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Welcome to POA!!!

:cheerswine:
 
rockwoodrv9a said:
If you back into a spot with a sidewalk, remember that the bed of your truck sticks over the sidewalk and blocks it for pedestrians or anyone in a wheel chair. In our parking lots, if a truck bed blocks the sidewalk, we tow it. We had a person in a wheel chair try to get by in the rain and got stuck when his wheel went off the sidewalk.

I don't care what way you park, but do not block the sidewalk at any of our properties or your truck will be gone when you get back. And yes, our lots are properly posted.

One more thing - that trailer hitch and ball stick out even more and very uncomfortable to bash you shin on!!
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If you want your post to be truly effective, you need to tell us where your lots are.
 
We have student housing across the country. Much of it is at Michigan State but we have complexes in AZ, UT, CA, and TX. Property for student housing is expensive so sidewalks end up right along the curb. Even a F 150 will block most of the sidewalk if it backed up until the tires hit the curb.

The post was to make people aware that their truck bed can block sidewalks. In East Lansing, you will get a ticket or towed and fined if you back in too far and people cant get by. The property owner can be fined for not keeping proper HCP access.

When we point it out to a person, they didn't realize they were blocking it so bad and move.
 
I heard a piece on NPR not so long ago where a social scientist made the case that forward versus backward parking is an instant gratification vs delayed gratification issue. He studied the way Americans park vs Japanese and it seems that most Americans park head in while most Japanese park back in. He correlated that apparently to other social indicators of instant versus delayed gratification in Americans vs Japanese respectively.

PS when I'm driving my full size pickup truck I prefer to back into perpendicular spots but park head in when I'm driving a car.
 
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If I'm driving the dually and have to wedge it into a barely big enough spot, I'll back it in for another reason... I can put the fat butt of the truck forward of *your* driver door that way, so you can still enter your vehicle and depart.

If I pull straight in, now you and the guy on the other side have to wedge your butt between my truck and your vehicle to walk to the door.

Rarely do the above. I'll park way out and walk unless there's no other way.
 
Wow! 3 pages in one day on an NA topic! Everyone seems to have an opinion, just like not yielding the fast lane, and not signaling for turns.

Here's my take:

Every day at work, I see people making their 12 point turns to back into tiny narrow spots and they skooch all the way over so their passenger side is right up against the passenger side of someone whose parked head into an equally narrow/tiny spot. This is all fine, except 1. It takes forever for them to park and they usually end up with a line of traffic sitting there waiting for them to figure it out. And, 2) I had some guy's daughter take out my left rear bumper because she misjudged her turn, trying to back into said narrow/tiny spot (blocking my driver's side door in the process).

I park head in most of the time because I can park head in faster, and leave backing out faster than the people I see parking the other way. When it an aisle of cars parked head to head, I pull through so I end up head-out. This is so I can leave faster than the people trying to back out who haven't figured out that its best to put the latte AND cellphone both down when trying to back out.
 
txflyer said:
We were taught this in driving safety classes at work.

It's safer to back in a space that you have just witnessed is clear than backing out of a space that may have traffic or pedestrians later. Not to mention if there's a fire or other calamity, you want out of there.

Backing accidents were the #1 pain in the companies ass with a fleet of trucks.
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The rule is to park backwards in Japan for the same reasoning. First-time Japanese visitors are sometimes amazed when we don't run over a kitten, an old man, a shopping cart, and take out a parked car's taillight while backing out of a parking space at the grocery store.

It seems that with a little bit of practice, it's quite effortless to back into a parking space. The backwards parking arrangement also seems to allow them to deal with much more narrow spaces and denser parking lots.

japan-parking-lot-hw2.jpg


91E693F192938ED48FEA.jpg
 
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N801BH said:
I do confess.. I will walk around my truck looking for damage, and if there is even one small ding ....I admit.. There has been more then one occasion where the perp received a caved in door panel from a swift kick from my boot....:mad:
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I too have metered similar justice at one time or another.
 
timwinters said:
In Missouri, larger pickup trucks (3/4 & 1 ton) have only a front plate. No back plate. They assume you'll be pulling a trailer much of the time.
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That's hilarious, given that 95% of the oversize (i.e. F-150 size) trucks around here have clearly never been used for anything more involved than getting the groceries. Seems to be mostly a status symbol, or "making it easier to drive like an ass and intimidate normal vehicles" kind of thing.

I guess Missouri inhabitants are more likely to be using their trucks for real work than the suburban PA lot, though.
 
For 90* parking of a large vehicle, backing in is much easier. Parking a Suburban nose-in in such a space is difficult, requires swinging pretty far into the traffic lane, but backing in does not.

As for my 1976 Eldorado - that barge is so long, with such a long hood and long overhang up front, parking nose-in is very tough, while backing in is trivially simple.

Other cars? No big deal either way.
 
How can you be sure they backed in and didn't just drive through the adjoining vacant stall and park?

For me, can't recall the last time I pulled forward into a parking stall. Just prefer mitigating risk of running over some dumb a** with their head down in their not so smart phone.
 
I learned to drive as a <16YO jockeying 3 cars around in a narrow driveway with 2 tiny garages opening on a busy street on a steep hill. Beggars can't be choosy.

Fully 50% of the driving was in reverse no matter how you did it.

Typical car mix was a Buick Electra, a VW camper and a Corvair. After awhile you learned to do all the backing up by just using the mirrors. "Trust the force Skywalker".

I back into my garage at home to maintain proficiency and don't hesitate to back into a space if it makes sense. With the cameras on my Rogue I feel like a pilot that just discovered GPS.
 
I've always thought backing into a restricted parking space utterly illogical at best. You're not looking forward while pulling into highly restricted space, but doing so while going into unrestricted space. You shouldn't need your vehicle pointed out of a space to achieve situational awareness, either.

I have to admit, for LEOs it does make sense (do the basakwards parking at leisure, pull out in haste) but I doubt it does for anyone else. My neighbor does this all the time in her little garage, I always have to wait.
 
Industries such as Oil and Gas (the one I'm in) are obsessed with safety. Their rules are to back into the space, and pull out forwards, for the reasons quoted here. Makes a lot of sense to me; I'd far rather be pulling forwards out of a space than reversing. For a start, I sit at the front of the car so if I pull out forwards I can see past the cars blocking my view to each side much sooner. Also possible to park much more accurately, and in tighter spaces, when reversing in.
 
AuntPeggy said:
Right.

Our city is trying to encourage backing into parking spaces. They have even started re-drawing the angled parking spaces to encourage it. The theory is that it is safer to back into a parking space where nothing will be coming at you from the rear than it is to back out into the street and get hit by oncoming traffic you did not see.

I haven't successfully changed my habit of parking nose first.
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Sums up most of the good reasons to back in there. My cousin drives a box truck for a living and always backs in anything he drives -- "Back In, Pull Out" I'm a little more situational. I'll pull in nose first for expediency and convenience, or if I know I'll need to load up the trunk like groceries or Costco. I'll back in if the lot is particularly busy or tight.
 
steingar said:
I've always thought backing into a restricted parking space utterly illogical at best. You're not looking forward while pulling into highly restricted space, but doing so while going into unrestricted space. You shouldn't need your vehicle pointed out of a space to achieve situational awareness, either.

I have to admit, for LEOs it does make sense (do the basakwards parking at leisure, pull out in haste) but I doubt it does for anyone else. My neighbor does this all the time in her little garage, I always have to wait.
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Your experience does not reflect proficiency in the use of your side mirrors. It is easier, by an order of magnitude, to tell how close you are getting to the obstacles on either side when observing the gaps, or lack thereof in the mirrors while reversing, versus using depth-perception to judge it when you are pulling in forward. Add to that the arc that the rear wheels make being inside of the arc that the front wheels make, and it becomes apparent that the tighter the parking space (aisle width being the key here), the more backing in becomes the preferred option.

Let me state it even more clearly, and in absolutes. Ignoring the issue of judging distances and the situational awareness for a moment, there comes a point where the geometry of the space, the aisle, the steering axle, and the non-steering axle, make it impossible to pull in forward while it is still possible to pull in backward.

Now, going back to grey areas of preferences, judgments, and perceptions, the closer that you get to the aforementioned absolute limit of being possible to pull in forward, the more that the overall equation begins to favor backing in. The longer your wheelbase, the sooner that point comes.

If your experience does not include long wheelbase vehicles, your observations are reasonable, and are likely a matter of preference. If you do find yourself driving a long wheel-base vehicle, please try some practice in a safe place with some cones before coming into the tight parking space next to me. I guarantee that you will find backing in preferable to pulling in forward at that moment.

For reference, my three most often driven vehicles are a 2010 Tacoma ex-cab, a 2004 LeSabre, and a 1992 F350 crew-cab long-bed. The only one that I regularly need to back into the spot is the F350, but the other two are often cocked at an angle in the spot, and thereafter strongly favor backing out to the side where I came in, thereby limiting my options for which direction I leave the parking lot.

Sure, I could jocky her back and forth a couple of times to get her straight, but that isn't necessary when I back in. I think that is the issue that started this conversation.
 
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