Reverse Parking Guide

In a short period of time it is very difficult to master all the intricacies of driving in driving schools, including learning how to properly park in reverse between cars.

Mastery comes only with experience and it is impossible to become an experienced driver after learning the theo-retical basics of driving. An experienced driver must not only know traffic rules but also safely move, maneuver, turn around and park. Parking in front is simple, just keep in sight the decreasing distance to the front of the object in front and stop in front of the obstacle, which cannot be said about reverse parking. Sooner or later, any driver will face this. Therefore, such a parking skill will always be needed when there is a need to put a vehicle on a limited area between other cars.

Reverse parking between two cars

First of all, you need to make sure that the mirrors are adjusted and you can see the area located be-hind and on the side of the vehicle. The inner part of the mirror should display the side of the vehicle, and in the rest of the area – the roadway behind the machine. Some drivers lower the regulator’s right mirror so that part of the rear wheel is visible in it. This is done in cases where a high curb is installed on the edge of the roadway, in the parking lot, and there are fears of damaging the vehice.

There are several basic ways to park the rear house: parallel and perpendicular.

Parallel parking

In large cities, drivers often leave their cars along the road near the curb one after another. This method of parking is found in places where there are no specially equipped parking areas and you have to apply parallel parking skills. It is important to understand that in a limited area, parallel parking must be carried out exclusively in reverse, otherwise it will not work to park the car exactly in the empty “pocket”, and this is fraught with the occurrence of an accident.

Step-by-step instruction

The proposed instruction describes the reverse parking process on the right side of the roadway. First of all, it is necessary to visually determine the future parking place of the car. To do this, you must slowly move along standing cars in search of free space. The distance between the bumpers of the finally parked car should be 50-60 cm. This margin will allow the driver to maneuver and not interfere with standing cars when leaving the parking zone. It is recommended for novice drivers to stop parallel to the front of a standing car with a lateral distance between cars of 50-60 cm. It is important to stretch about 10 cm to the left before stopping so that the nose of the parked car is slightly to the left of its rear. At this stage, the car is in a position ready to start moving backwards. Before reversing, it is important to make sure in the rearview mirror that there are no moving cars at the rear, and such a maneuver will not be dangerous for other participants in the movement. In this position, the left rear corner of the parked car should be clearly visible in the right side mirror. At this stage, this is the main reference point by which reverse movement is corrected. Now you need to turn the steering wheel to the right and slowly begin to move, while observing through the right mirror about the lateral distance between the parked car. This stage is very important, and the final result of parking depends on the correctness of its implementation. It is necessary to move with the steering wheel turned to the right until the rear of the vehicle extends beyond the left rear corner of the car parked in front of the car and the right headlight of the rear of a standing car is visible in the left mirror. Thus, the parked car will take a diagonal position relative to the roadway and standing cars. Then it is recommended to stop to assess the situation. At the next stage, you need to put the steering wheel in its original position, in which the wheels will be aligned evenly and, guided by the mirrors, slowly begin to move backward until the part of the parked car taken as a landmark is visually visible in front of the right front corner of the parked car. Further, it is necessary to unscrew the wheel all the way to the left, and move until the necessary position is occupied. If necessary, you can adjust the position while moving forward.

Perpendicular parking

This specified type of parking is often used:

• in yards;
• in the parking lot in front of the supermarket;
• car parks.

Step-by-step instruction

Instructions for perpendicular reverse parking with left-hand steering:

Select the location for the upcoming parking so that the lateral distance between the cars is at least 40-50 cm. Otherwise, it will be problematic to open the doors to the driver and passengers of parked vehicles . Move perpendicular to standing cars until you drive a little forward from an empty seat. This will be the starting position for the start of the maneuver. Stop so that the boot area is at the rear of the perpendicularly parked car at a distance of 40-50 cm. Turn the steering wheel to the leftmost position. Before starting the movement, make sure that the rear space is free to start maneuvering. Guided by the left side mirror, begin a slow backward movement while maintaining the originally taken distance between the vehicles. When the car takes a parallel position relative to other cars, align the steering wheel to its original position and complete the maneuver. If the distance to the cars on the one hand turned out to be more than on the other, you can correct your position by moving it forward and smoothly reverse.

Recommendations for beginners

It is not enough to study the theory to make maneuvers in reverse. Everything seems extremely simple, but in practice it is much more complicated. You will not always have ideal conditions for parking a vehicle.

Don’t be in a hurry

During normal traffic in the city traffic, the driver must control several factors:

• the behavior of other participants in the movement;
• the situation around the vehicle;
• compliance with traffic regulations;
• driving the car.

When parking, the driver must also monitor these factors. For starters, it’s best to choose a training ground where you can practice and analyze errors under the guidance of a more experienced driver. At the training ground, you can make a mistake, but in a real situation, you can lose not only ra lisence but also money for repairs. As a guide, you can set cones or ordinary cardboard boxes to prevent damage to the car. It’s rare when a person driving for the first time is able to successfully (without errors) pass the basic driving standards.

Environmental control

Ideal conditions for driving are rare (when there is no flow of moving cars around, no one bothers to concentrate exclusively in parking). This is unlikely in urban environments.

Therefore, it is necessary to be prepared for this and constantly monitor around, so that the performed maneuvers do not impede the movement of other motorists and create a traffic jam.

Safety

Each technically sound vehicle is equipped with a special white light signal that turns on when the gearbox reverse gear is engaged. It is recommended for beginners to additionally turn on emergency lights so that the surrounding drivers pay attention and react in time in case of an unforeseen situation.

Responsibility

Each driver is responsible for his or her actions. If you have few skills and it was not possible to park as described in the instructions, do not leave the car in the wrong position.

An improperly parked car interferes with other road users and can cause an accident. Also, do not occupy more than one parking space – this will cause confusion among other drivers. Therefore, if it is not possible to park in the selected parking lot, it is better to look for another one.

Do not panic

Even if something went wrong, do not panic. In such cases, you should stop, get out of the car and visually assess the situation in order to understand at what stage you made the mistake.

Don’t be lazy

Do not rely on “maybe”. When parking in reverse, a significant part of the car is out of sight, and sometimes even experienced drivers make mis-takes due to a misunderstanding of the dimensions or vice versa, as a result of excessive self-confidence. Therefore, it is better to once again stop and carefully inspect the place of future parking in order to avoid collision with any object.

Conclusion

There is no limit to perfection in driving a car. It is impossible to describe all the subtleties and nuances – this is acquired only with experience. Constant training, accuracy and care are the key to safe parking in reverse and driving in general.