I once heard “to keep your tailgate from being stolen” but that seems like it’d be a rare case.
I first learned how to drive on these old pickup trucks at a summer camp I worked for as a teenager.
The nice old fella who maintained the trucks (and who, not incidentally, taught me how to drive) said to do it that way and would get disappointed if you didn’t.
So, I guess it’s because I first learned it that way, but also because I don’t want to disappoint Alan (who may or may not be dead by now, I’m not sure.)
Obviously so everyone knows I’m better than them
One of our vehicles is a full-size pickup truck and in certain parking lots I have to find a spot on the outer edge and back in so it doesn’t stick out too much. It keeps inattentive drivers from gouging their cars on the trailer hitch. And if there’s anything interesting loaded in the back, it keeps it out of sight of curious persons with hand-wavy concepts of personal property.
Our other car is a little hatchback, and its reverse camera gets a good 180 degree view, far better than any driver pulling forward out of the space. I never park it backwards because I’m not silly.
Safer when pulling out of parking stall. Less blind spots.
Although I don’t back in. I drive through from one spot to the next in front of me. So I can drive out.
Oooh la-la, fancy parking.
Me too, whenever possible, otherwise I back in to show off my superior driving (and parking) skills.
I knew a girl in high school who was pulling through a spot too fast and got into a head on collision. Now I’m so paranoid about pulling through
The only issue with pulling-through in a parking lot is one-way lanes with angled spots (the majority of parking lots in my area) because then you’re pulling forward against the flow of traffic or have to make an extremely sharp turn upon exiting. It’d be fine with straight spots or two-way lanes, but people still do it in the former circumstance and end up driving the wrong way.
The old pull-through. Some places insist on putting those damn concrete Toblerone blocks in front of you to prevent that sort of thing.
Keep a watchful eye when doing so, because I have seen many an argument break out in a parking lot when someone was trying to pull through at the same time someone else who couldn’t see them was trying to pull in to the same space from the outer side. Bonus points if they boop noses in the process. Somehow nobody ever seems to arrive at the simple conclusion, in such cases, of party A just reversing a couple of feet back into the first space to let party B take the second one.
I worked for a company that provided a car (incidentally a ‘benefit’ I will refuse in any future scenario).
They explicitly told us we had to back in to our parking spots whenever possible. They implied that some data they had showed it reduced accidents.
I love parking closer to the car on my right, where the passe doors face one another. If everyone did this, there would be so much more room to get in and out of vehicles.
And yes, I’m aware that not all cars are single occupant… but too many of them are.
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How is it “safe” compared to pulling straight in?
Because afterwards you are not back into traffic going backwards with poorer vision
Parking lots aren’t “traffic”.
Anywhere vehicles regularly travel is “traffic”
Not even just vehicles. People are traffic, bicycles are traffic, runaway shopping carts are traffic.
It’s not. Over here there are signs everywhere saying “please only park in forwards” because they’re sick of dented and scraped cars and cars that have been parked askew and take up two places.
How is parking between two cars safer than pullong out backwards not between two cars? It’s not as if you’re pulling out onto a main road.
That sounds like a skill issue. Maybe local drivers ed should be updated instead
The parking space is ideally a controlled area, i.e. you can readily assume it is free of other vehicular traffic. The same cannot be said for backing out of a space into the travel lanes through the parking lot.
I’m forever telling my children to pay attention in car parks because they are full of moving cars.
Scenario 1. You’re in the lane, about to park. I’m following you. You come to a stop in the lane. You have the right of way; I have to yield to you until you leave the lane. You could completely ignore me if you wanted to. You only need to observe and avoid obstacles near your vehicle.
Scenario 2. You’re in the parking space, about to back into the lane of traffic. I am approaching in the lane. I have the right of way over the lane. In addition to maneuvering your vehicle around obstacles up close, you also have to observe and yield to me, approaching from a distance.
You can see what is in front of you easier than you can see what is behind you. Over all you have left blind spots in front of you than you do behind you.
Because then I don’t have to reverse out, which is far more difficult
Reversing in is safer than reversing out.
Easier to get in Easier to get out Safer (was trained to do it) Why do you pull in forwards?
Literally easier to pull straight in and stay centered between other vehicles. The literally easier to back out since there’s far more space available in the parking lot lane I’m backing out into.
Never had an issue with this in my life. Never hit a car, never took forever to do it, never hit anyone, and cannot believe the mental gymnastics people do to convince themselves backing in is somehow better.
In terms of geometry nah backing in is way simpler. Less turning involved I believe. Not a mathematician but Ive been professionally driving for 10 years
When you are approaching a parking spot you’re already looking everywhere and can find obstacles as you back in. If you drive into a parking spot backing out may have issues because you may not have seen obstacles that would be in the way. We are not always as observant approaching our vehicle as we are when we have already been driving it. Plus, it’s a whole lot easier to get back out of the parking spot if you can just drive away.
Simply having to sit and watch as morons poorly attempt to back in suggests they don’t have a good grasp of their surroundings.
My favorite is being behind someone in a crowded grocery store parking lot, they drive past a space (with no means of determining what they are doing) then as I proceed forward in the tradition of our ancestors, they start honking, going in reverse and attempting to park backwards.
That and Teslas parking backwards in the one-way angled spaces to reach the charge cables that were not engineered around their idiot design.
Because, unless you’re driving a forklift, the point of a vehicle’s rotation is in line with the rear wheels, meaning you can take turns at a much more acute angle when reversing than going forwards. Which makes backing into spaces much easier.
Notice that most of the half-assed parking jobs you see are generally people who have driven forward and left the car parked at a diagonal half out of the space, because getting the vehicle lined up in that situation is more difficult.
If there’s a line of cars and you want to pull out backwards thats a LOT more difficult. If you want to pull out front first it’s easier
I swear part of it is regional. In the mid-Atlantic region - low volume lot, perpendicular spaces, maybe 1/2 full at max - you can watch people spend minutes faffing around to back into a spot.
Because I have worse visibility backing than going forward. There’s a smaller chance that there’s a kid suddenly walking into my parking spot than moving behind my car when exiting my parking space
