[Closed] Reverse parking

If you reverse into a parking spot at the supermarket then you can't put your shopping into the boot.

Supermarkets, people want to put shopping into their car boots so why would you reverse in.

As for home, you either hold up traffic/wait for cars to stop going around you so you can reverse in, or wait for a gap/someone to stop so you can reverse out.

I'd say it's probably easier to make a gap reversing out than it is to swing out into a busy road from a position stopped on the side of the road.

If I reverse park at the supermarket I find it difficult to put my shopping in the boot because I'm bumper to bumper with another car.

If you reverse park at the supermarket, how are you supposed to put the shopping in the boot?

And if you want to reverse into your drive, how do you deal with the driver behind you who doesn't give you space to do so?

I don't think you've thought this through.

I don't understand why we have an aversion to herringbone parking in the UK. It works very effectively.

Mind you, I did see some 24 carat pilchards reverse parking into herringbone spaces in Costco yesterday...

People who reverse park in supermarkets are on my "list" for when I'm in charge.

Have you seen some people’s attempts to reverse park?

You’d think they were trying to dock the international space station

Duh people, get a Porsche. Shopping goes in the front. Simples.

It's a disciplinary offence not to reverse park at one of the big employers near here.
I try to do it where I can.
You have to inconvenience other drivers either reversing in or reversing out of a drive. I'd rather be holding up traffic I'm fully aware of and reversing into the drive than into a busy road with cars passing that I can't easily see approaching.

Reverse parking when you need to access the boot can be a pain though.

Whoever designed the bloody EV spaces at Maccy D’s in Cribbs Causeway needs shooting. You drive round the one way system,then they are positioned at an angle. If you could drive straight into them it would be great, but a lot of cars have charging point at the rear , which means you have to try to do a 3 pointer with Billy Bunters racing past , desperate to inhale their food whilst you are manoeuvring.

I reverse park everytime(even at supermarket(just leave enough space to access boot)

People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so !!

It's easy to load a boot full of shopping at the supermarket if you leave a small gap. Who literally parks bumper to bumper? Is it as easy? No? Is it safer? Yes.

As for myths about reverse parking: Yes it's harder to reverse park and you may have to wait for traffic to clear or overtake you, but it's much easier and safer to drive fwd out into traffic than to reverse into traffic. The inconvenience of reversing in is more than balanced by the ease and safety of driving fwd into traffic.

I would also add when I did a defensive driving course years ago we were taught to always reverse park.

Reverse park at our local Tesco
All the footpaths go between the rows of cars.

At Aldi..... You'll be lucky to get a space to park in that's marked on the floor.

At m+s you'll be reversing against a wall.

I like reverse parking as it gives you clear and unobstructed vision of exiting between other parked cars in an area this is constantly changing...

The amount of folk you see reversing out like the world owes them a favour.....those that reverse off drive ways into busy traffic daily are on my list.

@revs1972

Can you not get an extension lead? 😀

Couple of the supermarkets near me have the paths between, so you can reverse and have easy access to the boot, but folk still go nose first, badly, then reverse out into traffic all the time.

It's just a way of life now, lots of older folk are not comfortable reversing, or checking a main road / roundabout / pavement is clear before moving out onto it.

It’s mandatory worldwide at all my employer’s sites, apparently pretty much eliminates carpark accidents. Also got me in the habit

People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so !!

Unpopular opinion.....but if you can't manuver your vehicle........

See also. Caravannners at services who can't reverse and folk with their neighbours trailer borrowed for the tip run who are taking up all the spaces by going int parallel to the tip because they can't reverse.....

Always reverse drive in the supermarket... you just carry the bags a few metres. The occasions I don't I always regret it as getting out- It's easier to reverse in as well once you've practiced a few times

It's been close to mandatory most places I've worked the last 20 years

Reverse parking, or pulling through a double-length space in such a way that you pull out forwards is the natural way to me, as it's much MUCH safer in terms of what you can see coming when you leave. It's also easier to get the car a) straight and b) central in the space. I take the point that it makes it a bit harder to put stuff in the boot at the supermarket, but I'll take that every time over running someone down, or being smacked on the rear wing by the dickhead coming down the carpark at 25mph. And most times, the bags go in through the rear doors into the footwell in our car anyway, which is equally easy or difficult regardless of which way you're pulled into the space. Stops 'em falling over on the way home, innit. You'd never reverse out of a side street/give-way onto the main drag unless you were a bit of a dafty (OK, almost never), so why do it on a carpark?
It also winds my other half up, so that's another bonus in itself.
At home, we live on a cul-de-sac, so it's a complete non-issue.

Edit - the last 2 or 3 posts appeared while I was typing the above. Very much that, it's mandatory at all sites at work, operational or offices, therefore it just comes naturally.

@argee

+1 about the old folks. Almost got run over two days in a row at my local Sainsbury's on the 'level crossings' by old guys in Hondas. I doubt they even saw me; they certainly didn't even seem to check for pedestrians. Sometimes I think I should seize car keys...

@wbo yeah, that was my experience in many corporate car parks - mandatory reverse parking.

i_scoff_cake
Free Member

Almost got run over two days in a row at my local Sainsbury’s on the ‘level crossings’ by old guys in Hondas. I doubt they even saw me; they certainly didn’t even seem to check for pedestrians. Sometimes I think I should seize car keys…

Yeah, that's our local shop round the corner, dropped kerb but you take your life in your hands if you try and pull the pedestrians have the right of way card!

Sainsbury’s on the ‘level crossings’ by old guys in Hondas

They were probably expecting trains not humans

People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so

This.

And if you want to reverse into your drive, how do you deal with the driver behind you who doesn’t give you space to do so?

You wait a few seconds but at least you can see them and they can see you. Unlike the morons reversing out onto a (more) major thoroughfare.

I don’t think you’ve thought this through.

Nonsense 🙂

And if you want to reverse into your drive, how do you deal with the driver behind you who doesn’t give you space to do so?

I'd have no issue waiting. Their clearly in a rush.

All feels a bit stepford wives when I go into one of those corporate car parks

I'm with you OP. People don't reverse park because they're generally shit drivers. (yeah, that's you reader, bite me 😁)

Reverse into a protected space rather than out into free traffic/clueless padestrians.

You can manoeuvre easier with the steering wheels pushing the nose out wide rather than narrowing the entry angle.

Your car looks better from the front rather than the back, so present its best aspect.

Unless it's a herringbone/angled space there's no good reason to reverse park.

Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back then all you reverse parkers might learn something.

I got told off in the USA for reverse parking by a cop, he wanted to be able to see number plates and they were only mandatory on the back of vehicles in the state I was in

Ooh I'm glad the post-Christmas middle-aged angst threads have started!

I live in a dead-end street about 6 houses long.
Everyone except me and Briefcase* including my partner, to my horror, drives down the street forwards and parks forwards, meaning they have to reverse out of a street between terraced houses and a pavement into a busy road each time.
That's just dangerous/thoughtless.

Not only that, but they pull up during the day all nice and easy, then the street inevitably fills later on, and they're left sometimes with no option but to try and reverse out of their space, mounting the kerb, back, forwards, back, forwards, dangerously close to my reversed in van
This sometimes in the early hours of the morning too.

How they don't learn from the hassle of getting out of a space or the road itself and reverse in next time I'll never know.

As mentioned above, do your reversing while you 'control' the traffic and know what's there. Doing it later into unknowns is dim.

*Inbetweeners reference

Doesn't that just prove why you should reverse park? I have my turning wheels at the front, therefore that's the last bit to go in, first out

Only sensible drivers reverse park everywhere. In short supply these days as shown by several posts above. Prioritising getting shopping into boot over general safety and awareness of others? Not at all selfish.

Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back then all you reverse parkers might learn something.

Now there's a statement that's not been thought through.......

I could bother to explain but I get the feeling I'd be out numbered here & can't be arsed with taking the time vs people who've already made their mind up.

Had some daft bint reverse out of a carpark space into the side of us the other day.
I'd stopped to wait for another car, my other half shouted so I pulled forward and they hit the rear/wheel bumper and pushed us round.

Apparently she couldn't see us. Rear screen was fogged up. Grr.

Actually reverse parking doesn't really work in that carpark for loading.

Reverse parking, or pulling through a double-length space in such a way that you pull out forwards is the natural way to me

Grrrr to the pull-throughers.

I look down a line, see a space, note no-one else in that line looking to nab it, drive down preparing to reverse park and then you appear literally out of nowhere and steal it.

I reverse park everytime(even at supermarket(just leave enough space to access boot)

It’s easy to load a boot full of shopping at the supermarket if you leave a small gap.

So you empty your trolley in front of the car, then carrying your shopping bags (possibly several trips) squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car due to numpties parking too close then get round to the boot providing no-one has parked behind you while you were shopping closing the gap you thoughtfully left for yourself?

People that don’t reverse park simply don’t have the confidence/skill to do so

How do they get out of the space?

I could bother to explain but I get the feeling I’d be out numbered here & can’t be arsed with taking the time vs people who’ve already made their mind up.

Rear steer is far more manuverable

Reversing around your warehouse is unsafe.

Steer Wheels go on the back to resolve that.

- reverse Parker and qualified 15 ton forklift driver

Only sensible drivers reverse park everywhere

Surely sensible drivers assess the situation and choose the best option for the given circumstances. Always doing one thing regardless doesn't sound too sensible

I only reverse park, because it's easier:

Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back

If I'm at the supermarket, I don't reverse so far back that there's only a few inches between my car and the wall/next car (but I don't have an estate, so there isn't an issue with car length to worry about). On the days I drive to work, the cars parked at a jaunty angle overlapping the next parking space are always forward parked.

Surely sensible drivers assess the situation

Well, yes I agree, but there aren't many cases where forward parking isn't either easier or safer.

Surely the fork-lift thing is because almost half of the vehicle is in front of the front wheels?