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Imagine the tire scrub turning on the spot with 10 ton bearing down directly on your turning wheels. +The percentage of counterweight not born by the fixed wheel at that point
As an asside. When a 15t rear forklift tire goes pop....... In a dusty yard it looks like a mushroom cloud and people don't half run.
but there aren’t many cases where forward parking is
n’teither easier or safer.
FTFY.
Easier going in perhaps, but when you have to reverse back out again it's rarely either of those things. Turning out from a car park space, your nose swings out sideways risking a collision with car to your side. You're sat towards the front of the car so you have to get most of the car out of the bay / your drive before you have any visibility of what you're reversing into.
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?
...hoping that the car park is perfectly level so your trolley doesn't run away while you are on one of said trips.
48 posts on which way round to park a car!
So you empty your trolley in front of the car, then carrying your shopping bags (possibly several trips)...
Crikey. It's about 6 feet. It wasn't all that long ago most people walked home with their shopping or carted it on the bus.
People drive to supermarkets still? 🚲
I've worked for a couple of companies where reverse parking is policy (typically adopted from an O&G division).
Consequently it's my default habit now and it does make life easier, taking an extra minute on arrival to make leaving an easier, safer activity. I'd say I reverse park 90% of the time.
I've not encountered many supermarket carparks where I can't get at the boot having reversed in, there's normally space to load up.
The other thing I'll do is look for the less busy corner of the carpark, where you can often drive through two spaces and avoid having to do any reversing, for the penalty of an extra 20 seconds walking/from to the doors.
Some places don't make it easy and 'Herring bone' or 'chevron' parking, although space efficient in some circumstances, does seem to flummox more "linear thinkers" and still requires them to reverse out (often with a bigger blind spot)...
At the end of the day it would all work better if people were just a bit more patient and considerate when parking, waiting or leaving. Impatient arses beeping at my missus seem to worry and stress her unduly, to the point that she has just given up on parking in a spot that requires a bit of manoeuvring before, and simply driven off (I shit you not)...
Its quicker to speed off after robbing 4 bottles of Bells Whiskey if you have reveresed into the parking bay ( apparently )
Let's not forget though reverse park your t6 with tailgate.
Forget using the boot.
- not an issue for the Berlingo drivers with the split tailgate* ala range rover
*Opening glass window
Why don't our trolleys have footbrakes like they have in the US? Come to that,
squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car due to numpties parking too close
Why don't we have parking bays you can actually fit a car into (like they do in the US)? I can understand it in paid parks, more bays = more revenue, but the three-quarters empty Tesco car park near me has no excuse.
Most people with T6's in this game have their runner to do the shops and so on, usually an Audi or VW Golf R, or they may also opt to use their toureg, but again that's the last option usually and saved for the school runs.
What kind of weirdo drives reverses into a supermarket parking bay??? Straight in, and leave the boot easily accessible when you've got a full trolley. It's not like reversing out of a parking bay in a supermarket parking lot is either hard or dangerous. (And if you find it's either, perhaps you shouldn't be driving?)
And FWIW I always reverse park into the spot outside my home.
I can actually just about turn the family bus round on the drive now we've gone down to 1 car but prefer to reverse in.
Unfortunately, it seems so cunning other drivers don't expect it and I regularly get hooted at, sworn at and close passed while sitting patiently indicating with my reverse light on. Also, unless its very quiet its almost impossible to find a gap in the traffic to swing over to the other kerb and reverse in when coming from the "wrong" direction.
squeeze through the narrow gaps either side of the car
If you can open your doors I'd suggest a bag of shopping will fit too.
It’s not like reversing out of a parking bay in a supermarket parking lot is either hard or dangerous.
It's riskier is the point. Your visibility is much worse, with more blind spots, etc.
As already noted I think a lot of it comes down to confidence or the perception it’s more difficult when the opposite is true. It took about 5 years before I convinced my now wife of this fact and she generally always reverse parks now.
If you drive into a bay/driveway you are less in control of the situation when you leave and may have to rely on other drivers spotting what you’re doing and yielding.
I live about 4 houses from a 90 degree bend on a main road and there is one house in the other direction before a side road so approaching with my house on the left (same as the side road) and with the sharp bend ahead I often need to indicate quite late and just before I brake as I wait for a clearing to reverse into the drive. I’ve had one person tailgating so aggressively they had to reverse to get past me once we’d both slowed to a stop!
I’d say it’s about 50/50 with the neighbours in terms of who reverse parks. The family right on the corner always drive on and it’s painful seeing them reverse into live traffic when it’s not uncommon for cars arriving at the corner to be doing 50mph+ (which is a whole other thread..)
People don’t reverse park because they’re generally shit drivers.
Probably, but I think a lot of it is that people simply don't understand why and when it is useful to reverse.
The driving test (at least when I did it) taught you how to parallel park, but nobody ever explained why you go into the space backwards.
Similarly watching people shunt their way into a tight space forwards makes me think that it's never occurred to them that it easier to go in backwards.
Forward parking is the sign of a chump. Reversing in makes it easier to get the car in the right position between the lines and is much safer when you leave because you can see more clearly.
The reason a lot of companies are reverse park only is because it's safer- in the US most fleet accidents are in car parks.
The situation described earlier of people driving forward up a small street then reversing out onto the bigger road is illegal. It's a do not in the highway code. Because reversing into traffic, including the lanes in a car park, is stupid.
It’s riskier is the point. Your visibility is much worse, with more blind spots, etc.
Dunno what supermarkets you shop in, but it's hardly risky round here. Pull out slowly, keep an eye out, and you're fine. I suppose if your plan is swing out fast without looking it could be a problem, but then again if that's how you usually drive...
And if you find it’s either, perhaps you shouldn’t be driving?)
It would be statistics that finds its more dangerous not perception.
You park up between two cars.
Both that's cars leave.
The de rigeure t6 van with no windows parks on your left.
A transit on the right.
Now your reversing out blind for most of the manuver.no.matter how slow you move to deny that's more risky than being able to see what's going on ....well.
Unless you gotta ford capri.
The long bonnet means you will still be blind till you clear the rear ofcthe transit.
OK so you are blind for 3 feet not 13ft but you cant see through metal so the risk is 1/3 which is alot safer
You will still get chumps doing 30 in car parks which makes me realy rather cross
Ask yourselves why forklift trucks have their turning wheels at the back then all you reverse parkers might learn something.
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.
Also a forklift driver, and what trail_rat said. Both times.
I would also add when I did a defensive driving course years ago we were taught to always reverse park.
We live in a narrow terraced street with parking on both sides, the only way you can park is reverse parking! You get very proficient very quickly as there is no other option.
Parking ?
Pffft , I press a button and it does it for me 😂
Now your reversing out blind for most of the manuver.no.matter how slow you move to deny that’s more risky than being able to see what’s going on ….well.
Except you've still got to get a metre of car out to see what's going on. By which time the idiot speeding in the car park has already hit you.
That leaves 4/5ths of the lane for them to drive round you.
Reversing leaves at best 1/5th more likely none.
Surely no one should be travelling fast enough in a carpark for reversing out of a space to actually be dangerous?
Fwiw I've never found it dangerous reversing my bike out of the racks, even with a full set of panniers 😉
I pretty much reverse park all the time, it’s a work thing, easy to get your shopping in the boot unless you can’t reverse.
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.
You should reverse park, in almost all situations. Certainly where you have to reverse back out into traffic if you go nose in.
A vehicle is more manoeuvrable (but less stable) with the steerable wheels at the back. Which btw is the whole point with forklifts, which need a small turning circle and are slow moving, so stability isn’t a problem. This is why it’s hard to get in forwards into a narrow space and folk often take two bites. Which btw holds people up.
But far, far more important is that you can see what is going on for more of the manoeuvre going in backwards. You can see the space behind is clear and that the road you’re on is safe to either side while you go in. And you can see ahead and either side as you drive out.
Reversing out of a space, or worse a driveway, you can’t see what is happening on the road you’re joining til you’re mostly out in it. You just head out blind, relying on “going slowly” and others to make it safe. It’s foolish, and selfish.
Like most poor driving seen on the roads. Result of selfishness and impatience, mostly.
There’s also the small point of the Highway Code (201). Though I realise that’s mostly seen as quaint nowadays.
I saw a guy, last time I was at the shops, slowly and carefully reversing into a space on the end of the row. He was comically not in the space, to the extent that the white line was somewhere midway between the wheels.
So, after sitting a moment he pulled forward, slowly and carefully, into the empty space immediately opposite. But without adjusting the car's alignment at all, so it was still straddling the white line.
At that point he seemed to feel that the job was a good'un, killed the engine, and trundled off in the direction of M&S.
So I guess parking either forward or backwards can be made a hash of if you put your mind to it sufficiently.
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?
This ^^^
When I used to go and do a big shop at the supermarket, it would often be really busy, so it was a choice of grabbing the first available space, or else driving round and round on the off-chance of finding a drive-through space. And then come back to find someone has driven right up to the boot of the car, making it difficult to not only get the boot open, but put the full, heavy bags in. With my current car, it would likely make it impossible to open the boot, because it opens horizontally, not vertically!
I’m perfectly capable of reversing into spaces, my job for the last five years requires it, but even before then I could do it; the first time I drove my Octavia to Bath, I spotted a handy space in Victoria Park, lined up, reversed in, walked away then looked back just to check, and I had about eighteen inches of space either end!
I’d never parked a car as long as that before. Thing is, these days most cars have reversing sensors, and often cameras as well, so there’s no excuse. I wouldn’t dare to drive into my space at home, it’s difficult enough to drive straight out, I have hedges either side, there’s often a car parked close to my drive, and there’s the dicks who cycle on the footpath…
Unfortunately, it seems so cunning other drivers don’t expect it and I regularly get hooted at, sworn at and close passed while sitting patiently indicating with my reverse light on.
*Sigh* I’ve had that, in order to properly park reversing in I drive down the road a bit, turn around in a side road then drive back up, pull up and get ready to reverse back, with indicator on and in reverse, so reversing lights are on. I’ve still had people come up the road, and stop behind me, doing nothing, so I’ve actually had to get out and ask them why they’re parked right behind me, only to find out they thought I was turning left at the top of the road, which is about thirty metres away! #rollseyes
Dunno what supermarkets you shop in, but it’s hardly risky round here. Pull out slowly, keep an eye out, and you’re fine. I suppose if your plan is swing out fast without looking it could be a problem, but then again if that’s how you usually drive…
Now, now. You're amongst driving gods here, who won't allow obvious inconvenience to get in the way of Making A Point.
Reversing out of a space, or worse a driveway, you can’t see what is happening on the road you’re joining til you’re mostly out in it. You just head out blind, relying on “going slowly” and others to make it safe. It’s foolish, and selfish.
Yeah, but you're doing exactly the same, just in the opposite direction and a metre less of it. Either way you're still depending on everyone else being normal road users (which the vast majority of us are) to avoid getting hit.
There’s also the small point of the Highway Code (201). Though I realise that’s mostly seen as quaint nowadays.
More than quaint, irrelevant. I don't live in the UK 🙂
I'll admit I'm a lazy **** and just can't be bothered with reverse parking unless I have to!! I realise I'll have to reverse out but I'm usually less rushed or bothered on the return trip?
We had this argument at work a while back and came to the conclusion that there are two types of person....reversers and drive in ..ers. in my very sad and no doubt incorrect opinion; reversers are by nature, neat and orderly people....the type that have a tartan blanket in the back of their car. Where as drive ins are obviously cool, devil may care and spontaneous. I was pretty much alone on this.
I always reverse park, I’m quite probably the worst driver on the forum but find reverse parking easier than going in forward.
I can reverse my T6 much better than my mini.
Also some earlier threads were complaining about trailers….. I can’t do that at all. Used to have a jet ski, absolutely hated reversing it down the jetty. Honestly it just blew my mind!!
I reverse park the majority of the time unless there’s a good reason not to.
I got in the habit of it because of driving vans, it’s much easier to reverse a van in to a space and drive out forwards.
I also much prefer driving forwards out of my drive than trying to reverse out.
Speaking of towing, if you want some belly laughs watch this: 😀
Re: supermarket car parks
Frankly, I'd rather people drove forward into any spot alongside MY car as they are much less likely to scrape along the side of the car.
And it's MUCH easier to reverse out into a big wide open space (even if, theoretically, it's less "safe") than into a space only a couple of feet longer/wider than a car.
reversers are by nature, neat and orderly people….the type that have a tartan blanket in the back of their car.
I wish.
Oh, I recognise this now. It's an "I do what I do therefore everyone else is wrong" thread, isn't it.
14 pages. Minds changed, zero.
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.
This. Also I have to get onto my drive at an such an angle that I can only approach it one way. Reversing would be a nightmare.
I've always assumed it's because our eyes are at the front of pur head, so forward parking is thought number 1 and people rarely make it as far as thought number 2
I generally park in the manner the situation calls for.
Local supermarket? Well there are a few bays which are more than 23 paces from the door that allow me to drive in but still have perfect visibility to reverse out. Great, easy boot access then. Nearest Tesco? Reversing in because the spaces have room behind.
Honestly though, I’m still waiting for fork lift man to come back and qualify his statement. Genuinely want to know what point was being made there.