….Everyone MUST reverse park in car parks?

Jeez, that was a bit hairy walking through Tesco car park yesterday! cars reversing randomy out all over the place!

Anyway, we manage it at work. It’s company policy that you must reverse park, that’s 300+ plants and all the offices. There’s (guesstimate) 200 odd cars oustside here, all reverse parked, so it can be done……

I’ll get the kettle on 🙂

Some carparks have pillars that make it impossible to reverse park and get out.

Not something I’ve ever thought about… Can you imagine all the random positioning from those who can’t actually reverse park? It would halve the number of available spaces in most car parks!

Just common sense really. In car parks I park so I can drive out 99% of the time – it is far easier than edging out whilst not able to see where you are going, particularly if parked by a larger car / van.

I guess the problem is people who are too rubbish at parking to reverse into a space, so prefer to reverse out so that they have the whole road to reverse into.

Surely that only makes sense if the driver forward of the centre of the car, otherwise going nose-in is better as the driver has better visibility.

I can think of plenty of cars where the driver is much closer to the back than the front…

Can you imagine all the random positioning from those who can’t actually reverse park?

No worse then it is now!

If you can’t reverse park, then you really shouldn’t be driving!

Drive forewards into a space here, and you’ll get an email telling you to go turn it round! Seriously…..

If you reverse in you can’t get your shopping into the boot.

Yes. Or at the very least find a drive through space.

Yes, infact it’s easier to get in and out of tight space by reversing in and driving out.

Drive forewards into a space here, and you’ll get an email telling you to go turn it round! Seriously…

And if you refuse to?

If you reverse in you can’t get your shopping into the boot.

That

Aiming a bit high there mate – lets start with indicating on roundabouts – or hell, just indicating before changing lanes.

I always reverse into parking spaces esp at the supermarket, it’s a hangover from van ownership where I figured out early on it was safer to reverse in where there was nothing to hit except other cars, rather than out where there might be small children.

I know people (carefully not specifying gender) who can’t even forwards park. One that just mounts the pavement to get into a park…

I usually reverse park well away from the supermarket, or shops in a shopping centre. Less chance of numpties/kids whacking your car with a trolley or their car door.

Amazing how 90% of people seem totally unable/unwilling to walk more than 100 yards and will drive round and round until a space comes free near the door.

It all becomes clear when you see the lazy fat gits waddling around the shop 8)

Nobody ever does Drac.
I would imagine verbal/written warning though, as it’s a breach of H&S policy and us quarring companies take that rather seriously…..

Type of vehicle has nothing to do with it either, cars, vans, trucks, loading shovels, dumpers, the lot. All reverse parked.

I can think of plenty of cars where the driver is much closer to the back than the front…

Yes, but they tend to be really small too, LR88/90, 7’s etc. I cant think of many where the bonnet is so long as to be longer than the average cars read seats/boot, e-type?

I’d suppourt it, only probalem is as M_B says, it requires car parks to be designed for it.

nothing to hit except other cars, rather than out where there might be small children.

OMG! He said it. OMG!

Nobody ever does Drac.
I would imagine verbal/written warning though, as it’s a breach of H&S policy and us quarring companies take that rather seriously…..

Oh forgot where you worked so makes more sense, it has to be a blanket policy I suppose to enforce.

I never reverse park in a supermarket car park.
Therefore I have easy access to the rear of the car to pile all the shopping in.
Imagine the chaos if everyone reverse parked then tried to scrape trollys past the neighbouring cars to unload into the boot!!!!

Well, I think that bumpers are expressly for finding out how close you are to the other car. It’s like gymnasts, you know where the bar is with your arm fully extended.

At our workplace, it is compulsory, I believe lots of other companies in the sector have this too.

If supermarket car parks were designed with walkways between bays then it would be workable and car parks would be safer, my local waitrose is set out like this.

I always wonder why in the UK we don’t have diagonal spaces. Ok you can’t reverse into them but there’s the access to boot issue anyway and it does mean everyone reverses out the same way. Do they take up more space?

what chriswilk said.

hels – Member
Well, I think that bumpers are expressly for finding out how close you are to the other car. It’s like gymnasts, you know where the bar is with your arm fully extended.

I’ve got a parking sensor. But they call it a tow bar…

Reverse park in multi storeys and if picking up one or two things at the supermarket. Straight in if I’m doing a large shop I’m afraid. 🙂

I always wonder why in the UK we don’t have diagonal spaces

Less space-efficient, presumably. Doubly important to pay&display type car parks, where having all the bays six inches narrower than is actually practical means you get another dozen paying customers wedged in there.

it has to be a blanket policy I suppose to enforce.

Oh yeah, although it started in the units, then spread to the offices. H&S is pretty dracoinian in my line of work, you get used to it though.
I know of at least 3 people sacked for serious breaches and of one driver suspended for 1-2 weeks using a mobile phone whilst driving in the quarry after being told not to.
As well as the usual hat/boots/hi-vis we now have compulsory glasses and gloves on the operations units too…..

….Everyone MUST reverse park in car parks?

Yes

If you can’t reverse park, then you really shouldn’t be driving!

hear! hear!

Bloke at work the other day took about 3 attempts to get his car in straight, and aligned nice and equally… IN A SMART CAR!
I was about to drive past, thinking he’d finished, only to find he was reversing out again to straighten up… err.. again! WTF?

no… WGAS..?

….Everyone MUST reverse park in car parks?

Depends on the shopping I intend to do. Supermarket, yes (it’s not difficult to carry things round your car), garden centre/DIY probably not as the very bulky items make it much more difficult.

It’s also generally compulsory in the industry I work in. No idea what would happen if you didn’t do it as everyone does and it is a more sensible way of parking.

I used to teach my punters to be able to reverse park their car without having to look. You need to find the point on the car which you line up with the space you want to go into, start moving, straight to full lock, wait until the car is just about straight in the space, wheels back to middle reverse in and stop. Funniest demo ever. 😀

If you can’t reverse park, then you really shouldn’t be driving!

Agreed, but equally, if you can’t reverse out of a space without endangering the lives of pedestrians then you also shouldn’t be driving.

I’m more inclined to point and shout loudly at the “Kid blinded Mom”
rather than another sodding Law, ferkristsakes..

There’s another issue with reversing into spaces too. **** behind you.

I was at ASDA a couple of weeks ago, found a spot, indicated (why does no-one else ever do this?) and stuck it in reverse, but couldn’t get in because the halfwit behind had driven right up to my bumper. Gave up, went to another spot further down, indicate, reverse, and he’s blocked me off a second time. WTF? Spot number three I just wanged it in nose first, otherwise I’d probably still be there now, forever doomed to roam the ASDA car park with my mouth-breathing nemesisisis shadowing my every move.

dont really see why it should matter in a supermarket carpark other than personal preference and how much shopping you’re doing?

in my humble opinion:

drivers should be good drivers – dont reverse into children, people, other cars.

people should be considerate – dont scrape your trolly down the side of someone else’s car to get to your boot cos you reversed in not thinking about your shopping and the fact the cars either side of you might change whilst your in the shop.

parents should watch their kids and not let them run randomly through a carpark behind reversing cars

I was at ASDA a couple of weeks ago, found a spot, indicated (why does no-one else ever do this?) and stuck it in reverse, but couldn’t get in because the halfwit behind had driven right up to my bumper

I’d have just sat there or edged backwards until they cottoned on…

Agreed, but equally, if you can’t reverse out of a space without endangering the lives of pedestrians then you also shouldn’t be driving.

It’s a fair point!

In Johannesburg there are always a large number of parking attendants to help people find spaces, park & exit. Perhaps the unemployed in this country could be used for a similar purpose. If a large number of lower ranking civil servants are to be made redundant this would be a great way to utilise them, everyone can be happy & safe 😀

Some carparks have pillars that make it impossible to reverse park and get out.

Yep – my carpark has a pillar every two spaces – so you either have it on your drivers side or your passenger side. If I wasn’t allowed to park forwards then I’d be forced to clamber out my passenger door more often than I do at the mo.

There’s another issue with reversing into spaces too. **** behind you.

+1 – something I get when parallel parking, which works a lot better reversing in – I normally drive past the space indicating left, then shove it into reverse as quickly as possible (crunchily), yet some people still don’t get the hint. Normally I’ll just sit there with reversing lights and indicator on and wait for them to reverse back.

Having said that I get irritated with people reverse parking in supermarket car parks as they invariably take a lot longer than if forwards parking.

I see enough people struggling to get their car into a space driving it forwards, let alone backwards.

I’ll normally go forwards into a space if I know I need to get loads of stuff/something bulky in the boot, otherwise I’ll reverse in.

Depending on the space I find (if there’s a pillar left/right) will also determine whether I reverse in or drive straight in.

A few weeks ago I got called a ‘bleeping idiot’ by a woman behind me, for indicating & swinging the car round to reverse it into a space. As I turned to get the back end of the car round to reverse it in, she tried to go round the back of my car, then realised what I was doing & stopped. As I reversed back she was flinging her arms up & huffing & puffing so I asked her what the problem was & she repeatedly shouted at me that I was a ‘bleeping idiot’ before screeching off.
The fact that my awesome skills allowed me to get into the space with about 1″ between the passenger mirror & pillar, first time with no straightening nonsense seemed lost on her.
(I was quite tempted to pull out behind her as she went past, follow her to her preferred space & honk loudly at her the moment she attempted to park – but I realised that wasn’t very mature).

Edit:

+1 – something I get when parallel parking, which works a lot better reversing in – I normally drive past the space indicating left, then shove it into reverse as quickly as possible (crunchily), yet some people still don’t get the hint. Normally I’ll just sit there with reversing lights and indicator on and wait for them to reverse back.

EXACTLY THIS!!

(I was quite tempted to pull out behind her as she went past, follow her to her preferred space & honk loudly at her the moment she attempted to park – but I realised that wasn’t very mature).

No, but bloody satisfying! Even better if you could nab her space!