It’s a HUGE pet peeve for me, but my husband sees no problem with it. I think it’s poor etiquette. Especially when that parking spot that I’m about to pull into is in MY ROW and I come face to face with someone pulling forward from the other row! This makes absolutely no sense to me, not to mention the other issues I have with it: I am unable to see brake or reverse lights alerting me to activity and it messes with the “in and out” flow of the parking lot.
I live in an oil & gas energy town and reverse parking is mandatory in the field and office. I get the safety precautions there and I’m not talking about that. I’m referring to the grocery store, the mall, the gym. Is it or is it not poor parking etiquette? Do they teach this in drivers ed and a huge majority of drivers just skipped that day?
If the parking spots are perpendicular to the lane, then it is OK to pull through. It makes a lot of sense when you can do it because with dark tinted windows in the backs of SUV’s it can be very difficult to back out of a parking space.
If the parking spaces are diagonal, you should not pull through.
It is actually much safer to be able to pull out frontwards from a parking space, rather than having to back out of one. When backing out of one of those spaces, your vision tends to be compromised in comparison with when you can pull directly out of a space.
It is definitely safer and easier to pull forward out of a parking space than have to reverse. It’s all so much quicker as well, only having to have your car in Park or Drive, never have to put it in Reverse gear.
Most of the people I know love these spots, and will exclaim “Yes! A pull-through” when these spots are found. Personally, I don’t mind a little walk, so I park further back in the lot to save myself the effort of searching for a spot. Nonetheless, I pull right through to the second spot, although there are no cars on either side of me.
+1 to starman1’s comment.
What he described is exactly what I do.
I’ve been “pulling forward” in parking spaces for decades, and will defend the benefits of it.
However, like the OP, I have friends who get outraged whenever they see people do this, or if the topic comes up in conversation.
“I have friends who get outraged whenever they see people do this, or if the topic comes up in conversation.”
I have also known people who exclaim that it is “illegal” to pull forward into a parking space.
When I challenge them to name even one person who was ever ticketed or arrested for this…heinous…offense, of course they can’t find any examples.
Similarly, in NJ–where we have only “full-service” gas stations–many folks claim that it is “illegal” to pump your own gas. When asked to cite any instances of people being arrested for this other…heinous…offense, once again they are unable to name anyone.
I will continue to pump my own gas and to pull forward into parking spaces whenever possible, and–more than likely–I will be able to do it for another few decades without incurring the wrath of the law enforcement folks.
If you will excuse me, I am now going to tear the tag off of my new mattress, thus doing something else that some people believe–erroneously–to be a crime.
I’ve also been doing it for decades. Pulling forward out of a parking space in a crowded parking lot with lots of people walking around…is a LOT SAFER then trying to back out of one. I always do it when I can.
I lost reverse gear on my old Oldsmobile that I used to drive the 2 miles to campus. I would pull through one parking place into another so that I could pull out going forward. My driveway at home at enough slope, so I could roll out to the street. I went most of the summer without reverse gear. Mrs. Triedaq did nag me to either get the transmission repaired or get rid of the car. However, when fall classes started, the parking lot was crowded and the weather was very hot. Two days in a row, I couldn’t pull straight through. I had hoped the car in front of me would move when I was ready to go home, but it was still there. After I had to push the car out of the parking place in 90 degree heat, I gave up and had the transmission repaired. However, on one of the days, my department head needed a ride and he had to help push the car out of the parking place.
Same result as backing in.
Which is something I regularly do as often as I can.
Sooooo much easier to egress from the space when you can simply join in with the flow of traffic .
AND, when you are searching for a space, driving on the right side of the lane and the available space is right there to your right…you can’t make the arc to turn into that space…so you make that arc to the left…BACK IN and the space is yours.
I’ve found the back up camera on my car changes this. I have a better view out between two big SUVs backing out with the camera than pulling forward.
I've found the back up camera on my car changes this. I have a better view out between two big SUVs backing out with the camera than pulling forward.
Yup…it does help on a nice clear day or night…but totally worthless when it’s snowing or raining. The view through the camera is almost worthless.
When I was a commercial driver I always backed in because of the safety factor. I also understand the frustration of finally finding a space in a crowded parking lot and having someone pull forward into it.
The single biggest hazard in shopping center parking lots is people backing out, so whenever I have a chance to pull through to a spot I can pull straight out of without backing up, I do it.
@VDCDriver: “I have also known people who exclaim that it is ‘illegal’ to pull forward into a parking space. When I challenge them to name even one person who was ever ticketed or arrested for this…heinous…offense, of course they can’t find any examples.”
I think that applies mainly in states where they only have one license plate on the back of the car, but here in Florida, I’ve never gotten a ticket for it unless I was parked on government property where that was a rule.
In my area of Florida, the parking lots are filled with bumper blocks to prevent the pull-thru parking. I think is to keep the half-blind little old man (or half drunk vacationer) from bashing the car parked in front of him. We don’t get snow, so it doesn’t impede plows.
I don’t mind the pull-through except in angled parking places. It always amazes me to confront another car coming towards me in a lane with angled parking and a 5 foot long arrow pointing the other way. Cluuuue-less!
The less backing you do, the safer you are. Kids, especially, can get lost unseen when backing up, until too late.
Given the high stakes, learning to tolerate this minor inconvenience is the percentage play.
Having seen way to many close calls from vehicles backing out of parking spots, particularly suv’s with tinted windows and/or spare tires on the back I can see the point of pulling through into the spot ahead. One drawback people don’t think about is that if you do pull ahead into spot in front and someone later pulls in behind you that vehicle will block the opening of the rear liftgate if you have a SUV or Minivan. I see it all the time at the grocery store where I work. Rarely an issue otherwise.
I don’t have a problem with pulling through and do it when feasible. The alternative is backing out and trying to watch in every direction for others backing out and pedestrians.
While I have no stats on the subject, my gut feeling is there are a lot more accidents in parking lots due to backing out than there are with vehicles that exit a space nose first.
“While I have no stats on the subject, my gut feeling is there are a lot more accidents in parking lots due to backing out than there are with vehicles that exit a space nose first.”
Even if there are no available stats, it only stands to reason that this would be the case.
Unless the OP’s head swivels like that of Linda Blair’s character in The Exorcist, there is no way that she can adequately keep everything in proper view when she backs out of a parking space.