I used to work for a large company with over 10,000 employees. Some idiot complained to the parking control department about people who pulled through or, God forbid, BACKED into parking places. That person was informed that parking so that one came out of a parking place frontwards was the PREFERRED method. Think about it. 10,000 people getting off of work at the same time and backing into one another.
Speaking of unreasonable people, how would you like to be married to someone like MilcForever. Pardon me dear, would you prefer I shoot myself in my right temple or left temple. UGH!
“You know…you are walking into the local supermarket, where the entry area is fairly narrow, and the person in front of you chooses to come to a dead stop just inside the entry area.”
This also happens when people turn into the supermarket parking lot. They seem to relax once they are off of the street, not realizing that they have others turning in behind them whom they have left hanging out in traffic. They immediately stop driving & start choosing a parking spot before they’ve even gotten out of the pinch point around the driveway entrance. It’s as if deciding which way to turn when you enter the parking lot, ‘OMG Right? Left? Straight??’ is a VERY difficult decision that requires a full stop and 100% concentration.
And pulling through is the better, safer way to do it. The OP should probably find a new pet peeve to be upset over and let this one go. If I may recommend something, try this & see if it works for you: people driving with their parking lights on.
I’m one that will always pull through to the next space…or I back in.
I have a tall utility box on the back of my pick-up truck, so if I pull into a space forward, my truck blocks the view for both cars on either side of me when they are backing out of their stall. This blocks their view of the traffic lane as they back out.
I’ll back in 95% of the time.
I also have had so many close calls while backing out of a stall. If I have a large Van …or a SUV with tinted windows…I cannot see the traffic coming down the lane as I back out.
These people just drive me nuts, that my truck is already blocking 1/3 of the traffic lane and they decide to try to rush through behind my backing truck because they don’t want to wait another 20 seconds for me to finish pulling out. Suddenly I see them in the side mirror and have to slam on the brakes.
If I back into a space…when I leave I have a clear view of the traffic lane and less chance that I will have anyone trying to scoot past or hitting someone walking to or from their car.
My wife backed out and hit a car that was attempting to scoot through behind her instead of waiting. She does back out very carefully and I’m sure the other car was frustrated at her pace.
When she argued to the cop that the other care should have yielded for her backing car, he told us that in Wisconsin the backing car is always at fault.
If you take a minute to think about how cars turn, the geometry of backing into a parking space makes more sense. My wife pulls her minivan into parking spaces at Sam’s Club so the rear hatch is accessible, but it takes a pretty wide swing to get it in there parallel. I’m used to backing a 40’ bus into its parking space, so doing it with a passenger car is pretty easy.
I agree with you @doubleclutch about backing in being easier.
I’ve never come close to hitting another car, but sometimes I have to go look to see if I still have room to back up a little more. Normally I note how far the car behind me is parked to the divider line, and I can see that line in my mirror and judge pretty close.
I forgot that when I do go somewhere where I’ll have to load something into the back…I pull in forward, but that’s not too often.
Like you backing a 40ft bus, I back down curvy driveways and around all the obstacles and into or up to 15 barns a week. So I get plenty of practice.
@doubleclutch is on to something. When you back into a parking space, you pull past it and see that it is clear; then you back in with landmarks on both sides to guide your way. The only threat is someone or something (like a shopping cart) moving into that space while you’re backing in. Backing out, on the other hand, gives you a seemingly unlimited number of hazards to look for, all of which are likely to be moving at the time they pose a hazard.
In a busy parking lot, I am not in the habit of backing into a space, but I am in the habit of looking for a space I can pull through so I’m facing out.
“Obscured or obstructed vision while backing up is probably the most common cause of parking lot fender benders, and as I see it, the best way to avoid one is to either back in to a stall, or pull through. Not for rows with angle parking 'though, only stalls perpendicular to the driveway. I never pull through if there is another car approaching as he/she may want to park in the facing stall, and to do so is just bad manners, inconsiderate, and may get my car keyed.”
I use a local parking lot 2 or 3 times per month. It has angled spaces in front of most stores. If I use one and spend 10 minutes in the store, most of the time when I return to my compact car I find a giant SUV parked on one side and a giant 4dr pickup on the other. I have to back out an inch at a time hopefully avoiding being squashed by another one speeding in the driveway. The spaces are marked “COMPACT ONLY”! Of course the only enforceable violations in a private parking lot are Fire Zone and Unauthorized in a Handicap Zone. You must have been raised like me concerning good manners and consideration of others. Unfortunately our concept is now considered old fashioned and stupid.
My point about the geometry is simply that the front end of a car, especially a long wheelbase one, swings wider than the rear end in a tight turn. If you are driving a large vehicle such as a crew-cab pickup or a full-sized minivan, it is (with a little practice) easier to get into a parking space if you back in. When you back out of a parking space you also have to back a fairly well out before you steer really hard or your front end will hit the car beside you. That is what makes backing out so difficult. When pulling forward out of a space, your wider-turning front end gets out of there first, plus you can see better. And yes, it is more often than not that I leave the store to find a Suburban on one side and an Excursion on the other, both with tinted windows.
Yosemite Concerning your Wife’s accident. The law is the same in OR. A few years ago I was driving slowly in a parking lot driveway when a car suddenly backed out of a parking space. I had to slam on the brakes and they stopped before hitting me. Before I could reverse allowing them to finish backing out a woman jumped out of the car and ran at me foaming at the mouth and screaming “What kind of F-ing idiot doesn’t know that cars backing out have the right of way”?!!! When I backed up enough she returned to her car and went on her way. I knew what the law was but I realize laws can change. When I got home I looked it up on the computer and confirmed I was correct. Was your Wife doing anything wrong or unexpected? No. Was the other driver being a jerk? Yes. Did the officer have other choices? No. Sometimes bad things happen to good people.
@sgtrock21, I haven’t seen any of those “compact only” spots in a long time. A hospital in downtown Jacksonville (Baptist Hospital) used to have them, and they were always full of full size pickups and SUVs. They’ve since redesigned their parking garage and done away with the “compact only” spots.
As long as nobody is willing to enforce them, I’m glad to see them becoming rare. I agree with what you said about manners, but if they’re not going to enforce a particular class of parking, why even have the spaces? In the case of Baptist Hospital’s parking garage, those “compact only” spaces were sometimes the only spots available. It’s like a lot of driving and parking rules; if nobody is going to enforce a rule, why have it?
@sgtrock21, @Whitey: My understanding of the “COMPACT ONLY” spaces is that it it NOT meant to “reserve” those spaces for compact vehicles only, but as a fair warning that the spot is less than standard size (generally in length, not width, I have found) and larger vehicles might not fit.
If I can fit my (standard cab, short bed) F150 FULLY within a “compact” spot, I feel I have done nothing wrong.
Whitey, did someone make you open this thread? Facebook is totally different, the put junk on your newsfeed and you can’t always block what they put there. No one forces you to open and read a thread here.
@whitey, it was floated as something to be explored back when we were asking for ideas about the forum upgrade. That stuff is still in the works; I have no update on any of those changes.
I back into spots as much as possible and pull through when I can but I have to say that my Mazda 6 with backup camera AND cross traffic monitoring makes backing out of a space a much safer proposition. If there are cars or pedestrians moving anywhere near my rear bumper when I am in reverse the car starts to beep like crazy.
Whitey, did someone make you open this thread? Facebook is totally different, the put junk on your newsfeed and you can't always block what they put there. No one forces you to open and read a thread here.
Some people have poor impulse control, is my guess...I'm a big fan of irony, though, and thus I like the fact that the "most likely to be on somebody else's ignore list" is the most vocal champion of an ignore list ;-)
For real, I had no clue that anybody took those “compact parking” spaces seriously. I thought, you either fit in the painted box, or you don’t! Can’t say I’ve EVER parked anywhere that I didn’t fit…occasionally, I’ve had to pull the mirrors in, or exit “Luke Duke” style, but I’ve never overhung my spot!
Does that mean EPA-rated “compact” (and presumably sub-compact) vehicles only? Or is “compact” on a sliding scale? The spots I’m thinking of are all in garages…where the roof support pillar shortens the spot, they paint on a “compact” sign. I can still fit my behind in with about 8" to spare, if I almost kiss the pillar, so why not? (I suppose I’m compact, relative to a crew-cab long bed, or something…)
