To parallel park, I ended up memorizing a rigid formula that worked *for the car I was driving*. Luckily it mostly works for the new car too. Also, it's easier on ice.
Don't try to get your parking perfect on the initial approach
Oooh. Hmm. Nowadays, if I don't nail it on the first time, I don't try to back-and-forth make it better: it's much much easier for me to start completely over.
For me: front wheels turn as soon as rear wheels clear the front car. How much they turn, nrrr, that I can't say, but basically you want to decisively move from going straight backward to your picked angle. Once your left rear wheel clears the left side of the park cars, immediately start unwinding your front wheels.
Oddly enough, going faster makes it easier: you have so little time to wind up / unwind your front wheels that you slam the wheels over and bang, you're in. :) Okay, perhaps "bang" is a, ah, poor choice of wording. :)
Most people, I find, don't know when to start unwinding the wheel, and the key is the left rear wheel breaking the plane of the left side of the parked cars.
Best way to practice driving backwards: find an empty parking lot. Drive backwards straight as if you're looking for a
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congrats! I still don't know why they care about backing up along the curb so much. maybe it's just to make sure you can in narrow city streets?... :::shrug:::
Parking on a sloperingroseOctober 17 2008, 20:37:24 UTC
When parking on a slope, turning the wheels is all about "if the car rolls." If there is a curb you turn the wheels so that should the car roll, it immediately bumps the curb. This stops the car. If there is no curb, you turn the wheel so the car doesn't go into the street. This minimizes velocity before your car bumps into something and keeps you from blocking the street.
For me, it's a lot easier to rederive which way to turn the wheels from "what if it rolls" than it is to have a set of rules based on uphill, downhill, curb, no curb, left side, and right side of the street.
Re: Parking on a slopekatybethOctober 17 2008, 23:23:11 UTC
OTOH, I could never figure out which way was which was until someone told me that for uphill, you turn the wheels out *and jam them up against the curb*. Otherwise, it seemed like I'd always want the wheels the same direction (toward the curb), so that the arc of the turn is toward the curb.
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To parallel park, I ended up memorizing a rigid formula that worked *for the car I was driving*. Luckily it mostly works for the new car too. Also, it's easier on ice.
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Oooh. Hmm. Nowadays, if I don't nail it on the first time, I don't try to back-and-forth make it better: it's much much easier for me to start completely over.
For me: front wheels turn as soon as rear wheels clear the front car. How much they turn, nrrr, that I can't say, but basically you want to decisively move from going straight backward to your picked angle. Once your left rear wheel clears the left side of the park cars, immediately start unwinding your front wheels.
Oddly enough, going faster makes it easier: you have so little time to wind up / unwind your front wheels that you slam the wheels over and bang, you're in. :) Okay, perhaps "bang" is a, ah, poor choice of wording. :)
Most people, I find, don't know when to start unwinding the wheel, and the key is the left rear wheel breaking the plane of the left side of the parked cars.
Best way to practice driving backwards: find an empty parking lot. Drive backwards straight as if you're looking for a ( ... )
Reply
I still don't know why they care about backing up along the curb so much. maybe it's just to make sure you can in narrow city streets?... :::shrug:::
Reply
For me, it's a lot easier to rederive which way to turn the wheels from "what if it rolls" than it is to have a set of rules based on uphill, downhill, curb, no curb, left side, and right side of the street.
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